Poireau’s soup

   It was 3 a.m. when Mr. Barnabee, the superintendent of the Police received an anonymous call: someone may have been killed in a little house in Brighton. Few hours later, Mr. Barnabee and Mrs. Shertok, the inspector went to the house. When they arrived they realized that all the doors, the windows and the curtains were closed. They broke the door to enter.

   Immediately, they smelt a strange smell. Mrs. Shertock said:

“I go upstairs to see if I find something.”

“Ok, I will take a look in the living room!”

Mr. Barnabee found a man sleeping on the sofa. He tried to wake him up but he realized that he was surely dead. Mrs. Shertock arrived and they began to draw up a balance sheet: the victim was a 30-40-year-old man, he hadn’t any injury and nothing was broken in the house. What could have happened? It was not a natural death so, who could have killed this man?         

   They searched the identity of the victim: it was Luc Poireau, a famous starred chef in Brighton. Then, Mrs. Shertock went to investigate in the district: only one house was not far from the crime scene, the house of Mrs. Poudding, an old and widow woman who had been the neighbour of Mr. Poireau for 10 years. She was a very small and kind person. “I’ve never seen anybody else than his brother, Ivan, entering this house except for me, but it has been a long time he hasn’t invited me,” she said “and Ivan is such a creep.”

   The inspector then called Ivan Poireau. He was aggressive on the phone but shocked by the death of his brother. He said: “You should be careful with Mrs. Poudding, she’s losing it...”

   When he returned on the crime scene, Mr. Barnabee found a precious clue: Luc Poireau had been poisoned. But who was the killer? Ivan seemed suspicious and he may be the last person to have entered this house…

   Few days later, the analysis of important fingerprints revealed that Mrs. Poudding was the murderer. The members of the Police came to arrest her but she had already committed suicide.

   The investigation revealed that Mrs. Poudding and her husband had eaten two weeks before in Luc Poireau’s restaurant and Mr. Poudding had died the next day. Mrs. Poudding believed that the chef poisoned him. She promised herself to take revenge and to join him after.

THE END

Emma, Diana, Hélène and Alexandra (202)