“And—pardon me!—one final observation, mademoiselle. Whatever guilt was yours for the tragic fate of Patrick and Frances Ive, three people were as guilty as you if not more so: Harriet Sippel, Ida Gransbury and Richard Negus. They were the people who believed your lie and turned the whole village against the Reverend Ive and his wife. Now, at Pleasant’s you said to me, ‘Once I am dead, justice will have been done, finally,’ and you placed the stress upon the ‘I’: ‘once I am dead.’ This indicates to me that you knew that Harriet Sippel, Ida Gransbury and Richard Negus were already dead. But if I look at all the evidence as it has been presented to me, the three murders at the Bloxham Hotel might not yet have been committed.”

“Stop, please, stop!” Jennie cried, weeping.

“In a moment, with pleasure. Let me only say that it was approximately a quarter to eight when you spoke those words to me—‘Once I am dead, justice will have been done, finally’—and yet we know that the three Bloxham murders were only discovered by the hotel’s staff after ten minutes past eight. Yet somehow you, Jennie Hobbs, had advance knowledge of these murders. How?”

“If you will only stop accusing me, I shall tell you everything! I’ve been so desperate. Having to keep it all secret and lie constantly—it was a torment. I can’t bear it any longer!”

“Bon,” said Poirot quietly. He sounded suddenly kinder. “You have had a severe shock today, have you not? Perhaps you will now see that you cannot deceive Poirot?”

“I do see. Let me tell you the story, from the beginning. It will be such a relief to be able to tell the truth at last.”

Jennie spoke at length then, and neither I nor Poirot interrupted her until she indicated that she had finished. What follows is in her words, and is, I hope, a faithful and complete account of what she said.

19. The Truth at Last

The Truth at Last

I DESTROYED THE LIFE of the only man I have ever loved, and I destroyed my own life along with it.

I didn’t mean for things to take the turn they took. I would never have imagined that a few silly, cruel words spoken by me could lead to such disaster. I ought to have considered and kept my mouth shut, but I was feeling wounded and, in a moment of weakness, I allowed spite to get the better of me.