INSECTS HISSING BIRDS CHIRPING Lord Boynton!

Lord Boynton!

HE SHOUTS IN ARABIC BOTH SPEAKING IN ARABIC METALS CLANKING ALL CHATTERING IN ARABIC ALL GRUNTING HE SPEAKS IN ARABIC HORSE WHINNIES HORSE WHINNIES ALL SPEAKING IN ARABIC VOICES BECOMES DISTORTED - I... - Don't... don't speak.

- Why not?

- You've got sunstroke.

You need to just stay where you are and be quite still.

Oh, actually, what I need to do is to sit up and drink a lot of water.

WOMAN SPEAKS IN ARABIC I'm dehydrated.

- I've sent for a doctor.

Already got one.

Sarah King, MD.

You're the fellow who's gonna get sunstroke.

Walking around without a hat.

I just introduced myself.

SHE CHUCKLES LADY BOYNTON: Raymond?

- Er, my... my mother needs me.

Well, if you can't introduce yourself, perhaps you might introduce me to your mother?

Unlikely.

SHE CHUCKLES INDISTINCT CHATTER BOTH SPEAKING IN FRENCH Alas, madame.

I am desolate.

You have no newspapers of any description?

- I am so sorry.

- You don't know what sorry is.

Got you, you double-distilled blighter.

Colonel Carbury.

POIROT SPEAKS IN FRENCH Poirot.

All these years travelling, you'd think I'd be used to creepy crawlies by now.

Not a bit of it.

I did not know that you were the enthusiast for antiquity?

For what, old boy?

Nothing.

You are come also for the exploration of Lord Boynton?

Ah.

No, no.

Passing through.

Oh, vraiment.

To where do you pass, Colonel?

Here and there.

You know, here and then... you know.

"There."

All there about.

Absolutely.

DOOR OPENS - Can I help you?

- Oh!

Agnieszka, you are such a fool.

I am looking for number nine.

Oh, this is six.

So sorry, my dear, for my intrusion.

SHE SIGHS You are come to follow the labours of Lord Boynton?

Yes.

He's my stepfather.

Truly God has smiled upon you.

Your stepfather does a great thing, I think.

A great man.

MAN GRUNTING INDISTINCT CHATTER HORN HONKING HE GRUNTS So I may remain assured of your very best services?

Thank you very much.

Americans... do know how to arrive.

Silly little man.

MAN SPEAKS IN ARABIC Look here.

Do you know who I am?

MAN CONTINUES SPEAKING IN ARABIC I am the son of Lord Boynton.

Son of Lord, you pay.

Please.

Thank you, sir.

- Bloody shambles.

- Typical.

If you...

HE SNORES Oh...

CALL TO PRAYER OVER SPEAKERS CHILD CRYING JINNY SCREAMING Jinny?

It's all right, honey.

It's all right now.

I was being drowned.

It was a dream, baby.

It was just a dream.

It was a memory.

JINNY GASPS I can't go on like this.

KNOCK AT DOOR Twelve minutes.

You allowed me to oversleep.

CAROL: Mother... - ..by twelve minutes.

- I am sorry.

Fetch my stick.

Stick!

INDISTINCT CHATTER Ah.

Excellent.

There you are.

It's Leonard.

Boynton.

Your stepson.

How good of you to come, Mr Boynton.

Carol, my vitamins.

- Now, mother?

LADY BOYNTON: Clearly.

Jinny, you look like you're suffering from consumption.

It's drawing attention to yourself in the most unattractive way.

Go to your room and apply colour.

Raymond.

Don't sit there, sit here.

Nanny... go somewhere else.

You look tired, dear.

We need to discuss your attitude.

Sulking is like shyness.

It is unacceptable.

It is showing off.

I'm not sulking, Mother.

I merely question the wisdom of travelling when the market is so jittery.

Wall Street knows better than to breathe without consulting me.

Wherever I may be, at whatever juncture.

I forgot my book.

Fetch my book, Raymond.

You think they're a rum crew, wait till you meet the archaeologist husband.

Although, he's not actually psychotic.

More just old-fashioned bonkers.

HE CHUCKLES Theodore Gerard.

We have met.

Bonce doctor.

I advised on a case in Edinburgh.

Used to have a beard.

Oh.

Yes, of course.

The bonce doctor.

Yeah.

- I recognise you, monsieur.

- Of course, it's all a sham.

The real object of the exercise... ..is a reconciliation of his offspring and hers.

Happy families among the tombs.

- There is disharmony?

Where Lady Boynton is.

The music of the spheres is curiously like nails down a blackboard.

Now, you must excuse me my personal disorder.

Can't help sticking my stupid face down the lion's throat.

Do you mind if I join you for a moment?

There's something I wanted to talk to you about.

SHE SIGHS I can't find these wretched pills.

Oh, God, Raymond.

She has them.

CAROL: What?

She has them already.

They're in her bag.

SHE CHUCKLES The book she sent me to find she didn't even bring to Syria.

Carol, we know these games.

One day, Raymond...

I swear to God... - I know.

- No, I will take a hammer, and I swear... Maybe we should talk about that.

- Don't joke with me, Ray.

- I am your brother.

I never joke.

CALL TO PRAYER OVER SPEAKERS HE SIGHS RAYMOND: The way we let that woman steal them from us.

CAROL: Oh, God, Raymond.

I know.

Well, then, we have no choice.

RAYMOND: She has to die.

INDISTINCT CHATTER MAHMOUD SPEAKING IN ARABIC Hurry up, hurry.

Now.

We are going now.

Please, please.

Yes, sir.

Please, please.

Tickety-boo.

Please.

This way.

