Henry Negus considered the question. “I think that was part of it, but it wasn’t the whole story. Richard hated Great Holling by the time he left it, and that can’t have been only Ida Gransbury’s doing. He loathed every inch of the place, he said. He didn’t tell me why, and I didn’t ask. Richard had a way of letting you know when he had said all he wanted to say. His verdict on the village was delivered very much in the spirit of ‘That’s all there is to it,’ as I recall. Perhaps if I had tried to find out more—” Negus broke off, an anguished expression on his face.

“You must not blame yourself, Mr. Negus,” said Poirot. “You did not cause your brother’s death.”

“I couldn’t help thinking that . . . well, that something dreadful must have happened to him in that village. And one doesn’t like to speak or think about things of that nature if one can help it.” Henry Negus sighed. “Richard certainly didn’t want to talk about it, whatever it was, so I took the view that it was better not talked about. He was the one with the authority, you see—the older brother. Everybody deferred to him. He had a brilliant mind, you know.”

“Indeed?” Poirot smiled kindly.

“Oh, no one paid attention to detail like Richard, before his decline. Meticulous, he was, in everything he did. You would entrust anything to him—anybody would. That was why he was so successful as a lawyer, before things went badly wrong. I always believed that he would right himself one day. When he seemed to perk up a few months ago, I thought, ‘Finally, he has regained his appetite for life.’ I hoped he might have been thinking about working again, before every last penny of his money ran out—”

“Mr. Negus, if you would please slow down a little,” said Poirot, polite but insistent. “Your brother did not at first work when he moved into your home?”

“No. As well as Great Holling and Ida Gransbury, Richard left behind his profession when he came to Devon. Instead of practicing the law, he shut himself away in his room and practiced drinking heavily.”

“Ah. The decline you mentioned?”