[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Intercepting Rhoda who is following him. As for Mamzel here, I have a little treat for her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A treat that would be no treat to you, I fancy, Mamzel Meredith. What is it? cried Rhoda. He lowered his voice. A knife, Mamzel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With which 12 people once stabbed a man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Quarro led her through into the other room, talking as he went.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this lighter color would be nice when summer comes, and it's daylight in the evening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kwaro counted the six selected pairs and then went on to count the others.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had bought nineteen pairs. There were now only seventeen. He nodded his head slowly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chapter 24. Elimination of three murderers?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On arrival in London, Superintendent Battle came straight to Poirot. Anne and Rhoda had then been gone an hour or more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The superintendent recounted the result of his researches in Devonshire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what Shaytana was aiming at with his domestic accident business. But what gets me is the motive. Why did she want to kill the woman? I think I can help you there, my friend. Go ahead, Monsieur Poirot. This afternoon, I conducted a little experiment. I induced Pamsel and her friend to come here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mamzel Meredith was suspicious. Very suspicious. She takes nothing for granted, that young lady.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that good dog, Hercule Poirot, he does one of his best tricks. He lays a clumsy, amateurish crap. Mamzel mentions a case of jewelry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I say, was not that at the opposite end of the room from the table with the dagger?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ma'amsel does not fall into the trap. She avoids it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After that, she is pleased with herself, and her vigilance relaxes. So that is the object of this visit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Since she does not mention a very big ball of early tulips, which would at once have attracted the attention of a flower lover.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, it is the paid companion who speaks, the girl whose duty it has been to put fresh water in the vases, and allied to that, there is a girl who loves and notices jewelry. Is not that at least suggestive? Ah, said Battle, I am beginning to see what you're driving at, precisely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I told you the other day, I place my cards on the table.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you recounted her history the other day, and Mrs. Oliver made her startling announcement, my mind went at once to an important point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The murder could not have been committed for gain since Miss Meredith had still to earn her living after it happened. Why then?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I considered Miss Meredith's Timberland as it appeared superficially.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A rather timid young girl, poor but well dressed, fond of pretty things. The temperament. Is it not of a thief, rather than a murderer?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I asked immediately if Mrs. Elden had been a tidy woman. You replied that no, she had not been tidy. I formed a hypothesis.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Supposing that Anne Meredith was a girl with a weak streak in her character.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The kind of girl who takes little things from the big shops.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Supposing that poor and yet loving pretty things, she helped herself once or twice to things from her employer, a brooch perhaps, an odd half-crown or two, a string of beads. Mrs. Eldon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Careless, untidy, would put down these disappearances to her own carelessness. She would not suspect her gentle little mother's help.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But now, suppose a different type of employer, an employer who did notice, accused Anne Meredith of theft, that would be a possible motive for murder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I said the other evening, Ms. Meredith would only commit a murder through fear. She knows that her employer will be able to prove the theft. There is only one thing that can save her. Her employer must die.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so she changes the bottles, and Mrs. Benson dies, ironically enough convinced that the mistake is her own, and not suspecting for a minute that the cowed, frightened girl has a hand in it. Well, it's possible, said Superintendent Battle. It's only a hypothesis, but it's possible. It is a little more than possible, my friend. It is also probable. For this afternoon I laid a little trap, nicely baited.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The real trap, after the sham one had been circumvented, if what I suspect is true,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anne Meredith will never, never be able to resist a really expensive pair of stockings. I ask her to aid me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I let her know carefully that I'm not sure exactly how many stockings are there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I go out of the room, leaving her alone, and the result my friend is that I have now 17 pairs of stockings instead of 90.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Incredibly stupid, the picture goes to the well time after time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I think between us we've arrived fairly clearly at the truth. Anne Meredith was caught stealing. Anne Meredith changed a bottle from one shelf to another. We know that was murder. But I'm damned if we could ever prove it. Successful crime number two. Roberts gets away with it. Anne Meredith gets away with it. But what about Shaytana? Did Anne Meredith kill Shaytana? He remained silent for a moment or two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then he shook his head. It doesn't work out right, he said reluctantly. She's not one to take a risk. Change a couple of bottles, yes. She knew no one could fasten that on her. It was absolutely safe because anyone might have done it. Of course it mightn't have worked. Mrs. Benson might have noticed before she drank the stuff. Or she mightn't have died from it. It was what I call a hopeful kind of murder. It might work, or it mightn't. Actually it did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, that seems to wipe her out as far as he's concerned. Roberts and the girl both crossed off our list. Oh, what about Despair? Any luck with the Luxmoor woman? Quirrell narrated his adventures of the preceding afternoon. Battle grinned, I know that type.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can't disentangle what they remember from what they invent. Quirrow went on. He described Espar's visit and the story the latter had told. Believe him? Battle asked abruptly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So do I. Not the type to shoot a man because he wanted the man's wife. Anyway, what's wrong with the divorce court?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everyone flocks there, and he's not a professional man, he wouldn't ruin him or anything like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, I'm of the opinion that our late, lamented Mr. Shaytana struck a snag there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Murderer number three wasn't a murderer after all. He looked at Poirot. Ah, that leaves. Mrs. Lorimer, said Poirot. The telephone rang. Poirot got up and answered it. He spoke a few words, waited, spoke again. Then he hung up the receiver and returned to battle. His face was very grave. That was Mrs. Lorimer speaking, he said. She wants me to come round and see her, now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He and Battle looked at each other. The latter shook his head slowly. Am I wrong? He said. Or were you expecting something of the kind? I wondered, said Hercule Poirot. That was all. I wondered. You'd better get along, said Battle. Perhaps you'll manage to get at the truth at last.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chapter 25 Mrs. Lorimer Speaks The day was not a bright one and Mrs. Lorimer's room seemed rather dark and cheerless. She herself had a grey look.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know what you feel about it, but I always think it's a mistake to rush straight into confidences without any decent paving of the way. There are to be confidences then, Madame. Mrs. Lorimer did not answer, for at that moment her maid answered the bell.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When she had received the order and gone again, Mrs. Lorimer said dryly, You said, if you remember when you were last here, that you would come if I sent for you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You had an idea, I think, of the reason that should prompt me to send. There was no more just then. Tea was brought.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hear you and little Mamsil Meredith had tea together the other day. We did. Have you seen her lately? This very afternoon. Oh, she is in London then. Or have you been down to Wallingford?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, she and her friend were so amiable as to pay me a visit. Ah, the friend. I have not met her. Quarrow said, smiling a little.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This murder, it has made for me a rapprochement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You and Mamzel Meredith have tea together? Major Despach, he too cultivates Miss Meredith's acquaintance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Dr. Roberts, he has perhaps the only one out of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I saw him out at Bridge the other day, said Mrs. Lorimer. He seemed quite his usual cheerful self. As fond of Bridge as ever?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, still making the most outrageous bids and very often getting away with it. She was silent for a moment or two, then said, Have you seen Superintendent Battle lately? Also this afternoon, he was with me when you telephoned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shading her face from the fire with one hand, Mrs. Lorimer asked, How is he getting on? Poro said gravely, He is not very rapid, the good battle. He gets there slowly, but he does get there in the end, madame. I wonder, her lips curved in a faintly ironical smile. She went on, He has paid me quite a lot of attention. He has delved, I think, into my past history, right back to my girlhood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He has interviewed my friends and chatted to my servants, the ones I have now and the ones who have been with me in former years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What he hoped to find I do not know, but he certainly did not find it. He might as well have accepted what I told him. It was the truth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I knew Mr. Shaitana very slightly. I met him at Luxor, as I said, and our acquaintanceship was never more than an acquaintanceship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Superintendent Battle will not be able to get away from these facts. Perhaps not, said Poirot. And you, Monsieur Poirot, have you not made any inquiries about you, Madame? That is what I meant. Slowly the little man shook his head. It would have been to no avail. Just exactly what do you mean by that, Monsieur Poirot? I will be quite frank, Madame.