OK. OK.

Hurry up, hurry up.

Sit down, sit down.

Hurry up!

Whoo!

It looks like Lord Boynton's expedition has created quite a stir.

So apart from the family on a three-line whip... POIROT GRUNTS Dr King joins us, I suspect, because she stuck a pin in a map of the world.

Mr Jefferson Cope may actually be a little bit dull.

He might possibly like old bits of bone and pot and whatnot.

The Honourable Leonard, saddled with running his father's house in Dorset and no income, while said father swans around the Middle East looking for the head of John the Baptist.

As for the Polish nun, she gives me the heebie-jeebies personally.

HE SPEAKS IN ARABIC No problem, no problem.

Don't be afraid.

No problem.

HE CONTINUES SPEAKING IN ARABIC Abdullah Muhammad!

No problem.

No problem.

CAMEL GRUNTS Hmm.

What have we here, I wonder?

a mobile toll booth?

Dame Celia Westholme.

Sorry to hold up the bus, everybody.

Camel was on loan, had to go back.

Has Boynton made any significant progress?

Does anybody know?

Have you read any of her books, monsieur?

Oui.

It's her fault I'm here.

She makes travel sound so thrilling.

Uh-huh.

SARAH CHUCKLES HE SPEAKS IN ARABIC Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Did you have a nice journey?

I know it's ghastly, isn't it?

Hello, little blossoms.

Hot showers and cold beer for everyone.

Even you, Nanny, you raving old dipsomaniac.

Leonard, dear boy.

LEONARD: Father.

Ah!

My child bride.

Dinner's in the pavilion at eight.

Everyone's invited.

Come along.

Raymond.

Utter bonanza of crippled personalities.

I'd have paid extra for this.

INSECTS HISSING BIRDS CHIRPING MAN SHOUTING IN ARABIC Making yourself useful, Leonard.

Good man.

Coming along!

LORD BOYNTON: That blind chap, down in the Arab camp.

Every night, I hear him tell a variation on the same story.

I've heard it all over Syria.

The daughter of Herodias brought John the Baptist's severed head to this land.

She buried it where the river meets the mountain.

Now, I've been every damn place in Syria where any river meets anything that could possibly be construed as a mountain, from Krak to Aleppo.

This is the only place left.

It has to be here.

Come along, then.

Chop chop.

Oh, mon Dieu.

And these words?

Do they speak of John?

No.

It tells a different story.

A man is sitting in a tavern, in Damascus.

He looks up from his wine and sees Death staring at him across the room.

He cries out, "But this cannot be my time!"

'He flees Damascus.

He rides his horse fast, 'right across the desert to Samarra.

'When he arrives, he is thirsty.'

Standing before him at the well... is Death.

HE CHUCKLES LORD BOYNTON: You're nodding.

Seeing Death for the second time, the man he cries out, "This cannot be!

"For I escaped you in Damascus!"

And Death... he lays his hand upon the shoulder of the man and says... "I also was surprised to see..." SAND TRICKLING "..to see you in Damascus.

"For my appointment with you, "it was always to be here in Samarra."

Try as one might, one cannot escape one's rightful destiny.

Oui.

I know you're here, Johnny.

HE SNIFFS I can almost smell you.

Sugar, Raymond?

To put sugar in one's tea is indicative of weak character.

Raymond doesn't take sugar.

Oh, good morning.

You look dreadful.

- Thank you.

I feel dreadful.

- You should see a doctor.

DR GERARD: I just did.

He told me I had malaria.

SARAH: Oh, no.

- I've dosed myself up.

In as much as it makes a difference.

SARAH: You shan't come on the expedition today.

HE SIGHS If I have an attack on the way to the river...

..I'll most probably die.

And the obvious solution is to remain here all day with Lady Boynton.

- You'd better come with us.

- It's not a difficult decision.

The sun is up.

I shall spend today observing from the platform.

Good idea, poppet.

Cracking view of the Kasbah.

You can keep a beady one on Leonard and myself.

You assist with the digging, monsieur?

Oh, I would assist with digging the drains if the alternative were enforced social intercourse with my father's ghastly ten-ton wife.

You won't come down to the river, Lady Boynton?

By all accounts, the visitor of the Kasper is very fine.

Did the boy bring my Times yet?

- No, Mother.

- Dismiss him!

BEE BUZZING Sorry.

Might have been stung.

Argh!

I am stung!

Yes, there's the bugger.

There.

Oh, goodness.

Let me look at you.

Do not touch me.

Never... touch me.

EAGLE SCREECHES You're always looking at me.

Golly.

Am I?

All the time.

I turn round, and you're just... looking at me.

Why?

Perhaps I like the shape of your face.

It's a very pretty face.

Do you mind?

I certainly shan't do it if you mind.

I don't mind.

POIROT SPEAKING IN FRENCH Do not allow Poirot to detain you.

Oh, I'm in no hurry.

The place has been there a few years.

It's not going anywhere.

- Ah.

You are acquainted with the family Boynton?

One can't live in New York and fail to be acquainted with the Boyntons.

Lady B is a pretty big financial noise.

I like her.

If I may say so, monsieur, it would appear that your amity, it is not reciprocated.

Oh, she hates everybody.

Everybody knows that.

She just doesn't give a damn.

I think it's quite stylish.

You have the outlook most benevolent, monsieur.

I'm easily pleased.

Out in the sun yet again without a hat.

Some people never learn.

Raymond, let me read you what Mr Baedeker has to say.

The monumental edifice known as...

Excuse me.

Thank you so much.

I thought that free from the appalling mother I might be permitted the smallest amount of anodyne conversation with Raymond.

But no.

