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The Mystery of Three Quarters: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery
Agatha Christie
Sophie Hannah
The world’s most beloved detective, Hercule Poirot – the legendary star of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and most recently The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket—returns in a stylish, diabolically clever mystery set in 1930’s London.Returning home after lunch one day, Hercule Poirot finds an angry woman waiting outside his front door. She demands to know why Poirot has sent her a letter accusing her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy, a man she has neither heard of nor ever met.Poirot has also never heard of a Barnabas Pandy, and has accused nobody of murder. Shaken, he goes inside, only to find that he has a visitor waiting for him — a man who also claims also to have received a letter from Poirot that morning, accusing him of the murder of Barnabas Pandy…Poirot wonders how many more letters of this sort have been sent in his name. Who sent them, and why? More importantly, who is Barnabas Pandy, is he dead, and, if so, was he murdered? And can Poirot find out the answers without putting more lives in danger?
The Mystery of Three Quarters
THE NEW HERCULE POIROT MYSTERY
SOPHIE HANNAH
Copyright (#ucdf2df14-580f-5e2e-a523-a4951138fd47)
HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
The Mystery of Three Quarters™ is a trade mark of Agatha Christie Limited, the Agatha Christie Monogram Logo and the Poirot Icon are trade marks and Agatha Christie®, Poirot® and the Agatha Christie Signature are registered trade marks of Agatha Christie Limited in the UK and elsewhere.
Copyright © Agatha Christie Limited 2018
All rights reserved.
www.agathachristie.com (http://www.agathachristie.com)
Sophie Hannah asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Cover design by Holly Macdonald © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Cover illustrations © Shutterstock.com
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008264451
Ebook Edition © August 2018 ISBN: 9780008264475
Version: 2018-09-21
Dedication (#ucdf2df14-580f-5e2e-a523-a4951138fd47)
For Faith Tilleray,
who has gone above and beyond,
and taught me so much
Table of Contents
Cover (#uaab7741a-c2ec-5a27-ad1e-243fca75eba4)
Title Page (#u5e90aa45-2d8e-58a2-a7f5-7b23cab361d9)
Copyright (#u9cd8629b-072e-5502-a39d-972a074d089f)
Dedication (#u1bcf5ac3-96cb-5495-be83-c0c3057588f2)
The First Quarter (#u03d715af-4c9c-51db-8de8-9a6ebda2df17)
Chapter 1: Poirot is Accused (#u38900c4c-1f5a-57c3-a97a-3fe6ef3054df)
Chapter 2: Intolerable Provocation (#u8997ba4a-6f35-5ba3-89c0-36f199e6d60f)
Chapter 3: The Third Person (#u138da9f4-b672-5daf-ad43-5f2f3b7a8beb)
Chapter 4: The Odd One Out? (#u2333038e-38a6-58ce-ab5c-6087c51d9ebc)
Chapter 5: A Letter with a Hole in it (#u28871c9d-81f8-5bfe-af2e-0c0f057333b1)
Chapter 6: Rowland Rope (#ufffa86fa-4b3d-5cbc-aa34-f54d882dc210)
Chapter 7: An Old Enemy (#u538828c3-65ac-5f9d-afa8-6318fe805774)
Chapter 8: Poirot Issues Some Instructions (#u27a7b685-d9c2-589d-8c47-1d1a033adc27)
Chapter 9: Four Alibis (#u5cf16cd0-5826-5a46-822e-8bd08d56f74e)
The Second Quarter (#u33e1842f-310d-5c4a-a77e-3fc079300c67)
Chapter 10: Some Important Questions (#u71bc4232-1b32-5647-bea7-71dfa38608a5)
Chapter 11: Emerald Green (#ub9555653-b18c-5471-be7f-4cb3c6a6c72f)
Chapter 12: Many Ruined Alibis (#u253cbf5d-8beb-5f56-bd42-6667c98e659f)
Chapter 13: The Hooks (#u576cdf80-60d9-5de6-bee2-dd065b0b0253)
Chapter 14: At Combingham Hall (#u73568194-f362-5d8b-98d2-13f474792edb)
Chapter 15: The Scene of the Possible Crime (#uf9b0b39b-531f-5ca7-ac0d-81b85afa1d64)
Chapter 16: The Opportunity Man (#uc78853a4-cdce-5c83-b397-1e1a8c7ef279)
Chapter 17: Poirot’s Trick (#u93270566-c5b9-567a-93e3-8f12960b769a)
Chapter 18: Mrs Dockerill’s Discovery (#u24b1d898-af3a-5c15-873c-6fc2d1e23904)
Chapter 19: Four More Letters (#ua2bbdd12-46eb-5c6e-8aba-4160da73f5fe)
The Third Quarter (#u171e2ad2-2c4f-5582-bbad-7d6cf1dbfb26)
Chapter 20: The Letters Arrive (#uacb6f847-ebc0-5f58-9807-5746ee312441)
Chapter 21: The Day of the Typewriters (#u864a41b2-051b-5779-8535-c0f0a0e17040)
Chapter 22: The Solitary Yellow Square of Cake (#u5e62997b-69c1-57c6-b686-37049ea4b65f)
Chapter 23: Meaning Harm (#uee07cf30-9eb4-567b-98f7-e5692d12b523)
Chapter 24: Ancient Enmities (#u532b4de4-eab7-55f3-9335-487f119423d7)
Chapter 25: Poirot Returns to Combingham Hall (#u9d165441-e946-5c1d-bb13-c58872863ace)
Chapter 26: The Typewriter Experiment (#ua65c0482-fb5d-5fcd-980f-8f9ed51f1afd)
Chapter 27: The Bracelet and the Fan (#ua51da542-a1fb-5b73-9f06-c7e99eb71e54)
