chapter 9 the bexhill-on-sea murder

i still remember my awakening on the morning of the 25th of july. itmust have been about seven-thirty.

poirot was standing by my bedside gently shaking me by the shoul-der.

one glance at his face brought me from semiconsciousness intofull possession of my faculties.

"what is it?" i demanded, sitting up rapidly.

his answer came quite simply, but a wealth of emotion lay behindthe three words he uttered.

"it has happened. "

"what?" i cried. "you mean--but to-day is the 25th. ""it took place last night--or rather in the early hours of thismorn-ing. ' '

as i sprang from bed and made a rapid toilet, he recounted brieflywhat he had j ust learnt over the telephone.

"the body of a young girl has been found on the beach at bexhi! l.

she has been identified as elizabeth barnard, a waitress in one of thecafts, who lived with her parents in a little recently built bungalow.

medical evidence gave the time of death as between 11: 30 and 1 a. m. ""they' re quite sure that this is the crime?" i asked, as i hastilylath-eredmy face.

"an a. b. c. open at the trains to bexhill was found actually underthe body. "i shivered.

"this is horrible! "

"faites attention, hastings. i do not want a second tragedy i tvrooms! " iwiped the blood from my chin rather ruefully.

"what is our plan of campaignt' i asked.

"the car will call for us in a few moments' time. i will bring youcup of coffee here so that there will be no delay in starting. "twenty minutes later we were in a fast police car crossing thethames on our way out of london.

with us was inspector crome, who had been present at the conferencethe other day, and who was officially in charge of the case.

crome was a very different type of officer from japp. a much youngerman, he was the silent, superior type. well educated and well read,he was, for my taste, several shades too pleased with himself. he hadlately gained kudos over a series of child murders, having patientlytracked down the criminal who was now in broadmoor.

he was obviously a suitable person to undertake the present cay; e,but i thought that he was j ust a little too aware of the fact himself.

manner to poirot was a shade patronizing. he deferred to him asyounger man to an older one--in a rather self-conscious,"public-school"way.

"i' ve had a good long talk with dr. thompson, " he said. "he' s veryinterested in the ' chain' or ' series' type of murder. it' s the productofparticular distorted type of mentality. as a layman one can' t, of course,appreciate the finer points as they present themselves to a medicalpoint of view. " he coughed. "as a matter of fact--my last case--idon' t know whether you read about it--the mabel homer case, themuswell hill schoolgirl, you know--that man capper was extraordinary.

amazingly difficult to pin the crime on to him--it was his third,too! looked as sane as you or i. but there are various tests--verbaltraps, you know--quite modern, of course, there was nothing of thatkind in your day. once you can induce a man to give himself away,you' ve got him! he knows that you know and his nerve goes. he startsgiving himself away right and left. ""even in my day that happened sometimes, " said poirot.

inspector crome looked at him and murmured conversationally: "oh, yes?"there was silence between us for some time. as we passed newcross station, crome said:

"if there' s anything you want to ask me about the case, pray do so. ""you have not, i presume, a description of the dead girl?""she , , vas twenty-three years of age, engaged as a waitress at theoinger cat cafe--", ' pas -a. i wondered--if she were pretty?"

"as to that i' ve no information, " said inspector crome with a hint ofwithdrawal. his manner said: "really--these foreigners! all thesane! '

a final look of amusement came into poirot' s eyes.

"it does not seem to you important, that? yet, pour unefemme, it isof the first importance. often it decides her destiny! "inspector crome fell back on his conversational full stop.

"oh, yes?" he inquired politely.

another silence fell.

it was not until we were nearing sevenoaks that poirot opened theconversation again.

"were you informed, by any chance, how and with what the girl wasstrangled?"inspector crome replied briefly.

"strangled with her own belt--a thick, knitted affair, i gather. "poirot' s eyes opened very wide.

"aha, " he said. "at last we have a piece of information that is verydefinite. that tells one something, does it not?""i haven' t seen it yet, " said inspector crome coldly.

i felt impatient with the man' s caution and lack of imagination.

