Evidence of Hector MacQueen - the secretary.

     I needed to have a word with MacQueen. He surely would give us valuable information. I told MacQueen about the murder of his employer. I noticed his eyes growing  brighter, besides that he showed no signs of a shock.

" So they got him after all " he said.

I didn't quite understand the meaning of that sentence, but before I could ask any questions, he asked who I was. I introduced myself as a representant of the Companie Internationale des Wagons Lits, a detective, to be precise. I had expected an effect, but none came. I learned from him, that he was his secretary for just over a year. They met in Persia, MaxQueen was here doing some business and went broke. Mr. Ratchett had just quarrelled with his secretary, which he fired the same day. Ratchett offered the job to MacQueen and he accepted it. Since then they have travelled about. He was more of a courier and a translator rather than a secretary, but it was a quite pleasant life for him.

     I also learned the full name of the victim, which was Samuel Edward Ratchett. He was an American citizen, but his city of origin was unknown. Ratchett never spoke to MacQueen about himself, so I had a very small piece of information on the victim. He also never mentioned any relations of his. MacQueen was pretty sure he left America to escape something, or someone. He was quite successful, until a few weeks ago. Then, he began to receive threatening letters. The secretary has brought me a few of those letter to examine. The first one said:

" Thought you'd doublecross us and get away with it, did you? Not on your life. We're out to GET you, Ratchett, and we WILL get you!"

There was of course no signature. The second letter said:

" We're going to take you for a ride, Ratchett. Some time soon. We're going to GET you, see? "

The style of these letter was quite monotonous. I figured that it had to take more than one person to write it. Each one of them was writing a single letter of a word at a time. The letters were also printed, so it was nearly impossible to identify the handwriting.

     MacQueen was pretty shocked when he heard about the offer his former employer had given me. He was already alarmed at that time. I asked the secretary how did Ratchett react when he received his first letter. He hesitated for a moment (interesting), and with a few pauses he told me that he passed it off with a laugh, but he could feel that underneath the quietness, he was probably afraid, and certainly alert. It lies in my nature to ask unexpected questions, some sounding riddiculous, but it's just my own psychological way of deducting things and evidence, so I asked him, if he liked his boss. He took a moment before answering. At last, he replied that in fact, he didn't like him at all. Although he was as he claimed on good terms with his former employer, he had distrusted him. To him, he seemed a cruel, dangerous man, probably with a very dark past. But on the other hand, he had no reasons to advance his opinion. 

     To me, Mr. MacQueen seemed a very honest character. Even though I suspect everyone until the last minute, I can't imagine this long-headed MacQueen stabbing his employer twelve times in an act of frenzy. It just does not accord with his psychology...

But on the other side, even the ones that seem the most innocent are capable of such terrible actions.

That is the act of a man driven almost crazy with a frenzied hate-it suggests more the Latin temperament. Or else it suggests, as our friend the chef de train insisted, a woman.