Murder on the Orient Express 
Agatha Christie

(4/6/22-4/10/22)

JN:
        Our beloved detective Hercule Poirot boarded a train in the early morning and spent most of the day observing the other two passengers, a young English woman that traveled with plans to be a governess and a colonel that spoke to her often. He noticed their seemingly tense relationship with one another as the day went on. After the train arrived, Hercule took a boat, lost them, and arrived at the Tokatlian Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. He immediately received orders to return to London due to a development in his case, so he booked passage on a train, the Simplon Orient Express. The cabins were full, so Hercule had to stay in a sleeper cabin with another man named MacQueen, and their three-day train ride commenced. 

        The next day, Hercule went to the lunch car and sat next to his friend Bouc. He observed the rest of the passengers, utilizing his detective skills to the fullest. He noticed the governess and colonel, Mary and Arbuthnot, respectively, as well as MacQueen and his employer Samuel Ratchett. On his way out of the lunch car to talk with his friend in another car, Samuel stopped him and offered him a case regarding his safety. Being an already successful detective and wanting a more relaxing journey, Hercule denied the offer. 

        That night, Hercule slept in a different cabin, one across from Samuel, because Bouc gave up his. He awoke to some noise around midnight, so he quickly checked, saw nothing, and went back to sleep. The morning passed without incident until Bouc called him to his cabin, where he learned about Samuel's murder the previous night. Someone had come into Samuel's cabin and stabbed him multiple times before escaping back into the train while locking the cabin door from the inside. Knowing his reputation and the fact that the train was snowed in and would remain that way for hours to come, Bouc asked Hercule to investigate it, and Hercule agreed. The first thing he planned to do was come up with a list of possible suspects and interview them. 

        First on the chopping block was MacQueen. MacQueen told Hercule how he came to be in Samuel's service, and although he didn’t like his employer and found him dangerous, the money was good. MacQueen suspected that Samuel had escaped America for some reason but never investigated the matter and believed Samuel was who he said he was. He then discussed threatening letters that Samuel received and showed some of them to Hercule. Looking over them, Hercule presumed that more than one person wanted him dead. Following the interview, Hercule talked over his findings with Bouc, and both agreed that it was unlikely for MacQueen to have committed the murder. 

        Before further investigations, Hercule went with one of the doctors aboard the train to examine Samuel's cabin. He saw several random clues, such as a woman’s handkerchief, a man’s pipe, and a used match. Samuel's body was there too with a multitude of stab wounds, some done by a right hand and some by a left hand. An initial theory that Hercule made was that a man and a woman entered the room that night and stabbed him, although whoever came in later stabbed him when he was already dead. This theory, however, seemed implausible, and the evidence seemed planted. 

        Hercule then put together a part of a destroyed letter, which taught him Samuel's real name and his reason for leaving America. He met with Bouc to explain that Samuel was the leader of a gang that kidnapped children and held them for ransom. One girl was named Daisy Armstrong, and Samuel kidnapped, murdered her, and still got paid. The mother died during childbirth a later year, and the father committed suicide. Samuel escaped consequences through a technical error and fled America with his wealth. 

        The next investigation was with the conductor. Hercule spoke with him and learned of his events for the entire night, not for suspicion but to begin putting pieces into place to figure out the truth. Throughout the night, the conductor responded to several bell rings but noticed nothing out of the ordinary, at least not to him. With that, Hercule recorded everything and thanked him. He also conducted a second interview with MacQueen to gather his series of events and people he might have seen. MacQueen spent much of the night talking with Arbuthnot, noticed the train had stopped, and went to sleep. Hercule interviewed Samuel's valet too but found nothing particularly remarkable except that Samuel had taken sleeping pills that night. The valet did not know about Samuel's previous crimes. 

        Following the valet was an American woman who had a cabin near Samuel. She explained her story, including seeing a man in the middle of the night that vanished when she called the conductor to help her. The following morning, she found a button that belonged to the conductor in a place where the conductor couldn’t have been. She also relayed that she heard a woman’s voice coming from Samuel's cabin that night.

