阳光下的罪恶05

VThere was an uncomfortable little silence after she had left.

Then Emily Brewster said:

“It’s rather too bad. She’s a nice little thing. They’ve only been married a year or two.”

“Gal I was speaking of,” said Major Barry, “the one in Simla. She upset a couple of reallyhappy marriages. Seemed a pity, what?”

“There’s a type of woman,” said Miss Brewster, “who likes smashing up homes.” She addedafter a minute or two, “Patrick Redfern’s a fool!”

Hercule Poirot said nothing. He was gazing down the beach, but he was not looking at PatrickRedfern and Arlena Stuart.

Miss Brewster said:

“Well, I’d better go and get hold of my boat.”

She left them.

Major Barry turned his boiled gooseberry eyes with mild curiosity on Poirot.

“Well, Poirot,” he said. “What are you thinking about? You’ve not opened your mouth. Whatdo you think of the siren? Pretty hot?”

Poirot said:

“C’est possible.”

“Now then, you old dog. I know you Frenchmen!”

Poirot said coldly:

“I am not a Frenchman!”

“Well, don’t tell me you haven’t got an eye for a pretty girl! What do you think of her, eh?”

Hercule Poirot said:

“She is not young.”

“What does that matter? A woman’s as old as she looks! Her looks are all right.”

Hercule Poirot nodded. He said:

“Yes, she is beautiful. But it is not beauty that counts in the end. It is not beauty that makesevery head (except one) turn on the beach to look at her.”

“It’s IT, my boy,” said the Major. “That’s what it is—IT.”

Then he said with sudden curiosity.

“What are you looking at so steadily¹?”

Hercule Poirot replied: “I am looking at the exception. At the one man who did not look upwhen she passed.”

Major Barry followed his gaze to where it rested on a man of about forty, fair-haired andsuntanned. He had a quiet pleasant face and was sitting on the beach smoking a pipe and readingThe Times.

“Oh, that!” said Major Barry. “That’s the husband, my boy. That’s Marshall.”

Hercule Poirot said:

“Yes, I know.”

Major Barry chuckled². He himself was a bachelor. He was accustomed to think of The Husbandin three lights only—as “the Obstacle,” “the Inconvenience” or “the Safeguard.”

He said:

“Seems a nice fellow. Quiet. Wonder if my Times has come?”

He got up and went up towards the hotel.

Poirot’s glance shifted slowly to the face of Stephen Lane.

Stephen Lane was watching Arlena Marshall and Patrick Redfern. He turned suddenly to Poirot.

There was a stern fanatical light in his eyes.

He said:

“That woman is evil through and through. Do you doubt it?”

Poirot said slowly:

“It is difficult to be sure.”

Stephen Lane said:

“But, man alive, don’t you feel it in the air? All round you? The presence of Evil.”

Slowly, Hercule Poirot nodded his head.

 

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