“According to the police doctor, all three were murdered between four o’clock in the afternoon and half past eight in the evening. Luckily, we’ve managed to narrow it down further: to between a quarter past seven and ten minutes past eight.”

“A stroke of luck indeed!” Lazzari agreed. “Each of the . . . ah . . . deceased guests was last seen alive at fifteen minutes after seven o’clock, by three unquestionably dependable representatives of this hotel—so we know this must be true! I myself found the deceased persons—so terrible, this tragedy!—at between fifteen and twenty minutes after eight o’clock.”

“But they must have been dead by ten past eight,” I told Poirot. “That was when the note announcing the murders was found on the front desk.”

“Wait, please,” said Poirot. “We will get to this note in due course. Monsieur Lazzari, it is surely not possible that each of the murder victims was last seen alive by a member of hotel staff at a quarter past seven precisely?”

“Yes.” Lazzari nodded so hard, I feared his head might fall off his neck. “It is very, very true. All three ordered dinner to be brought to their rooms at a quarter past the hour, and all three deliveries were exceptionally prompt. That is the way of the Bloxham Hotel.”

Poirot turned to me. “This is another coincidence énorme,” he said. “Harriet Sippel, Ida Gransbury and Richard Negus all arrive at the hotel on the same day, the day before they are murdered. Then on the day of the murders they all order dinner to be brought to their rooms at a quarter past seven exactly? It does not seem very likely.”

“Poirot, there’s no point debating the likelihood of something we know happened.”

“Non. But there is a point in making sure that it happened in the way that we have heard. Monsieur Lazzari, I have no doubt that your hotel contains at least one very large room. Please assemble in that room everybody who works here, and I will speak to them all at their—and your—earliest convenience. While you do this, Mr. Catchpool and I will begin the inspection of the three victims” rooms.”

“Yes, and we’d better be quick about it, before they come for the bodies,” I said. “In normal circumstances, they would have been removed by now.” I did not mention that the delay in this instance had been caused by my own dereliction of duty. In my hurry to put distance between myself and the Bloxham Hotel last night, and to think about something—anything—more pleasant than these three murders, I had neglected to make the necessary arrangements.