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have realized from the beginning that of the four persons in Mr. Shaytana's room that night,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The one with the best brains, with the coolest, most logical head, was you, madam.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is usually necessary to think every detail of it out beforehand. All possible contingencies must be taken into account. The timing must be accurate. The placing must be scrupulously correct.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dr. Roberts might bungle a crime through haste and overconfidence.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That I am the kind of woman to commit an ideal murder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At least you have the amiability not to resent the idea. I find it very interesting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it is your idea that I am the only person who could successfully have murdered Sheetana? Poirot said slowly. There is a difficulty there, Madame. Oh really? Do tell me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You may have noticed that I said just now a phrase, something like this, for a crime to be successful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is usually necessary to plan every detail of it carefully beforehand. Usual is the word to which I want to draw your attention. For there is another type of successful crime. Have you ever said suddenly to anyone, throw a stone and see if you can hit that tree?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The first was an almost unconscious action. The body obeying the mind as the body of an animal does. Ebiya madame. There is a type of crime like that. A crime committed on the spur of the moment. An inspiration. A flash of genius. Without time to pause or think. And that, madame, was the kind of crime that killed Mr. Shittana. A sudden.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Her hand waved softly to and fro, keeping the heat of the fire from her face. And of course, it wasn't a premeditated crime, so I couldn't have killed him. Eh, Monsieur Poirot? Poirot bowed. That is right, Madame. And yet, she leaned forward, her waving hand stopped. I did kill Shaytana, Monsieur Poirot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mrs. Lorimer and Hercule Poirot looked not at each other, but at the fire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was as though time was momentarily in abeyance. Then Hercule Poirot sighed and stirred. So, it was that. All the time. Why did you kill him, Madame? I think you know why, Monsieur Poirot. Because he knew something about you. Something that had happened long ago. Yes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that something was, uh, another death, Madame? She bowed her head. Poirot said gently, Why did you tell me? What made you send for me today? You told me once that I should do so some day. Yes, that is, I hope.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I knew, madame, that there was only one way of learning the truth as far as you were concerned, and that was by your own free will. If you did not choose to speak, you would not do so, and you would never give yourself away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But there was a chance that you yourself might wish to speak. Mrs. Lorimer nodded. It was clever of you to foresee that. The weariness. The loneliness. Her voice died away. But I looked at her curiously. So it has been like that. Yes, I can understand it might be. Alone. Quite alone, said Mrs. Lorimer. No one knows what that means unless they have lived.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I have lived, with the knowledge of what one has done, quite I will say gently.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Am I to understand madame that you took the words Mr. Sheetana spoke at dinner as a direct menace aimed at you? She nodded.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I realized at once that he was speaking so that one person should understand him. That person was myself. The reference to a woman's weapon being poisoned was meant for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had suspected it once before. He had brought the conversation round to a certain famous trial and I saw his eyes watching me. There was a kind of uncanny knowledge in them. But of course, at night, I was quite sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you were sure too of his future intentions. Mrs. Lorimer said dryly,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was hardly likely that the presence of Superintendent Battle and yourself was an accident.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I took it that Shaitano was going to advertise his own cleverness by pointing out to you both that he had discovered something that no one else had suspected. How soon did you make up your mind to act, my friend?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is difficult to remember exactly when the idea came into my mind, she said. I had noticed the dagger before going to dinner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When we returned to the drawing room, I picked it up and slipped it into my sleeve. No one saw me do it. I made sure of that. It would be dexterously done. I have no doubt about that. I made up my mind then exactly what I was going to do. I had only to carry it out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was risky perhaps, but I considered that it was worth trying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is your coolness. Your successful weighing of chances coming into play. Yes, I see that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We started to play bridge, continued Mrs. Lorimer, a voice cool and unemotional. At last, an opportunity arose. I was dummy. I strolled across the room to the fireplace. Shaytana had dozed off to sleep. I looked over at the others. They were all intent on the game. I leant over and, and did it. Her voice shook just a little, but instantly it regained its cool aloofness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It came into my head that that would make a kind of alibi for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With sufficient interest in the game to be able to tell me nearly all the calling, and the hands, two days later. Yes, said Mrs. Lorimer simply. Ipaton, said Hercule Poirot. He leaned back in his chair. He nodded his head several times. Then, by way of a change, he shook it. But there is still something, madam, that I do not understand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems to me that there is some factor that I have missed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You are a woman who considers and weighs everything carefully.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You decide that for a certain reason you will run an enormous risk. You do run it, successfully. And then, not two weeks later, you change your mind. Frankly, madame, that does not seem to me to ring true. A queer little smile twisted her lips. You are quite right, Mr. Poirot. There is one factor that you do not know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did Miss Meredith tell you where she met me the other day? It was, I think she said, near Mrs. Oliver's flat. I believe that is so, but I meant the actual name of the street. And Meredith met me in Harley Street. Ah, he looked at her attentively. I begin to see. Yes, I thought you would. I had been to see a specialist there. He told me what I had already half suspected.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I shall not play very much more bridge, Monsieur Poirot. Oh, he didn't say so in so many words. He wrapped up the truth a little.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With great care, et cetera, et cetera, I might live several years, but I shall not take any great care. I am not that kind of a woman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It made a difference, you see. A month? Two months, perhaps?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then, just as I left the specialist, I met Miss Meredith. I asked her to have tea with me. She paused and then went on. I am not, after all, a wholly wicked woman. All the time we were having tea, I was thinking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By my action the other evening, I had not only deprived the man-shaitana of life, that was done and could not be undone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had also, to a varying degree, affected unfavorably the lives of three other people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because of what I had done, Dr. Roberts, Major Despard, and Anne Meredith, none of whom had injured me in any way, were passing through a very grave ordeal, and might even be in danger. That at least I could undo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know that I felt particularly moved by the plight of either Dr. Roberts or Major Despair, although both of them had presumably a much longer span of life in front of them than I had. They were men, and could to a certain extent look after themselves. But when I looked at Anne Meredith, she hesitated, then continued slowly, Anne Meredith was only a girl. She had the whole of her life in front of her. This miserable business might ruin that life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't like the thought of that. And then, Monsieur Poirot, with these ideas growing in my mind, I realized that what you had hinted had come true. I was not going to be able to keep silence. This afternoon, I rang you up. Minutes passed. Hercule Poirot leaned forward. He stared, deliberately stared through the gathering gloom at Mrs. Lorimer. She returned that intent gaze quietly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you positive? You will tell me the truth, will you not? That the murder of Mr. Shaytana was not premeditated. Is it not a fact that you planned the crime beforehand?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That you went to that dinner with the murder already mapped out in your mind? Mrs. Lorimer stared at him for a moment. Then she shook her head sharply. No, she said. You did not plan the murder beforehand? Certainly not. Then, then, oh, you are lying to me. You must be lying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mrs. Lorimer's voice cut into the air like ice. Really, Monsieur Poirot? You forget yourself? The little man sprang to his feet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He paced up and down the room, muttering to himself, uttering ejaculations. Suddenly he said, permit me. And going to the switch, he turned on the electric lights.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But now it looks, it very much looks as though I am wrong. And that upsets me. Presumably, you know what you are saying. It is your murder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fantastic, then, that Hercule Poirot should know better than you do, how you committed it. Fantastic and very absurd, said Mrs. Lorimer still more coldly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am then mad. Decidedly. I am mad. No. Sacre nom d'un petit bonhomme. I am not mad. I am right. I must be right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am willing to believe that you killed Mr. Shaitana, but you cannot have killed him in the way you said you did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She was about to speak, but Poirot forestalled her. Either the killing of Shaytana was planned beforehand, or you did not kill him at all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mrs. Lorimer said sharply, I really believe you are mad, Mr. Poirot. If I am willing to admit I committed the crime, I should not be likely to lie about the way I did it. What would be the point of such a thing? Poirot got up again and took one turn round the room. When he came back to his seat, his manner had changed. He was gentle and kindly. You did not kill Shaytana, he said softly. I see that now. I see everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You do not know even, or so I imagine, what reason she had for the crime, but you are quite sure she did it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You were sure that first evening, the evening it happened, when Superintendent Battle invited you to give your views on the case, yes, I know it all you see. It is quite useless to lie further to me. You see that, do you not? He paused for an answer, but none came. He nodded his head in satisfaction. Yes. You are sensible. That is good. It is a very noble action that you perform there, madam, to take the blame on yourself,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And to let this child escape. You forget, said Mrs. Lorimer in a dry voice, I am not an innocent woman. Years ago, Mr. Poirot, I killed my husband. There was a moment's silence. I see, said Poirot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is justice. After all, only justice. You have the logical mind. You are willing to suffer for the act you committed. Murder is murder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Suddenly Poirot laughed. He could not help it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His head went back, and his high, gallic laugh filled the room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He said wiping his eyes. I could not help it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here we argue, and we reason, we ask questions, we invoke the psychology, and all the time there was an eyewitness of the crime. Tell me, I pray of you. It was fairly late in the evening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anne Meredith was dummy. She got up and looked over her partner's hand, and then she moved about the room. The hand wasn't very interesting. The conclusion was inevitable. I didn't need to concentrate on the cards. Just as we got to the last three tricks, I looked over towards the fireplace. Anne Meredith was bent over Mr. Shaitana. As I watched, she straightened herself. Her hand had been actually on his breast. A gesture which awakened by surprise


