The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at
the time as "The Styles Case" has now somewhat subsided.
Nevertheless, in view of the world-wide notoriety which attended
it, I have been asked, both by my friend Poirot and the family
themselves, to write an account of the whole story. This, we trust,
will effectually silence the sensational rumours which still
persist.
I will therefore briefly set down the circumstances which led to
my being connected with the affair.
I had been invalided home from the Front; and, after spending
some months in a rather depressing Convalescent Home, was given a
month's sick leave. Having no near relations or friends, I was
trying to make up my mind what to do, when I ran across John
Cavendish. I had seen very little of him for some years. Indeed, I
had never known him particularly well. He was a good fifteen years
my senior, for one thing, though he hardly looked his forty-five
years. As a boy, though, I had often stayed at Styles, his mother's
place in Essex.
We had a good yarn about old times, and it ended in his inviting
me down to Styles to spend my leave there.
"The mater will be delighted to see you again—after all those
years," he added.
"Your mother keeps well?" I asked.
"Oh, yes. I suppose you know that she has married again?"
I am afraid I showed my surprise rather plainly. Mrs. Cavendish,
who had married John's father when he was a widower with two sons,
had been a handsome woman of middle-age as I remembered her. She
certainly could not be a day less than seventy now. I recalled her
as an energetic, autocratic personality, somewhat inclined to
charitable and social notoriety, with a fondness for opening
bazaars and playing the Lady Bountiful. She was a most generous
woman, and possessed a considerable fortune of her own.
Their country-place, Styles Court, had been purchased by Mr.
Cavendish early in their married life. He had been completely under
his wife's ascendancy, so much so that, on dying, he left the place
to her for her lifetime, as well as the larger part of his income;
an arrangement that was distinctly unfair to his two sons. Their
step-mother, however, had always been most generous to them;
indeed, they were so young at the time of their father's remarriage
that they always thought of her as their own mother.
Lawrence, the younger, had been a delicate youth. He had
qualified as a doctor but early relinquished the profession of
medicine, and lived at home while pursuing literary ambitions;
though his verses never had any marked success.
John practiced for some time as a barrister, but had finally
settled down to the more congenial life of a country squire. He had
married two years ago, and had taken his wife to live at Styles,
though I entertained a shrewd suspicion that he would have
preferred his mother to increase his allowance, which would have
enabled him to have a home of his own. Mrs. Cavendish, however, was
a lady who liked to make her own plans, and expected other people
to fall in with them, and in this case she certainly had the whip
hand, namely: the purse strings.
John noticed my surprise at the news of his mother's remarriage
and smiled rather ruefully.
"Rotten little bounder too!" he said savagely. "I can tell you,
Hastings, it's making life jolly difficult for us. As for Evie—you
remember Evie?"
"No."
"Oh, I suppose she was after your time. She's the mater's
factotum, companion, Jack of all trades! A great sport—old Evie!
Not precisely young and beautiful, but as game as they make
them."
"You were going to say——?"
"Oh, this fellow! He turned up from nowhere, on the pretext of
being a second cousin or something of Evie's, though she didn't
seem particularly keen to acknowledge the relationship. The fellow
is an absolute outsider, anyone can see that. He's got a great
black beard, and wears patent leather boots in all weathers! But
the mater cottoned to him at once, took him on as secretary—you
know how she's always running a hundred societies?"
I nodded.
"Well, of course the war has turned the hundreds into thousands.
No doubt the fellow was very useful to her. But you could have
knocked us all down with a feather when, three months ago, she
suddenly announced that she and Alfred were engaged! The fellow
must be at least twenty years younger than she is! It's simply
bare-faced fortune hunting; but there you are—she is her own
mistress, and she's married him."
"It must be a difficult situation for you all."
"Difficult! It's damnable!"
Thus it came about that, three days later, I descended from the
train at Styles St. Mary, an absurd little station, with no
apparent reason for existence, perched up in the midst of green
fields and country lanes. John Cavendish was waiting on the
platform, and piloted me out to the car.
"Got a drop or two of petrol still, you see," he remarked.
"Mainly owing to the mater's activities."
