Chapter 10 Ten Desmonds

Two days later in the morning, Hercule.Poirot sipped his chocolate drink while reading a letter that had just arrived.He read it twice, and it looked like it was written by someone underage, but the handwriting was not bad. Dear M. Poirot: This letter must have seemed out of place to you, and perhaps it would be less presumptuous to mention a friend of yours.I have tried to find her and ask her to take me to you, but apparently she has traveled far from home, I mean the novelist Madame Olivier.Her secretary said that she seems to have traveled to East Africa. If so, she must not be back in the short term. I really want to meet you, and I really need your advice.

Mrs. Olivier knew my mother; they had met at a literary dinner.I would be very grateful if you could make an appointment to see me.No matter what time of day, I can be on time for appointments.I don't know if it's useful to mention this, but Mrs. Olivier's secretary mentioned the word elephant. I guess this must have something to do with Mrs. Olivier's trip to East Africa.The secretary sounds like some kind of code word, I really don't understand it, but you may know it.I am in a state of extreme worry anxiety and I would be grateful if you could meet me! Yours sincerely Desmond.Burden card

Nom dun petit bonhomme (French: good boyish name)!said Poirot. What?asked George. Just talking casually.Hercule.Poirot said: Once some things break into your life, it is very difficult to get rid of it.To me, it's the elephant problem. Poirot left the table, called Miss Lemon, his faithful secretary, and brought DesmondBordenka's letter was handed to her, asking her to make an appointment with him. Poirot said: I'm not busy at the moment, and tomorrow will be fine. Miss Lemon reminded Poirot that there were two appointments the next day, but there was still plenty of time, and she would arrange them as he wished.

Want to talk about the zoo?asked Miss Lemon. No, Poirot said: Don't mention elephants in the letter. Don't worry about it. Elephants are huge and take up too much area.Well, let's not talk about this anymore, Desmond and I.Bordenka's talk will definitely come up again. Ask the elephant to go! Desmond.Mr. Bordenka has arrived.While announcing, George led the guests into the room. Poirot got up and stood by the fireplace. He was silent for a minute or two, getting a preliminary impression of the visitor, and then went forward.Desmond was a little nervous, but he was in high spirits, which was only natural.Desmond, slightly disturbed but well concealed, held out his hand and said:

Are you M. Poirot? Yes.Poirot said: You are Desmond.Borden card, right?please sit down.tell me how can i help youWhat are you looking for me for? It's hard to say.Desmond said. Many things cannot be said in one sentence, Poirot said: But we have plenty of time, sit down. Desmond looked at the man in front of him suspiciously, thinking that he looked really funny, with an egg-shaped head and an exaggerated beard, he was not the type of person with a good appearance, which was very different from his imagination. Desmond said: You are a detective, right?I mean you specialize in investigations and people come to you just to find out for them?

Yes.Poirot said: That is part of my job. I don't think you know the purpose of my coming here, nor who I am, do you? Poirot said: I have heard a little bit about it. Desmond You mean Mrs. Olivier, your friend mentioned it to you? She told me she had met one of her goddaughters, Celia.Miss Ravenk, eh? Yes, Celia told me, did this Mrs. Olivia know my mother too?I mean, familiar? No, I don't think they know each other very well.Mrs. Olivia said that she and Lingtang met and talked at a dinner party recently. As far as I know, your mother made some kind of request to Mrs. Olivier.

She has no right to do so.said the young man.Desmond pulled his face and looked very angry, as if he had a deep hatred with his mother.Really, mother, I mean I can understand, said Poirot: you must be in a bad mood these days, and in fact probably always have been.Mothers keep doing things their kids don't like, don't they? Yes, but my mother, I mean she's always meddling in things that have absolutely nothing to do with her. As far as I know, you and Miss Ravenk are very close friends. Mrs. Olivia has received good news from your mother, probably in the near future? Yes, but my mother really didn't have to ask and worry about things that had nothing to do with her.

But mothers are like this, Poirot smiled faintly: You should be very dependent on your mother, right? I'm not going to say that, Desmond said: No, I definitely didn't Well, I better get straight to the point, she's not my real mother. real?I don't know about it. I was adopted, Desmond said: She had a son who died, and then she wanted to adopt a child, so she adopted me.She treats me like her own son, talks like her own son, and thinks I'm her own, but I'm not, we're not alike at all, and we don't see things the same way. understandable.said Poirot. I seem to be digressing.