Evidently, the family has decided I'm a gold-digger, and all overtures of friendship must be stamped on.

Frankly, it's rather insulting.

Well, I'm not having it.

Ladies and gentlemen... now we may rest.

We are arrived.

HE SPEAKS IN ARABIC God is good.

God is glorious.

If you want my professional opinion, which you don't, but you should, so I'm gonna give it to you anyway.

Your family would do well to hear what Herr Freud said to me at a conference last year.

To be American is bad enough, he said, but to put money and... - Oh.

Oh.

Let me look at you.

DR GERARD: I'll be fine.

Mahmoud?

This gentleman must return to camp immediately.

Get your hands off me.

I'll be fine.

Get your ruddy paws off me.

Doctors, think you know everything.

You don't have to carry me.

Jinny!

That's my name.

DR GERARD: I just need a drink of water.

I can hear the gears grinding in the old cerebellum.

Not really.

I was just wondering how Lady Boynton managed to negotiate that ladder affair.

It's pretty vertiginous.

Would it kill you to call her "Mother"?

For me?

"Stepmother" would do.

God, it's hot.

Yes, it is.

Perhaps you would be kind enough to take the lady in question a glass of water.

Father.

Look, I'm sorry.

But are you genuinely blind to the way she treats everyone?

Except you?

Now.

WORKERS SPEAKING IN ARABIC I say.

Would you like a drink?

Can we get you anything at all?

To drink?

Like a bucket of strychnine?

BOTH SPEAK IN ARABIC Get these buggers away from me.

BOTH GRUNTING Doctor, what do we do?

What was that?

What did he say?

He said, "Bugger off."

- Oh.

Right, you are.

Can do.

- Not you.

You stay.

HE SIGHS HE GRUNTS - No, Jinny.

- Oh, God.

God.

I thought... - Yes.

I thought you wanted my company.

I do.

Yes.

That is exactly what I want.

Listen to me.

It's not... ..you.

It's not... ..about the conquest.

HE SIGHS For me, denial is a very... ..particular pleasure.

It's not...

HE EXHALES People say travel broadens the mind mainly because people like me insist on it in their books.

But I have to say I doubt that it is true.

On the contrary, I suspect travel narrows the mind.

One becomes so about the wonders of the world.

The more I travel, the more clearly I understand that... ..all that ever matters is the people... ..not the places.

Those Arabs telling stories over couscous in the camp.

They fascinate me.

This, it's pretty enough but... ..show me the humans every time.

I don't much care for her.

The way she hangs around the younger Boynton girl.

They sniff out weakness, nuns, and misery, and they gorge on it.

Bloody vampires in drag, quite frankly.

WORKERS SHOUTING IN ARABIC Poirot!

How did you find the river?

- Oh, I thought... - Good, good.

We haven't turned up any glories yet, but we live in hope.

- Uh-huh.

Nil carborundum and all that.

And Lady Boynton, she has enjoyed her day?

Oh, yes, monsieur.

She always does.

The word "boredom" simply not in the vocab.

Darling!

I-I think it's time you climbed down from your perch for a Martini.

Poppet?

Should we say about ten minutes?

You little minx.

HE CHUCKLES HE PANTS HE SIGHS LORD BOYNTON: Help!

Help!

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH Help!

Help!

Are you the girl who's a doctor?

- Yes.

- Then you've met Death.

So have I.

Come on.

Shut her eyes.

Shut them.

SARAH SIGHS I-I'm afraid it's true.

She's dead.

Your appointment with Death, madame.

It was always to be here.

Colonel.

You are arrived.

This is an event for which you were prepared.

Non?

No.

This is something else.

Later.

Show me the dead woman.

What happened here?

- Excusez moi, but do you commission me to examine this case?

I do.

You two getting married or something?

Mind if I have a gander at your patient, doc?

- Are you recovered, Doctor?

- I'll manage.

Juicy big hole where there shouldn't be one.

Somebody's stuck her.

- A knife.

Er, bigger than a knife.

Fatter blade.

- A chisel?

- A chisel fits the bill.

Whatever the implement, it was wielded with authority.

One blow in, then vigorously churned about to create maximum damage.

She can't have been dead for more than an hour.

Yes.

I don't know why that should be there.

- It is wax.

- Well, one thing's for certain, she can't stay here in this heat.

I'll make arrangements for the body to be transported.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH Excusez moi.

Yes.

Already there is so much about this case that is wrong.

You yourself are wrong.

You are not what you appear.

You are not a policeman, yet you know a crime it has been committed before it had been reported.

You bear the rank of Colonel, yet where is it, mon ami, that you serve?

So enough of your crypticities.

Explain yourself to Poirot or he cannot accept this case.

Point!

- Crypticities?

- Oui.

Poirot, you're a foreigner.

But I judge you to be a good egg and, therefore, trustworthy.

Now, what I'm about to deal you is a card you must keep very close to your chest.

Is that understood?

- Oui.

You continue with the digging, monsieur?

I am given to understand that it is what Lady Boynton would have wanted.

You were, I think... please do forgive me, somewhere in this area this afternoon.

Yes, Poirot, do you think you could postpone your interrogation of the obvious murder suspect so he can arrange some necessities for his distressed father?

Thank you so much.

Oh, I understand you're looking for a chisel.

Yes?

Fill your boots.

HE SIGHS SHE READS IN ARABIC Dame Celia.

Lord Boynton.

What is it that you read?

I'm cheering the bereaved with judicious extracts from "The Perfumed Garden."

Are people saying that I killed my wife?

Non.

Non, monsieur.

We are all united in our desire to comfort you.

I was always glad that I was older than Leonora.

