Elephants Can Remember hp-39

by Agatha Christie

  "Is that significant in any way?" asked Celia. "She might have been wearing any of them."

  "She might. I also learned the housekeeper told the police that she had been wearing that particular wig almost all the time for the last few weeks before she died. It appeared to be her favorite one."

  "I can't see-"

  "There was also a saying that Superintendent Garroway quoted to me, 'Same man-different hat.' It gave me furiously to think."

  Celia repeated, "I don't see-"

  Poirot said, "There was also the evidence of the dog-"

  "The dog-what did the dog do?"

  "The dog bit her. The dog was said to be devoted to its mistress, but in the last few weeks of her life, the dog turned on her more than once and bit her quite severely."

  "Do you mean it knew she was going to commit suicide?" Desmond stared.

  "No, something much simpler than that-"

  "I don't-"

  Poirot went on "No, it knew what no one else seemed to know. It knew she was not its mistress. She looked like its mistress. The housekeeper who was slightly blind and also deaf saw a woman who wore Molly Ravenscroft's clothes and the most recognizable of Molly Ravenscroft's wigs-the one with little curls all over the head. The housekeeper said only that her mistress had been rather different in her manner the last few weeks of her life. 'Same man-different hat,' had been Garroway's phrase. And the thought-the conviction- came to me then. Same wig-different woman. The dog knew-he knew by what his nose told him. A different woman, not the woman he loved-a woman whom he disliked and feared. And I thought, suppose that woman was not Molly Ravenscroft-but who could she be? Could she be Dolly-the twin sister?"

  "But that's impossible," said Celia.

  "No, it was not impossible. After all, remember, they were twins. I must come now to the things that were brought to my notice by Mrs. Oliver. The things people told her or suggested to her. The knowledge that Lady Ravenscroft had recently been in hospital or in a nursing home and that she perhaps had known that she suffered from cancer, or thought that she did. Medical evidence was against that, however. She still might have thought she did, but it was not the case. Then I learned little by little the early history of her and her twin sister, who loved each other very devotedly as twins do, did everything alike, wore clothes alike, the same things seemed to happen to them, they had illnesses at the same time, they married about the same time or not very far removed in time.

  And eventually, as many twins do, instead of wanting to do everything in the same fashion and the same way, they wanted to do the opposite. To be as unlike each other as they could.

  And even between them grew a certain amount of dislike.

  More than that. There was a reason in the past for that.

  Alistair Ravenscroft as a young man fell in love with Dorothea Preston-Grey, the elder twin of the two. But his affection shifted to the other sister, Margaret, whom he married.

  There was jealousy then, no doubt, which led to an estrangement between the sisters. Margaret continued to be deeply attached to her twin, but Dorothea no longer was devoted in any way to Margaret. That seemed to me to be the explanation of a great many things. Dorothea was a tragic figure. By no fault of her own but by some accident of genes, of birth, of hereditary characteristics, she was always mentally unstable.

  At quite an early age she had, for some reason which has never been made clear, a dislike of children. There is every reason to believe that a child came to its death through her action. The evidence was not definite, but it was definite enough for a doctor to advise that she should have mental treatment, and she was for some years treated in a mental home. When reported cured by doctors, she resumed normal life, came often to stay with her sister and went out to India, at a time when they were stationed out there, to join them there. And there, again, an accident happened. A child of a neighbor.

  And again, although perhaps there was no very definite proof, it seems again Dorothea might have been responsible for it.

  General Ravenscroft took her home to England and she was placed once more in medical care. Once again she appeared to be cured, and after psychiatric care it was again said that she could go once more and resume a normal life. Margaret believed this time that all would be well, and thought that she ought to live with them so that they could watch closely for any signs of any further mental disability. I don't think that General Ravenscroft approved. I think he had a very strong belief that just as someone can be born deformed, spastic or crippled in some way, she had a deformity of the brain which would recur from time to time and that she would have to be constantly watched and saved from herself in case some other tragedy happened."