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She straightened herself and I saw her face and her quick look over towards us. Guilt and fear. That is what I saw on her face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, I didn't know what had happened then. I only wondered what on earth the girl could have been doing. Later, I knew. Quarro nodded. But she did not know that you knew. She did not know that you had seen her. Poor child, said Mrs. Lorimer. Young, frightened. Her way to make in the world. Do you wonder that I will...held my tongue? No, no, I do not wonder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Especially knowing that I, I myself, she finished the sentence with a shrug, it was certainly not my place to stand accuser. It was up to the police. Quite so. But today you have gone further than that. Mrs. Lorimer said grimly,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've never been a very soft-hearted or compassionate woman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I suppose these qualities grow upon one in one's old age. I assure you, I'm not often actuated by pity. It is not always a very safe guide, madame.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mamzel Anne is young. She is fragile. She looks timid and frightened, oh yes. She seems a very worthy subject for compassion. But, I? I do not agree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shall I tell you, madame, why Miss Anne Meredith killed Mr. Shetana?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was because he knew that she had previously killed an elderly lady to whom she was companion, because that lady had found her out in a petty theft. Mrs. Lorimer looked a little startled. Is that true, Mr. Poirot? I have no doubt of it whatsoever. She is so soft, so gentle, one would say. Ha! She is dangerous, madame, that little Mademoiselle Anne.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where her own safety, her own comfort is concerned, she will strike wildly, treacherously.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With Mams El Anne, those two crimes will not be the end. She will gain confidence from them. Mrs. Lorimer looked sharply. What you say is horrible, Monsieur Poirot. Horrible? Poirot rose. Madame?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If it suits me, Monsieur Poirot, I shall deny this whole conversation. You have no witnesses, remember?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I have just told you that I saw on that fateful evening is, well, private between ourselves, Quarrow said gravely. Nothing shall be done without your consent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And be at peace. I have my own methods. Now that I know what I am driving at. He took her hand and raised it to his lips. Permit me to tell you madam, that you are a most remarkable woman. All my homage and respect. Yes indeed, a woman in a thousand. Why?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have not even done what 999 women out of a thousand could not have resisted doing. What is that? Told me just why you killed your husband.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And how entirely justified such a proceeding really was. Mrs. Lorimer drew herself up. Really, Monsieur Poirot? She said stiffly, my reasons were entirely my own business. Magnifique, said Poirot. And once more, raising her hand to his lips, he left the room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was cold outside the house, and he looked up and down for a taxi, but there was none in sight. He began to walk in the direction of King's Road. As he walked, he was thinking hard. Occasionally, he nodded his head once he shook it. He looked back over his shoulder. Someone was going up the steps of Mrs. Lorimer's house. In figure, it looked very like Anne Meredith.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He hesitated for a moment, wondering whether to turn back or not, but in the end he went on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We must get after the Meredith girl, and quickly. I'm getting after her, but why quickly? Because, my friend, she may be dangerous. Battle was silent for a minute or two. Then he said, Well, I know what you mean, but there's no one. Oh, well, we mustn't take chances.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As a matter of fact, I've written to her, official note, saying I'm calling to see her tomorrow. I thought it might be a good thing to get her rattled. It is a possibility at least. I may accompany you? Or naturally, honored to have your company, Mr. Poirot. Poirot hung up the receiver with a thoughtful face. His mind was not quite at rest. He sat for a long time in front of his fire, frowning to himself. At last, putting his fears and doubts aside, he went to bed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We will see in the morning, he murmured. But of what the morning would bring, he had no idea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You never told me anything. In fact, you let me think that the Meredith girl was the one we were after. Poirot said quietly, What has happened? Suicide. Mrs. Lorimer has committed suicide? That's right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems she's been very depressed and unlike herself lately.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Her doctor had ordered her some sleeping stuff. Last night, she took an overdose. Poirot drew a deep breath. There is no question of, uh, accident? Not in the least. It's all cut and dried. She wrote to the three of them. Which three? The other three.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So this was Mrs. Lorimer's final word. She had determined after all to shield Anne Meredith. A quick painless death instead of a protracted painful one and her last action an altruistic one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The saving of the girl with whom she felt a secret bond of sympathy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The whole thing planned and carried out with quite ruthless efficiency.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A suicide carefully announced to the three interested parties. What a woman. His admiration quickened. It was like her. Like her clear cut determination.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What the devil did you say to her yesterday? You must have put the wind up her, and this is the result.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you implied that the result of your interview was definite suspicion of the Meredith girl. Poirot was silent a minute or two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He felt that, dead, Mrs. Lorimer constrained him to her will, as she could not have done if she were living. He said, at last, slowly, I was in error. They were unaccustomed words on his tongue, and he did not like them. You made a mistake, eh? said Battle. All the same, she must have thought you were on to her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a bad business letting us slip through our fingers like this. You could not have proved anything against.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, uh, I suppose that's true. Perhaps it's all for the best. You, uh, didn't mean this to happen, Monsieur Poirot. Poirot's disclaimer was indignant. Then he said, Tell me exactly what has occurred. Roberts opened his letter just before eight o'clock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He lost no time, dashed off at once in his car, leaving his parlour mate to communicate with us, which she did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He got to the house to find that Mrs. Lorimer hadn't been called yet, rushed up to her bedroom but it was too late. He tried artificial respiration but there was nothing doing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our divisional surgeon arrived soon after and confirmed his treatment. What was the sleeping stuff? Verinol, I think. One of the barbiturate group. At any rate, there was a bottle of tablets by her bed. What about the other two? Did they not try to communicate with you? Despard is out of town. He hasn't had this morning's post. And Miss Meredith? Well, I've just rung her up. Et bien?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She had just opened the letter a few minutes before my call came through. Post is later there. What was her reaction? A perfectly proper attitude, intense relief, decently veiled, shocked and grieved, and that sort of thing. Quarro paused a moment, then he said, Where are you now, my friend? At Chaney Lane. Bien, I will come round immediately.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the hall at Cheney Lane, he found Dr Roberts on the point of departure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not really pleasant to have a suspicion of murder hanging over you. As for the poor woman herself, well, it was undoubtedly the best way out. So she thought herself, Roberts nodded.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Conscience, I suppose, he said, as he let himself out of the house. Poirot shook his head thoughtfully. The doctor had misread the situation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was not remorse that made Mrs. Lorimer take her life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On his way upstairs, he paused to say a few words of comfort to the elderly parlor maid who was weeping quietly. It's so dreadful, sir. So very dreadful. We were all so fond of her. And you having tea with her yesterday, so nice and quiet. And now today she's gone. I shall never forget this morning. Never as long as I live. The gentleman peeling at the bell rang three times, he did, before I could get to it and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where's your mistress? He shot out at me. I was so flustered. I couldn't hardly answer. You see, we never went into the mistress till she rang. That was her orders. And I just couldn't get out anything. And the doctor, he says, where's her room? And ran up the stairs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And me behind him and I showed him the door and he rushes in not so much as knocking. Takes one look at her lying there and, too late he says, she was dead sir.