Agatha Christie's Poirot

It is with enormous pleasure

that I give you our crime writer of the year,

Mrs. Ariadne Oliver!

Surely you remember her?

Celia Ravenscroft.

She's your god-daughter, is she not?

Is she? It's just that one has so many.

Mrs. Oliver, may I have your autograph?

Thank you.

Oh, that Celia! I haven't seen her in a very long time.

Thank you.

May I confide in you?

There's something I really must find out.

Something of great moment.

A mystery.

Celia Ravenscroft, you see, intends to marry my son Desmond.

Why is that a mystery? Is there something wrong with Desmond?

No, there's nothing wrong with Desmond.

No.

But it's… It's all just… very sudden.

And one has to know about people.

Especially people one's welcoming into one's family.

Mrs. Oliver,

what I want to know is this.

Did her father kill her mother?

Or did the mother kill the father?

I don't think I heard you properly. Pardon?

I know it was 12 or 13 years ago now.

But it did cause a fuss at the time.

You must remember.

General and Mrs. Ravenscroft.

Of course I remember, it's just that I

couldn't quite believe my ears, Mrs…

Burton-Cox.

Mrs. Burton-Cox, it has been nice meeting you.

But I must find out the truth.

I'm at a loss to see how I…

Ask your god-daughter. Ask Celia.

Please.

I shouldn't dream of doing such a thing.

It was impossible to shake her off.

And now this frightful woman wants me to quiz Celia about it.

What do you think she's after?

- Je sais pas. - I don't know what I should do.

What would you do, were you me?

It is a question most difficult, madame.

I know how I, Hercules Poirot, would act in any circumstance.

But how you would act, madame, I do not know that.

I do not know that at all.

Excuse-moi, s'il vous plaît.

Hercules Poirot speaks.

Ah, my dear doctor…

If Poirot can be of any assistance…

He comes at once.

Tout de suite.

George! My coat and my hat, s'il vous plaît!

Yes, sir.

Madame, it is my dear friend Dr. Willoughby. He has… some trouble.

Please to forgive me. You haven't answered my question.

What should I do about the dreadful Burton-Cox?

The thing that you should do, madame,

and this I advise you to do most strenuously,

is nothing, rien.

Merci.

- Oh, mais oui. - Poirot, thank God!

I am so sorry. Hello, Poirot.

I heard you were coming.

Ah, Detective Sergeant Beale!

Detective Inspector.

Was he still practicing, Dr. Willoughby?

He'd been semi-retired for years.

In effect, I run the institute.

But my father kept his office and continued his research.

He saw patients?

He hasn't treated anyone for a long time.

This, it is how he was discovered?

That's correct.

- Seen enough? - Oui.

- Drain it off. - Sir.

In your kind of work, Doctor, is this kind of contraption normal?

Hydriatic procedures in the treatment of insanity

were quite common

I was not, I'm afraid, ever convinced of their efficacy.

But I was the junior and he was my father.

And your father, he employed this treatment?

He gave up on it in the end.

Concluded it was dangerous.

Looks like he was hit on the head first.

Come away, Doctor.

I hope you don't mind that I called

for Monsieur Poirot straight away.

No, I don't.

Poirot and I have worked together before.

I hope you don't mind my asking you

to vouch for your movements last night.

You surely don't regard me as a suspect?!

I'm just doing my job, sir.

This was my own father.

The procedure is quite standard, Cher ami.

Did you sleep at home?

No.

No. My wife lives in Kent with the children.

It's not always convenient for me to travel home at night.

So I keep an apartment here.

- In the institute? - Upstairs. Nothing glamorous.

And that's where you stayed last night?

Yes.

Please excuse me.

Did you know your father was in the building?

No, I had absolutely no idea.

But he keeps strange hours. I mean… kept.

Dr. Willoughby! Are you okay?

There's a cop on the door.

Please don't be alarmed, Marie.

This is my assistant, Miss McDermott.

- Mademoiselle. - Who are these guys?

What's going on around here?

It's very good to see you, Mrs. Oliver.

You should call me Ariadne.

Thank you for coming. You said you worked nearby.

- Yes. A solicitor's office. - Really?

We have much to catch up on, haven't we, Celia?

Mm-hmm.

It must have seemed odd, my ringing up out of the blue.

I haven't been a very conscientious godmother, I know.

I don't remember coming to your confirmation.

- I don't remember having one. - Oh, dear.

But you sent a very nice check on my 21st birthday.

So I would say your duties are done.

Bizarre, though. I saw your photo in the paper this morning.

Crime writer of the year. And now we're having tea.

Yes, well… You see, a woman came up and button-holed me.

She said 'I believe you have a god-daughter named Celia Ravenscroft.'

Oh. Was she a friend of mine?

A Mrs. Burton-Cox. She said she thought

you might be going to marry her son.

- Douglas, is it? - Desmond.

Desmond. What does Desmond do?

He's a pianist.

Splendid!

- Making any money? - God, no.

He's still at the Academy. He gets a recital now and then.

It takes quite a while to become a concert pianist.

I… I don't know what you know.

But I'm fond of Desmond. And he's fond of me.

But his mother is something else entirely.

What did she want?

She thought that, since you were my godchild,

I might be able to ask you something.

Something quite delicate.

What she went on to say was…

'Can you find out if her father murdered her

mother or her mother murdered her father?'

For God's sake, how dare she?!

She actually said that?! The beast!

She thought I might know something about it.

But at the time, I was on a lecture tour of America.

And you were… What, 14?

I was 12.

I was good friends with your mother.

We were finished together in Paris.

But then I married and went somewhere

and she married and went somewhere.

And then your father was posted again.

- Was it Rhodesia? - India.

But I was sent to school in England.

In the holidays, I boarded with a family in Suffolk.

I hardly saw Mummy and Daddy until they retired to Eastbourne.

But you weren't at Eastbourne when it…

No. I was away at school.

What can you tell me, Ariadne?

- Have you got any inside knowledge? - No, my dear. I haven't.

I know only what I read in the papers.

No obvious motive.

No sign of a quarrel. No evidence of attack from outside.

Nobody knows.

That's just it. Nobody knows.

I was shielded from it when I was young.

But I think of it constantly.

Please, please find out what happened.

Not for Mrs. Burton-Cox. For me.

I have to know.

Will you help me, Ariadne?

I have to help Celia.

The girl deserves to know.

Yet I can't, for the life of me, see what to do!

How may one discover anything years afterwards?

I know you're busy. But will you help me look into it?

Je suis desole, madame.

I have an affair of consequence to which I must attend.

The matter of the Ravenscrofts, it is in the past.

And Poirot, he must march in the present.

Give me one moment of your time.

My friend Margaret Ravenscroft died a horrible death.

I have to find out why.

What should I do?

Bien sûr.

Madame, what have you told to me, hmm?

A husband and wife who never argue, who live in complete harmony.

Whoever has heard of such a thing?!