  "Are you saying," asked Desmond, "that it was she who shot both the Ravenscrofts?"

  "No," said Poirot, "that is not my solution. I think what happened was that Dorothea killed her sister, Margaret. They walked together on the cliff one day and Dorothea pushed Margaret over. The dormant obsession of hatred and resentment of the sister who though so like herself, was sane and healthy, was too much for her. Hate, jealousy, the desire to kill all rose to the surface and dominated her. I think that there was one outsider who knew, who was here at the time that this happened. I think you knew. Mademoiselle Zelle."

  "Yes," said Zelle Meauhourat, "I knew. I was here at the time. The Ravenscrofts had been worried about her. That is when they saw her attempt to injure their small son, Edward.

  Edward was sent back to school and I and Celia went to my pensionnat. I came back here-after seeing Celia settled in.

  Once the house was empty except for myself, General Ravenscroft and Dorothea and Margaret, nobody had any anxiety. And then one day it happened. The two sisters went out together. Dolly returned alone. She seemed in a very queer and nervous state. She came in and sat down at the tea table. It was then General Ravenscroft noticed that her right hand was covered with blood. He asked her if she had had a fall. She said, 'Oh, no, it was nothing. Nothing at all. I got scratched by a rosebush.' But there were no rosebushes on the Downs. It was a purely foolish remark and we were worried.

  If she had said a gorse bush, we might have accepted the remark. General Ravenscroft went out and I went after him.

  He kept saying as he walked, 'Something has happened to Margaret. I'm sure something has happened to Molly.' We found her on a ledge a little way down the cliff. She had been battered with a rock and stones. She was not dead, but she had bled heavily. For a moment we hardly knew what we could do. We dared not move her. We must get a doctor, we felt, at once, but before we could do that, she clung to her husband. She said, gasping for breath, 'Yes, it was Dolly. She didn't know what she was doing. She didn't know, Alistair.

  You mustn't let her suffer for it. She's never known the things she does or why. She can't help it. She's never been able to help it. You must promise me, Alistair. I think I'm dying now. No-no, we won't have time to get a doctor and a doctor couldn't do anything. I've been lying here bleeding to death-and I'm very close to death. I know that, but promise me. Promise me you'll save her. Promise me you won't let the police arrest her. Promise me that she'll not be tried for killing me, not shut up for life as a criminal. Hide me somewhere so that my body won't be found. Please, please, it's the last thing I ask you. You whom I love more than anything in the world. If I could live for you I would, but I'm not going to live. I can feel that. I crawled a little way, but that was all I could do. Promise me. And you, Zelle, you love me, too. I know. You've loved me and been good to me and looked after me always. And you loved the children, so you must save Dolly. You must save poor Dolly. Please, please. For all the love we have for each other, Dolly must be saved.' "

  "And then," said Poirot, "what did you do? It seems to me that you must in some way between you-"

  "Yes. She died, you know. She died within about ten minutes of those last words, and I helped him. I helped him to hide her body. It was a place a little farther along the cliff.

  We carried her there and
there were rocks and boulders and stones, and we covered her body as best we could. There was no path to it, really, or no way. You had to scramble. We put her there. All Alistair said again and again' was-'I promised her. I must keep my word. I don't know how to do it. I don't know how anyone can save her. I don't know. But-' Well, we did do it. Dolly was in the house. She was frightened, desperate with fright, but at the same time she showed a horrible kind of satisfaction. She said, 'I always knew. I've known for years that Molly was really evil. She took you away from me, Alistair. You belonged to me-but she took you away from me and made you marry her and I always knew one day I should get even with her. I always knew. Now I'm frightened. What'll they do to me-what'll they say? I can't be shut up again. I can't, I can't. I shall go mad. You won't let me be shut up.

  They'll take me away and they'll say I'm guilty of murder. It wasn't murder. I just had to do it. Sometimes I do have to do things. I wanted to see the blood, you know. I couldn't wait to see Molly die, though. I ran away. But I knew she would die. I just hoped you wouldn't find her. She just fell over the cliff.