I thought, "At least I'll die first."

I won't have the agony of trying to live without her.

Nevertheless, it must be admitted the death of Lady B is hardly detrimental to the community.

It is not well, monsieur, that a human being should die before her time it is come.

En plus, the nanny, Madame Taylor, has the great distress.

All right, all right.

Keep your hair on.

For heaven's sake, I was just trying to lighten the mood.

How did you achieve your newspaper, Monsieur Cope?

Came with me.

Many thanks.

I'm just lousy at being intrepid.

Always so hungry for news of home.

Back at the hotel, you couldn't get a paper for love, nor money.

DR GERARD: I know.

EAGLE SCREECHES This may help you in times of stress.

POIROT: Colonel.

Your men.

When is it that they arrive?

Midnight, I should think.

Then you must have them search this area at dawn.

The search most diligent.

All around.

Looking for what?

In the first place, mon ami, a syringe.

It is instrumental in the murder of Lady Boynton.

Right.

Good grief.

It will be done.

Bon.

You see, mon ami... ..the voices of the little grey cells... ..they have begun to sing to Poirot.

FLIES BUZZING Slit throat.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH It is not the custom du pays to waste life and food in this manner?

Barbarous.

MAN: Monsieur.

POIROT: Merci.

- Monsieur.

- Merci.

Look, Poirot, sorry to be so stand-offish.

It's a bit grim seeing one's father cry.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH What do you want to know?

I should like for you to tell me if you spoke to your stepmother yesterday afternoon, and if so, when?

Er, we spoke.

About one o'clock.

Hottest part of the day.

- Bon.

She'd been perched up there like some evil great pudding ever since you lot set off.

I say we spoke.

I spoke.

She ignored me.

Nothing unusual about that.

Can we get you anything at all?

To drink?

'You know how it was.'

One mustn't disturb her when she was taking the sun, but God help you if you neglected to do so.

MAN: Monsieur.

- Oui?

- We found this syringe.

- Ah!

Where was this discovered?

In the tent occupied by the old lady.

The nanny.

Merci.

SISTER AGNIESZKA: And the Lord said unto the servant, "Go out into the highways "and compel them to come into my feast..." "..that my house may be filled."

It's a beautiful parable.

SISTER AGNIESZKA: The word King James renders as "compel" is in the Greek "anankadzo".

It means "compel with violence".

The Spanish knew this.

They used this single word to justify every atrocity of their Inquisition.

For it is God's own command... that those unwilling to enter His kingdom should be persuaded in with pain.

- That's terrible.

- Mm.

Compulsion of any kind, my dear.

It can be terrible.

JINNY: I overheard my stepfather telling the story that was written here.

Of Death following the man across the desert.

Something has followed me here to this place.

Something evil.

God is here to guard you, Jinny.

He lives in every grain of sand.

MAN CHANTING IN ARABIC MAN SPEAKING IN ARABIC CHILD CHOKES, GASPS What is it now?

Sorry gentlemen.

Sand in the grooves.

Quite.

Well, the Arabs are all accounted for.

Oui.

This case, it is most unsatisfactory.

Still plenty of suspects, old boy.

Yes, but almost all of them were outside of the camp at the time that the murder, it was committed.

And this is corroborated by a witness who is impeccable.

Me.

They were with Poirot all of the time.

Raymond wasn't.

He came back.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH COLONEL CARBURY: Also, Lord Boynton and his son.

Yes, yes, and tomorrow we begin the further interrogations.

That's a queer one.

Without doubt, there is more to Monsieur Cope than he wishes to be known.

But in that desire, and in this company, he is not unique.

WOMAN SCREAMING MAN SPEAKING IN ARABIC COLONEL CARBURY: Hurry up!

Quickly!

Off in this direction.

- Where did it come from?

- Is anyone out there?

INDISTINCT CHATTER COLONEL CARBURY: There's no way to escape down there.

LEONARD: What the hell was that?

CAROL: I don't know.

COLONEL CARBURY: Did you see anyone moving?

LEONARD: No.

Where did it come from?

COLONEL CARBURY: It's got to be something.

JINNY SOBS MAN: Over there!

COLONEL CARBURY: Get her inside quickly.

CAROL: It's OK. Shh!

- You men, over here.

- Yes, sir.

MAN SPEAKING IN ARABIC COLONEL CARBURY: Don't let anyone leave.

Sister Agnieszka.

SHE GROANS SHE SOBS, PANTS It's OK.

It's OK.

It's OK. Shh.

It's OK. Everything's gonna be OK. Can I help?

It would be useful to know what she's trying to tell us.

She's not trying to tell us anything.

She's talking to God.

POIROT: You have Polish, monsieur?

DR GERARD: You don't need Polish to spot a woman at her prayers.

Very pretty needlework, Doc.

Shouldn't we be getting her back to the hotel?

Ask Dr King.

You're the senior physician here.

But you're much prettier, and you're handier with the cutlery.

Besides, the nun is your patient.

I've got my hands full with the loony nanny.

Well, this, what I've done, it's only temporary.

So yes, we should.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH It would be helpful to Poirot for all of us to return.

- Ei veniam dare.

- Ei veniam dare.

That's Latin.

"Forgive him"?

Poirot has little Latin.

But it can also be, I think, "Forgive her."

- My men can track... - Non, non, non.

There is no need to despatch your men, Colonel.

The assailant of Sister Agnieszka has not fled.

There was a man.

He followed me across the desert.

I woke up and... ..he was putting a bag over my head.

Slaver.

Bound to be.

People think the slave trade is finished.

It's not.

I've seen the Waiting Caves on the beach at Mangapwani.

