Murder on the Orient Express
(Agatha Christie)
Part One
Detective Hercule Poirot is in Syria and getting ready to board the Taurus Express train to Stanboul (Istanbul) for a vacation. It is obvious that Poirot is a respected detective in the way that Lieutenant Dubosc profusely thanks him for his services and for saving him, to which Poirot replies “do I not remember that you once saved my life?”
Once on the train Poirot sees Mary Debenham and Colonel Arbuthnot and notes their behavior toward one another. The pair appears to not know one another when the Colonel asks Mary if he can dine with her and say little to one another, but Poirot notes they get quite chatty with one another throughout the trip and make some remarks to make him believe that they do, in fact, know one another.
Mary seems terribly agitated when the train has to stop due to a fire under the dining car because her connection onto the Orient Express seems highly significant to her. As the group is preparing to deboard the train Poirot hears Mary say to the Colonel, “When it’s all over, when it is all behind us…” which he finds suspicious given the way they were acting toward one another at first. When the train arrives in Stanboul, Poirot checks in to the Tokatlian Hotel where he receives a message that he must return to London right away as there has been a break in a case he is working on.
Poirot books himself a seat on the Orient Express which will leave that evening at 9:00. In the lobby of the hotel, Poirot encounters M. Bouc, an old friend of his and director of the Wagon Lit and they dine together at the hotel restaurant while they wait for the train. During dinner, Poirot happens to notice a man named Ratchett dining with Hector McQueen and he immediately takes distaste to Ratchett as there is something about him Poirot does not trust. When Poirot learns that there are no seats left in first class as the train that evening is unusually full M. Bouc offers him the seat of another man, Mr. Harris, who has yet to arrive.
Poirot discovers that both Ratchett and Hector McQueen will be staying in the same carriage as he. At lunch, the following day, Poirot takes in the appearance of the other passengers and commits them all to memory as he finds them oddly suspicious. There are Ratchett and McQueen, Mary Debenham, Colonel Arbuthnot, a large and sweaty Italian man, an ugly old lady named Princess Dragomiroff, an Englishman, a couple, some single ladies sitting with Mary, and a middle-aged woman who appears to be Scandinavian.
Poirot is approached by Ratchett who is in fear for his life as he has been receiving death threats and would like Poirot to help protect him. Poirot refuses Ratchett’s money as he has no desire to help the man because he does not find the case engrossing and, as he says to Ratchett, “I do not like your face.”
Poirot gets out to stretch his legs when the train arrives in Belgrade, but the rest is short-lived as it is frightfully cold outside. Upon returning to the train, Poirot learns that M. Bouc has given up his first class compartment for Poirot, and Poirot now finds himself in the compartment next to Ratchett. Mrs. Hubbard informs Poirot that she is seriously scared of Ratchett as she is sure that he tried to open the door between their rooms the night before.
That evening Poirot reads until he falls asleep and several hours later he is awoken by a cry seemingly coming from Ratchett’s room and the sound of a bell. When the conductor knocks on Ratchett’s door to make sure everything is okay, a voice from inside replies in French that all is well and he was mistaken in ringing his bell. Poirot tries to go back to sleep, but the train is still stopped so he has difficulty. He hears some scuffling sounds in the hallway and the sound of another conductor’s bell.
This time it is Mrs. Hubbard who tells the conductor that there is a man in her room. Poirot asks the conductor for some water and finds out that the train is stuck in a snow bank and may not move for several days, to everyone’s disappointment. Poirot tries to go back to sleep but hears a loud noise from Ratchett’s room and notices a woman walking down the hall wearing a red dressing gown.
The next morning at breakfast the passengers all seem extremely worried about the train still being stopped as they will miss their connections to other trains or will have disappointed relatives waiting for them. After breakfast, Poirot is called into M. Bouc’s cabin where he learns that Ratchett was killed the night before. Suicide was considered but ruled out when it became clear that he was stabbed between ten and fifteen times.
Dr. Constantine, the coroner, decided that the murder happened sometime between midnight and two in the morning, which was precisely when all of the commotion had been occurring. Though the window was left open in his room Poirot and M. Bouc believe this is simply a diversion as there are no tracks in the snow outside the window; therefore, the murderer must still be on the train. At M. Bouc’s request, Poirot takes on the case.
