Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (Murder in the Calais Coach)

Summary:

 

                Monsieur Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective, solves a murder mystery though stranded on a snow drift while boarded o the Orient Express. The deceased is called Mr. Rachett who died after receiving 12 stabs. All in all, there are 15 people on board the Istanbul-Calais coach, the conductor and Poirot included. In the process of investigation, Poirot discovered another case related to the present one. And on this late case, all people on board are related except for the unusually small detective. Due to clues presented before him and the time table he was able to make, he arrived at two solutions. All were speechless after they heard the little detective’s never wrong intuition. After, Poirot declared his official retirement from the case.

 Characters:

             The main character is none other than the mustached small detective, Hercule Poirot. During the case, M. Bouc, the director of the Campagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits, Inc. and Poirot’s close friend, and Dr. Constantine, the one who estimated the time of death and some points, helped Poirot in many aspects. The victim was an American named M. Ratchett, a psuedophilantrhopist who’s more malevolent that benevolent. He, Rachett, had a secretary who speaks in many tongue, Hector MacQueen, and a valet who seems to be anti-social, Edward Henry Masterman. Mary Debenham, an English governess who is truly a finesse lady, seems to have some connection with Colonel Arbuthnot, though his French is limited, he could willingly battle the detective in words. There were also royals on board. Princess Dragomiroff is a Russian grande dame with huge pearls as improbable as her story. She had a lady’s maid, Hildegarde Schimdt, a very loyal one. On the other hand, Count Andreyi is a workaholic entrusting his time to the Hungarian Embassy, but he truly loves his wife, Countess Andreyi. Addition to the complex casting of this murder are Antonio Foscarelli, an Italian who seem to give information continuously, Cyrus Hardman, an American commercial traveler who knows more than he tells and tells more than he knows, Greta Ohlsson, a Swedish-trained nurse  with a sheep-like face who was the last person to see the victim alive, Mrs. Hubbard, a stereotype of an American matron-she never stop talking but her acting spoke louder than her words, and the Wagon Lit conductor, Pierre Michel. With this casting, the bloody murder occurred.

Plot:

Exposition -  Monsieur Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective, happened to have work and is boarding the Taurus Express on his way for Istanbul. During the ride, he met the other two distinct passengers, Mary Debenham, an English governess and very much concerned on the time, and Colonel Arbuthnot who first act like strangers but eventually became awkwardly close to the English lady leaving the rather mustached detective, a third party.

Upon his arrival at the Tokatlian Hotel, he receives a telegram asking him to go back to London. While at the hotel, he came across M. Bouc, the director of Campagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits who’s the one who assured Poirot of his sleeping car since, according to the conductor, the train is full-packed.

That night, the detective didn't sleep that well because of the tiny space of the sleeping car which was shared by him and a Hector MacQueen, Mr. Ratchett’s – another passenger – secretary. The next morning, Poirot and M. Bouc had breakfast where they were able to catch a glimpse of who their fellow passengers are. Later that day, Mr. Ratchett approached Poirot for protection from someone. But the mustached man undeniably declined the twenty thousand dollars for the reason, “I don’t like your face!”

Rising Action - Heavy snow was falling outside and the train arrived at Belgrade at quarter to nine that evening. Poirot descended to the platform but didn’t stay long because of the cold. Upon returning, the conductor told him that his things were moved to M. Bouc’s compartment and that M. Bouc had moved to the coach of Athens that has been put on with a Greek doctor.

As scheduled, the train departed at 9:15. Poirot decided to sleep and some hours later, awoke by a loud groan, almost a cry, somewhere close at hand. He noticed that the train was at standstill-presumably at a station. Remembering that Ratchett occupies the next door berth, he opened his door seeing the conductor hurriedly knocking on Ratchett’s door but got the reply, “Ce n’est rien. Je me suis trompé.”

Just a quarter past one, a bell rang coming from another compartment. It was Mrs. Hubbard complaining that there was an unknown man in her compartment but the conductor told Poirot that there was no one. He also explained that the train was stranded in a snowdrift between Vincovci and Brod. Poirot just asked for a glass of water in which the conductor assuredly complied. But just as he was half-asleep, something woke him up again. A thud against the door. He got up and peeked through the door. There, far away down the corridor, was a girl wearing a scarlet kimono retreating to her room and on the other end was the conductor encoding something on large piles of paper. This time, he slept ‘till morning.

Poirot woke up almost past nine but got up at quarter to ten to eat at the restaurant car just to notice that M. Bouc, Princess Dragomiroff and her lady’s maid, the Hungarian couple, Ratchett, and his valet. He also noticed that Mary Debenham was the only calm one saying that she jus saves herself from useless emotions. Just as he finished their conversation, the conductor came running in rather anxious telling him that M. Bouc is expecting him.