One hundred souls crammed into a space hardly bigger than this tent.

I threw myself on the floor to get away.

And when I looked up, I saw... You saw Sister Agnieszka was struggling with your attacker.

And... well, you tried to help her.

And you struck at the man with what?

A rock.

And in your terror, and in the dark... ..accidentally, you struck your friend and protector.

Now, you try to get some sleep if you can.

Because tomorrow we face the rigours of the return journey, huh?

Come close, Jinny.

Let me tell you a story.

This... is the legend of Gilgamesh.

HE SIGHS Will she be all right?

The nun?

Oh.

God knows.

Will you?

I'm not wounded.

That's debatable.

There seems to be consensus that you killed your mother.

HE CHUCKLES Is that your view, Sarah?

Heavens.

Five consecutive words, culminating in my Christian name.

If you're going to be as garrulous as this, Mr Boynton, I shall have to ask you to be less familiar.

- Do you think I killed her?

- No.

No, but what I think is irrelevant.

He's the one you need to convince.

You're the authority on stories.

Tell me... ..what was it that got loose when Pandora opened the box?

- All of the evils of the world.

- That's it.

Mm.

HE INHALES Madness.

Greed.

Shame.

Those guys.

My stepfather did pretty much the same thing... ..when he took the cork out of that goddamn tomb.

And here you are, Poirot... ..kicking the contents all over town.

Did Lady Boynton... harm you physically?

My mother had little recourse to violence.

She was too smart for that.

Instead, she just prised off the top of our skulls and raked her poisonous tongue through our brains.

No place to hide, Poirot... ..even in your own head.

Ever.

Carol, hmm... Carol grew up petrified.

Did her best to ingratiate herself to win approval, which she never got.

Jinny just... ..was terrified to the point of madness... ..and possibly beyond.

CHILD RETCHES CHILD COUGHS Did you murder your mother, monsieur?

No.

But only because I lacked the moral courage.

She was a monster, Poirot.

It was her pleasure, always, to watch us suffer.

Why was she driven to be so cruel?

- To punish us, I guess.

- For what offence?

For being someone else's kids.

It's true.

We were adopted.

All of us.

It is no crime against God or nature to be an orphan.

Oh, but it is, monsieur.

It is a hideous crime.

Lady Boynton... Mrs Pierce, as she was then, she... ..she wanted to have children so badly.

But between her and Mr Pierce, they couldn't make it happen.

For Mom, adoption was the only route.

But once she'd assembled her family, of which there were many candidates.

BOTH SOBBING Don't!

It was an accident.

CAROL: 'And rejected a great number.'

CHILD CRYING Oh, yes, monsieur, there were many children who were... presented to us as new siblings... ..only to be removed a day later.

CHILD CRYING One child stayed longer than the others, but the beatings went on until she also disappeared.

So there we were, we lucky few, Raymond, Carol and Jinny.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH Mademoiselle Jinny, she was not even born.

Who was this other child?

I don't know.

I can't remember.

Who was that little girl?

SHE SNIFFLES Unacceptable goods.

CHILD SCREAMING, CRYING KNOCK AT DOOR Merci.

Who was the child that you beat, madame?

Can you tell it to Poirot?

Leslie.

Yes.

Leslie.

Can you tell to me about Leslie, madame?

You had to beat her?

She needed to be punished?

I did what was required of me.

CHILD CRYING I don't think we're sufficiently sorry.

Not by a long chalk.

Again, Nanny.

CHILD SCREAMING NANNY: 'God, she was an evil woman.'

And Leslie, madame?

What became of her?

She is alive?

Father... Father...

I'm not your father, my dear.

But I'll do my best.

Can you get me that bag?

I'll do my best to make you comfortable.

Thank you.

BAG CLANKING DR GERARD: Bog standard sedative.

Check it if you want, Poirot.

Come on.

There's a good girl.

Come on.

- Mm.

SHE COUGHS HE SIGHS Oh, Monsieur Cope.

Monsieur, do you have a moment?

- But of course.

- I, er... I-I don't know if this has any relevance to, er, what's been going on, but... it seems I've lost quite a lot of money.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH No, no, that's OK. What's of interest is that the stock that's gone down the pan is The Pierce Holding Company.

- Non.

- Yes.

Lady Boynton's outfit.

Fireproof, bombproof... ..the safest bet on Wall Street.

I myself invested substantially.

Seems that while we've been away, there's been this rumour about the true value of the company.

These things, they come and go.

Lady Boynton'd generally get up on her hind legs, tell everyone to shut up and sit up straight, it'd all calm down.

But she wasn't there.

The rumour became a panic.

Then, a stampede to get out.

The whole outfit's bust to hell.

The shares are worthless.

ALL SPEAKING IN ARABIC Oh, God.

Here comes that ghastly little Belgian.

Wringing his hands like the cowman come to collect his Christmas box.

He's being respectful, Father.

- He's being a damned nuisance.

- Monsieur.

Come for a nightcap among the bereaved?

Non, merci, Lord Boynton.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH Oh, for God's sake, sit down, Poirot.

You're giving me indigestion, hovering like that.

POIROT: Merci.

I suppose it is quite proper that I should be questioned.

I was on the spot at the time.

And I imagine I inherit my wife's estate so... And the estate of Lady Boynton, of what does this principally consist?

Well, God knows.

I never had charge of the money.

Leonora just subbed the digging as it went along.

Do you know, Leonard?

Raymond would have a clearer idea of value, but it must add up to a few quid.

You disagree, monsieur?

Since we have been in Syria, there has been the financial collapse catastrophique.

The Pierce Holding Company is utterly disintegrated.

