ABC谋杀案 36

Thirty-two,AND CATCH A FOX,During the next few days Poirot was very busy. He made mysterious absences, talked very little,frowned to himself, and consistently refused to satisfy my natural curiosity as to the brilliance Ihad, according to him, displayed in the past.,I was not invited to accompany him on his mysterious comings and goings—a fact which Isomewhat resented.,Towards the end of the week, however, he announced his intention of paying a visit to Bexhilland neighbourhood and suggested that I should come with him. Needless to say, I accepted withalacrity.,The invitation, I discovered, was not extended to me alone. The members of our Special Legionwere also invited.,He first visited Mr. and Mrs. Barnard and got an exact account from her as to the hour at whichMr. Cust had called on her and exactly what he had said. He then went to the hotel at which Custhad put up and extracted a minute description of that gentleman’s departure. As far as I couldjudge, no new facts were elicited by his questions but he himself seemed quite satisfied.,Next he went to the beach—to the place where Betty Barnard’s body had been discovered. Herehe walked round in circles for some minutes studying the shingle attentively. I could see littlepoint in this, since the tide covered the spot twice a day.,However I have learnt by this time that Poirot’s actions are usually dictated by an idea—however meaningless they may seem.,He then walked from the beach to the nearest point at which a car could have been parked.,From there again he went to the place where the Eastbourne buses waited before leaving Bexhill.,