Читать книгу The Killings at Kingfisher Hill онлайн | страница 11

Once Poirot and I were seated side by side towards the back of the coach, he said, ‘Tell me, Catchpool, what did you see that was so interesting to you that you felt compelled to keep us all trapped in the aisle for so long?’

‘It was nothing. I made a mistake. And it wasn’t long—the whole thing was over in seconds.’

‘What mistake?’

‘Did you see the book that woman was reading?’

‘The beautiful, angry woman?’

‘Yes.’

‘I saw a book, yes. She held it very tightly.’

‘I think she feared I might tear it away from her,’ I told him. ‘That was what I wanted to get a second look at—her book. It was called Midnight Gathering. When I first saw it, I was certain I saw the words “Michael Gathercole” as the title. It must have been the M and the G.’

‘Michael Gathercole.’ Poirot sounded interested. ‘The solicitor Michael Gathercole? That is curious.’ He and I had become acquainted with Gathercole the previous year during an eventful stay in Clonakilty in the Irish Free State. ‘Why would the name of Michael Gathercole, an unremarkable practitioner of the law, be the title of a book, Catchpool?’

‘Well, it wouldn’t. And it wasn’t. I was mistaken. We needn’t discuss it further.’

‘It is more likely for Gathercole to have written a book and for his name to be on its cover as the author,’ said Poirot.

‘Gathercole has nothing to do with anything. Some other person wrote a book called Midnight Gathering.’ Please, I thought, let this be the end of it.

‘I think I comprehend why you saw a name that was not there, Catchpool—and why it was this name in particular.’

I waited.

‘You are preoccupied with the unhappy woman who accuses you of impersonating Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. She tells us that she is not in need of help, but you disagree, and so you are alert to danger. To harm. Alors, in the part of your mind that does not perceive its own workings, you make a connection between this incident today and the events of last year in Clonakilty, where danger was present and terrible harm was done.’