Evil Under the Sun Page #9

I will explain to you

exactly what happened next at Gull Cove.

Madame Redfern, unseen by Linda,

consulted her own watch,

which she was wearing

but kept concealed

under the sleeve of that

strange voluminous outfit

she chose to protect

her from the sun.

It is of course 25 to 12.

She then asked Linda the time,

who naturally said it was five to 12.

Linda then starts to go down

to the sea. While her back is fumed,

Madame Redfern returns Linda's watch

to the correct time,

then calls Linda back, telling her

she has forgotten her bathing cap.

Why should she bother to do that,

you may ask?

The answer is simple.

Remember, at 12 o'clock

the noonday gun is due to go off.

And she can take no chance of

Linda hearing and noting it.

A girl splashing about in the sea

and wearing a bathing cap

would hear nothing.

So let us exactly see what happened

as Madame Redfern hurried up

from the cove to the top of the cliff.

It is 11:
40.

She pauses to wave.

Linda waves back.

But there is no Mr Brewster:

No noonday gun.

Madame Redfern now tums

and runs across the path which

separates Gull Cove from Ladder Bay.

That takes her six or seven minutes,

no more.

She arrives at Ladder Bay

at about a quarter to 12

and sees Madame Arlena

sitting impatiently,

awaiting the arrival

of Patrick Redfern,

with whom, I am convinced,

she had a rendezvous.

Oh, Christ!

Suddenly, to her great chagrin

she sees you, madame,

about to come down the ladder

But I couldn't have!

I suffer from vertigo.

You know that.

I only know that because you took

good care to stage an incident

showing me that you

suffer from vertigo.

The day before yesterday,

on the terrace.

As we were having a stroll

and I was drawing your attention

to the sunbathing figures on the beach

below us, you suddenly fell against me

and stepped back,

saying you suffered from vertigo.

But she does have it, Poirot.

She's always had it.

That is not the case,

monsieur.

Your wife only

pretended to have it

in order to prove that she

could not have climbed down the ladder.

But, yesterday afternoon,

I myself stood on the cliff

ovelooking Gull Cove

and I discovered something

rather interesting.

In order to have seen Linda

in the water below and to wave to her,

you would have had to stand

right on the very edge.

Although I do not suffer

from vertigo,

I myself was quite dizzy.

For you, madame, had you suffered from

vertigo, it would have been impossible.

Let us now resume the story from the

point at which you descended the ladder.

Madame Arlena decided to

avoid a confrontation

and was about to leave the beach

when she noticed a small grotto

at the base of a cliff.

You may well ask

how I knew she had been in there.

Yesterday afternoon, not only

did I discover the false diamond

that Horace Blatt had returned to her,

but my excellent wine fastens nose

had detected, not as you put it,

Madame Castle, a pong,

but Souffle de Mer,

"the breath of the sea",

which, as you know, Monsieur Marshall,

was her favourite perfume.

But I am digressing.

You ran down on to the beach,

but Madame Arlena had disappeared.

Arlena! Where are you?

I know you're here.

I want to talk to you!

Be with you in a minute.

Well, what is it?

Look here, Poirot.

Haven't we heard enough of this blarney?

Arlena was not murdered with a blunt

instrument, she was strangled.

And if you would care to bend

those beady Belgian eyes of yours

on Christine's hands, you'll see they

are too small to have strangled anyone.

Yes, I quite agree. In fact that was

a major stumbling block to my theory.

Redfern's right,

this knocks your theory out of court.

Odell, please,

you weren't even there, and I was.

Remember,

I saw her lying there strangled.

Christine couldn't have done it.

I am absolutely of your opinion, madame.

In fact, she did not do it.

The murder was committed

by her husband, Patrick Redfern.

Now you really are

talking out of the top of your hat!

Oh, for God's sakes. Patrick couldn't

have done it, any more than his wife.

Don't forget I was with him

the whole time between 11:30 and 12:00

when we came into the bay

and saw her lying there.

That is the whole point, madame.

One moderately well-made young woman

is very much like another:

Two brown arms,

two brown legs

and a little piece of bathing suit

in between.

What exactly did you see from your

place in the boat, Madame Gardener?

The ardent young lover,

M Redfern,

bending over the body

with suntanned limbs

wearing Arlena's white bathing costume

and a red Chinese hat.

As I pointed out

a couple of days ago,

all bodies lying on the beach

are alike.

"They are not men and women, " I said.

"There is nothing personal about them,"

I said.

"They are like rows of butcher's

meat grilling in the sun," I said.

No wonder you were fooled

into imagining that you had seen

the corpse of Madame Marshall,

when what you had actually seen

was the live body of

Madame Christine Redfern.

That is why the murderer

had to conceal the face,

because it was not the murder victim

lying there, but somebody else.

And who else would help

Monsieur Redfern, but his own wife?

And now the performance

for the benefit of the witness is over.

Madame Gardener departs

from the bay by boat to fetch help.

And what do you think happened,

Madame Gardener,

as soon as you had disappeared?

Why, the corpse leaps to her feet

and runs into the grotto to remove

Madame Arlena's bathing costume,

which she had stripped off

the unconscious woman

and worn to play her part as a corpse.

I've got a point, Poirot,

which will scupper all your whole case.

Christine is as pale as

pasteurised milk. Now the question is,

how could I have possibly mistaken

her arms and legs for Arlena's?

This covers nothing at all, madame.

In answer to your question,

I would ask you to consider

the bizarre nature

of Madame Redfern's beach apparel.

When I saw Madame Redfern

in the lobby yesterday morning,

she was wearing

a totally exaggerated garment

which completely covered her

from wrist to neck.

No mere fear of the sun could have

occasioned such a choice of dress.

She had to wear such an all-concealing

outfit because underneath...

...she was brown as a nut

In the grotto, after having

climbed into the unconscious

Madame Arlena's swimming costume,

all she had to do was

to stain her hands and neck,

something she could not have done

earlier. Why?

Because Linda would have noticed.

She puts on the earrings

and then she mas out of the grotto

and onto the beach,

settles herself on Arlena's towel

and puts her great big Chinese hat

over her face

and lies still to await the arrival of

her husband and yourself.

Dead... on cue,

as it were.

And this, I must admit,

he stage-managed superbly,

timing his appearance at Ladder Bay

exactly to coincide

with the sound of the noonday gun.

The rest was easy.

She now changed back

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