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But he sent me for brandy and hot water, and he tried desperate to bring her back. But it couldn't be done. And then the police come in and all it isn't, it isn't decent, sir. Mrs. Lorimer wouldn't have liked it. And why the police? It's none of their business, surely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even if an accident has occurred and the poor mistress did take an overdose by mistake. Quarro did not reply to her question. He said, Last night, was your mistress quite as usual? Did she seem upset or worried at all? No, I don't think so, sir. She was tired and I think she was in pain. She hasn't been well lately, sir. No, I know. The sympathy in his tone made the woman go on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She was never one for complaining, sir, but both Cook and I had been worried about her for some time. She couldn't do as much as she used to, and things tired her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think perhaps the young lady coming after you left was a bit too much for her. With his foot on the stairs, Poirot turned back. The young lady? Did a young lady come here yesterday evening? Yes, sir. Just after you left it was. Miss Meredith and I was. Did she stay long? About an hour, sir. Poirot was silent for a minute or two. Then he said, And afterwards?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the mistress went to bed. She had dinner in bed. She said she was tired.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you know if your mistress wrote any letters yesterday evening? Do you mean after she went to bed? I don't think so, sir. But you are not sure? There were some letters on the hall table ready to be posted, sir. We always took them last thing before shutting up. But I think they'd been lying there since earlier in the day. How many were there? Two or three? I'm not quite sure, sir. Three, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or Cook, whoever posted them, did not happen to notice to whom they were addressed?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You knew, I take it, that your mistress took medicine to make her sleep? Oh yes, sir. It was the doctor's orders, Doctor Lang. Where was this sleeping medicine kept? In the little cupboard in the mistress's room. Poirot did not ask any further questions. He went upstairs. His face was very grave. On the upper landing, Battle greeted him. The superintendent looked worried and harassed. I'm glad you've come, Monsieur Poirot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The divisional surgeon shook hands. He was a tall, melancholy man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the luck was against us, he said. An hour or two earlier, we might have saved her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Said Battle. I mustn't say so officially, but I'm not sorry. She was a, well, she was a lady.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know what her reasons were for killing Shaytana, but she may just conceivably have been justified.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, perhaps it is all for the best. He started down the stairs. Battle moved after him. A one-minute doctor? Quirro, one hand on the bedroom door, murmured. I may enter, yes? Battle nodded over his shoulder. Quite all right, we're through. Quirro passed into the room, closing the door behind him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He went over to the bed and stood looking down at the quiet, dead face. He was very disturbed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Had the dead woman gone to the grave in a last determined effort to save a young girl from death and disgrace? Or was there a different, a more sinister explanation? There were certain facts


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Suddenly, he bent down, examining a dark, discolored bruise on the dead woman's arm. He straightened himself up again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was a strange cat-like gleam in his eyes that certain close associates of his would have recognized. He left the room quickly and went downstairs. Battle and a subordinate were at the telephone. The latter laid down the receiver and said, He hasn't come back, sir. Battle said, Despair, I've been trying to get him. There's a letter for him with the Chelsea postmark, all right? Poirot asked an irrelevant question. Had Dr. Roberts had his breakfast?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, no, he said. I remember he mentioned that he'd come out without it. Then he will be at his house now. We can get him. But why? But Poirot was already busy at the dial. Then he spoke. Dr. Roberts?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is Dr. Robert speaking? May we? It is Poirot here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just one question. Are you well acquainted with the handwriting of Mrs. Lorimer? Mrs. Lorimer's handwriting? No, I don't know that I've ever seen it before. Je vous remercie. Poirot laid down the receiver quickly. Battle was staring at him. What's the big idea, Monsieur Poirot? He asked quietly. Poirot took him by the arm. Listen, my friend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A few minutes after I left this house yesterday, Anne Meredith arrived.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And for reasons which you will understand when I recount to you our interview, I do not believe that she wrote those three letters before my visit. When did she write them then? Well, after the servants had gone to bed, suggested Battle. She got up and posted them herself. That is possible, yes. But there is another possibility. That she did not write them at all. Battle whistled.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's reason to believe that Despard's down at Wallingford on Thames.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chapter 29. Accident. Anne, said Rhoda. Hmm? No, really, Anne. Don't answer with half your mind on a crossword puzzle. I want you to attend to me. I am attending. Anne sat bolt upright and put down the paper. That's better. Look here, Anne. Rhoda hesitated. About this man coming. Superintendent Battle? Yes, Anne.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wish you'd tell him about being at the Benson's. Anne's voice grew rather cold. Nonsense. Why should I? Because, well, it might look as though you've been keeping something back. I'm sure it would be better to mention it. I can't very well now, said Anne coldly. I wish you had in the first place. Well, it's too late to bother about that now. Yes, Rhoda did not sound convinced.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anne said rather irritably, in any case, I can't see why. It's got nothing to do with all this? No, of course not. I was only there about two months. He only wants these things as, well, references. Two months doesn't count. No, I know. I expect I'm being rather foolish, but it doesn't worry me, rather. I feel you ought to mention it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You see, if it came out some other way, it might look rather bad. You're keeping dark about it, I mean. I don't see how it can come out. Nobody knows but you. N-no. Anne pounced on the slight hesitation in Rhoda's voice. Why? Who does know? Well, everyone at Coomaker, said Rhoda after a moment's silence. Oh, that. Anne dismissed it with a shrug.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The superintendent isn't likely to come up against anyone from there. It would be an extraordinary coincidence if he did. Coincidences happen. Oda.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're being extraordinary about this. Fuss, fuss, fuss. I'm terribly sorry, darling. Only, you know what the police might be like if they thought you were, well, hiding things. They won't know. Who's to tell them? Nobody knows but you. It was the second time she had said those words. At this second repetition, her voice changed a little. Something queer and speculative came into it. Oh dear. I wish you would.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] sighed Rhoda, unhappily. She looked guiltily at Anne, but Anne was not looking at her. She was sitting with a frown on her face, as though working out some calculation. Rather fun, Major Despard turning up, said Rhoda. What? Oh, yes. Annie is attractive. If you don't want him, do, do, do, hand him over to me. Don't be absurd, Rhoda. He doesn't care tuppence for me. Well then, why does he keep on turning up?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're just the sort of distressed damsel that he'd enjoy rescuing. You look so beautifully helpless, Anne. He's equally pleasant to both of us. But that's only his niceness. But if you don't want him...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I could do the sympathetic friend act, console his broken heart, et cetera, et cetera. And in the end, I might get him, who knows? Rhoda concluded inelegantly. I'm sure you're quite welcome to him, my dear, said Anne, laughing. He's got such a lovely back to his neck, sighed Rhoda. Very brick red and muscular. Darling, must you be so mawkish? Do you like him, Anne? Yes, very much. Aren't we prim and sedate?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think he likes me a little. Not as much as you, but a little. Oh, but he does like you, said Anne. Again, there was an unusual note in her voice, but Rhoda did not hear it. What time is our sleuth coming, she asked. Twelve, said Anne. She was silent for a minute or two. Then she said, it's only half past ten now. Let's go out on the river. But isn't, didn't, didn't they spar, say he'd come round about eleven?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We can leave a message with Mrs. Astwell, which way we've gone and he can follow us along the towpath. In fact, don't make yourself cheap, dear, as mother always said, laughed Rhoda. Come on, then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She went out of the room and through the garden door. Anne followed her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Major Despard called at Wenden Cottage about ten minutes later. He was before his time, he knew.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So he was a little surprised to find both girls had already gone out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He went through the garden and across the fields and turned to the right along the towpath.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mrs. Astwell remained a minute or two looking after him, instead of getting on with her morning chores.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sweet on one or other of them he is, she observed to herself. I think it's Miss Anne, but I'm not certain. He don't give much away by his face, treats them both alike. I'm not sure they ain't both sweet on him, too. If so, they won't be such dear friends much longer. Nothing like a gentleman for coming between two young ladies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mrs. Astwell, secretly studying the amazing moustache of the other gentleman, and deciding that they looked an unlikely pair to be friends, volunteered further information. Gone out on the river, she explained. The other gentleman broke in. And the other lady? Miss Dawes? They've both gone. Ah, thank you, said Battle. Let me see, which way does one get to the river?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She added to herself as she unwillingly closed the front door, having stared inquisitively at their retreating backs, Mrs. Astwell returned to the kitchen sink, and Battle and Poirot duly took the first turning to the left.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You were urgent that we should come down here this morning without losing a moment. And my word, you made Constable Turner step on the gas. What are you afraid of? The girl shot her bolt. Burrow was silent. What are you afraid of? Battle repeated. What is one always afraid of in these cases? Battle nodded. You're quite right. I wonder. You wonder what, my friend? Battle said slowly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm wondering if Miss Meredith knows that her friend told Mrs. Oliver a certain fact. Quarro nodded his head in vigorous appreciation. Hurry, my friend, he said. They hastened along the riverbank.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was no craft visible on the water's surface but presently they rounded a bend and Poirot suddenly stopped.