Summary “Riddle of Sittaord”
England, early thirties. Hercule Poirot with his old friend and assistant captain Hastings come to the seaside resort of Saint-Loup in the south of England. Near the hotel “Majestic”, in which they stopped, they meet a young girl, Nick Buckley. In conversation for a cocktail it turns out that she is the proprietress of a house standing on the edge of Endhouse. Nick Buckley said that she had avoided death three times in three days.
In a simple felt hat, Nick, forgotten at the table of random acquaintances, turns out to be a round hole with even edges – an obvious trace of a bullet. Poirot attributes the hat to a girl dining with friends – the reckless captain Challenger, blond-haired handsome Jim Lazarus, an antique dealer, and the “tired Madonna” blond Frederic Rice. Poirot negotiates with Nick about his visit to Endhouse.
Intrigued Nick takes Poirot and Hastings. Endhouse turns out to be a morose, old, repair-requiring home. Poirot shows
At the end of the conversation, learning that she was being fired from the Mauser, Nick is looking for a weapon that she inherited from her father, but does not find it. It makes her take Poirot’s warnings seriously. At the request of the detective, Nick talks about his immediate surroundings. In addition to friends, this is the servant Ellen, her husband, the gardener, their child and the couple Crofts from Australia, to whom she rents an outbuilding. Nick also has a cousin Charles Weiss, a local lawyer.
Following Poirot’s advice, Nick telegrams from Yorkshire
In the evening at the hotel, while dancing, Poirot tells Frederic that Nick was shot. Fredley, who believed that her friend was inventing all her accidents, was shocked. Poirot and Hastings meet Croft and, at his request, go into the wing to get acquainted with his wife, confined to bed after the railway accident. Crofts are unusually (even too) affable and too intrusively emphasize their “Australianism”.
Nick goes to the hotel to Poirot to show a telegram informing about the arrival of Cousin Maggie. She looks alive, but under her eyes are dark circles. It can be seen that she is anxious. Poirot suggests that the girl worries not only because of the attempts on her. Nick invites Poirot and Hastings to Endhouse to watch fireworks.
At Endhouse, guests are gathered: Freddie, Lazarus, Poirot and Hastings. Here and recently arrived cousin Nick, Maggie, – in an old black evening dress, without makeup. She genuinely wondered who needed to encroach on the life of Nick.
Appears herself a mistress – in a black dress just received from a tailor, with a bright red Chinese shawl thrown over her shoulders. Behind the cocktails, it comes to Michael Seton, a brave pilot who alone performed a round-the-world flight on an amphibian “Albatross” and disappeared a few days ago. Hope that he is alive, almost no more. It turns out that Nick and Freddie were familiar with it.
Nick leaves to talk on the phone and is long absent. Appearing again, she calls everyone to watch the fireworks. The spectacle is magnificent, but a piercing wind blows from the sea. Poirot, afraid of catching cold, decides to return to the house. Hastings follows him. Not far from the house they see a body stretched out on the ground in a bright red shawl. Poirot blames himself for this death. Nick appears in the doorway and cheers cousin gaily. Poirot turns the body over – the victim is Maggie Buckley. She died instead of Nick – that, having gone behind the jacket to the house, left her his shawl. Nick is shocked. She is put in a private hospital. To protect Nick from possible attacks, doctors at the request of Poirot forbid visits with her.
Poirot analyzes the situation. He writes a list of all “actors” and considers the motives and suspicious circumstances associated with each of them. Hastings falls asleep in fatigue in the armchair, and the last thing he sees is Poirot, throwing crumpled sheets into the wastebasket.
When Hastings wakes up, Poirot sits in the same place, but his eyes are cast in cat luster – this is a sure sign that Poirot guessed something important. And in fact, the detective had unraveled the mystery of Nick, and the visit to the clinic confirmed his conjecture.