Poirot has the passports and tickets of each passenger collected and prepares to interview everyone to determine who murdered Ratchett. The first person interviewed is Ratchett’s travel companion, Hector McQueen. Poirot tells McQueen that Ratchett has been killed, and McQueen is not surprised at all as Ratchett had been receiving death threats for a couple weeks.
McQueen had been working for Ratchett for approximately one year and proved immensely helpful to Ratchett in his travels as McQueen spoke multiple languages and Ratchett did not. McQueen states that Ratchett’s full name is Samuel Edward Ratchett, and he is American, though McQueen believes this to be an alias as Ratchett seems to be running from something that happened in the past.
McQueen shows Poirot one of the death threat letters that had been received and Poirot finds it intriguing that the letter seems to have been written by more than one person. McQueen tells Poirot that the last time he saw Ratchett alive was at approximately ten (o'clock) the previous night when he took some notes for the deceased.
Dr. Constantine brings Poirot to Ratchett’s room where the dead man is still lying on the bed. Poirot finds it intriguing that the stab wounds are varying, as some are made post-mortem. Some are left-handed, and some right and some are incredibly shallow and some deep. Poirot also notes that, in the ashtray in Ratchett’s room, there are two different types of matches, only one of which compares to the matches Ratchett himself used leading Poirot to believe the other was used by the killer. Also in the room Poirot finds a pipe cleaner, a handkerchief with the letter “H” on it, and a charred piece of paper. Poirot manages to read the charred paper which says, “-member little Daisy Armstrong,” and he immediately knows the true identity of Ratchett; he is, in fact, an American man though his name is not Ratchett it is Cassetti.
When Poirot and Dr. Constantine go to lunch that afternoon they meet with M. Bouc and Poirot informs him of Ratchett’s true identity. Cassetti kidnapped a three year old girl named Daisy Armstrong a few years prior and despite the fact that her parents paid a $200,000 ransom he killed the child anyway.
Daisy’s parents were the hugely wealthy Colonel Armstrong, who shot himself in the wake of Daisy’s death, and an actress named Linda Arden. One of Daisy’s nursemaids was questioned in the murder as they thought she may be connected, which caused her to take her own life, as well. Approximately six months after Daisy’s death Cassetti was arrested for her murder though he managed to get off without being convicted as he was extremely powerful and wealthy. Poirot’s assumption is that whoever killed Ratchett tried to burn the piece of paper so the Armstrong family name would not be associated with his murder in any way, though they were unsuccessful.
Part Two
Poirot interviews the conductor of the Orient Express, Pierre Michel, who has been with the Wagon Lit for fifteen years and is considered to be a top employee and truly professional and trustworthy. Pierre tells Poirot exactly what he remembers from the night before, starting with Ratchett asking that his room be ready for him as soon as possible because he would like to settle in to sleep right after dinner.
McQueen was seen heading into Ratchett’s room shortly after he went in to sleep and just after midnight Ratchett’s bell was rung though when Pierre knocked on his door the voice from inside said the bell was rang by mistake. After that, Pierre went to a different section of the train and was not called back near Ratchett’s room until Mrs. Hubbard and Poirot rang their bells just after one o’clock in the morning. Shortly after this Pierre made up McQueen’s bed as he had been up speaking with Colonel Arbuthnot and the only movement he saw in the hallways was a woman wearing a red kimono. Pierre says that the train was thoroughly checked, and there was no one hiding on the train that was not meant to be there.
After speaking with Pierre Michel Poirot decides to speak with McQueen again and tell him who Ratchett actually was. McQueen seems surprised to learn that Ratchett is actually Cassetti and tells Poirot that he would certainly not have taken the job working for him had he known Ratchett’s true identity. McQueen tells Poirot that his father was the district attorney in the case against Cassetti and he feels terrible for what the Armstrong family suffered.