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That battle's quick eyes saw also. Major Despair.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This bar was about 200 yards ahead of them, striding along the riverbank.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A little farther on, the two girls were in view in a punt on the water. Rhoda punting, Anne lying and laughing up at her. Neither of them were looking towards the bank. And then, it happened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anne's hand outstretched, roaders stagger, her plunge overboard, her desperate grasp at Anne's sleeve, the rocking boat, then an overturned punt, and two girls struggling in the water.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] See it? Tried battle as he started to run. Little Meredith caught her round the ankle and tipped her in. My god, that's her fourth murder! They were both running hard, but someone was ahead of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was clear that neither girl could swim, but Despard had run quickly along the path to the nearest point and now he plunged in and swam towards them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is interesting, cried Poirot. He caught Battle's arm. Which of them will he go for first?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The two girls were not together. About twelve yards separated them. Despair swam powerfully towards them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was no check in his stroke. He was making straight for rotor.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He and Battle got to the spot at the same time, but Anne had gone under before they reached her. They got her at last, and between them towed her to the shore. Rhoda was being ministered to by Poirot. She was sitting up now, her breath coming unevenly. Despair and Battle laid Anne Meredith down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Rhoda, laughing and adventurous, by his side.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Said Rhoda incredulously, that Anne meant to push me in. I know it felt like it, and she knew I can't swim, but was it deliberate? It was quite deliberate, said Poirot. They were driving through the outskirts of London, but, but why? Poirot did not reply for a minute or two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This Mrs. Benson your friend lived with, uh, her death wasn't quite the accident that it appeared. At least so we've reasoned to suppose. What do you mean? We believe, said Poirot, that Anne Meredith changed two bottles. Oh. No. How horrible. It's impossible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And why should she? She had her reasons, said Superintendent Battle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the point is, Miss Dawes, that as far as Miss Meredith knew, you were the only person who could give us a clue to that incident. You didn't tell her, I suppose, that you'd mentioned it to Mrs. Oliver. Rhoda said slowly, No, I thought she'd be annoyed with me. She would. Very annoyed, said Battle grimly. But she thought that the only danger could come from you. And that's why she decided to, uh, eliminate you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How beastly. It can't be all true. Well, she's dead now, said Superintendent Battle. So we might as well leave it at that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll go into Monsieur Poirot's, said Superintendent Battle, and have a bit of a talk about it all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Poirot's sitting room, they were welcomed by Mrs. Oliver, who was entertaining Dr. Roberts. They were drinking sherry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mrs. Oliver was wearing one of her new horsey hats and a velvet dress with a bow on the chest on which reposed a large piece of apple core.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Come in, come in, said Mrs. Oliver, hospitably and quite as though it were her hearse and not Poirot's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As soon as I got your telephone call, I rang up Dr. Roberts, and we came round here. And all his patients are dying, but he doesn't care. They're probably getting better really. We want to hear all about everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The murderer of Mr. Sheetana is found at last. So Mrs. Oliver told me. That pretty little thing Anne Meredith. I can hardly believe it. A most unbelievable murderess. She was a murderess, all right, said Battle. Three murders to her credit. And not her fault that she didn't get away with a fourth one. Incredible, murmured Roberts. Not at all, said Mrs. Oliver. Least likely person.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems to work out in real life, just the same as in books. It's been an amazing day, said Roberts. First Mrs. Lodimer's letter. I, I suppose that was a forgery, eh? Precisely, a forgery written in triplicate. She wrote one to herself, too. Or naturally. The forgery was quite skillful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It would not deceive an expert of course but then it was highly unlikely that an expert would have been called in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All the evidence pointed to Mrs. Lorimer's having committed suicide. You'll excuse my curiosity, Mr. Poirot, but what made you suspect that she had not committed suicide?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A little conversation that I had with a maidservant at Cheney Lake. Or she told you of Anne Meredith's visit the former evening. That among other things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then, you see, I had already come to a conclusion in my own mind as to the identity of the guilty person. That is, the person who killed Mr. Sheetana. That person was not Mrs. Lorimer. Or what made you suspect Miss Meredith? Quarry raised his hand a little minute. Let me approach this matter in my own way. Let me, that is to say, eliminate


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The mother of Mr. Shaitana was not Mrs. Lorimer, nor was it Major Despard, and curiously enough, it was not Anne Meredith. He leaned forward. His voice purred, soft and cat-like, You see, Dr. Roberts, you were the person who killed Mr. Shaitana.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I certainly did not murder Mr. Shaytana, and I could not possibly have murdered Mrs. Lorimer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My dear battle, he turned to the Scotland yard man. Are you standing for this?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think you'd better listen to what Monsieur Poirot has to say," said Battle quietly. Poirot said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is true that though I have known for some time that you and only you could have killed Shaytana, it would not be an easy matter to prove it. But Mrs. Lorimer's case is quite different. He leaned forward. It is not a case of my knowing. It is much simpler than that. For we have an eyewitness who saw you do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Roberts grew very quiet. His eyes glittered. He said sharply, You're talking rubbish. Oh no, I am not. It was early in the morning. You bluffed your way into Mrs. Lorimer's room, where she was still heavily asleep under the influence of the drug she had taken the night before. You bluff again, pretend to see at a glance that she is dead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You pack the parliament off for brandy, hot water, all the rest of it. You are left alone in the room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The maid has only had the barest peep and then what happens? You may not be aware of the fact, Dr. Roberts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He placed his ladder against the side of the house and began his work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The first window he tackled was that of Mrs. Lorimer's room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When, however, he saw what was going on, he quickly retired to another window, but he had seen something first. He shall tell us his own story. Quirrow stepped lightly across the floor, turned a door handle, called, Come in, Stevens, and returned. A big, awkward-looking man with red hair entered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In his hand, he held a uniformed hat bearing the legend Chelsea Window Cleaners Association, which he twirled awkwardly. The man looked round.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then gave a bashful nod of the head towards Dr. Roberts. Him, he said. Tell us when you saw him last, and what he was doing. Oh, this morning it was. Eight o'clock job at a lady's house in Chaney Lane. I started on the windows there. Lady was in bed. Looked ill she did. She was just turning her head round on the pillow. This gent I took to be a doctor. He shoved her sleeve up and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jabbed something into her arm, about here, he gestured. She just dropped back on the pillow again. I thought I'd better op it to another window. So I did. Hope I didn't do wrong in any way. You did admirably, my friend, said Poirot. He said quietly, Ibia? Doctor Roberts? Uh, a simple restorative, stammered Roberts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A last hope of bringing her round. It's monstrous. A simple restorative.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] N-methylcyclohexanilmethylmalonylurea, said Porran. He rolled out the syllables unctuously, known more simply as Evipan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] used as an anesthetic for short operations injected intravenously in large doses it produces instant unconsciousness


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is dangerous to use it after verinol or any barbiturates have been given.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I noticed the bruised place on her arm where something had obviously been injected into a vein.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A hint to the police surgeon, and the drug was easily discovered by no lesser person than Sir Charles Imferi, the home office analyst.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That about cooks your goose, I think, said Superintendent Battle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No need to prove the Shaytana business, though of course, if necessary, we can bring a further charge as to the murder of Mr. Charles Craddock and possibly his wife also. The mention of those two names finished Roberts. He leaned back in his chair. I throw in my hand, he said. You've got me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Superintendent Battle's voice became official as he made the formal arrest. As the door closed behind the accused man, Mrs. Oliver said, happily if not quite truthfully, I always said he did it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chapter 31. Cards on the table. It was Poirot's moment. Every face was turned to his in eager anticipation. You are very kind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has been one of the most interesting cases I have ever come across. There was nothing you see to go upon. There were four people, one of whom must have committed the crime. But which of the four? Was there anything to tell one? In the material sense, no. There were no tangible clues.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No fingerprints, no incriminating papers or documents. There were only the people themselves. And one tangible clue. The bridge scores.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You may remember that from the beginning I showed a particular interest in those scores. They told me something about the various people who had kept them and they did more. They gave me one valuable hint.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I noticed at once in the third rubber the figure of 1500 above the line.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That figure could only represent one thing, a call of Grand Slam.