Chapter 8 Summary

The chapter opens with the narrator, Dr. Sheppard asking whether inquiries will be made at the station. He is told that they would indeed be made, but there is little hope for success. This is due to the fact that King's Abbot, though a small village, is also an important train junction. At the time of night in question, no less than three trains arrive near each other, and the chance of anyone noting a particular individual using a telephone or boarding the express is small.

Melrose asks, probably rhetorically, why anyone would have telephoned at all. To him, the situation seems chaotic and random. Poirot disagrees, and tells him that when they disentangle the mystery behind the call, they will then know everything.

Poirot then questions Dr Sheppard, asking him to reconfirm that it was Nine o'clock when he met the stranger...