The village of Styles St. Mary was situated about two miles from
the little station, and Styles Court lay a mile the other side of
it. It was a still, warm day in early July. As one looked out over
the flat Essex country, lying so green and peaceful under the
afternoon sun, it seemed almost impossible to believe that, not so
very far away, a great war was running its appointed course. I felt
I had suddenly strayed into another world. As we turned in at the
lodge gates, John said:
"I'm afraid you'll find it very quiet down here, Hastings."
"My dear fellow, that's just what I want."
"Oh, it's pleasant enough if you want to lead the idle life. I
drill with the volunteers twice a week, and lend a hand at the
farms. My wife works regularly 'on the land'. She is up at five
every morning to milk, and keeps at it steadily until lunchtime.
It's a jolly good life taking it all round—if it weren't for that
fellow Alfred Inglethorp!" He checked the car suddenly, and glanced
at his watch. "I wonder if we've time to pick up Cynthia. No,
she'll have started from the hospital by now."
"Cynthia! That's not your wife?"
"No, Cynthia is a protegee of my mother's, the daughter of an
old schoolfellow of hers, who married a rascally solicitor. He came
a cropper, and the girl was left an orphan and penniless. My mother
came to the rescue, and Cynthia has been with us nearly two years
now. She works in the Red Cross Hospital at Tadminster, seven miles
away."
As he spoke the last words, we drew up in front of the fine old
house. A lady in a stout tweed skirt, who was bending over a flower
bed, straightened herself at our approach.
"Hullo, Evie, here's our wounded hero! Mr. Hastings—Miss
Howard."
Miss Howard shook hands with a hearty, almost painful, grip. I
had an impression of very blue eyes in a sunburnt face. She was a
pleasant-looking woman of about forty, with a deep voice, almost
manly in its stentorian tones, and had a large sensible square
body, with feet to match—these last encased in good thick boots.
Her conversation, I soon found, was couched in the telegraphic
style.
"Weeds grow like house afire. Can't keep even with 'em. Shall
press you in. Better be careful."
"I'm sure I shall be only too delighted to make myself useful,"
I responded.
"Don't say it. Never does. Wish you hadn't later."
"You're a cynic, Evie," said John, laughing. "Where's tea
to-day—inside or out?"
"Out. Too fine a day to be cooped up in the house."
"Come on then, you've done enough gardening for to-day. 'The
labourer is worthy of his hire', you know. Come and be
refreshed."
"Well," said Miss Howard, drawing off her gardening gloves, "I'm
inclined to agree with you."
She led the way round the house to where tea was spread under
the shade of a large sycamore.
A figure rose from one of the basket chairs, and came a few
steps to meet us.
"My wife, Hastings," said John.
I shall never forget my first sight of Mary Cavendish. Her tall,
slender form, outlined against the bright light; the vivid sense of
slumbering fire that seemed to find expression only in those
wonderful tawny eyes of hers, remarkable eyes, different from any
other woman's that I have ever known; the intense power of
stillness she possessed, which nevertheless conveyed the impression
of a wild untamed spirit in an exquisitely civilised body—all these
things are burnt into my memory. I shall never forget them.
She greeted me with a few words of pleasant welcome in a low
clear voice, and I sank into a basket chair feeling distinctly glad
that I had accepted John's invitation. Mrs. Cavendish gave me some
tea, and her few quiet remarks heightened my first impression of
her as a thoroughly fascinating woman. An appreciative listener is
always stimulating, and I described, in a humorous manner, certain
incidents of my Convalescent Home, in a way which, I flatter
myself, greatly amused my hostess. John, of course, good fellow
though he is, could hardly be called a brilliant
conversationalist.
At that moment a well remembered voice floated through the open
French window near at hand:
"Then you'll write to the Princess after tea, Alfred? I'll write
to Lady Tadminster for the second day, myself. Or shall we wait
until we hear from the Princess? In case of a refusal, Lady
Tadminster might open it the first day, and Mrs. Crosbie the
second. Then there's the Duchess—about the school fete."
There was the murmur of a man's voice, and then Mrs.
Inglethorp's rose in reply:
"Yes, certainly. After tea will do quite well. You are so
thoughtful, Alfred dear."
