Death in the Clouds: a Hercule Poirot Mystery by Agatha Christie (1935) Part 2

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Passengers on the Plane

Seat 2 Madame Giselle

Seat 4 James Ryder

Seat 5 Monsieur Armand Dupont

Seat 6 Monsieur Jean Dupont

Seat 8 Daniel Clancy

Seat 9 Hercule Poirot

Seat 10 Doctor Bryant

Seat 12 Norman Gale

Seat 13 The Countess of Horbury

Seat 16 Jane Grey

Seat 17 The Hon. Venetia Kerr

"Because you are deducing from things that you have seen. Nothing can be so misleading as observation." - Hercule Poirot

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Poirot meets up with Inspector Japp to discuss the case more. A French man named Monsieur Fournier is called upon to assist during the investigation. After sharing a meal together, they meet with the lawyer for Madame Giselle. We discover that she had a daughter, Anne Morisot. Fournier tells everyone that he went to Madame Giselle's and was informed that any and all documents and papers the woman had in possession were burned by her maid Elise. This was previous arrangement with her mistress in case anything were to happen to her.

After the lawyer departs, more discussion happens about the flight plan. We learn that Poirot's original seat was to be seat 17 but he switched with one of the ladies as they wanted to be able to talk more easily on the flight. Poirot makes a very distinct point about the murderer, he or she was not afraid to fire the dart, but did not dispose of the pipe very well. Typically a murderer will remove as much evidence as possible to prevent being caught.

The police department had finally collected an entire manifest of all the items that each passenger had in their possession while on the plane. Amongst all the clothes, cigarettes and handkerchiefs, a small bottle of ink labeled boracic powder in Lady Horbury's makeup bag was actually cocaine. After trying the wrap their minds of the items they decide that the next day they would travel back to Croydon in hopes to learn more on the investigation.

They go to Madame Giselle's office to look for clues. Poirot picked up a very distinct thing, no personal items of any kind, very basic and could pass for anyone's office.

After talking with Elise, we learn that Madame Giselle did not have any friends and loved money but had no interest in materials things.

Poirot speaks with Elise privately as the police were getting frustrated with her trying to seek information. All she ever told them was that she had not read any of the papers that she burned for Madame Giselle. He knew that there was one thing that she was not telling them. The one thing she did not burn was her small black book that Madame Giselle used to keep track of all her appointments. Elise had not looked inside it but kept it as it was not with the papers and documents that she was instructed to burn. Poirot takes the book for evidence.

Based on notes that Madame Giselle had written we see that it is possible for Lady Horbury to be a suspect, a gambler, possibly loaning money from her. Also Dr. Bryant, perhaps going bankrupt in his practice also loaning money from her is a possibility. They learn that a antique dealer reported a dart and blowpipe was sold three days prior to the flight departure. Upon speaking with him he kept saying no to their questions and the kit did not match the one they had. Poirot and Fournier felt that he was lying to protect himself and his business. They leave and head to the airport to speak with the man whom reserved Madame Giselle's flight, Jules Perrot. Elise was on the 8:45 am and when Madame Giselle attempted to book the same flight they told her it was booked so she had to take the 12:00 pm flight instead. The police tell the young man that they had someone fly on that 8:45 am last minute and reported the flight to not be full. Poirot pressed Jules quite hard on the matter and we learn that a man paid him to get Madame Giselle to be on the 12:00 pm flight. He was wanting to take a loan out but wished to have it be casual. His seat was seat 1. But Poirot recalls no one sitting in seat 1 on the light. This man, Silas Harper was not even reported on the plane's passenger manifest.

I find this mystery to have some very odd elements that are making it very difficult to denote whom the murderer is. Between illicit drugs on board to everyone not noticing the murder. Most cases almost all murders have some witness at the time of the murder. We also have a mystery man that was to be on the flight but not even reported? My thoughts on this, possibly the man was in fact on the flight, posing as another passenger or a flight attendant. If he had paid the airlines to arrange for him to meet with Madame Giselle, there is a chance that a flight attendant was asked to do the work for him. A lot of the passengers had drinks, my initial thought was there was sleeping medication placed in the drinks to purposely have all the passengers sleep so they could not observe the murder. But at the same time I feel that there is a more simple solution to all of this. Psychology has been brought up countless times, giving the possibility it is indeed all mental and can be easily solved by sitting and thinking about it. In that I believe the murderer was the wasp and she was deathly allergic to the venom and the dart is a complete distraction, but no doubt it could never be that simple, but we shall see.