Death on the Nile: Chapter Fourteen  Summary & Analysis

Still in the smoking room, Race and Poirot discuss the incident from a few days earlier when someone tried to kill Linnet with a boulder. They agree that Simon, Mrs. Allerton, Tim, Miss Van Schuyler, and Miss Bowers couldn’t have done it because Poirot saw them at the time when the boulder fell.

Jacqueline now enters the smoking room and pleads that she didn’t kill Linnet last night. She admits, however, that she can’t think of anyone with a motive except herself. Race has a thought and suddenly leaves the room. Meanwhile, Jacqueline and Poirot recall a conversation they had at the hotel (where Jacqueline said she wanted to put a bullet in Linnet’s head) and they agree that it could be more than a coincidence that the murder happened that way—that maybe someone overheard. Jacqueline seems to believe the murderer is a man, though Poirot won’t say either way.

Just then Dr. Bessner comes in and says Simon would like to speak with Poirot. Dr. Bessner reassures Jacqueline that Simon won’t die. When Poirot arrives, Simon is propped up in Dr. Bessner’s cabin. Simon stammers that he’s in shock over Linnet’s death but that he’s sure Jacqueline didn’t do it. He also admits, however, that he knows of no one other than Jacqueline who wanted her dead. He considers both Windlesham and Sir George Wode, who might have motives, but finds the idea that they’d be connected to a murder in Egypt too unbelievable.

Poirot tells Simon about a conversation he had with Linnet where she said that she felt like everyone around her was an enemy. Simon explains that Linnet may have seen a name on the passenger list that upset her, someone who was a rival of Linnet’s father, although Simon doesn’t know the name. Dr. Bessner chimes in that Ferguson may also have had a motive.

Poirot asks Simon if Linnet had any valuable jewelry. Simon says she had some extremely valuable pearls, to which Poirot muses that robbery could be a motive. Louise Bourget the maid comes in and tells Poirot that the last time she saw Linnet alive was just after eleven, when she helped her undress. Poirot asks if she saw or heard anything, and she says that from her cabin she would’ve been unable to. She talks hypothetically about how she might’ve seen something if she’d been unable to sleep and then pleadingly throws out her hands toward Simon. He reassures her that he’ll look after her and she isn’t being accused of anything.

Louise brings up someone else who had a grudge against Linnet. She says there is an engineer on the boat, Fleetwood, who wanted to marry one of Linnet’s former maids, Marie, but Linnet intervened. Simon doesn’t know anything about this. Poirot asks about Linnet’s pearls, and Louise says she saw Linnet wearing them the previous night. Poirot asks if she saw them the next morning. When Louise says she can’t remember, Poirot reveals that he looked, and that they were not on Linnet’s bedside table.