Chapter 7 The Secretary
We had not seen the last of Japp. He reappeared about an hour later, flung down his hat on the table and said he was eternally blasted.
‘You have made the inquiries¹?’ asked Poirot sympathetically.
Japp nodded gloomily.
‘And unless fourteen people are lying, she didn’t do it,’ he growled².
He went on:
‘I don’t mind telling you, M. Poirot, that I expected to find a put-up job. On the face of it, it didn’t seem likely that anyone else could have killed Lord Edgware. She’s the only person who’s got the ghost of a motive³.’
‘I would not say that. Mais continuez.’
‘Well, as I say, I expected to find a put-up job. You know what these theatrical⁴ crowds are – they’d all hang together to screen a pal⁵. But this is rather a different proposition. The people there last night were all big guns, they were none of them close friends of hers and some of them didn’t know each other. Their testimony⁶ is independent and reliable. I hoped then to find that she’d slipped away for half an hour or so. She could easily have done that – powdering her nose or some such excuse. But no, she did leave the dinner table as she told us to answer a telephone call, but the butler was with her – and, by the way, it was just as she told us. He heard what she said. “Yes, quite right. This is Lady Edgware.” And then the other side rang off. It’s curious, that, you know. Not that it’s got anything to do with it.’
‘Perhaps not – but it is interesting. Was it a man or a woman who rang up?’
‘A woman, I think she said.’
‘Curious,’ said Poirot thoughtfully.
‘Never mind that,’ said Japp impatiently. ‘Let’s get back to the important part. The whole evening went exactly as she said. She got there at a quarter to nine, left at half-past eleven and got back here at a quarter to twelve. I’ve seen the

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