Death on the Nile: Chapter Twenty-Eight  Summary & Analysis

Outside the cabin from Tim and Rosalie, Poirot asks Race if he’s okay with the arrangement he made with them. “It is irregular—I know it is irregular, yes—but I have a high regard for human happiness,” Poirot says. Race jokes that Poirot isn’t considering Race’s happiness and that they’re aiding a felony, but ultimately Race says, “I’m not a damned policeman, thank God!” Race’s real concern is that he thinks Poirot knows who the murderer is but hasn’t told him yet. Poirot is about to tell him when there’s a knock on the door.

Dr. Bessner and Cornelia come in, with Cornelia apologetic about her cousin Miss Van Schuyler’s kleptomania. Race assures her they have no interest in creating scandal: “This is Hush Hush House,” he says. Poirot asks if Cornelia has seen Ferguson again, at which point Dr. Bessner mentions that Ferguson is actually “highly-born,” even though he doesn’t look it.

Dr. Bessner then tells Poirot that Simon is doing well, despite his fever earlier (which Jacqueline had been panicking about). Race says if Simon’s feeling well, they should find him and finish their conversation about Richetti’s telegram. Dr. Bessner says that Simon told him about the telegram: that it was funny because it was full of writing about vegetables. Race exclaims that this is a code used in a rebellion in South Africa, meaning that Richetti is the agitator Race has been after. Poirot admits Richetti may be Race’s man but contends that he wasn’t Linnet’s murderer. Now Cornelia asks if Poirot will ever actually tell them the murderer.

Poirot admits he likes an audience of people telling him how clever he is. He begins telling them what happened. His main “stumbling block” was Jacqueline’s pistol and why it hadn’t been left at the scene of the crime. Ultimately, Poirot realized there was a simple solution: the murderer took the gun away because “he had no other choice in the matter.”