It starts with Poirot being summoned by Mrs Oliver with urgency. He hurries of course, only to find that all is perfectly fine. At least for now, she says she needs his help because something’s going to happen. She’s been ‘working’ in Devon for a rich family’s murder-hunt-party, but now she’s afraid that someone will be killed for real: “I feel certain someone is going to die”.
It’s the house of George Stubbs and his “outrageously beautiful” wife, or so she says... before adding “but dumb as a fish”, or so she thinks. The big house was once property of Mrs Folliat, now leaving in a small dependance or something. Hattie Stubbs had being taken in by Mrs Folliat when she was little. Mrs Folliat says that she was a widow and had lost two sons in the war, and was glad to have her around. Hattie had no money though so they were fortunate when George Stubbs came along and married her, George who is “fundamentally decent”, she says. She also says that Hattie is “not entirely capable” mentally, but the maid says “she knows exactly what she’s doing”.
They meet the architect Michael Weylan who says Stubbs has no taste at all, as can be seen by the folly in the woods. (I was amazed to find out that folly is a technical term for “a building constructed primarily for decoration”, or so wiki says, and I find it amazing because folly is so similar to follia, Italian for madness, which is rather appropriate in this story).
Sally had to play the victim but someone decided she should be a fortune-teller. Her husband Alec keeps talking about his extremist political views on how to kill everyone. Marlene Tucker, 14 years old, took Sally’s place as the victim, and she died for real. Also, Hattie disappears, and George makes such a fuss that detective inspector Bland sort of ends up looking for her murderer instead of Marlene’s. Poirot feels responsible, he was there, knew something might happen, but could not prevent it. In his own words, he failed, he’s an imbecile...
The police arrest Etienne DeSousa, Hattie’s cousin. She had made a fuss that she didn’t want to see him because he’s a bad person, and George stresses that since he arrived hell broke loose, so the police arrest him, basically because he’s a stranger, a foreigner. Poirot is sure that the jury will take one look at him and convict him, and that’s the People who went around saying how civilized they were. Poirot is sure DeSousa didn’t do it, and keeps investigating. He sees Alec crying because Sally left him for Michael, and it’s a funny scene when Poirot all angry tells him that his political ideas made it impossible to live with him and that if only he had told her how fe felt, how lonely and desperate, she’d never have left him, so he tells him to run to her, tell her everything and beg her to come back. Poirot is adorably funny here, love it!
Poirot then speaks hard to M.me Folliat because he thinks she knows everything, but she replies she only has suspicions, and says nothing. Next Poirot learns that the old man with the boat had died, presumably a drunk accident. He talks to his granddaughter, who is also Marlene’s sister, although she didn’t seem much affected by the two deaths in her family, and she tells him that Marlene had bought make up and stuff, that she got her money from people in the woods to whom she promised not to tell things. “At last, Poirot, he begins to see”. Now he knows, and he goes to the police and then to M.me Folliat, and tells her his story: her son James didn’t die, only faked his death, and he came back one day, wanted by the police of several countries, so she helped him. He was now George Stubbs, and she married him to her Hattie who was worth a fortune but was also mentally retarded or something, like a child they say. Problem was, he had already married an Italian girl, from Trieste I think he said, so he killed Hattie and had his first wife play her part ever since. Some weeks ago Hattie’s cousin had written announcing his visit, and they worried he would see she wasn’t Hattie. Also, the old man had recognized him as James and he had told Marlene who asked him money.
Fake Hattie has been playing a double part for days, sneaking out during the night to go back to the youth hostel as a young traveller. So that day of the party she changed into her tourist clothes and went to kill Marlene, and has been playing the tourist part ever since, who knows where she’s gone.
George also killed the old man, of course.
Poirot allows her a few moments alone with her son without consulting Bland, and while the policemen destroy the folly to retrieve the real Hattie’s body hid underneath, we hear two gunshots. The policemen run to the house but Poirot doesn’t, he’s not surprised, he simply looks at Mrs Oliver and says “Bon”.
George.Sean Pertwee
Mrs Folliat-Sinéad Cusack, liked her
Hattie- Stephanie Leonidas
Sally-Emma Hamilton
Etienne-Elliott Barnes-Worrell
Det-insp Bland-Tom Ellis
Gertie Tucker-Angel Witney
ITA la sagra del delitto
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