The French window swung open a little wider, and a handsome
white-haired old lady, with a somewhat masterful cast of features,
stepped out of it on to the lawn. A man followed her, a suggestion
of deference in his manner.
Mrs. Inglethorp greeted me with effusion.
"Why, if it isn't too delightful to see you again, Mr. Hastings,
after all these years. Alfred, darling, Mr. Hastings—my
husband."
I looked with some curiosity at "Alfred darling". He certainly
struck a rather alien note. I did not wonder at John objecting to
his beard. It was one of the longest and blackest I have ever seen.
He wore gold-rimmed pince-nez, and had a curious impassivity of
feature. It struck me that he might look natural on a stage, but
was strangely out of place in real life. His voice was rather deep
and unctuous. He placed a wooden hand in mine and said:
"This is a pleasure, Mr. Hastings." Then, turning to his wife:
"Emily dearest, I think that cushion is a little damp."
She beamed fondly on him, as he substituted another with every
demonstration of the tenderest care. Strange infatuation of an
otherwise sensible woman!
With the presence of Mr. Inglethorp, a sense of constraint and
veiled hostility seemed to settle down upon the company. Miss
Howard, in particular, took no pains to conceal her feelings. Mrs.
Inglethorp, however, seemed to notice nothing unusual. Her
volubility, which I remembered of old, had lost nothing in the
intervening years, and she poured out a steady flood of
conversation, mainly on the subject of the forthcoming bazaar which
she was organizing and which was to take place shortly.
Occasionally she referred to her husband over a question of days or
dates. His watchful and attentive manner never varied. From the
very first I took a firm and rooted dislike to him, and I flatter
myself that my first judgments are usually fairly shrewd.
Presently Mrs. Inglethorp turned to give some instructions about
letters to Evelyn Howard, and her husband addressed me in his
painstaking voice:
"Is soldiering your regular profession, Mr. Hastings?"
"No, before the war I was in Lloyd's."
"And you will return there after it is over?"
"Perhaps. Either that or a fresh start altogether."
Mary Cavendish leant forward.
"What would you really choose as a profession, if you could just
consult your inclination?"
"Well, that depends."
"No secret hobby?" she asked. "Tell me—you're drawn to
something? Every one is—usually something absurd."
"You'll laugh at me."
She smiled.
"Perhaps."
"Well, I've always had a secret hankering to be a
detective!"
"The real thing—Scotland Yard? Or Sherlock Holmes?"
"Oh, Sherlock Holmes by all means. But really, seriously, I am
awfully drawn to it. I came across a man in Belgium once, a very
famous detective, and he quite inflamed me. He was a marvellous
little fellow. He used to say that all good detective work was a
mere matter of method. My system is based on his—though of course I
have progressed rather further. He was a funny little man, a great
dandy, but wonderfully clever."
"Like a good detective story myself," remarked Miss Howard.
"Lots of nonsense written, though. Criminal discovered in last
chapter. Every one dumbfounded. Real crime—you'd know at once."
"There have been a great number of undiscovered crimes," I
argued.
"Don't mean the police, but the people that are right in it. The
family. You couldn't really hoodwink them. They'd know."
"Then," I said, much amused, "you think that if you were mixed
up in a crime, say a murder, you'd be able to spot the murderer
right off?"
"Of course I should. Mightn't be able to prove it to a pack of
lawyers. But I'm certain I'd know. I'd feel it in my fingertips if
he came near me."
"It might be a 'she,' " I suggested.
"Might. But murder's a violent crime. Associate it more with a
man."
"Not in a case of poisoning." Mrs. Cavendish's clear voice
startled me. "Dr. Bauerstein was saying yesterday that, owing to
the general ignorance of the more uncommon poisons among the
medical profession, there were probably countless cases of
poisoning quite unsuspected."
"Why, Mary, what a gruesome conversation!" cried Mrs.
Inglethorp. "It makes me feel as if a goose were walking over my
grave. Oh, there's Cynthia!"
A young girl in V. A. D. uniform ran lightly across the
lawn.
"Why, Cynthia, you are late to-day. This is Mr. Hastings—Miss
Murdoch."
