time of the murder, but nothing substantial comes to light. When Japp next visits, Poirot guesses that the knife used to kill Mrs Carrington has been found by the side of the line between Weston (the first stop after Bristol on the Plymouth line) and Taunton (the next stop) and that a paper boy who spoke to Mrs Carrington has been interviewed. Japp confirms that this is exactly what has happened. Japp tells Poirot something he does not know – that one of the jewels has been pawned by a known thief called Red Narky, a short man who usually works with a woman called Gracie Kidd. Poirot and Hastings return to Halliday's house, to a room on the top floor. Rummaging through Mason's trunk, Poirot finds clothes like the ones worn by Mrs Carrington when she was murdered. Halliday joins them followed by the angry Mason, whom Poirot introduces as Gracie Kidd. She and Red Narky probably murdered Mrs Carrington before Bristol. The story about Mrs Carrington directing her maid to wait at Bristol is false. The knife was thrown off the train before Taunton to support that story. Gracie rode the train past Bristol dressed in similar clothing to the now-dead woman and bought two items from a newsboy, drawing attention to herself in many ways. Gracie Kidd provided herself with an alibi by making the murder by Red Narky appear to have taken place later than it did. This short story was expanded five years later into the full-length novel The Mystery of the Blue Train, with a very similar plot, but names and details changed. "The Chocolate Box" Hastings mentions his belief that Poirot had never known failure in his professional career. Poirot said that was not true and relates the one occasion when he failed to solve a crime, years earlier when he was a police detective in Brussels. Paul Déroulard, a French Deputy who was living in Brussels, had died from heart failure. At a time of strife over the separation of church and state M. Déroulard was a key player as an anti-Catholic and a potential minister. He lived in a Brussels home that his late wife left him. He had a reputation as a ladies' man. Mademoiselle Virginie Mesnard, a cousin of his late wife, asks Poirot to investigate. She is convinced that his death three days earlier was not natural. M.