  People would say it was an accident.' "

  "It's a horrible story," said Desmond.

  "Yes," said Celia, "it's a horrible story, but it's better to know. It's better to know, isn't it? I can't even feel sorry for her. I mean for my mother. I know she was sweet. I know there was never any trace of evil in her-she was good all through-and I know, I can understand, why my father didn't want to marry Dolly. He wanted to marry my mother because he loved her and he had found out by then that there was something wrong with Dolly. Something bad and twisted. But how-how did you do it all?"

  "We told a good many lies," said Zelle. "We hoped the body would not be found so that later perhaps it might be removed in the night or something like that to somewhere where it could look as though she'd fallen down into the sea. But then we thought of the sleep-walking story. What we had to do was really quite simple. Alistair said, 'It's frightening, you know.

  But I promised-I swore to Molly when she was dying. I swore I'd do as she asked. There's a way, a possible way to save Dolly, if only Dolly can do her part. I don't know if she's capable of it.' I said, 'Do what?' And Alistair said, 'Pretend she's Molly and that it's Dorothea who walked in her sleep and fell to her death.' "We managed it. Took Dolly to an empty cottage we knew of and I stayed with her there for some days. Alistair said Molly had been taken to hospital suffering from shock after the discovery that her sister had fallen over the cliff while walking in her sleep at night. Then we brought Dolly back- brought her back as Molly-wearing Molly's clothes and Molly's wig. I got extra wigs-the kind with curls, which really did disguise her. The dear old housekeeper, Janet, couldn't see very well. Dolly and Molly were really very much alike, you know, and their voices were alike. Everyone accepted quite easily that it was Molly, behaving rather peculiarly now and then because of still suffering from shock. It all seemed quite natural. That was the horrible part of it-"

  "But how could she keep it up?" asked Celia. "It must have been dreadfully difficult."

  "No-she did not find it difficult. She had got, you see, what she wanted-what she had always wanted. She had got Alistair-"

  "But Alistair-how could he bear it?"

  "He told me why and how-on the day he had arranged for me to go back to Switzerland. He told me what I had to do and then he told me what he was going to do.

  "He said: "There is only one thing for me to do. I promised Margaret that I wouldn't hand Dolly over to the police, that it should never be known that she was a murderess, that the children were never to know that they had a murderess for an aunt. No one need ever know that Dolly committed murder.

  She walked in her sleep and fell over the cliff-a sad accident and she will be buried here in the church, and under her own name.' " 'How can you let that be done?' I asked. I couldn't bear it.

  "He said: 'Because of what I am going to do-you have got to know about it.' " 'You see,' he said, 'Dolly has to be stopped from living. If she's near children, she'll take more lives-poor soul; she's not fit to live. But you must understand, Zelle, that because of what I am going to do, I must pay with my own life, too. I shall live here quietly for a few weeks with Dolly playing the part of my wife-and then there will be another tragedy-' "I didn't understand what he meant. I said, 'Another accident? Sleepwalking again?' And he said, 'No-what will be known to the world is that I and Molly have both committed suicide. I don't suppose the reason will ever be known.

  They may think it's because she was convinced she had cancer-or that I thought so-all sorts of things may be suggested. But you see-you must help me, Zelle. You are the only person who really loves me and loves Molly and loves the children. If Dolly has got to die, I am the only person who must do it. She won't be unhappy or frightened. I shall shoot her and then myself. Her fingerprints will show on the revolver because she handled it not long ago, and mine will be there too. Justice has to be done and I have to be the executioner. The thing I want you to know is that I did-that I still do-love them both. Molly more than my life. Dolly because I pity her so much for what she was born to be.' He said, 'Always remember that-' " Zelle rose and came towards Celia. "Now you know the truth," she said. "I promised your father that you should never know.

  I have broken my word. I never meant to reveal it to you or to anyone else. Monsieur Poirot made me feel differently. But- it's such a horrible story-"

  "I understand how you felt," said Celia. "Perhaps you were right from your point of view, but I-I am glad to know, because now a great burden seems to have been lifted off me-"

  "Because now," said Desmond, "we both know. And it's something we'll never mind about knowing. It was a tragedy.