Chapter 28: An Unconvincing Confession (#uab1f36e7-0caf-57cb-9c30-0d0ffd9e86fa)
Chapter 29: An Unexpected Eel (#u060d4c11-2db9-5d80-bfcf-7768563ed45b)
Chapter 30: The Mystery of Three Quarters (#u26cb9830-430d-5f51-bf8b-f4567ec617d3)
The Fourth Quarter (#u54aff02a-a3e2-5870-80f2-07e355bbbba7)
Chapter 31: A Note for Mr Porrott (#ubc926ae6-3efd-5829-810d-7003bc52e262)
Chapter 32: Where Is Kingsbury? (#u77e18ebb-5b3f-5da1-aa6c-3791dca80055)
Chapter 33: The Marks on the Towel (#ufc146cea-6230-5448-958d-cc674890d117)
Chapter 34: Rebecca Grace (#ua0103217-e197-5c2b-97cb-02e58444a692)
Chapter 35: Family Loyalty (#u01ea8ec9-99e3-55d4-879c-82a9f824b8aa)
Chapter 36: The True Culprit (#u8bd3c9f4-3fe7-57c3-bd55-7f014f9e25e5)
Chapter 37: The Will (#u8623be05-631f-5308-8812-0d55d59757f1)
Chapter 38: Rowland Without a Rope (#ufe41338e-2cb6-58b7-ae68-bdf5f6fbc0d4)
Chapter 39: A New Typewriter (#u12db9379-9eae-5663-a93a-871b83b2b094)
Acknowledgements (#u4d7c721d-5186-5d14-b259-bb474910ffbb)
Keep Reading … (#u79b263c2-270b-59b6-9007-2be51d2ef13d)
About the Authors (#ufe64bfee-8aa3-5bdf-bfce-f0e4845a77dd)
Also by Sophie Hannah (#ud5cf131c-c8bf-5dad-be95-ac20cbbf9621)
About the Publisher (#uc5786700-3516-54fc-8903-858f852012f8)
THE FIRST QUARTER (#ucdf2df14-580f-5e2e-a523-a4951138fd47)
CHAPTER 1 (#ucdf2df14-580f-5e2e-a523-a4951138fd47)
Poirot is Accused (#ucdf2df14-580f-5e2e-a523-a4951138fd47)
Hercule Poirot smiled to himself as his driver brought the motorcar to a stop with satisfying symmetry. As a lover of neatness and order, Poirot appreciated such perfect alignment with the entrance doors of Whitehaven Mansions where he lived. One could draw a straight line from the middle of the vehicle to the exact point where the doors met.
The luncheon from which he was returning had been très bon divertissement: the most excellent of food and company. He alighted, bestowed a warm thank-you upon his driver, and was about to go inside when he had a peculiar feeling that (this was how he put it to himself) something behind him was in need of his attention.
He expected, on turning, to observe nothing out of the ordinary. It was a mild day for February, but perhaps a light breeze had put a tremor in the air around him.
Poirot soon saw that the disturbance had not been caused by the weather, though the well-turned-out woman approaching at a great pace did, in spite of her fashionable pale blue coat and hat, resemble a force of nature. ‘She is the whirlwind most fierce,’ Poirot murmured to himself.
He disliked the hat. He had seen women in town wearing similar ones: minimal, without ornament, fitted close to the scalp like bathing caps made of cloth. A hat ought to have a brim or some manner of embellishment, thought Poirot. At least, it should do something more than cover the head. No doubt he would soon get used to these modern hats—and then, once he had, the fashion would change as it always did.
The blue-clad woman’s lips twitched and curled, though no sound came from her. It was as if she was rehearsing what she would say when she finally reached Poirot’s side. There was no doubt that he was her target. She looked determined to do something unpleasant to him as soon as she was close enough. He took a step back as she marched towards him in what he could only think of as a stampede—one consisting of nothing and nobody but herself.
Her hair was dark brown and lustrous. When she came to an abrupt halt directly in front of him, Poirot saw that she was not as young as she had looked from a distance. No, this woman was more than fifty years old. She was perhaps sixty. A lady in her middle age, expert at concealing the lines on her face. Her eyes were a striking blue, neither light nor dark.
‘You are Hercule Poirot, are you not?’ she said in the loudest of whispers. Poirot noted that she wished to convey anger but without being overheard, though there was nobody nearby.
‘Oui, madame. I am he.’
‘How dare you? How dare you send me such a letter?’
‘Madame, pardon me, but I do not believe we know one another.’
‘Don’t act the part of the innocent with me! I am Sylvia Rule. As you know perfectly well.’
‘Now I know, because you have told me. A moment ago, I did not know. You referred to a letter—’
‘Will you force me to repeat your slander of me in a public place? Very well, then, I shall. I received a letter this morning—a most disgusting and objectionable letter, signed by you.’ She stabbed the air with a forefinger that would have poked Poirot in the chest had he not hopped to one side to avoid it.
‘Non, madame—’ he tried to protest, but his attempt at denial was swiftly demolished.
