Murder on the Orient Express

Characters:

Hercule Poirot Detective.

Mary Debenham Mr. Freebody, Daisy´s governess.

Dr. Constantine Examined Ratchett´s body.

Mr.Bouc Director of the Wagon Lit. Poirot´s old friend.

Mr. Ratchett John Casseti, kidnapper and criminal.

Colonel Arbuthnot John Amstrong´s best friend, saved his life in the war.

Hector MacQueen Ratchett´s secretary. In love with Sonia Amstrong.

Princess Dragomiroff Godmother of Sonia Amstrong.

Mrs Hubbard Linda Arden, mother of Sonia and Helena.

Michel Pierre Wagon Lits conductor. Susanne´s father.

Masterman Ratchett´s valet. Coronel Amstrong´s valet.

Hildegarde Schmidt Princess Dragomiroff´s maid. Amstrong´s cook.

Antonio Foscarelli Big Italian. Amstrong´s chauffeur.

Cyrus Hardman Member of a detective agency. He had been in love with

Susanne.

Greta Ohlsson Daisy´s nurse.

Countess Andrenyi Helena Maria Goldenberg, Daisy´s aunt.

Count Andrenyi Helena´s husband.

Susanne Amstrong´s nursery-maid. Comitted suicide.

Daisy Amstrong Little girl, murdered.

Coronel John Amstrong Daisy´s father.

Sonia Amstrong Daisy´s mother.

 PART I: The facts

The well-known detective Hercule Poirot takes the train Orient Express from
Istanbul because he is needed in London. M.Bouc has moved to another coach
so he took his compartment 1.

Another passenger, Mr Ratchett, asked Poirot to hired him for his safety, a man
like him had enemies. Poirot refussed the offer.

The first night, Poirot was sleeping when he heard a scream, he remembered
that Ratchett was the one from the next compartment. Then, he heard “it's
nothing, I was wrong” in french. Then, he Heard the the bell from Mrs. Hubbard,
she was saying that she woke up and was a man in her compartment.

The train stopped because they had run into a snowdrift.

Something again woke up him, a noise like something havy had fallen against
the door, he looked out, nothing. Only a woman in scarlett kimono was
retreating from him.

In the morning, M Bouc told Poirot that something had happened: Ratchett was
found dead. The window of his comparment was found open, which means the
killer escaped, but there weren´t footprints in the snow, no one could have
escaped through the snowdrift so the killer was still on the train and Poirot
started the investigation.

He spoke to Macqueen, who said that Ratchett received threatening letters and
didn´t speak languages.

They visited Ratchett´s compartment and watched the body: there were twelve
wounds. Two hadn´t bled as one would expected, it suggested that the man was
already dead when they werre delivered. A wound was struck with de left hand
but other blows were right-handed.

If the murderer didn´t escape through the window, if the communicating door
was bolted on the other side, and if the door into the corridor was chained, how
did the murderer leave the compartment?

Here they found, a burned paper, a pipe and a handkerchief with the initial H, in
the Ratchett´s pocket was a watch pointed to a quarter past one. If te crime was
committed at this time, the murderer cannot have left the train so where is he?
Also, they used a lamp to read the paper and this showed the name of Daisy
Amstrong.

Ratchett was Cassetti, years ago he kidnapped Daisy Amstrong, Colonel

Amstrong´s daughter, demanded a large sum of money but then murdered her.
Mrs. Amstrong was expecting another baby but following the shock, she gave
prematurely a dead child and herself died. Her husband shot himself.

Susanne, the nursemaid was blamed by the police and she committed suicide.

PART II: The Evidence

Poirot interviewed all the passengers on the train. Mrs. Hubbard was in bed
and her spogebag was hanging on the door-handle, Greta Ohlsson asked her
about an aspirin and open the door of the next compartment by mistake.
Ratchett said was alive. Then, the train runs into a snowdrift, Ratchett´s bells
rings and he said that he had been confused, Mrs.Hubbard thinks man in her
carriage.

M. Bouc thought that big Italian was the murderer because an Italian´s weapon
was the knife but they knew he never left compartment.

Sonia Amstrong was Princess Dragomiroff´s god-daughter and she had a

friendship with Linda Arden, her mother.

In the Count and Countness Andrenyi interview, Poirot found a grease spot on
Elena Maria Andrenyi's passport.

Colonel Arbuthnot was the only person who smoking pipe, and he knew Coronel
Amstrong.

Hardman revealed that he was a private detective hired by Ratchett who had
described him the appearance of the posible assailant: a small man with a
womanish voice. A description which applies to no one on the train but it rests
on the testimony of four witnesses.

Mary Debenham said that she was travelling because she had been acting as a
governess to two children.

Hildegarde Schmidt had seen a man dressed as a driver who didn´t match the
real drivers. Mr Hubbard had found a button from a Wagon Lit uniform, but
conductors´s buttons were intacted.
In conclusión, that night were two strangers in the train: a woman in a red
kimono and the Wagon Lit conductor.

Mr Hubbard found the knife over blood in her sponge bag.

Poirot overhead on the journey that Mary said to Colonel Arbuthnot “Not now,
when it´s all over, when it´s behind us”. She refused to explain this.

