inspector. “And yet he’s well known down here, and you’d think somebody would

have noticed him. There’s no news from Liverpool either.”

 

“You think he went to Liverpool?” queried Poirot.

 

“Well, it’s on the cards. That telephone message from the station, just three

minutes before the Liverpool express left—there ought to be something in that.”

 

“Unless it was deliberately intended to throw you off the scent. That might just

possibly be the point of the telephone message.”

 

“That’s an idea,” said the inspector eagerly. “Do you really think that’s the

explanation of the telephone call?”

 

“My friend,” said Poirot gravely, “I do not know. But I will tell you this: I

believe that when we find the explanation of that telephone call we shall find

the explanation of the murder.”

 

“You said something like that before, I remember,” I observed, looking at him

curiously.

 

Poirot nodded.

 

“I always come back to it,” he said seriously.