فصل اول

Part one

Chapter one

‘Don’t you agree that she’s got to be killed?’ The words seemed to hang in the still night air, before disappearing into the darkness.

It was Hercule Poirot’s first night in the city of Jerusalem, and he was shutting his hotel-room window - the night air was a danger to his health! - when he overheard these words. He smiled. ‘Even on holiday, I am reminded of crime,’ he said to himself.

‘No doubt someone is talking about a play or a book.’ As he walked over to his bed, he thought about the voice he had heard.

It was the voice of a man - or a boy - and had sounded nervous and excited. ‘I will remember that voice,’ said Hercule Poirot to himself, as he lay down to sleep. ‘Yes, I will remember.’

In the room next door, Raymond Boynton and his sister Carol looked out of their window into the dark-blue night sky. Raymond said again, ‘Don’t you agree that she’s got to be killed? It can’t go on like this - it can’t. We must do something - and what else can we do?’

Carol said in a hopeless voice, ‘If only we could just leave somehow! But we can’t - we can’t.’

‘People would say we were crazy,’ said Raymond bitterly. ‘They would wonder why we can’t just walk out -‘

Carol said slowly, ‘Perhaps we are crazy! ‘

‘Perhaps we are,’ agreed Raymond. ‘After all, we are calmly planning to kill our own mother! ‘

‘She isn’t our real mother!’ said Carol. ‘She’s our stepmother!’

There was a pause. ‘Do you still think she has to die?’ asked Raymond quietly.

‘Yes, I do,’ said Carol. ‘She’s mad - she must be. She - she wouldn’t treat us so badly, torture us like this if she wasn’t mad.

It’s lasted for years and years, and I don’t think it will ever stop. We keep saying, “She’ll die some time” - but she hasn’t died! I don’t think she will ever die, unless -‘

‘Unless we kill her,’ said Raymond. ‘And you or I must do it - not our brother Lennox, or our sister Ginevra. They mustn’t be involved.’

‘And we must do it quickly,’ said Carol, ‘I’m really worried about Ginevra - she’s getting worse.’

‘And it’s not really wrong,’ said Raymond. ‘It’s just like killing a mad dog, before it hurts anyone else.’

Carol stood up suddenly, pushing back her red-brown hair from her face. ‘But we would still be sent to prison if we were found out. How could we explain what mother is like? It would sound crazy - as if we were imagining it.’

‘Nobody will know,’ said Raymond. ‘I’ve got a plan. We’ll be safe.’

‘Ray,’ said Carol, ‘you’re different in some way. Something’s happened to you. Was it that girl you met on the train?’

‘No, of course not,’ said Raymond. ‘Carol, don’t talk nonsense. Let’s talk about my plan.’

‘Are you sure it will work?’ asked Carol.

‘Yes, I am,’ replied her brother. ‘We must wait for the right opportunity, of course. And then - we’ll all be free.’

‘Free?’ Carol looked up at the stars. Then suddenly she started to cry. ‘It’s such a lovely night, with the stars in the sky. If only we could be part of it all, like other people. But instead we are strange and twisted and wrong. Even if mother dies - isn’t it too late for us to change?’

‘No, Carol, it’s not too late,’ said Raymond. ‘But if you don’t want to -‘

‘I do want to - we must do it,’ said Carol. ‘Because of the others - and especially Ginevra. We must save Ginevra!’

Raymond paused a moment. ‘All right, we’ll do it,’ he said. ‘I’ll tell you my plan.’