Summary

The emotional, psychological and factual truths emerge thick and fast in this section as Poirot draws closer to the truth and confronts the passengers one after the other with what he's discovered.

Col. Arbuthnot is summoned into the dining car for once more, and when Poirot confronts him with the pipe cleaner, he (the Colonel) recognizes it but claims to have no knowledge of how it came to be in Ratchett's compartment. Poirot then surprises him by saying he (Poirot) isn't really interested in the pipe cleaner, but in the conversation the Colonel had with Miss Debenham on the train from Syria. Arbuthnot refuses to answer that question and spiritedly defends Miss Debenham when Poirot describes her as "a highly suspicious character", but then falls silent when Poirot suggests that Miss Debenham was in fact the governess in the Armstrong household. After Poirot explains...