It seems that the death of Lady Boynton was not enough.

It also seems that... ..she has been obliterated from the earth.

It may surprise you to know, Mr Poirot, that I am not unaware that Lady Boynton was not universally adored.

Like many women who know their own mind, she found it all too easy to make enemies.

She did not make an enemy of me.

I loved her.

I am not ashamed to say so.

To you.

Or to my son.

Was it necessary to air that observation in quite that way?

The methods of Poirot, monsieur, cannot always be agreable.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH Were you acquainted with Lady Boynton before encountering her at the tomb?

Well, I'd seen her about.

SHE SIGHS Where had you seen her, madame?

Lady Boynton was pointed out to me by a man at a party who then proceeded to tell me rather a lot about her.

About the way, in particular, she treated her children.

I decided that I had no wish for further acquaintance with the woman by introducing myself to her.

She sounded perfectly odious.

And who was this man that was so well-informed?

I didn't catch his name.

I wanted her dead, too.

Just in case you were wondering.

She was clearly blocking my way.

Raymond couldn't even look me in the eye with her still in existence.

- So, do you commend yourself to me as a suspect, mademoiselle?

I commend myself to you as one who has recently invested a great deal of time in a relationship that was always heading nowhere.

I now know that when I find something I want, I must act to take it.

DAME CELIA: Bravo.

Sadly, all this resolution has taken your mind off the game.

It's a little trick I learnt the other day in Vienna.

You see, just when you least expect it, the church comes storming back.

Checkmate.

ALL SPEAKING IN ARABIC I didn't know you smoked.

I don't.

HE INHALES I've given up.

Since you threw the cigarette away, you've given up?

Well, your determination is impressive.

All six seconds of it.

Keep talking, I could go ten.

If I hadn't spoken, would you just have kept watching me?

We'll never know.

SHE CHUCKLES - You're a strange man.

- Does that matter?

Not necessarily.

Raymond.

Yeah?

Now is the time to kiss me.

Yeah.

HE SPEAKS IN ARABIC Anybody in here who isn't dead?

SISTER AGNIESZKA PRAYS IN POLISH HE SIGHS SHE CONTINUES PRAYING HE PANTS LORD BOYNTON: They have him, by God!

They have found the head of John.

News that is astonishing, monsieur.

I must return to Ain Musa immediately.

Is there a problem?

Nanny Taylor has drowned herself in the bath.

Suicide.

Oh, my God.

That's awful news.

- Oui.

- Is somebody dealing with it?

- Oui, monsieur.

Because I must... I-I must get back to the dig.

I can't... you know.

HE CHUCKLES Oui.

Moral of the story, if you want your death to attract the concern of your employer, make sure you're 2,000 years old.

Oh, I keep meaning to give you something.

It's the details of the immigration you needed.

And on the back here is a list of employees.

Merci.

As requested, I've had a word with Mahmoud.

Some of his boys are privately saying that there was some character lurking about on the ladder that afternoon.

An Arab.

Not one of them.

But that was a good hour or so before the time of death.

This case is a mess, Poirot.

Not so, mon ami.

This case... ..when Poirot has almost given up scrabbling for purchase on its shell of armour... ..pfft...

It opens to him like a flower.

Good Lord.

So... what do we do?

We do what the murderer least expects Poirot to do.

We return to the dig.

All of us.

SISTER AGNIESZKA PRAYING IN POLISH HE CLEARS THROAT This case, mes amis, it is full of the red... fish.

"Herrings," possibly?

POIROT: Merci.

There are so many diversions.

So many distractions.

Attend well to Poirot as he peels them away like the skin of an onion.

Oh, herrings, onions.

Do get a wriggle on.

There's a good fellow.

Lord Boynton.

Your wife, she funded your expeditions as you went along, huh?

How much more efficient it would be to have the money all at once, non?

- What?

- There is no money.

Non, monsieur, for you, non, there never has been.

For the running of Boynton Hall, alors, is for you always most arduous.

No, Lady Boynton, she was always most munificent to your father but never towards his son.

You can stare at me significantly as long as you like, monsieur.

I've done nothing wrong.

Tell to Poirot what was in the bag.

What bag?

'What did you agree to purchase from the ragged Arab boy?'

I remember the boy.

I don't remember what rubbish he was flogging.

Fortunately, Poirot, he does.

And from it... ..he extracted... ..this.

Voila.

- Voila what?

Well, it's a tooth.

POIROT SPEAKS IN FRENCH It is a molar taken from the upper jaw of St John.

You will observe that it bears the traces of the filling of gold.

For this skull... it was supposed to masquerade as the skull of John the Baptist.

But in fact, it is, as you say, Monsieur Leonard... rubbish.

What the devil are you talking about, man?

This wasn't purchased from a hawker and planted.

This is untouched.

This entire sample was exhumed e situ intacto.

Forgive me, Poirot, but you're drivelling utter bilge.

Pompous little Belgian.

As my father has explained, this object was discovered undisturbed.

It's a perfect fit.

I don't understand.

All your life, Father... ..traipsing about the Middle East.

Time after time, finding absolutely nothing of significance.

I wanted it to end.

You dear, deluded, stupid man.

I never expected your wife's bloody money.

I never wanted it.

I wanted you to be free of this need.

To find what you've been looking for.

Do you mind if I step out for a while?

- I'll come with you.

- No, no.

I simply wish to be alone for a moment.

Is that permitted?

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH Now, the three of you.

POIROT SIGHS The litany of cruelties you have endured.

The ceaseless humiliations.

CHILD SCREAMING, CRYING POIROT: You multiply these incidents by hundreds and thousands and the corrosion of the spirit, it is inevitable and insupportable.

