“Then how, might I ask, can it ever have been part of the plan for you to kill Richard Negus? You have told us that you intended to find me at Pleasant’s Coffee House shortly after half past seven on that same night, knowing I would be there for my regular Thursday evening dinner. It is impossible to get from the Bloxham Hotel to Pleasant’s Coffee House in less than half an hour. It cannot be done, no matter how one travels. So, even if Ida Gransbury had killed Harriet Sippel and Richard Negus had killed Ida Gransbury as soon as was possible after a quarter past seven, there would not have been time for you to kill Richard Negus in Room 238 after that time, and still arrive at Pleasant’s when you did. Are we supposed to believe that, in all the meticulous planning that you undertook, none of you thought of this practical impossibility?”

Jennie’s face had turned white. I expect mine had too, though I could not see it myself.

It was such an obvious flaw in her account that Poirot had pointed out, and yet I had failed to spot it. It simply had not occurred to me.

23. The Real Ida Gransbury

The Real Ida Gransbury

SAMUEL KIDD CHUCKLED, TURNING round so that more people could see him. He said, “Mr. Poirot, for a man who takes pride in his powers of detection, you’re not the sharpest of instruments, are you? I’ve heard Jennie talk about this more often than you have, I think I can safely say. The plan was not for the killings to take place after a quarter past seven. I don’t know where you’ve caught hold of that idea. The plan was for them to happen just after six o’clock. The ordering of food at a quarter past seven wasn’t part of it either.”

“That’s right,” said Jennie. Offered a way out of the trap by her quick-thinking former fiancé, she appeared to have recovered her composure. “I can only conclude that my failure to arrive at six as agreed caused a delay. The others would have wanted to discuss my failure to present myself. I should have, in their place. The discussion about what to do might have taken some time.”

“Ah, bien sûr. You did not correct me a few moments ago, however, when I asserted that the deaths took place as planned: between a quarter past seven and eight o’clock. Neither did you say that the ordering of the very late afternoon tea was not part of the plan.”

“I’m sorry. I should have corrected you,” said Jennie. “I’m . . . I mean, this is all rather overwhelming.”

“You now say that the plan was for the three killings to take place at six o’clock?”

“Yes, and all be done by fifteen minutes before seven so that I could get to Pleasant’s by half past.”