        Next in for an interview was a Swedish lady who accidentally stumbled into Samuel's cabin looking for the American woman’s cabin since she needed an aspirin, and nothing came from that interview either although she was the last known person to see him alive. At the end of her interview, Bouc believed that an Italian on board was the culprit, having murdered out of vengeance. Hercule, however, knew there were too many holes in that story. He then interviewed an older woman, an elite, who turned out to be good friends with Daisy Armstrong’s mother. She confirmed that Daisy had a sister and gave her account for the night.

        Hercule then interviewed Colonel Arbuthnot, learning about his events. He also found that Arbuthnot smoked a pipe, the sole interviewee to do so thus far, and given there was a pipe cleaner in Samuel's room, Hercule took note. Arbuthnot also swore on behalf of Mary, the to-be governess, claiming she could not have commited such a crime. He finished his interview by corroboraing some aspects of the others' stories (the overall picture continues to fill up). 

        The next two guests were a detective and an Italian man. The detective from a large agency in New York told Hercule about his meeting with Samuel, who also confided in him about his imminent danger. Therefore, the detective stayed up both nights to track people coming and going, not noticing any difference between the second night and the first night. The Italian didn’t have much to offer either, having been asleep during the night. The next woman, Mary, went the same way. The older elite woman’s maid told her tale about running into a conductor on her way back to her room after reading to the woman (finally a clue). The conductor had a small figure and a womanly voice, which matched the description that Samuel had given the detective before he died.

With everyone in the car interviewed, Hercule and Bouc discussed their findings, which Bouc pointed out brought them nowhere. Knowing the ins and outs of the profession, however, Hercule pointed to several important details and suggested that they search everyone’s luggage. He believed that two people assisted in the crime and had some beliefs as to where they would find the locations of the garments that the two unknown people on throughout the night (one was the conductor that wasn’t actually a conductor and the other a woman in a scarlet kimono that wasn’t on board). 

        Before the search began, the American woman who witnessed the murder in her room started screaming her lungs out. Once she calmed down, she explained how she found a bloody murder weapon in her luggage, and Hercule was even more firm in his belief that the murderer went from Samuel's room to her room and then back to whatever cabin they came from. 

        After a thorough examination of all the luggage, Hercule found both the uniform and the scarlet kimono. The uniform was in the maid’s bag with the assumption the murderer dropped it off there, and the scarlet kimono was in Hercule's bag as a sign of mockery (or he truly is the real murderer…). Hercule and Bouc discussed their findings, and Hercule told him about the order of events as he knew them and stuff they still needed to think over and figure out.     

        Several minutes went by in deep thought before Hercule spoke his thoughts on the matter. First, he suspected that the handkerchief found at the crime scene belonged to a countess, who, when they interviewed, refused to give her full name. Further thought brought the hypothesis that she was Daisy Armstrong’s aunt and that the elite woman lied about knowing her identity to avoid suspicion. He continued to bring in more and more people into his hypothesis and found that they all had some connection to Armstrong. The Italian was a chauffeur, Mary a governess, and Arbuthnot and the valet had a connection with the father through the war, among others.

        After talking with Bouc and the doctor, Hercule gathered everyone and gave him his two theories. The first theory regarded an unknown assailant that entered during one of the stops, killed Samuel, and left. The second theory seemed a bit more plausible. During that night, every person, except for the Countess , who would appear to have the greatest motive, entered Samuel's room, encountered a drugged Samuel, and stabbed him. Every part of the plan was carefully planned and executed. 

        Hercule carefully laid out the evidence (with some holes here and there, especially with the note) and explained how every person played their part and told their fabricated story. Even the conductor and detective, who were in love with some members, played their part. When his theories were laid out, the American woman, who revealed herself to be Daisy Armstrong’s grandmother, applauded the theory and confirmed everything that Hercule said. She also justified it and spoke of how they planned it and why.

In the end, Bouc and the doctor were the judges in the case. They determined that justice was served and agreed to present the first theory to the police once the snow cleared. Hercule agreed. (That is the end of this satisfying tale. A classic in the Agatha Christie and murder mystery department. Thank you for reading, and until next time with more Hercule Poirot!)