BOTH CRYING No wonder you wished to see Lady Boynton dead.

Indeed, Poirot, he overheard you, Mademoiselle Carol, and you, Monsieur Raymond, whispering that your mother... she must die.

And you, Dr King... ..by your own admission, you also wished to see her dead.

You are a woman who has wasted time and has decided and determined to waste no more.

What do we know of you, Monsieur Cope?

Me?

Will you show to me your passport?

Merci.

You choose to use your second Christian name and not your first.

- Yes.

Why have you elected to do so, I wonder.

My first given name is ambiguous in terms of gender.

The spelling is different, but it is also a girl's name.

As a child, I found that... tiresome.

I would suggest that there are many things about your childhood that you found "tiresome".

Monsieur Leslie... ..Jefferson Cope.

CHILD SCREAMS, CRIES I don't think we're sufficiently sorry.

The child that was thrashed... ..so brutally on the orders of Lady Boynton was not a girl, as misremembered by her daughter, Carol.

Non.

But a boy... ..by the name of Leslie.

If you know all that... ..you'll also know that I didn't kill her.

Merely to deprive her of her life would afford for you satisfaction most scant.

Non, you wanted to make her life unbearable.

To degrade her, to hurt the woman, as... she hurt you.

Lady Boynton was a person preoccupied with station and money, and you decided to strip her of them both.

So I may remain assured of your very best services?

POIROT: 'Of what service did you wish to remain assured?'

You have no newspapers of any description?

MAN: I am so sorry.

POIROT: The withholding from Lady Boynton of the newspapers that would keep her ignorant of the panic that you yourself had inspired to ensure the destruction of her empire.

I'm just lousy at being intrepid.

Back at the hotel, you couldn't get a paper for love, nor money.

And, like the confidence trickster so accomplished... ..you invested in your own deceit.

You wrote off thousands of dollars of your own savings merely to blow smoke in the face of Poirot.

Ah, Monsieur Cope.

It seems I've lost quite a lot of money.

Poirot has one more red herring left to fry.

And it is a fish most substantial.

Le Colonel, mes amis, he is not a policeman but is retained by the Foreign Office.

His mission in Syria was to uncover and destroy the trafficking of female slaves.

The abduction and sale of women for one purpose only.

POIROT SPEAKS IN FRENCH I knew it!

Arab women?

Whatever the client ordered.

- White women?

- Yes.

They wanted... me.

Helas, mademoiselle.

It is the opinion of Poirot... ..that there is a person who instructed his agent to search for a young lady who is Caucasian and resembled you exactement.

With your skin that is pale and your hair...

HE SIGHS ..that is red.

Who is this "agent", Poirot?

Is he here amongst us now?

- Oh... Ah.

Certainement.

Mademoiselle Jinny, when you struck at your attacker that night, you hit your target.

SHE SOBS, PANTS It's OK.

The woman who befriended you so assiduously, it was she who was smothering your face.

Sister Agnieszka!

SHE GROANS Rot in hell.

You, sister, will face the consequences.

The key... to the murder of Lady Boynton it is not who.

It is when.

Dame Celia, do you have any children?

No.

I do not.

I urge you to reconsider your answer, madame.

I cannot reconsider.

I have no children.

Well, then... ..madame, you are a liar.

You have a daughter and she is amongst us now.

That is a filthy lie.

And in extremely poor taste.

So you disown her now as you did when she was a baby?

Reclaim her of your own volition!

You owe to her a debt of ungiven love.

I had no choice.

No choice!

What was your position in the household of Lady Boynton in the days when she was Mrs Pierce?

Huh?

- A junior maid.

POIROT: Oui.

C'est ca.

A servant of the lowest position whose duty it is to scrub.

Not to become pregnant by a guest of your employer.

The woman to whom you surrendered your child on the day of its birth!

Is it me?

Non, Mademoiselle Carol.

It is not you.

Oh, my God.

I'm so sorry.

You gave birth to me... ..and delivered me up to that bitch?

I came to save you.

How did you know this?

Mademoiselle... Poirot, he did not know for certain... until this... very moment.

Non, non, non, mademoiselle.

HE INHALES Mon Colonel, Poirot he is much obliged to you for the accounts of the household and the registry of immigration which shows that three weeks after the baby it was born, Celia Westholme arrived on the coast of Ireland to be taken care... ..of by nuns.

Your child, she had been taken from you, and so you were now to become invisible, to nurse your shame.

But you were not to be the outcast.

Oh, no.

You were to recreate yourself as a free spirit.

Er... A writer, a traveller.

A success.

Dame Celia Westholme.

And every time you thought of your daughter you consoled yourself with the hope that she was happy.

But she had not begun life afresh.

She was not happy.

She remained as a prisoner in the household of Lady Boynton.

CHILD SPLUTTERS CHILD COUGHING And your regret, it came flooding back... ..to boil in your heart.

DAME CELIA: 'Let me tell you a story.'

This... is the legend of Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh was the most beautiful man in all creation.

So you went in search of the father of your child, to Vienna, so out of the way of your customary travels, and together with this man, you agreed... ..to investigate to see whether the cruelties of Lady Boynton they were true.

And you discovered that all of the children... had been tormented.

It was not the hornet that stung Lady Boynton.

'How could it?'

- Sorry, might have been stung.

- Argh!

The hornet, it was already dead.

You stung her... ..with this.

LADY BOYNTON: Argh!

POIROT: 'Which you then returned to Dr Gerard 'who had prepared it for you.'

LADY BOYNTON: I am stung!

POIROT: He then cleaned it and discarded it in the tent of Nanny Taylor, to implicate her.

