The Monogram Murders Read Online Free PDF Page A

so that you understand.”
    Poirot’s idea of telling a story quickly is rather
    different from most people’s. Every detail matters to
    him equally, whether it’s a fire in which three hundred
    people perish or a small dimple on a child’s chin. He
    can never be induced to rush to the nub of a matter, so
    I settled into my chair and let him tell it in his own
    way. By the time he had finished, I felt as if I had
    experienced
    the
    events
    first-hand—more
    comprehensively, indeed, than I experience many
    scenes from my life in which I personally participate.
    “What an extraordinary thing to happen,” I said.
    “On the same night as the three murders at the
    Bloxham, too. Quite a coincidence.”
    Poirot sighed. “I do not think it is a coincidence,
    my friend. One accepts that the coincidences happen
    from time to time, but here there is a clear
    connection.”
    “You mean murder on the one hand, and the fear of
    being murdered on the other?”
    “ Non. That is one connection, yes, but I am talking
    about
    something
    different.”
    Poirot
    stopped
    promenading around the drawing room and turned to
    face me. “You say that in your three murder victims”
    mouths are found three gold cufflinks bearing the
    monogram ‘PIJ?’ ”
    “That’s right.”
    “Mademoiselle Jennie, she said to me quite
    clearly: ‘Promise me this: if I’m found dead, you’ll
    tell your friend the policeman not to look for my
    killer. Oh, please let no one open their mouths! This
    crime must never be solved.’ What do you think she
    meant by ‘Oh, please let no one open their mouths?’ ”
    Was he joking? Apparently not. “Well,” I said,
    “it’s clear, isn’t it? She feared she would be
    murdered, didn’t want her killer punished and was
    hoping no one would say anything to point the finger
    at him. She believes she is the one who deserves to
    be punished.”
    “You choose the meaning that at first seems
    obvious,” said Poirot. He sounded disappointed in
    me. “Ask yourself if there is another possible meaning
    of those words: ‘Oh, please let no one open their
    mouths.’ Reflect upon your three gold cufflinks.”
    “They are not mine,” I said emphatically, wishing
    at that moment that I could push the whole case very
    far away from me. “All right, I see what you’re
    driving at, but—”
    “What do you see? Je conduis ma voiture à
    quoi? ”
    “Well . . . ‘Please let no one open their mouths’
    could, at a stretch, mean ‘Please let no one open the
    mouths of the three murder victims at the Bloxham
    Hotel.’ ” I felt an utter fool giving voice to this
    preposterous theory.
    “ Exactement! ‘Please let no one open their mouths
    and find the gold cufflinks with the initials PIJ.’ Is it
    not possible that this is what Jennie meant? That she
    knew about the three murder victims at the hotel, and
    that she knew that whoever killed them was also
    intent on killing her?”
    Without waiting for my answer, Poirot proceeded
    with his imaginings. “And the letters PIJ, the person
    who has those initials, he is very important to the
    story, n’est-ce pas ? Jennie, she knows this. She
    knows that if you find these three letters you will be
    on your way to finding the murderer, and she wants to
    prevent this. Alors, you must catch him before it is too
    late for Jennie, or else Hercule Poirot, he shall not
    forgive himself!”
    I was alarmed to hear this. I felt a pressing sense
    of responsibility for catching this killer as it was, and
    I did not wish also to be responsible for Poirot’s
    never forgiving himself. Did he really look at me and
    see a man capable of apprehending a murderer with a
    mind of this sort—a mind that would think to place
    monogrammed cufflinks in the mouths of the dead? I
    have always been a straightforward person and I
    work best at straightforward things.
    “I think you must go back to the hotel,” said Poirot.
    He meant immediately.
    I shuddered at the memory of those three