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Five Little Pigs - Agatha Christie

Sixteen years after Caroline Crale has been convicted of the murder of her husband, Amyas Crale, her daughter, Carla Lemarchant, approaches Poirot to investigate the case, on the belief that her mother was innocent through a letter she received, and under the fear that the fact her mother was hanged for the murder will poison her fiance's love for her. Poirot embarks optimistically upon an unprecedented challenge, but soon fears that the case may be just as cut and dried as it had originally appeared.

Researching the case, he learns that on the day of the murder at the Crale's home, there were five others, each a possible suspect, and whom Poirot labels as "the five little pigs" - Meredith Blake, an amateur chemist; Phillip Blake, Meredith's brother; Angela Warren, Caroline's younger half-sister; Cecilia Williams, the Crale's governess; and Elsa Greer (now Lady Dittisham), a young model posing for Amyas' latest painting. The investigation into the murder by the police found that Amyas was poisoned by coniine, which had been put in a glass that he had drunk a cold beer from. The poison had been extracted by Meredith from poison hemlock and was subsequently stolen from his lab by Caroline, who confessed to its theft but claimed she did so with the intention of using it to commit suicide. Upon learning that Caroline had provided the glass and a bottle of cold beer, the police determined that she killed her husband over his relationship to his latest mistress, Elsa, who claimed that he planned to divorce his wife and marry her; this was a new development--although he frequently had mistresses, he had never shown signs of wanting to leave Caroline.

Meeting with each of the other five possible suspects, Poirot notes that none of the quintet has an obvious motive, but finds that their views have subtle differences in regards to the original case. Although Phillip is overtly hostile towards Caroline, Meredith mistrusts his brother's view and is more sympathetic in his opinion of her. Elsa, meanwhile, was left prematurely devoid of emotion after her original passion for Amyas, except for an overall hatred of Caroline, while Cecilia, who gives her insight on both her and her sister Angela, claims she has a definite reason for believing that Caroline was guilty of the murder. Finally, Angela believes that her sister is also innocent, though unlike Carla, she receives a letter from her that contains no protestation of innocence, which raises doubts for Poirot. Considering the accounts of all five suspects carefully, Poirot is able to establish the succession of events on the day of the murder, and notes that there are four small facts that are important to solving the puzzle - the degree of circumstantial evidence incriminating Angela; Caroline's frantic effort to wipe the fingerprints off the bottle of beer while she waited by Amyas' dead body, as witnessed by Cecilia; the conversation overheard between Caroline and Amyas, over the latter offering to oversee the packing of Angela's things for her return to school; and the heated argument overheard by Elsa between Caroline and Amyas, in which he swore he would divorce his wife, and Caroline had bitterly said "you and your women."

Assembling the suspects together along with Carla, Poirot makes his denouement about the murder. Although Phillip's hostility to Caroline was due to her rejection of his love for her, and Meredith's sympathy was due to his weariness for his long affection for her, leading him to form an attachment to Elsa that was unreciprocated, both brothers' emotions were merely red herrings. In putting together the case, he reveals that Caroline had been innocent, but did not defend herself in court, because she believed that Angela had committed the murder; the evidence Poirot had uncovered showed that her younger sister had been angry with Amyas and had put salt in his glass as a prank. She had the opportunity to steal the poison from Meredith on the morning of the crime, and was seen fiddling with the bottle of beer that Caroline would take down to him. However, Caroline did not wish her sister to be charged for the crime, having felt a deep guilt for injuring her sister in a fit of jealous rage many years ago, which had left Angela blinded in one eye and with a permanent scar on the left side of her face. Therefore, she took steps to take the blame for her crime in order to earn redemption, which explained why she did not claim she was innocent in the letter she sent Angela but believed Angela knew Caroline was. However, Poirot reveals that Caroline's actions had actually proved her innocence, as she had wiped the fingerprints off the bottle because she believed that the poison had been put in it rather than in the glass, and that she would have no need to remove her own--thus, she was removing those of a third party. Furthermore, he reveals that Angela was not the killer, as she had been at Meredith's lab in order to steal valerian from him in preparation for playing another prank on Amyas, but never carried out the act because of the murder, deducing this from the way that she spoke of the theft in the future tense to Poirot.

Poirot reveals that the true murderer had been Elsa, who had become disillusioned and betrayed when she overheard Amyas reassure his wife that he had no intention of leaving her; he had made the promise to Elsa of doing so, merely to keep her from leaving so that he could complete his portrait of her, unaware that his model had taken his promise quite seriously. Although she falsely recalled the gist of this conversation, the mention of Caroline saying to Amyas, "you and your women", showed to Poirot that Elsa was in the same category as all of Amyas' other, discarded mistresses, despite having been too young to realise this at the time, while he further notes that the remark made by Amyas of "see to her packing" was in regards to his intention to send Elsa packing once he was finished with his painting, and not about Angela; Caroline was distressed by his cruelty to Elsa despite his reassurances, and remonstrated with him on a second occasion about this. After overhearing their conversation, Elsa recalled seeing Caroline help herself to the coniine the day before, and stole some under the pretence of fetching a cardigan, which she then used on a glass of warm beer she provided Amyas; Poirot noted that his exclamation of "everything tastes foul today," meant that he must have drunk something already, before the cold beer that Caroline had provided, that had tasted foul as well. Amyas did not know he was poisoned until he began to become gradually weaker while Elsa was posing for his artwork, and that he knew by who by the "malevolent glare" he gave to the painting that Meredith had seen. Poirot notes the unusual vitality in the face of the portrait and says, "It is a very remarkable picture. It is the picture of a murderess painted by her victim – it is the picture of a girl watching her lover die."

Poirot's explanation solves the case to the satisfaction of Carla and, most importantly, her fiancé. But, as Elsa forces him to admit, it cannot be proven. Poirot states that, although his chances of getting a conviction are slim, he does not intend to simply leave her to her rich, privileged life. Privately, however, she confides the full measure of her defeat. Caroline, having earned redemption, went uncomplainingly to prison, where she died soon after. Elsa has always felt that the husband and wife escaped together, and her own life has been empty since. The last paragraph of the novel underlines this defeat: "The chauffeur held open the door of the car. Lady Dittisham got in and the chauffeur wrapped the fur rug around her knees."