Agatha Christie

“ I returned heartily. "What about you, Poirot?"
Poirot shook his head.
"One must not so replenish the stomach that the brain refuses to function," he remarked.
"I'll risk replenishing the stomach a bit more," laughed Japp. "I take a large size in stomachs; and by the way, you're getting stout yourself, Monsieur Poirot. Here, miss, eggs and bacon twice."
At that moment, however, an imposing form blocked the doorway. It was Constable Pollard. ”

“ They looked in vain.
"That settles it," said Japp. "The window's shut and bolted. The murderer left by the door, locking it and taking the key with him. He thought it would be accepted that Protheroe had locked himself in and shot himself, and that the absence of the key would not be noticed. You agree, Monsieur Poirot?"
"I agree, yes; but it would have been simpler and better to slip the key back inside the room under the door. Then it would look as though it had fallen from the lock."
"Ah, well, you can't expect everybody to have the bright ideas that you have. ”

“ Japp put down his cup.
"Can't have shot himself? What do you mean?"
"That's what Dr. Giles says," repeated Pollard. "He says it's plumb impossible. He's puzzled to death, the door being locked on the inside and the window bolted; but he sticks to it that the man couldn't have committed suicide."
That settled it. The further supply of bacon and eggs were waved aside, and a few minutes later we were all walking as fast as we could in the direction of Leigh House, Japp eagerly questioning the constable. ”

“ She regarded them as murderers, and then suddenly she saw a chance of making them suffer for the deed they had inspired. She alone knew that he was left-handed. She changed the pistol to his right hand, closed and bolted the window, dropped the bit of cuff link she had picked up in one of the downstairs rooms, and went out, locking the door and removing the key."
"Poirot," I said, in a burst of enthusiasm, "you are magnificent. All that from the one little clue of the handkerchief! ”

“ If the window had been closed, and all those cigarettes smoked, the room ought to have been full of stale tobacco. Instead, it was perfectly fresh, so I deduced at once that the window must have been open all night, and only closed in the morning, and that gave me a very interesting line of speculation. ”