This is colossal.

W-Wha... what was in the syringe?

A concoction of your own devising, Doctor, probably based on morphia.

You can't kill a woman the size of La Boynton with a thimbleful of morphia.

As you well know.

Er, doctor, you affect to know little of the administering of drugs when en effect you are the expert.

You greet Poirot and ask him if he remembers you from Edinburgh.

The "bonce doctor" with the beard.

Poirot, he remembers everything.

For when you took the witness stand in Edinburgh to speak on the life of the mind, the clerk of the court, he read out your qualifications.

Ha-ha.

And anaesthesia, Doctor, was your discipline, long before psychiatry.

No, of course, you cannot kill Lady Boynton with such a dose, but you can remove from her control of the nervous system.

The power over her movement, the power over her speech!

SHE MOANS POIROT: And Lady Boynton... ..who professed herself a lover of the sun, was now roasting to death... ..and could say nothing.

Ingenious, monsieur... and commendably grotesque.

But Lady Boynton did not "roast to death".

She was stabbed!

Oh, your prestidigitation with drugs, Doctor, was not over yet.

You injected yourself to simulate the symptoms of malaria.

Symptoms so authentic that you fooled even Dr King.

- Let me look at you.

- I'll be fine.

Mahmoud?

This gentleman needs to return to camp.

POIROT: 'Mademoiselle Jinny, she attended you.

'And how did you repay her for her kindness?

'By giving to her another sedative of your own invention.'

To consolidate your alibi.

Earlier, you had killed a goat... ..and trapped a quantity of its blood in a ball of wax.

'This object you secreted in the folds 'of the clothes of your victim, 'where in due course it would melt in the heat of the sun.'

One can never have enough sun, huh?

SHE MUMBLES What?

You could have killed her then, but you wanted her to suffer for as long as possible.

SHE GROANS Speak up, dear.

SHE GROANS I can't help you if you don't speak up.

POIROT: You used the ball of wax to confuse the time of death.

And it was this wax that Poirot, he discovered on the dress of Lady Boynton and on the floorboards and the little piece of pottery beneath her chair.

Wax which told to Poirot that there was an accomplice to the murder.

SHE GROANS, POIROT SPEAKING IN FRENCH You waited patiently!

The wax, it melted.

'The blood of the goat, it began to flow, 'suggesting to the naked eye 'that she had already been stabbed.'

And at last, the cry it went up to tell the world... LORD BOYNTON: Help!

- ..that Lady Boynton was dead.

But she was not dead.

Non, not yet.

Are you the girl who's a doctor?

- Yes.

- Then you've met Death.

So have I.

Come on.

Only now was Death to meet its victim.

And in the sight of everyone, in the sight of Hercule Poirot himself, You, Dame Celia, murdered Lady Boynton with your own hands as prescribed by Dr Gerard to quench your rage.

It took but a few seconds, and even Dr King was deceived into believing that Lady Boynton had died earlier that day.

If you please to empty the contents of your handbag.

Ah, oui.

And Dr Gerard, he encouraged Poirot to seek for the chisel.

Chisel fits the bill.

Whereas the murder weapon, it was in your hand all of the day.

Goodness.

We did go to considerable trouble.

One question... ..what makes you think any of this has any basis whatsoever in the truth?

Nanny Taylor.

HE SCOFFS Dear God!

Did I kill her as well?

Or was she one of yours?

POIROT: You disordered her mind with a solution of mescaline so strong that the very speck of it made the head of Poirot to spin.

You wanted to promote in her hallucinations, to make her susceptible to suggestion.

You burdened her mind with so much shame and guilt that, given the opportunity, you knew that she would do harm to herself.

You know you can't go on... ..after everything that you did.

Think what you helped her to do to little Jinny.

CHILD JINNY COUGHING What did Nanny Taylor say to you?

F-Father!

This was not the ravings of a nervous breakdown.

For you yourself had told to her that you were the father of Mademoiselle Jinny.

Portrait of Mum and Dad.

You'll appreciate now why I declined your particular offer of affection.

HE SIGHS Well, well.

This is a pickle.

We set out to save you and destroyed everything.

Thank you, Theo.

It's all part of the service.

No extra charge.

I never stopped loving you, you know.

HE SIGHS Be careful with this one, Poirot.

Digitalis.

The action, as you will appreciate, is irreversible.

I'm so sorry.

We hoped it wouldn't come to this.

SHE GASPS, PANTS There, there, there.

There, there.

There.

DR GERARD: Don't, Doctor.

DR GERARD GRUNTS DR GERARD: Look to the living.

They pay their bills... quicker... ..and they make better... ..conversation.

HE GASPS SHE SOBS CROWS CAWING - Monsieur.

- Ah.

I've just been chatting to Lord Boynton.

And, erm, he pronounces himself cured of archaeology.

- Chatting.

- Oui.

Monsieur Raymond, in the matter of Pandora, you will recall that after all the evils had escaped from the box, there was one other creature, very small, very frail, that followed them into the world.

Hope.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH - Monsieur Poirot?

- Mademoiselle.

Carol and I are going to Egypt to see the Sphinx.

It's not much of an adventure, but we're doing it on our own.

It's a start.

It was actually my idea.

Lady Boynton would have said I was constitutionally too feeble... that my skin was too fair... ..but I think it's probably time I showed my feeble skin who's boss.

C'est bien, mademoiselle.

Before he leaves, you will permit an old man to pontificate?

Alors, mademoiselle, there is nothing in the world so damaged... ..that it cannot be repaired by the hand of Almighty God.

I encourage you to know this because without this certainty, we should all of us... ..be mad.

HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH Au revoir.