You want me to try to investigate something, to understand something? Hope it works, but I don't know how much you, uh, know about the whole problem? I know only one thing, said Poirot: I don't know the details.I don't know much about you or Miss Ravenk, I haven't met Miss Ravenk yet, but I want to see her. Well, I wanted to bring her along to talk to you, but decided I'd better come first. very sensible.Poirot said: Are you troubled by something?what are you worried about?Are there any difficulties? Not really, no, it shouldn't be difficult.It's just that, many years ago, when Celia was just a child, a student at best, a tragedy happened, well, the kind of tragedy that could happen any moment now.You know, two people got upset by something, and they took their lives together.It was a suicide, and no one knew what was going on, or why.But it happened after all, and their kids had nothing to do with it.I mean, it's enough for them to know the facts, and it has nothing to do with my mother.

When people get older, Poirot said: You will find that people often have a strong interest in things that have nothing to do with themselves, and even care more about things that have nothing to do with themselves. But it's all over, and no one knows the details.But my mother kept asking, wanted to know the truth, and even bothered Celia, so Celia didn't know whether to marry me. What about yourself?Do you still want to marry her? Yes, of course, I just want to marry her, I am determined to marry her.But she was upset and she wanted to know why, why these things happened.She also thought I thought she was wrong, she thought my mother knew something, she thought she had heard some rumors.