"it gives us the hall-mark of the murderer, " i said. "the girl' s ownbelt. it shows the particular beastliness of his mind! "poirot shot me a glance i could not fathom. on the face of it it conveyedhumorous impatience. i thought that perhaps it was a warningnot to be too outspoken in front of the inspector.

i relapsed into silence.

at bexhill we were greeted by superintendent carter. he had withhim a pleasant-faced, intelligent-looking young inspector calledkelsey.

the latter was detailed to work in with crome over the case.

"you' ll want to make your own inquiries, crome, " said thesuperintendent.

"so i' ll j ust give you the main heads of the matter and thenyou can get busy right away. ""thank you sir, " said crome.

"we' ve broken the news to her father and mother, " said thesuperintendent.

"terrible shock to them, of course. 1 left them to recover a bitbefore questioning them, so you can start from the beginning there. ""there are other members of the familyyes?" asked poirot.

' ' there' s a sister--a typist in london. she' s been communicated with. and there' s a young man--in fact, she was supposed to be outwith him last night, i gather. ""any help from the a. b. c. guide?" asked crome.

"it' s there, " the superintendent nodded towards the table. "nofingerprints.

open at the page for bexhill. a new copy, i should say--doesn' tseem to have been opened much. not bought anywhere roundhere. i' we tried all the likely stationers! ""who discovered the body, sir?""one of these fresh-air, early-morning old colonels. coloneljerome. he was out with his dog about 6 a. m. went along the front inthe direction of cooden, and down on to the beach. dog went off andsniffed at something. colonel called it. dog didn' t come. colonel hada look and thought something queer was up. went over and lookedbehaved very properly. didn' t touch her at all and rang us up immedi.

ately. "

"and the time of death was round about midnight last night?""between midnight and 1 a. m. --that' s pretty certain. our homicidalj oker is a man of his word. if he says the 25th, it is the 25th--thoughitmay have been only by a few minutes. "

crome nodded.

"yes, that' s his mentality all right. there' s nothing else? nobodysaw anything helpful?""not as far as we know. but it' s early yet. every one who saw a girlin white walking with a man last night will be along to tell us aboutsoon, and as i imagine there were about four or five hundred girls iwhite walking with young men last night, it ought to be a nice business. ' '

"well, sir, i' d better get down to it, " said crome. "there' s the cafand there' s the girl' s home. i' d better go to both of them. kelsey cancome with me. ""and mr. poirot?" asked the superintendent.

"i will accompany you, " said poirot to crome with a little bow.

crome, i thought, looked slightly annoyed. kelsey, who had notseen poirot before, grinned broadly.

it was an unfortunate circumstance that the first time people saw myfriend they were always disposed to consider him as a j oke of the firstwater.

"what about this belt she was strangled with?" asked crome.

poirot is inclined to think it' s a valuable clue. i expect he' d liketo see it. ""du tout, " said poirot quickly. "you misunderstood me. ""you' ll get nothing from that, " said carter. "it wasn' t a leatherbelt--might have got fingerprints if it had been. just a thick so ofknitted silk--ideal for the purpose. "i gave a shiver.

"well, " said crome, "we' d better be getting along. "we set out forthwith.

our first visit was to the ginger cat. situated on the sea front, thiswas the usual type of small tea-room. it had little tables covered withorange-checked cloths and basket-work chairs of exceeding discom-fortwith orange cushions on them. it was the kind of place that spe-cializedin morning coffee, five different kinds of teas (devonshire,farmhouse, fruit, carlton and plain) , and a few sparing lunch dishesforfemales such as scrambled eggs and shrimps and macaroni au gratin.

the morning coffees were j ust getting under way. the manageressushered us hastily into a very untidy back sanctum.

"miss---er--men' ion?" inquired crome.

miss merrion bleated out in a high, distressed gentlewoman voice:

"that is my name. this is a most distressing business. most dis-tressing.

how it will affect our business i really cannot think! "miss men' ion was a very thin woman of forty with wispy orangehair (indeed she was astonishingly like a ginger cat herself) . sheplayed nervously with various fichus and frills that were part of herof-ficialcostume.