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If a person were to make up their minds to commit a crime under these somewhat unusual circumstances, that is, during a rubber game of bridge,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That person was clearly running two serious risks. The first one, that the victim might cry out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the second was that even if the victim did not cry out,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It stands to reason that during an interesting or an exciting hand, the attention of the three players would be wholly on the game. Whereas during a dull hand, they were more likely to be looking about them. Now a bit of Grand Slam is always exciting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is very often, as in this case it was, doubled. Every one of the three players is playing with close attention. The declarer to get his contract.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The adversaries to discard correctly and to get him down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was then a distinct possibility that the murder was committed during this particular hand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I determined to find out if I could exactly how the bidding had gone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mrs. Lawrence struck me as by far the most likely to plan and carry out a successful murder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Major Despair and Dr. Roberts were all psychological possibilities, though as I have already mentioned, each of them would have committed the crime from an entirely different angle. I next made a second test.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I got everyone in turn to tell me just what they remembered of the room. From that I got some very valuable information.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] First of all, by far the most likely person to have noticed the dagger was Dr. Roberts. He was a natural observer of trifles of all kinds, what is called an observant man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of the bridgehands, however, he remembered practically nothing at all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mrs. Lorimer, I found to have a marvelous card memory, and I could well imagine that with anyone of her powers of concentration, a murder could easily be committed close at hand, and she would never notice anything. She gave me a valuable piece of information.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The test on which Superintendent Battle and I built a good deal was the discovery of the earlier murders so as to establish a similarity of method. Well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The credit for these discoveries belongs to Superintendent Battle, to Mrs. Oliver, and to Colonel Race.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Discussing the matter with my friend Battle, he confessed himself disappointed because there were no points of similarity between any of the three earlier crimes and that of the murder of Mr. Shaitana. But actually that was not true.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The two murders, attributed to Dr. Roberts, when examined closely and from the psychological point of view and not the material one, proved to be almost exactly the same. They, too, had been what I might describe as public murders. A shaving brush.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Boldly infected in the victim's own dressing room while the doctor officially washes his hands after a visit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The murder of Mrs. Craddock, under cover of a typhoid inoculation. Again, done quite openly, in the sight of the world, as you might say. And the reaction of the man is the same.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pushed into a corner, he seizes a chance and acts at once. Sheer, bold, audacious bluff. Exactly like his play at Bridge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As at the bridge, so in the murder of Sheetana. He took a long chance and played his cards well. The blow was perfectly struck and at exactly the right moment. Now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just at the moment that I had decided quite definitely that Dr. Roberts was the man, Mrs. Lorimer asked me to come and see her, and quite convincingly accused herself of the crime. I nearly believed her. For a minute or two, I did believe her. And then my little graces reasserted their mastery. It could not be. So it was not. But what she told me,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was more difficult still. She assured me that she had actually seen Anne Meredith commit the crime.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Perhaps, stretched out her hand to the gleaming head of the jeweled


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We might have done so, by a mixture of bluff and various ingenious devices, I would at any rate have tried. But he lost his nerve, and once again overbid his hat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this time the cards lay wrong for him, and he came down heavily. No doubt he was uneasy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He knew that battle was nosing about. He foresaw the present situation going on indefinitely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The police still searching and perhaps by some miracle coming on traces of his former crimes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He hit upon the brilliant idea of making Mrs. Lorimer the scapegoat for the party.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is practiced eye guessed no doubt that she was ill and that her life could not be very much prolonged.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Forges three identical letters and arrives at the house hot foot in the morning with his story of the letter he has just received.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dr. Roberts is ready with his story of artificial respiration that has failed. It is all perfectly plausible, perfectly straightforward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In all of this, he has no idea of throwing suspicion on Anne Meredith.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He does not even know of her visit the night before. It is suicide, and security only, that he is aiming at.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is in fact an awkward moment for him when I ask if he is acquainted with Mrs. Lorimer's handwriting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If the forgery has been detected he must save himself by saying that he has never seen her handwriting. His mind works quickly, but not quickly enough.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I telephone to Mrs. Oliver. She plays her part by lulling his suspicions and bringing him here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then when he is congratulating himself that all is well, though not exactly the way he has planned, the blow falls.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hercules Poirot Springs. And so, the gambler will gather in no more tricks. He has thrown his cards upon the table. C'est fini.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Amazing luck that window cleaner happened to be there, she said. Luck? Luck? That was not luck by himself. That was the gray cells of Hercule Poirot. And that reminds me. He went to the door. Come in. Come in, my dear fellow. You acted your part? A merveille. He returned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Accompanied by the window cleaner, who now held his red hair in his hand, and who looked, somehow, a very different person. My friend, Mr. Gerald Hemingway, a very promising young actor. Then there was no window cleaner, cried Rhoda. Nobody saw him. I saw, said Poirot. With the eyes of the mind, one can see more than with the eyes of the body. One leans back and closes the eyes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's stab him, Rhoda, and see if his ghost can come back and find out who did it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you justified in overleaping the obstacles of mere custom? Tell me, Jane. Are you justified?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You'll be seeing this interview or have heard anything about Waco, we'll have a negative connotation toward it. Because, uh, y'all in the press have done your job very well. You've taken the perspective you wanted, and that's all that's been out there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And was working, uh, several dead-end jobs and just really not, not, not enjoying that very much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember as a kid I used to watch the TV preachers on TV and just think, that's absolutely ridiculous, most of the things they're saying. None of this made sense to me at all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Imagine a teacher that taught the Bible like he lived it instead of like he just read it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's exactly what it was like. One of David's purposes were to weed out those who were serious or not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I believe that David thought that he was an inspired person and that he believed he could teach the seven seals.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it became very clear that this guy's got something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not that he didn't give you a room for debate because he did, but there was no room for debate in your own mind. He was the leader.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] David Koresh was the most complex and brilliant individual I'd ever met.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We didn't have the something missing. We didn't have the everything, but God, it was so much more special. You know, we had a purpose. We had a reason to get up every day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think if I had someone that I, that I had really cared about going into it, I don't know if I would have stayed. I was in a unique position where I was a single guy and to me,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Going through the experience and staying with my conviction was worth it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More than one wife is acceptable in the scripture. As long as you can take care of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have a different perspective now, obviously, than I did then. And the perspective...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now is David Koresh definitely broke the law when it comes to having sex with underage girls.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I never saw any signs of illegal weapons. Him and some of the other guys started buying guns at gun shows and selling them legally at gun shows and they kept the sheets on all the firearms that they had.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then when I think he found that he was being investigated, it became a very defensive thing. If they come in and attack us, we're going to fight back. In the seven seals.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You start to understand that we are setting up the kingdom of God to an extent and that is to be protected. We are sheep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But at the same time, we weren't going to stand up to being run over and lied about. And we were definitely the sheep of God and the sheep of God don't fear the wolves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you believe that you're on the right path, you don't really fear anything. So there kind of was an army mentality in the sense that, that our group is our group. And, um, we fear God. We don't fear what man can do us. We fear what God can do to us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everybody, they're, they're coming, uh, they're on their way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't anybody do anything stupid. We're going to go talk to them and try to work this out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It wasn't at the front door, so I can't say. But what I can say is that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We defended ourselves against a power that was coming and shooting at us. We didn't go gunning for them, they went gunning for us. And that's just the bottom line.