Oh, I do sympathize.Poirot said: But I don't think there is any reason why you should be prevented from marrying, if you are sensible enough and really want to marry.I have investigated this tragedy and received some information.As you said, that was years ago, there is no full explanation, there hasn't been.It is impossible for a person to understand all the tragedies that have happened in a lifetime. It's a suicide, Desmond said: It can't be anything else, but, um Do you want to know the reason for suicide? Well, yes, Celia had been deeply suspicious, and I was almost worried too.My mother was worried too, although it was absolutely none of her business.I don't think anyone is wrong, I mean, there was no argument.The problem is, we don't know what's going on.Well, I mean, there's no way I'd know because I wasn't there. Did you know the Ravenkers or Celia before? I can say I've known Celia since I was a child, I lived next door to her when we were very young.We liked each other a lot, got in and out, stuff like that.And then the days went by, and I didn't see Celia again for many years.You know, her parents are in Peninsular Malaysia, and so are my parents.I think they met again in Peninsular Malaysia, I mean my father and mother.By the way, my father has passed away.I think my mother heard some rumors when she was in the Malay Peninsula, and I still remember it, and it still haunts me, and she seems to believe in those nonsense, which I think are all rumors, and she bothers Celia with these rumors.I wanted to know what the hell was going on, and Celia wanted to know too.what is going on?Why?How did it happen?We don't want to just listen to a bunch of rumours. Well, it's only natural for you to feel that way.Poirot said: I think Celia is more concerned than you, she is more disturbed than you.But then again, are these really that important?The important thing is now, you want to marry this girl, and she also wants to marry you, what does the past have to do with you?What did it matter if her parents committed suicide, died in a plane crash, or if one died accidentally and the other killed herself?Does it matter if there is an affair in their life that leads to misfortune? Yes, Desmond said: You've got a good point, you're right, but, well, I've got to make sure she's happy with what's going on.She is the kind of person who doesn't talk about it, but cares about it in her heart. Has it not occurred to you, said Poirot, that it is difficult, though not impossible, to find out the truth? You mean, find out why one of them killed the other, or who killed the other before committing suicide?I don't think it will be very difficult, unless there is some secret. Well, but it's all over, so what does it matter now? It didn't matter, it wouldn't have mattered if my mother hadn't intervened, and I don't think Celia would mind it.I think Celia was studying far away in Switzerland at the time, and no one told her the details.When you're a teenager or even younger, you have to accept what's done or what else. Have you ever thought that maybe your expectations are impossible? I want you to find out.Desmond said: Maybe you can't find it out, or you don't want to look it up I won't say no to this.Poirot said: In fact, everyone has curiosity.tragedy!These things, in the form of sorrow, surprise, shock, sickness, are human tragedies, and once one is fascinated by them, one naturally wants to find out.But what I want to say is, is it necessary for you to go over the old case?Is that wise? Probably unwise, Desmond said: but Also, Poirot interrupted him: do you agree that it is almost impossible to retrace this tragedy after so long? No, Desmond said: I don't agree with that, I think it's possible. interesting.Poirot said: Why do you think it is possible? because for what?do you have an answer I figured someone must know.I think they could tell you something if they wanted to.They might not want to tell me, Celia, but you can ask. interesting.said Poirot. There's a lot going on, Desmond said: I've heard some vaguely, something to do with mental issues.Someone, I don't know who, maybe Mrs Ravenk, I heard she was in a mental institution for several years, a long time.There had been a tragedy in her youth when a child died or had an accident.Well, rumor has it that she caused it. I don't think you already know this, do you? Well, my mother said it, and she heard it too.I think I heard it in Peninsular Malaysia.You also know that these people in government agencies like to get together, and those wives and wives like to gather together to make irresponsible remarks and spread things that are not credible at all. So you want to find out if this rumor is true or just made up? Well, I don't know how to check, and I can't do it now, because it's been too long, and I don't know who to ask and who to turn to.But unless I actually find out why You mean that Poirot said: I think this conjecture is correct, you think, unless Celia.Ravenk is sure she didn't inherit mental illness from her mother, or she wouldn't want to marry you, would she? I guess that's what she thought, maybe it was hinted to her by my mother, and my mother should believe it too.I really don't understand why she should believe such rude slander and rumours. This is not an easy matter to investigate.said Poirot. Yes, but I've heard a lot of people mention you, and they say you're good at finding out and asking people questions to get them to tell you the truth. Who do you think I should ask?When you mention the Malay Peninsula, I assume you are not talking about the locals?You are talking about the so-called Madam era, when Britain still had government personnel stationed in the Malay Peninsula.You are referring to the British, and the rumors circulating in British establishments. I'm not saying that will be useful, I think whoever is spreading rumors and making irresponsible remarks, after so long, he may have forgotten it, and he may even have passed away.My mother just listened to some rumours, and then made up more nonsense. but you still think i can Well, I am not asking you to go to the Malay Peninsula to investigate the case, none of those people are still there now. Can you tell me who to investigate? Probably not a lot. How many are there? Well, I think a couple of people might know the details, and why.Because uh, maybe they were there.They should know, from their point of view. Why don't you go find them yourself? Oh, I could, I tried, but I think they won't. Well, I don't know, I can't say the question I want to ask, and neither can Celia, I think.They were all very nice people, which is why they probably knew, not because they were mean or gossips, but because they might have helped Celia's parents.They may have tried to make things better, without success.Oh, I'm talking nonsense. No, Poirot said: You speak very well, I am very interested, I think you have your own scale in your mind.Tell me, does Celia agree with you? I didn't tell her too much because she liked Meddy and Zili a lot. Maddy and Zili? That's their name.Well, I have to explain, I didn't make it clear just now.When Celia was very young, when I first met her and lived next door to her, she had a French um, I think it's called a boarder now, then it was called a governess, and it was a French lady .She is very nice and plays with us kids.To make it easier to pronounce, Celia called her Meddie (the irregular pronunciation of the French word "Miss"), and later the whole family called her Meddie. Oh, it's a French lady. Yes, she's French, so she might be willing to tell you things she doesn't want to tell others. Well, what about the other one? Zili is a governess like Maddie and Miss France.I think Maddy went back to France or Switzerland after two or three years at Celia's tutor, and that's why Zili succeeded her as governess.Zili is younger than Maddy, so we don't call her Maddy, and Celia calls her Qili.She's young, pretty and funny and plays games with us and we all really like her and the whole family loves her.General Ravenk was very fond of Qi Li, and they often played cards together, those double bridges and things. And what about Mrs Ravenk? Oh, Madam loves Qi Li very much, and Qi Li also likes Madam very much, that's why she came back after leaving. return? Well, when Mrs. Ravenk was sick and hospitalized, Qi Li came back to keep company and take care of Mrs.I don't know for sure, but I believe so.I even think she should have been there when the tragedy happened so she might know the truth. do you have her addressDo you know where she is now? Well, I know, I have her address, and both of them.I think you can go meet her, or both.I know there are many things to ask Desmond suddenly stopped. Poirot stared at him for a moment, and said: Well, of course, there are many.