At Hildegarde Schmidt´s compartment they found the Wagon Lit uniform, but
she said it isn´t hers, the murderer must get rid of his uniform. Also, there were
pass keys, used to unlock de doors.

When Poirot entered his compartment, he found the red kimono there.

PART III: Poirot sits back and thinks

MacQuenn said that Ratchett didn´t spoke French, so other person was in his
compartment when the conductor came and said that he was confused.

Every person took the pen in his right hand, with the exception of Princess
Dragomiroff who refused to write.

Countess Andrenyi´s name on her Passport was desfigured: Instead of Elena it

were Helena. A spot of grease cover up the alteration. But the handkerchief was
not hers, it was Natalia's, because the H is N in Russian. Helena was the young
sister of Mr. Amstrong, a child when succeed the tragedy, she wanted to hide
her identity to not be related to the crime. She said that she had had a
governess callled Freebody.

Poirot discover that Freebody really was Mary Debenham because a shop was
called recently Debenham & Freebody, with the name Debenham running in her
mind, the Countess clutches at another name quickly, and the first that comes is
Freebody.

Greta Ohlsson was the nurse in charge of Daisy Amstrong and Antonio Foscarelli
was the chauffeur.

Poirot point out that all the passengers had had a connection with the Amstrong
´s and offered two theories.

Theory 1: An enemy of Ratchett joined the train with a Wagon Lit uniform.
Ratchett was under the influence of a sleeping draught, the murderer stabbed
him. Then he left the compartment through the communicating door to Mr.
Hubbard´s compartment, leaving the dagger in his sponge-bag and losing his
button. Also, he threw the uniform into a suitcase in an empty compartment.
Left the train before it started off.

The voice that spoke from his compartment after that? One who had gone
in to speak to Ratchett and found him dead, afraid spoken pretending to
be him.

Theory 2: All the passengers murdered Ratchett to avenge the death of

Daisy Amstrong. The train was so varied about classes and nacionalities. In
America there might be a household composed of varied nationalities, an
Italian chauffeur, an English governess, a Swedish nurse, a German lady´s-
maid.

MacQueen knew about the note mentioning the Amstrong case.

The valet: His master was in the habit of taking a sleeping drug when
travelling by train but would Ratchett have taken on last night? He
intended to be on alert because the automatic under his pillow. So
MacQueen o the valet had given him the drug.

Mr. Hardman had guarded Ratchett, watching through his door, no one in
any other part of the train could murder him, a circle round the Stambul
Calais.

Miss Debenham and Colonel Arbuthnot were pretending to be strangers

for some reason.

Mrs. Hubbard told that lying in bed she was unable to see the
communicating door was volted or not. But in her compartment the bolt is
above the handle and couldn´t be masked by the sponge bag. She
invented that.

The watch in Ratchett´s pijama pocket, was an uncomfortable place, so

the crime was´t comitted at 1.15.

Ratchett had been drugged, he couldn´t have cried out. If he had been
capable of that, he would have been capable to defend himself, and there
weren´t signs. Also, MacQuen had said Ratchett couldn´t speak French.

He was killed at some time very close upon 2.00.

Poirot explained the difficulty of proving the case against one person on
the train. His conclusion was that everyone was in it. For so many people
connected with the Amstrongs travelling by the same train. He
remembered a remark of Arbuthnot about trial by jury, composed of
twelve people, and there were twelve passengers, Ratchett was stabbed
twelve times. He had escaped justice in America, so the jury of twelve
people had condemned him to death, themselves were his executioners.

This theory could explain everything:

The nature of wounds, each inflicted by a different person.

The description “small dark man with a womanish voice”, not

incriminating any of the conductors.

The idea of stabbing,, a dagger could be used by everyone.

The letter pointing to Amstrong case, put down as an outside work and no
reason for suspecting any of the passengers.

The handkerchief with the letter H, Poirot thought that the H could be the
initial of Helena or Hildegarde, it belonged to Princess Natalia Dragomiroff
because in the Cyrillic alphabet H is the symbol for the N.

A pipe, dropped in Ratchett´s compratment, incriminating Arbuthnot.

The red kimono, Mary walked the train with this garment, pretending to
be the murderer.

Pierre Michael was one of the twelve, Poirot remembered the dead
French nursery-maid and supossed she was Pierre´s daughter.

The person who had taken no part in the crime was the person who would
be considered the most likely to do so: Countess Andrenyi. Count
Andrenyi took his wife´s place.

Colonel Arbuthnot had probably been to the war with Colonel Amstrong.

Hildegarde Schmidt said that she was a good cook.

Hardman had been in love with the French girl.

Mrs. Hubbard occupying the compartment communicatting with that of
Ratchett she was more open to suspicion. She played perfectly, and artist
was needed. Conected with the Amstrong family, she is Linda Arden,
mother of Sonia Amstrong.

The sentence of death had got to be carried out. Antonio suggested this
way. They get Masterman and Hector in Ratchett´s employment. By them,
they knew that he would be travelling in the Orient Express, and with
Pierre working here, it was a perfect oportunity. Unfortunately, there was
one carriage they couldn´t get and then Poirot came.

Linda Arden decides to take responsibility for the matter. However,

proving that his intentions are not to kill innocents, Poirot decides to cover
up the fact and tell the Yugoslav police the theory one.