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's funny about that is I thought the tape was one of the least impressive things I've heard David say. I'm not sure why that's what he released, but that's what he released.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I could have left at any time. I just, I didn't want to. Especially during the siege after being attacked, you know, it's like, this is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Both sides just lost any kind of trust or faith in the other. Period.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The FBI were incredibly stubborn during that and you know what David Kresh was too. I think what happened was after a certain period of time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Both sides just lost any kind of trust or faith in the other. Uhm, period.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I felt sorry for them. I felt sorry for the agents and the people that were behaving that way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was very focused on it. I mean, he took it very seriously. And I think it would have been his life's work. It would have been something that definitely he could have said, this is who I am.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That morning of April 19th, the phone was ringing and ringing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And no one was getting the phone and I remember going down the hall, picking up the phone and the negotiator said.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you'd hear like glass crashing, little ferret rounds. You could hear the gas seep out from them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I went through all the checkpoints and I was finally in the cell all alone. I was alright. I was actually, I had an amazing amount of strength then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just remember thinking that, you know, my friends are now all around me and always with me all the time and that they have gone on to that next experience while I'm left to stay in this one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it wasn't as devastating as it probably would be to people who didn't have the kind of faith that we did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In my opinion how did the fire start? I simply don't know. I just don't know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To disperse the CS gas in a room is flammable. Slightly flammable, but nonetheless flammable. I mean, I've actually talked to fire marshals.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You don't kill yourself if you're a spiritual person. You can't take your own life. You can't expect salvation and squander the life you're given.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had to go through these things. It was an adventure. The only thing I... I'm sorry for is the outcome. I think the outcome could have been avoided.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I definitely wish the federal authorities wouldn't have done certain things, but it still ended up the way it did. And uhm, I don't apologize for it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, it makes you feel old to see the youngsters coming up. You'll know what I mean sooner than you think, Harry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're not really old until you stop going to your friends' weddings and start going to their funerals. I spoke to the old man on the phone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I told him send over the heralds next to Alan Pierce and he sent you. You consider that a compliment?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good. Neither do I. I thought maybe you wanted to know the secret of my good health. Or maybe you're just the same as everybody else. Curious.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you want to know what the Argyle album is and what's in it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, it's not the safest kind of information to know, Harry. Of course, I know you don't care anything about that. And it's got to the point where I feel as though I ought to share it with somebody. Somebody who thinks like me. I've also got to ask you not to use this unless I'm not in a position to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, you know what an album is. This is quite a fancy looking one. It's white tulle leather bound. A flaming crimson double headed eagle crest on it. Here's a photo stat of the cover.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey old Rawls, nothing. If you go with him, my uncle will hunt you both till death. You'll never be free as long as you're with Rawls. You'll be running for the rest of your life and for what? For gold.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I got a wife and kids. If I had my way, I'd send Rawls over the side. If I had to put him in chains, I'd do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe you remember, I was figuring on a layout like this for myself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're dealing with a massive organization, a multi-billion dollar corporation whose wealth is worldwide and whose influence is staggering. I've got records of many, many homes that have been shattered by these people. I consider it to be one of the most deceptive and most dangerous


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I did for 19 years. Again, you have to understand the peculiar belief evolving around the Mormon


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's why it's such a secret. That's why even the Mormons don't talk about it. They're embarrassed by it too. Look, Mormonism is based upon the belief that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Extraterrestrial humanoids from a star in a distant place called Kolob visited this earth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Came down to this earth and visited a young boy, 14 year old boy by the name of Joseph Smith.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had a little animation done to show the difference between Mormonism and Christianity because Mormonism is so far removed from Orthodox Christianity. I'd like to show it to you for a moment if you don't mind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's no doubt my motivation in all of this stems partly from my own personal experiences. I look back on my own life seeing a bishop counsel me to divorce my wife, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And spending all these years just trying to reestablish those relationships.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know literally hundreds of families whose stories like this could, could break your heart.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Psychiatric care dealing with the depression in the Mormon woman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They must be perfect so that they can go to exaltation with their husbands. They don't even get out of the grave.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Mormon Church with its beautiful ads in the Reader's Digest would like us to believe that it's Christian through and through, yet


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What the outsider sees is not what the insider sees. In the Mormon church the, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The book of Mormon itself calls the Christian body the whore of Babylon. The temple ceremony mocks the Christian pastor, calls him a harling of Satan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Mormon church keeps changing its scriptures. The changes are incredible. There's so many thousands of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Recently, they canonized the 137th section of the Doctrine and Covenants.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I read this for the first time, I recognized that they omitted over 200 words of the actual revelation as written by Joseph Smith. Why did the church omit the 200 words?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because they contain three blatantly false revelations, prophecies of Joseph Smith.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were prophets of the living God. I have to be a polygamist.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The true doctrine teaches that there is no eternal life without a polygamous relationship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Emma Smith, Joseph's wife, is admonished in this same Doctrine and Covenants to be obedient to the call and to accept these otherwise of Joseph Smith or receive the penalty thereof.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Today in Utah, there are approximately 25,000 polygamous marriages.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These people are the fundamentalists who believe that bringing young was a prophet of God and that this section of the DNC is true and that they cannot take away


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This eternal covenant with God by some law of the land.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Earlier manuscripts, always refining, always going back to the earliest manuscripts to improve and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Validate the authenticity of the holy scripture. In Mormonism, it's completely the opposite.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Mormon missionaries throughout the world are converting people to the Mormon Church by explaining to them that archaeology has proven the Book of Mormon to be true.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The finality of the Mormon theology is not based upon evaluation by scriptural evidence, but based entirely upon a burning in the bosom. The Mormon scriptures tell you that that's what you must seek. When the Mormon missionaries come to your home they'll


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Talk to you about the Book of Mormon. They'll talk about the Prophet Joseph Smith. And when they're done, they'll ask you to pray about it and to seek that divine burning in the bosom that they have. And that this will prove to you that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, that the Book of Mormon is really scripture. And so, it becomes a subjective evaluation. Scripture is not to be tested.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When we discuss these things with Mormons, some will say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't care if every prophecy of Joseph Smith is proven wrong.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have a burning in my bosom that I know that the church is true.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll say, have you tested him? I'm not going to test him. I have that burning in my bosom. It's that total and complete trust in anything Mormon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are no statistics that prove that these temple garments have saved anybody from anything. Although Mormons circulate stories about how these