"you' ll have a boom, " said inspector kelsey encouragingly. "you' llsee! you won' t be able to serve teas fast enough! ""disgusting, " said miss men' ion. "truly disgusting. it makes onedespair of human nature. "but her eye brightened nevertheless.

"what can you tell me about the dead girl, miss merrion?""nothing, " said miss men' ion positively. "absolutely nothing! ""how long had she been working here?""this was the second summer. "

"you were satisfied with her?"

"she was a good waitress--quick and obliging. ""she was pretty, yes?" inquired poirot.

miss men-ion, in her turn, gave him an "oh, these foreigners" look.

"she was a nice, clean-looking girl, " she said distantly.

"what time did she go off duty last night?" asked crome.

"eight o' clock. we close at eight. we do not serve dinners. there isno demand for them. scrambled eggs and tea [poirot shuddered] peopie come in for up to seven o' clock and sometimes after, but our rushisover by 6: 30. "

"did she mention to you how she proposed to spend her evening?""certainly not, " said miss merrion emphatically. "we were not onthose terms. ""no one came in and called for her? anything like that?""no. ""did she seem quite her ordinary self?. not excited or depressed?""really i could not say, " said miss men' ion aloofly.

"how many waitresses do you employ. 9' '

"two normally, and an extra two after the 20th of july until the endof august. ""but elizabeth barnard was not one of the extras?""miss barnard was one of the regulars. ""what about the other one?"

"miss higley? she is a very nice young lady. ""were she and miss barnard friends?""really i could not say. "

"perhaps we' d better have a word with her. ""now?""if you please. "

"i will send her to you, " said miss merrion, rising. "please keep heras short a time as possible. this is the morning coffee rush hour. "the feline and gingery miss merrion left the room.

"very refined, " remarked inspector kelsey. he mimicked the lady' smincing tone. "really i could not say. "a plump girl, slightly out of breath, with dark hair, rosy cheeks anddark eyes goggling with excitement, bounced in.

"miss men-ion sent me, " she announced breathlessly.

"miss higley?"

"yes, that' s me. "

"you knew elizabeth barnard?"

"oh, yes, i knew betty. isn' t it awful? it' s j ust too awful! i can' tbelieveit' s true. i' ve been saying to the girls all the morning i j ust can : tbelieve it! ' you know, girls, ' i said, ' it j ust doesn' t seem real. '

betty! i

mean, betty barnard, who' s been here all along, murdered! ' i j ust can' tbelieve it, ' i said. five or six times i' ve pinched myself j ust to seeif lwouldn' t wake up. betty murdered . . . it' s--well, you know what lmean--it doesn' t seem real. ""you knew the dead girl well?" asked crome.

"well, she' s worked here longer than i have. i only came this march.

she was here last year. she was rather quiet, if you know what i mean.

she wasn' t one to j oke or laugh a lot. i don' t mean that she was exactlyquiet--she' d plenty of fun in her and all that--but she didn' t--well,she was quiet and she wasn' t quiet, if you know what i mean. "i will say for inspector crome that he was exceedingly patient. as awitness the buxom miss higley was persistently maddening. everystatement she made was repeated and qualified half a dozen times. thenet result was meagre in the extreme.

she had not been on terms of intimacy with the dead gift. elizabethbarnard, it could be guessed, had considered herself a cut above misshigley. she had been friendly in working hours, but the gifts had notseen much of her out of them. elizabeth bamard had had a "friend"-workedin the estate agents near the station. court & brunskill. no, hewasn' t mr. court nor mr. brunskill. he was a clerk there. she didn' tknow his name. but she knew him by sight well. good-looking---oh,very good-looking, and always so nicely dressed. clearly, there wasatinge of j ealousy in miss higley' s bean.

in the end it boiled down to this. elizabeth barnard had not confidedin any one in the caf as to her plans for the evening, but in misshigley' s opinion she had been going to meet her "friend. " she had hadon a new white dress, "ever so sweet with one of the new necks. "we had a word with each of the other two girls but with no furtherresults. betty barnard had not said anything as to her plans and noonehad noticed her in bexhill during the course of the evening.