1:31:11
Ladies and gentlemen,
may I have your attention, please.
1:31:15
May I respectfully suggest
that there should be no talking
1:31:18
while Monsieur Poirot addresses you.
If anyone wishes to make a statement,
1:31:22
he or she can do so
at the meeting's end.
1:31:25
Thank you.
1:31:29
Ladies and gentlemen, you are
all aware that a repulsive murderer
1:31:33
has himself been repulsively
and perhaps deservedly murdered.
1:31:37
How and why?
1:31:38
Here is the simple answer.
1:31:40
There is evidence
supporting the theory
1:31:42
that the murderer
was a stranger to us all.
1:31:45
Mrs. Hubbard was conscious
of a man in her compartment
1:31:48
soon after 1:15 a.m.
1:31:50
She later found near her bedside
the button of a wagon-lit conductor.
1:31:56
Fräulein Schmidt discovered,
planted in her suitcase,
1:32:00
the uniform of a conductor,
1:32:02
which could not possibly
have fitted Pierre,
1:32:04
and from which, in fact,
there was a button missing.
1:32:07
And in the trouser
pocket of the uniform
1:32:10
was a conductor's passkey.
1:32:14
Later still, Mrs. Hubbard discovered
this bloodstained dagger,
1:32:19
which Dr. Constantine confirms
1:32:21
could have been
the murderer's weapon.
1:32:25
The obvious implication
is that the murderer,
1:32:29
disguised as a conductor,
boarded the train at Belgrade,
1:32:32
made his way by means
of the convenient passkey
1:32:35
to Ratchett's compartment,
stabbed him to death,
1:32:38
planted the dagger
and the uniform,
1:32:40
and then departed, since the train
was now halted in a snowdrift.
1:32:45
Who was he?
1:32:47
I am inclined to agree
with Mr. Foscarelli,
1:32:50
who believes that he was
a rival member of the Mafia,
1:32:53
exacting private vengeance
for a vendetta
1:32:55
whose precise nature the Yugoslav
police will undoubtedly identify.