Three Act Tragedy

Copyright

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by Collins 1935

Agatha Christie® Poirot® Three Act Tragedy™

Copyright © 1935 Agatha Christie Limited (a Chorion company). All rights reserved.

www.agathachristie.com

Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

Title lettering by Ghost Design

Cover photograph © Ray Spence/Arcangel Images

Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007120901

Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2016 ISBN: 9780007422883

Version: 2018-04-24

Dedicated to

My Friends, Geoffrey and Violet Shipston

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

First Act: Suspicion

1. Crow’s Nest

2. Incident Before Dinner

3. Sir Charles Wonders

4. A Modern Elaine

5. Flight From a Lady

Second Act: Certainty

1. Sir Charles Receives a Letter

2. The Missing Butler

3. Which of Them?

4. The Evidence of the Servants

5. In the Butler’s Room

6. Concerning an Ink-Stain

7. Plan of Campaign

Third Act: Discovery

1. Mrs Babbington

2. Lady Mary

3. Re-enter Hercule Poirot

4. A Watching Brief

5. Division of Labour

6. Cynthia Dacres

7. Captain Dacres

8. Angela Sutcliffe

9. Muriel Wills

10. Oliver Manders

11. Poirot Gives a Sherry Party

12. Day at Gilling

13. Mrs de Rushbridger

14. Miss Milray

15. Curtain

Keep Reading

Also by Agatha Christie

About the Publisher

Directed by

Sir Charles Cartwright

Assistant Directors

Mr Satterthwaite

Miss Hermione Lytton Gore

Clothes by

Ambrosine Ltd

Illumination by

Hercule Poirot

Mr Satterthwaite sat on the terrace of ‘Crow’s Nest’ and watched his host, Sir Charles Cartwright, climbing up the path from the sea.

Crow’s Nest was a modern bungalow of the better type. It had no half timbering, no gables, no excrescences dear to a third-class builder’s heart. It was a plain white solid building—deceptive as to size, since it was a good deal bigger than it looked. It owed its name to its position, high up, overlooking the harbour of Loomouth. Indeed from one corner of the terrace, protected by a strong balustrade, there was a sheer drop to the sea below. By road Crow’s Nest was a mile from the town. The road ran inland and then zigzagged high up above the sea. On foot it was accessible in seven minutes by the steep fisherman’s path that Sir Charles Cartwright was ascending at this minute.

Sir Charles was a well-built, sunburnt man of middle age. He wore old grey flannel trousers and a white sweater. He had a slight rolling gait, and carried his hands half closed as he walked. Nine people out of ten would say, ‘Retired Naval man—can’t mistake the type.’ The tenth, and more discerning, would have hesitated, puzzled by something indefinable that did not ring true. And then perhaps a picture would rise, unsought: the deck of a ship—but not a real ship—a ship curtailed by hanging curtains of thick rich material—a man, Charles Cartwright, standing on that deck, light that was not sunlight streaming down on him, the hands half clenched, the easy gait and a voice—the easy pleasant voice of an English sailor and gentleman, a great deal magnified in tone.

‘No, sir,’ Charles Cartwright was saying, ‘I’m afraid I can’t give you any answer to that question.’

And swish fell the heavy curtains, up sprang the lights, an orchestra plunged into the latest syncopated measure, girls with exaggerated bows in their hair said, ‘Chocolates? Lemonade?’ The first act of The Call of the Sea, with Charles Cartwright as Commander Vanstone, was over.