What he expected as a normal ‘hi’ and ‘hello’, turned into a mystery solving case. Mr. Ratchett died! To M. Bouc surprise, Poirot wasn’t sorry for his death. Dr. Constantine, the Greek doctor on the same coach as M. Bouc, acted as the examiner estimating the time of death as between midnight and two. The body was discovered when the victim’s valet tapped at his door but got no answer and after an hour and still no answer. That’s when the conductor enters the scene and opened the door with his key and breaking the chain discovering the corpse at 11. They didn’t consider the death a suicide since the body was pierced with 12-15 stab wounds. Many conclusions crossed their minds but only one is for sure and one is that the culprit is a woman. The murderer is there-with them on the train. (Conflict)

The first one to be interviewed was the secretary, MacQueen. He confessed that he doesn’t know who Ratchett really is, just basic information and some threatening letters, and that he really didn’t like his employer.

The body was left cold on the floor with an open window and a bunch of white snow outside. There were clues left to solve like a pipe cleaner, two different sizes of burnt matches, a woman’s handkerchief with an initial of H, a dented gold watch indicating a quarter past one, and some charred fragments of paper. Through some wire, spirit stove and tongs, they were able to get a glimpse of what was written on the charred paper. The words were like this: -member little Daisy Armstrong. This lead to the conclusion that that case of murder is connected to the kidnapping and murder of the granddaughter of the Armstrong family in New York in which the kidnapper got away. Poirot proposed that Ratchett was really Casseti, the culprit of the kidnapping case. Poirot surely thinks that the culprit had some vengeance against the victim with this previous case.

The conductor states that during the time of the crime, he was at the Athens coach talking to other conductors. He had an airtight alibi. Also, it fits the time Poirot saw the conductor attending to Mrs. Hubbard. On the other hand, the secretary, MacQueen, asked how Poirot related the case to the Armstrong one. Poirot told that it was from the charred paper fragments and the response: “But surely – I mean – that was rather careless of the old man?”

         Next one to interrogate was the victim’s valet who stated that anything that happened that night was the usual stuff his master does and the Italian fellow could testify that he was in bed after attending to his master and vice versa. Mrs. Hubbard won’t stop talking about the mysteriously disappearing man in her compartment. She also states that there was an unknown button from a certain conductor but it didn’t match any buttons from the conductors on board. The bolt on her door was also locked as the Swedish lady assured. This Swedish lady, Greta Ohlsson, mistook Ratchett’s door for Mrs. Hubbard’s and was the last one to see the victim alive. She also accounts for her companion in the compartment, Mary Debenham. Princess Natalia Dragomiroff was accounted by her lady’s maid, Hildegarde Schimdt who, on the other hand, saw the non-existing conductor with a small build and a voice like a woman’s, as she says. The Hungarian couple, however, denied their involvement in whatever case is going on.

Colonel Arbuthnot was accounted by MacQueen but seem to protect Mary Debenham indirectly. He was the only passenger that smokes a pipe. Cyrus Hardman, the commercial traveller, confessed that he really was a private detective hired by the victim for protection and swore that no one from the open restaurant car’s backdoor boarded the train while at Vincovci. Mary Debenham had also stated that she had nothing to do with the crime.

All female passengers denied having a scarlet kimono on their luggage. The evidences were summarized and analyzed critically. Just as they were discussing – Poirot, M. Bouc and Dr. Constantine – Mrs. Hubbard came out exclaiming that a bloody knife was in her sponge bag!

Due to the appearance of the murder weapon, Mrs. Hubbard requested to be moved to the Athens coach which was fulfilled. Not long after, Poirot guessed that the scarlet kimono would be found in a man’s luggage and the conductor’s uniform would be in a woman’s. Right on the eye, he was right. Hildegarde Schimdt had the conductor’s uniform and he himself had the kimono. Now, Poirot sits back and thinks.

Climax - Poirot is now ready to cast this murder case.

Countess Andreyi, the true owner of the handkerchief, was really the aunt of the deceased Daisy Armstrong. Princess Dragomiroff as a very close friend of the Armstrong family, so is Colonel Arbuthnot. Mary Debenham was the child’s governess and Antonio Foscarelli as the family’s chauffeur. Greta Ohlsson, the child’s attending nurse, became a little agitated as she confessed to the detective. After that, Edward Masterman sprang up and identified himself as the previous valet of Mr. Armstrong. Hildegarde Schimdt was the house’s cook.

Poirot propounds two solutions.

Falling Action - He purposely gathered all the passengers in the restaurant car. The first one is that M. Ratchett just forgot to reset his watch to the current time zone. And that he was killed an hour ago before the estimated time of death. The murderer dressed himself as a conductor and just blended in the passengers. This theory almost had many loop holes so the others didn’t agree.

The second solution was that all of them except Countess Andreyi committed the crime including the conductor. Pierre Michel was said to be the father of the maid who committed suicide due to the wrong accusation of the kidnapping. Mrs. Hubbard played the greatest role of all. She was the grandmother of Daisy, the famous singer, Linda Arden. They all had planned this a long time ago. Just happened that Poirot got on board and see through their scheme.

Resolution - All agreed to just tell the police the first solution to prevent the uncovering of the undeniable truth of the Armstrong kidnapping case. With this, Poirot had the honor to retire from the case.

Theme - It is really true that there's karma. But always remember that justice isn't not in your hands. It's in God's hands.