Nick was engaged to the deceased pilot, Michael Seton. The engagement was kept secret because of Uncle Michael, the old Sir Matthew, a rich man, an eccentric and a misogynist. Michael’s successful flight would force Sir Matthew to fulfill any desire of his nephew, including to agree to a marriage. But during Michael’s flight, his uncle had an operation, and he soon died. Before leaving, Poirot asks Nick for permission to look for her will, and she allows him to “inspect anything.”
In Endhouse, Poirot converses with the maid Ellen, who mentions the existence of a hiding place in the house, and also reports that before the tragedy, she was overcome by misgivings. From the found letter of the detective Freddie Rice, it becomes clear that she uses drugs (Poirot already guessed this by changing her moods and strange detachment).
In the dresser, the detective finds Michael’s letters. The letters here are clearly not all. From the last letter it becomes clear that Michael, not bothering himself with formalities, wrote a testament on a piece of paper, leaving all his property to the bride.
Poirot and Hastings return to the hospital. Nick denies the existence of a hiding place. But he remembers that Croft, who had told her to make a will, himself volunteered to omit the letter. So Charles must have a will. But he is not in the lawyer’s office.
Kroft swears that he omitted the letter, and his wife shows a touching concern about Nick. But this does not stop Poirot tearing away a scrap of newspaper, on which there remained a fat trace of Croft’s thumb and index finger.
Her parents come to pick up the body. They are charming, simple-minded old people, dejected with grief and full of sympathy for Nick.
From a conversation with a lawyer of the Seton family, Mr. Whitfield, Poirot, it becomes clear that Nick must receive a huge amount. Poirot and Hastings return to St. Louis. Calling the hospital, the detective learns that Nick is dangerously ill. She has cocaine poisoning. She ate a chocolate candy, stuffed with drugs. Nick violated the prohibition of Poirot not to touch the sent food, because to the box was attached a card “With greetings from Hercule Poirot” (exactly this he sent Nick with a bouquet of carnations). Cocaine in sweets puts under suspicion Frederick Rice. In addition, in the lost will, she was declared the heir, and at the moment Nick has something to leave behind.
Poirot decides to announce the death of Nick. Stunned friends Nick buy flowers and wreaths for funerals, and Hastings dumps a fever. Mother Maggie sends Poirot a letter to her daughter, written by her immediately upon her arrival at Endhouse. One phrase in this letter makes Poirot take a fresh look at the matter and unravel it.
The next day, Poirot collects all the participants of the drama at Endhouse. Among them are Charles Wise and Croft (she is in a wheelchair). Charles Wise announces to the audience that this morning he received his cousin’s will, dated February, and has no reason to doubt its authenticity. According to the will, all the property of Nick goes to Mildred Croft as a token of gratitude for the invaluable services that she rendered to Philip Buckley, father of Nick, who once lived in Australia.
Unexpectedly, Poirot proposes to arrange a seance. Extinguish the lamps. Suddenly, before the eyes of those present, a vague figure appears, floating like air. All in shock. The light is lit – in the middle of the room there is a living Nick under a white veil. A police inspector, Jepp, appears, arresting Croftov, a large number of forgeries specialists.
At that moment someone shoots at Frederic, wounded her in the shoulder and gets a bullet from the policeman. This is her husband, a cocaine, who lost his human form. But he did not kill Maggie. On duty at Endhouse from the beginning of the evening, Jepp saw Nick retrieve a revolver from a secret niche, wipe it with a handkerchief, and, going into the hallway, put it in Mrs. Rice’s mantle.
Poirot claims that Nick killed Maggie to inherit the money of Michael Seton. She was also called Magdalena Buckley, and it was with her that the deceased pilot was engaged. Policemen are already waiting for Nick in the hallway with an arrest warrant. Nick behaves arrogantly, does not deny his guilt, but before leaving asks Fredericks to remember the watch that serves to transport and store cocaine. “For her, this is the best way out,” says Poirot, “it’s better than the hangman’s rope.”
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