In this series, I will sort out the famous cases of Agatha's mystery novels, sort out the details of the cases, and condense the lengthy novels and slower-paced detective movies without losing the charm of the original cases, giving readers a complete detective perspective and properly grasping the difficulty, so burn your gray cell imagination and join this reasoning feast!
The noise of fireworks can damage many ladies' fragile nerves, detective Poirot and his assistant Hastings and Inspector Japp are watching fireworks in Budsley Garden Lane, and assistant Hastings coldly said: "Tonight is really suitable for murder, right, if someone wants to kill someone, no one knows whether it is the sound of gunshots or fireworks explosions." Poirot told him not to make such jokes.
Sure enough, early the next morning, Poirot received a call from Japp saying that last night's words had been fulfilled, and that a shooting had taken place in a room at the end of Bardsley's Garden Lane that looked less like murder than suicide. An hour later, Poirot and the inspector arrived at the scene of the crime at the same time.
The deceased Alan and one of her friends Prenderley shared a room here, Ms. Prenderley had something to go back to the countryside, came back in the morning to find her roommate Allen's door closed, knocked on the door repeatedly and no one agreed, felt that things were not right after immediately reported to the police, at 10:15 in the morning the police officer smashed the door open, Ms. Allen fell on her back, the head was shot, the police officer gave two judgments, if it is suicide, Ms. Allen may have slipped from the chair after shooting herself, the posture is reasonable, However, the fingerprints on the gun are only part of the fingerprints of the thumb and index finger, which indicates that it is possible that someone killed her and tried to disguise herself as a suicide, erased her fingerprints and forcibly pressed the fingerprints of the deceased. It is worth noting that Alan was shot with a gun in his left hand and was shot in his left temple, so Japp deduced that Alan might be left-handed.
In addition, the doors and windows of the house were locked, and no key was found, and Inspector Japp also found a man's blue cufflink near the body inside the house. Poirot noticed that Alan was wearing a watch with a loose strap on his right hand, which looked valuable. In the gap between Japp's visits to his watch, Poirot carefully examined Alan's desk, which, in addition to the quill and ink, displayed blank paper with no words written, and there were no last words or notes left by Allen. There were nine cigarette butts, six cheap cigarettes, and three Turkish cigarettes in the ashtray, but there was no smell of smoke in the deceased's room. The forensic determination of the time of death was around eleven thirty last night.
Then Inspector Japp and Poirot immediately asked the first finder of the body, Ms. Prenderley, and Poirot asked the key message: Alan returned to England from India two years ago, and then they shared a house, Alan had a deceased husband in India; and recently she had a fiancé who worked in the government called Charles, and when talking about this Charles, Prenderley showed slight contempt and showed feelings for Alan that went beyond ordinary friendship; finally she said that Alan was not left-handed but right-handed.
Then Poirot asked a little boy near the alley where the crime occurred, and the boy told him that on the night of the crime, Ms. Allen went to the mailbox at 6 p.m. to deliver a letter, and at about 9:30 p.m. a car came down, and a man about 45 years old, wearing a dark blue coat, with a toothbrush-like beard, and standing tall like a soldier, he stayed inside for about 1 hour, and then they came out together, and the man finally said "think about it, then tell me", and Ms. Allen said goodbye. Then the man closed the door and got into the car after Alan entered.
Poirot and the Inspector then visitEd Alan's fiancé Charles, who was surprised by Alan's death, but acted cold-blooded and did not have a painful expression, but instead invited Poirot and the Inspector out by telephone with the Prime Minister.
A follow-up investigation found that Allen withdrew two large sums of cash from the bank three months ago and last Monday. So Poirot and the Inspector rediscover Miss Prender, who tells them that Alan may have been blackmailed by a 45-year-old colonel with a toothbrush-like beard, named Eustace, the man whom was seen by the little boy on the night of Alan's death. Prenderley showed great hatred for Colonel Eustace. The Inspector searched for a locked cupboard downstairs and asked to see that Ms. Prenderley reluctantly opened the cabinet, which the Inspector found a special box next to the golf club, but opened it and found nothing suspicious.
Then in an Indian-style bar, Inspector Japp found Eustace, the first useful information he got was that Eustace smoked a Turkish cigarette, and when Inspector Japp talked about investigating the 200 pounds that Ellen had been blackmailed, Eustace was very excited, eustace said that he arrived at Ellen's house at 9:30, chatted and smoked in the living room, did not go to her room, and left around 10:30. Japp discovers that Eustace's right cufflink is missing and arrests Eustace on this ground. On the other side, Poirot went to look for Prenderley, only to find that she was not at the accommodation, but had gone to play golf, and found that the golf clubs in the cupboard were missing. So he went to the golf course to look for Prendley, but found several discounted golf clubs in the dump of the golf course, Poirot carefully examined the broken clubs, and then in the hidden corner saw Prenderley throw the suspicious box into the river. So the case has been solved, all the details of the case evidence has been listed, the case has been broken, move your clever gray cell to find out the truth of the incident, who killed Alan? Welcome to discuss in the comments section, the real murderer will be revealed in the next issue.