Cynthia Murdoch was a fresh-looking young creature, full of life
and vigour. She tossed off her little V. A. D. cap, and I admired
the great loose waves of her auburn hair, and the smallness and
whiteness of the hand she held out to claim her tea. With dark eyes
and eyelashes she would have been a beauty.
She flung herself down on the ground beside John, and as I
handed her a plate of sandwiches she smiled up at me.
"Sit down here on the grass, do. It's ever so much nicer."
I dropped down obediently.
"You work at Tadminster, don't you, Miss Murdoch?"
She nodded.
"For my sins."
"Do they bully you, then?" I asked, smiling.
"I should like to see them!" cried Cynthia with dignity.
"I have got a cousin who is nursing," I remarked. "And she is
terrified of 'Sisters'."
"I don't wonder. Sisters are, you know, Mr. Hastings.
They simp—ly are! You've no idea! But I'm not a nurse,
thank heaven, I work in the dispensary."
"How many people do you poison?" I asked, smiling.
Cynthia smiled too.
"Oh, hundreds!" she said.
"Cynthia," called Mrs. Inglethorp, "do you think you could write
a few notes for me?"
"Certainly, Aunt Emily."
She jumped up promptly, and something in her manner reminded me
that her position was a dependent one, and that Mrs. Inglethorp,
kind as she might be in the main, did not allow her to forget
it.
My hostess turned to me.
"John will show you your room. Supper is at half-past seven. We
have given up late dinner for some time now. Lady Tadminster, our
Member's wife—she was the late Lord Abbotsbury's daughter—does the
same. She agrees with me that one must set an example of economy.
We are quite a war household; nothing is wasted here—every scrap of
waste paper, even, is saved and sent away in sacks."
I expressed my appreciation, and John took me into the house and
up the broad staircase, which forked right and left half-way to
different wings of the building. My room was in the left wing, and
looked out over the park.
John left me, and a few minutes later I saw him from my window
walking slowly across the grass arm in arm with Cynthia Murdoch. I
heard Mrs. Inglethorp call "Cynthia" impatiently, and the girl
started and ran back to the house. At the same moment, a man
stepped out from the shadow of a tree and walked slowly in the same
direction. He looked about forty, very dark with a melancholy
clean-shaven face. Some violent emotion seemed to be mastering him.
He looked up at my window as he passed, and I recognized him,
though he had changed much in the fifteen years that had elapsed
since we last met. It was John's younger brother, Lawrence
Cavendish. I wondered what it was that had brought that singular
expression to his face.
Then I dismissed him from my mind, and returned to the
contemplation of my own affairs.
The evening passed pleasantly enough; and I dreamed that night
of that enigmatical woman, Mary Cavendish.
The next morning dawned bright and sunny, and I was full of the
anticipation of a delightful visit.
I did not see Mrs. Cavendish until lunch-time, when she
volunteered to take me for a walk, and we spent a charming
afternoon roaming in the woods, returning to the house about
five.
As we entered the large hall, John beckoned us both into the
smoking-room. I saw at once by his face that something disturbing
had occurred. We followed him in, and he shut the door after
us.
"Look here, Mary, there's the deuce of a mess. Evie's had a row
with Alfred Inglethorp, and she's off."
"Evie? Off?"
John nodded gloomily.
"Yes; you see she went to the mater, and—Oh, here's Evie
herself."
Miss Howard entered. Her lips were set grimly together, and she
carried a small suit-case. She looked excited and determined, and
slightly on the defensive.
"At any rate," she burst out, "I've spoken my mind!"
"My dear Evelyn," cried Mrs. Cavendish, "this can't be
true!"
Miss Howard nodded grimly.
"True enough! Afraid I said some things to Emily she won't
forget or forgive in a hurry. Don't mind if they've only sunk in a
bit. Probably water off a duck's back, though. I said right out:
'You're an old woman, Emily, and there's no fool like an old fool.
The man's twenty years younger than you, and don't you fool
yourself as to what he married you for. Money! Well, don't let him
have too much of it. Farmer Raikes has got a very pretty young
wife. Just ask your Alfred how much time he spends over there.' She
was very angry. Natural! I went on, 'I'm going to warn you, whether
you like it or not. That man would as soon murder you in your bed
as look at you. He's a bad lot. You can say what you like to me,
but remember what I've told you. He's a bad lot!' "
"What did she say?"