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Garments, because of their magical power, have saved them from fiery deaths and all kinds of harm in accident.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He kept a seer stone that he used, uh, as a crystal ball to divine the location of hidden treasures and to translate the golden plates.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Make this a special amulet, which is called a talisman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Under the section called Infernal Names, I wanna show you something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who can visit the living and who can convert to Mormonism even in the grave.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the early 1980s, two revolutionary motion pictures, The God Makers and The Temple of the God Makers were released.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For the first time ever on film, the heresies of Mormonism were revealed and the world was exposed to some of the darkest secrets of the Latter-day Saints.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These disclosures showing Mormonism to be distinctly separate from Christianity caused mayhem within the Mormon empire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They forced Mormon leadership to modify several so-called unchangeable sacred doctrines to not only counter the message of the films,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But to vie again for a place alongside Christianity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While doctrinal changes have been going on since the beginning of the foundation of Mormonism, the changes of the nineties are the most dangerous.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We are seeing Mormonism being repackaged with an endearing Christian wrapper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More than ever, the LDS church people are working harder to look more Christian than the Christians.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are spending tens of millions of dollars annually on ad campaigns appealing specifically to the Christian market.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Christians must realize that the Mormon hope of appearing Christian is not reflected in their teachings. The recent changes are only cosmetic. Don't be deceived by the pretty new face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For 19 years I was an active and devout member of what I regarded to be the only true church on earth. I had a burning desire to please God.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Much like converts to the Mormon church today, I was attracted by its call to moral decency, its virtuous, pro-family values, its politically conservative emphasis,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An outspoken enthusiasm for what I believe to be real Christianity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Today, the powerful Mormon Church claims a membership of over 8 million people and a determined missionary program steadily converts over 300,000 people annually.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Out of the 4.2 million members in the USA, 60 to 80% of its converts are said to come from Christian backgrounds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As Mormons strive to be classified as Christians, they obscure their anti-Christian identity and deceive millions worldwide into joining what they promote as another Christian denomination.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In just over 160 years, the Mormon Church has become one of the world's most powerful financial institutions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Literally billions of dollars a year are received from his faithful members in the forms of tithes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One conservative guess is that 15 million dollars a day is harvested from Mormons worldwide, with over half that from Mormons in America alone. In addition,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Mormon Church generates more than six billion dollars yearly through its many business enterprises and subsidiaries.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This income places them among the world's wealthiest corporations.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The LDS Land Holdings in central Florida alone outsized Disney World by 10 to 1.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Both business and church assets are shrewdly funneled through several holding companies controlled by a corporate power base known as the General Authorities or the Brethren.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Although elevated to the office of spiritual leaders, the majority of these men had been successful businessmen before they were called by revelation to join the LDS hierarchy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Church members, including those in lower levels of leadership, who have faithfully and sacrificially contributed their tithes, time and energy, are powerless to call for an accounting or participate in any corporate decisions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They must faithfully submit to every manipulation from the top.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] John Heinerman, Director of the Anthropological Research Center in Salt Lake City, is an active and devout Mormon who is refreshingly candid about the wealth and power of his church.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Joseph Smith, self-proclaimed prophet of God and founder of the Mormon Church, used the doctrine of divine revelation to legitimize the taking of many wives.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And spiritualized it as an essential doctrine of his Mormon religion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In addition to his first wife Emma, Smith appears to have actively enjoyed at least 27 other wives, many of whom are already married.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His first plural wife was a barely pubescent teenage relative who was living in their home at the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Polygamy became a standard requirement of Mormonism necessary for entrance into the highest level of heaven, referred to by Mormons as the celestial kingdom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Brigham Young, successor to Joseph Smith and second prophet of the Mormon Church, vigorously proclaimed that the only men who become gods, even the sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mormon scripture still says that those who abide not in this doctrine shall be damned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In 1890, government pressure forced the Mormon church to re-evaluate this divine commandment. The confusion and anger that resulted from this undermining of a non-revocable eternal commandment resulted in the formation of many offshoots of Mormonism.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Generally known as fundamentalists, these groups openly practice polygamy today and hold to the teachings of the first two prophets.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Changing doctrines is not new to Mormonism and has over the years fragmented Smith's original church into over 100 separate groups that still claim Joseph Smith as the prophet of God and the Book of Mormon as Divine Scripture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This blasphemous doctrine not only diminishes the power and the purpose of Christ's blood, but glorifies the atoning power of the blood of the Mormon sinner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While steadfastly observed by Mormon fundamentalists, this anti-Christian principle originated with Joseph Smith and was furthered by later Mormon prophets.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This troublesome doctrine of blood atonement blemishes the wholesome public image required by Mormonism's leaders.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Today, the brethren in Salt Lake City still grapple over the predicament they find themselves in when having to both affirm and deny blood atonement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, the late Mormon apostle, Bruce R. McConkey, in his book Mormon Doctrine, denied that the church ever practiced or taught blood atonement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It on the same page stated that because the blood of Christ is not sufficient to forgive certain sins, the Mormon God requires men to have His own blood spilled.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Many Mormons are persuaded that their beliefs are in unity with biblical doctrine, but the reality is that the Bible is not their rod of truth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For their leaders deny its authority and hold their own writings and statements in higher esteem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While they claim that the Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth, it has undergone numerous revisions and changes since its original edition over 160 years ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In fact, one researcher counted over four thousand changes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Near the end of his life Joseph Smith insisted, there is no error in the revelations which I have taught.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yet to date, Mormon leaders have altered, dismissed, and covered up thousands.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] of historical and archaeological errors, false prophecies, and doctrinal contradictions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Subsequent Mormon leaders have affirmed that once a prophet speaks, the thinking has been done. End of controversy. God works in no other way. Yet the prophet Ezra Taft Benson stated emphatically,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That any current Mormon prophet can override the pronouncements of any previous prophet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mormon scholars today call this progressive revelation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And remains historically and archeologically accurate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Christians are therefore confident that the Bible is the inspired word of God and cannot acknowledge the Book of Mormon as another testament of Jesus Christ.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Paul continually warned the early Christians not to be deceived by anyone bringing in another gospel of Jesus Christ.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mormon apostle Bruce R. McConkie taught, there is no salvation outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There are two kinds of salvation in Mormonism. The first is general salvation, which comes through the death of Jesus Christ and guarantees resurrection for all mankind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The second is personal salvation. Each person is judged for his degree of righteousness and works and depending on those will be placed in one of three kingdoms.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Former Mormon prophet Lorenzo Snow summed up the Mormon doctrine of salvation by stating, as man is, God once was, and as God is, man may become. This is supported in Mormon scripture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yet Jesus Himself clearly taught that God is Spirit, that He did not have a body of flesh and blood, or flesh and bone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is no small matter and is the plumb line of Mormon heresy. Mormons believe that God is a resurrected man and that we can become just like Him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The goal of every Mormon man is to become the duplicate of the Mormon's concept of God, to reign over planets and solar systems, and enjoy everlasting celestial sex with thousands of goddess wives.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Mormon temple plays a vital role in the achievement of such goals, yet 75% of the LBS members are not deemed worthy enough to enter and will never see the inside of a temple.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] However when members do meet church temple requirements, then they are allowed to participate in the LDS occult temple ceremonies, which actually bring them under further spiritual bondage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Part of this bondage is the requirement to wear sacred temple underwear 24 hours a day from that day on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Bible forbids participation in divination, witchcraft, and contacting the dead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Among the Mormon temple rituals is the practice of baptism for the dead. When the dead are called up to convert to Mormonism.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Former Mormon prophet Wilfred Woodruff admitted to being surrounded by the dead at one point while inside the temple.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Joseph Smith was a sorcerer and practiced crystal ball gazing, or fortune telling, and was convicted of this practice by the New York courts.