  As Monsieur Poirot here has said, it was a real tragedy of two people who loved each other. But they didn't kill each other, because they loved each other. One was murdered and the other executed a murderer for the sake of humanity so that more children shouldn't suffer. One can forgive him if he was wrong, but I don't think it was wrong, really."

  "She was a frightening woman always," said Celia. "Even when I was a child I was frightened of her, but I didn't know why. But I do know why now. I think my father was a brave man to do what he did. He did what my mother asked him to do, begged him to do with her dying breath. He saved her twin sister, whom I think she'd always loved very dearly. I like to think-oh, it seems a silly thing for me to say-" she looked doubtfully at Hercule Poirot. "Perhaps you won't think so. I expect you're a Catholic, but it's what's written on their tombstone. 'In death they were not divided.' It doesn't mean that they died together, but I think they are together. I think they came together afterwards. Two people who loved each other very much, and my poor aunt whom I'll try to feel more kindly about than I ever did-my poor aunt didn't have to suffer for what she couldn't perhaps help herself doing. Mind you," said Celia, suddenly breaking into her ordinary everyday voice, "she wasn't a nice person. You can't help not liking people if they're not nice people. Perhaps she could have been different if she tried, but perhaps she couldn't. And if so, one has to think of her as someone who was very ill-like somebody, for instance, who had plague in a village and they wouldn't let her go out or feed her and she couldn't go among other people because the whole village would have died. Something like that. But I'll try and be sorry for her. And my mother and father-I don't worry about them any more. They loved each other so much, and loved poor, unhappy, hating Dolly."

  "I think, Celia," said Desmond, "we'd better get married now as soon as possible. I can tell you one thing. My mother is never going to hear anything about this. She's not my own mother and she's not a person I can trust with this sort of secret."

  "Your adopted mother, Desmond," said Poirot, "I have good reason to believe was anxious to come between you and Celia and tried to influence you in the idea that from her mother and father she might have inherited some terrible characteristic. But you know, or you may not know and I see no reason why I should not tell y
ou, you will inherit from the woman who was your real mother and who died not very long ago leaving all her money to you. You will inherit a very large sum when you reach the age of twenty-five."

  "If I marry Celia, of course we shall need the money to live on," said Desmond. "I quite understand, I know my present adopted mother is very keen on money and I often lend her money even now. She suggested my seeing a lawyer the other day because she said it was very dangerous now that: I was over twenty-one, not leaving a will behind me. I suppose she thought she'd get the money. I had thought of probably leaving nearly all the money to her. But of course now Celia and I are getting married I shall leave it to Celia-and I didn't like the way my mother tried to put me against Celia."

  "I think your suspicions are entirely correct," said Poirot. "I dare say she could tell herself that she meant it all for the best, that Celia's origin is something that you ought to know if there is a risk for you to take, but-"

  "All right," said Desmond, "but-I know I'm being unkind. After all, she adopted me and brought me up and all the rest of it, and I dare say if there's enough money I can settle some of it on her. Celia and I will have the rest and we're going to be happy together. After all, there are things that'll make us feel sad from time to time, but we shan't worry any more, shall we, Celia?"

  "No," said Celia, "we'll never worry again. I think they were rather splendid people, my mother and father. Mother tried to look after her sister all her life, but I suppose if was a bit too hopeless. You can't stop people from being like they are."

  "Ah, dear children," said Zelle. "Forgive me for calling you children, because you are not. You are a grown man and woman.

  I know that. I am so pleased to have seen you again and to know I have not done any harm in what I did."

  "You haven't done any harm at all and it's lovely seeing you, dear Zelle." Celia went to her and hugged her. "I've always been terribly fond of you," she said.

  "And I was very fond of you, too, when I knew you," said Desmond. "When I lived next door. You had lovely games you played with us." The two young people turned.