Miss Howard made an extremely expressive grimace.
" 'Darling Alfred'—'dearest Alfred'—'wicked calumnies' —'wicked
lies'—'wicked woman'—to accuse her 'dear husband'! The sooner I
left her house the better. So I'm off."
"But not now?"
"This minute!"
For a moment we sat and stared at her. Finally John Cavendish,
finding his persuasions of no avail, went off to look up the
trains. His wife followed him, murmuring something about persuading
Mrs. Inglethorp to think better of it.
As she left the room, Miss Howard's face changed. She leant
towards me eagerly.
"Mr. Hastings, you're honest. I can trust you?"
I was a little startled. She laid her hand on my arm, and sank
her voice to a whisper.
"Look after her, Mr. Hastings. My poor Emily. They're a lot of
sharks—all of them. Oh, I know what I'm talking about. There isn't
one of them that's not hard up and trying to get money out of her.
I've protected her as much as I could. Now I'm out of the way,
they'll impose upon her."
"Of course, Miss Howard," I said, "I'll do everything I can, but
I'm sure you're excited and overwrought."
She interrupted me by slowly shaking her forefinger.
"Young man, trust me. I've lived in the world rather longer than
you have. All I ask you is to keep your eyes open. You'll see what
I mean."
The throb of the motor came through the open window, and Miss
Howard rose and moved to the door. John's voice sounded outside.
With her hand on the handle, she turned her head over her shoulder,
and beckoned to me.
"Above all, Mr. Hastings, watch that devil—her husband!"
There was no time for more. Miss Howard was swallowed up in an
eager chorus of protests and good-byes. The Inglethorps did not
appear.
As the motor drove away, Mrs. Cavendish suddenly detached
herself from the group, and moved across the drive to the lawn to
meet a tall bearded man who had been evidently making for the
house. The colour rose in her cheeks as she held out her hand to
him.
"Who is that?" I asked sharply, for instinctively I distrusted
the man.
"That's Dr. Bauerstein," said John shortly.
"And who is Dr. Bauerstein?"
"He's staying in the village doing a rest cure, after a bad
nervous breakdown. He's a London specialist; a very clever man—one
of the greatest living experts on poisons, I believe."
"And he's a great friend of Mary's," put in Cynthia, the
irrepressible.
John Cavendish frowned and changed the subject.
"Come for a stroll, Hastings. This has been a most rotten
business. She always had a rough tongue, but there is no stauncher
friend in England than Evelyn Howard."
He took the path through the plantation, and we walked down to
the village through the woods which bordered one side of the
estate.
As we passed through one of the gates on our way home again, a
pretty young woman of gipsy type coming in the opposite direction
bowed and smiled.
"That's a pretty girl," I remarked appreciatively.
John's face hardened.
"That is Mrs. Raikes."
"The one that Miss Howard——"
"Exactly," said John, with rather unnecessary abruptness.
I thought of the white-haired old lady in the big house, and
that vivid wicked little face that had just smiled into ours, and a
vague chill of foreboding crept over me. I brushed it aside.
"Styles is really a glorious old place," I said to John.
He nodded rather gloomily.
"Yes, it's a fine property. It'll be mine some day—should be
mine now by rights, if my father had only made a decent will. And
then I shouldn't be so damned hard up as I am now."
"Hard up, are you?"
"My dear Hastings, I don't mind telling you that I'm at my wit's
end for money."
"Couldn't your brother help you?"
"Lawrence? He's gone through every penny he ever had, publishing
rotten verses in fancy bindings. No, we're an impecunious lot. My
mother's always been awfully good to us, I must say. That is, up to
now. Since her marriage, of course——" he broke off, frowning.
For the first time I felt that, with Evelyn Howard, something
indefinable had gone from the atmosphere. Her presence had spelt
security. Now that security was removed—and the air seemed rife
with suspicion. The sinister face of Dr. Bauerstein recurred to me
unpleasantly. A vague suspicion of every one and everything filled
my mind. Just for a moment I had a premonition of approaching
evil.