McQueen tells Poirot that he read for a bit after dinner and then struck up conversation with the Colonel about politics which lasted until nearly two o’clock in the morning. McQueen maintains that the only person he saw in the hallway besides himself and the Colonel was a woman wearing a red kimono that he never saw again. Ratchett’s valet, Edward Henry Masterman, is the next to be interviewed. He says the last time he saw Ratchett was at approximately nine o’clock at night after he had folded Ratchett’s clothes, soaked his dental plate, and given him his sleeping draught. Masterman says that Ratchett seemed singularly edgy and irritable and asked that Masterman not bother him the next morning until he is summoned. Masterman states that Ratchett often did not rise before afternoon, so he was not surprised to not hear from Ratchett in the morning. Upon leaving Ratchett, Masterman told McQueen that Ratchett would like to see him and retired to his own room, which is shared with the large Italian man, to read though he did not fall asleep until about four o’clock in the morning because he was suffering a toothache. Masterman says that while he did not know Ratchett’s real identity he did know that Ratchett was disliked as he had heard Ratchett and McQueen speaking about the death threats. Poirot makes note of the fact that Masterman is a smoker.
Mrs. Hubbard is the next to be interviewed and tells Poirot that she has supremely relevant information for him. She believes that the murderer was actually in her compartment the night before as she shared a communicating door with Ratchett. She says that she heard someone walking around her room and so she rang the bell for the conductor and laid in bed very still with her eyes closed while she waited for him. Mrs. Hubbard asked Pierre Michel to be sure the communicating door was bolted shut before he left and then she put a suitcase in front of the door as well to be sure that no one was going to get in. Mrs. Hubbard found a button the floor in her room that did not belong to her but did match the buttons on the uniform worn by Pierre Michel.
When Mrs. Hubbard is asked if she is familiar with the Armstrong kidnapping she says that she does know the case and was outraged that the murderer got off, though she is not personally acquainted with the family. Mrs. Hubbard is tremendously excited to learn that Ratchett was, in fact, Cassetti. Poirot also learns that Mrs. Hubbard does not own a red kimono, nor is she the owner of the handkerchief with the “H” embroidered on it that was found in Ratchett’s compartment after his murder.
Poirot questions Greta Ohlsson next as she was thought to be the last person who saw Ratchett while he was still alive. Greta was going to Mrs. Hubbard’s room and opened the door to Ratchett’s room by accident, thinking it was Mrs. Hubbard’s and found him inside reading. Mrs. Hubbard asked Greta to check the communicating door before she left to make sure that it was locked and then Greta returned to the room she shared with Mary Debenham at about 10:55 PM. Greta says that Mary remained in the room all night long and tells Poirot that she does not own a red kimono. When Poirot asks Greta if she is familiar with the Armstrong case, she says that she is not though she does feel sorry for the Armstrong family when she hears about it.
Pierre Michel is called back in to see Poirot so it can be determined whether the button found by Mrs. Hubbard belongs to his uniform. All of Pierre’s buttons appear to be intact, and when he realizes they consider him a suspect he is offended and calls for one of his coworkers to corroborate his story from the night before. After Pierre’s alibi is confirmed he is dismissed and Princess Dragomiroff is called in. She tells Poirot that she retired to her compartment just after dinner and read until eleven o’clock. At half past midnight, the Princess called for her maid, Hildegarde Schmidt, to read to her and give her a massage until she should fall asleep, but she does not recall any strange circumstances or noises during the night. The Princess tells Poirot that she was remarkably close with the Armstrong family and is actually the Godmother to their daughter, Sonia. She claims to remember Poirot and tells him their meeting is “destiny”.
Poirot asks that the Count and Countess Andrenyi be brought to speak with him in the dining car, but only the Count meets his request. The Count tells Poirot that he and his wife know nothing of the night before did not hear anything unusual not does he know of the Armstrong family or care when he hears the true identity of Ratchett. The Count says he and the Countess played piquet in their room until eleven o’clock and then they each went to bed.
The Count refuses to bring the Countess to speak with Poirot but allows him to see their passports where he notices a smudge of grease on the one belong to the Countess, which states her to be twenty years old with the name Elena Maria Goldenberg. The Count finally agrees to allow Poirot to speak to the Countess who corroborates his story and tells Poirot that she does not own a red kimono and has never accompanied the Count on a trip to the United States, and also that her husband smokes both cigarettes and cigars.
Colonel Arbuthnot is the next to be questioned, claiming that he has personal reasons for heading to Syria. When asked about Mary Debenham, the Colonel states that he met her on the previous train ride on which Poirot had first encountered them, and seems to find her a extremely amiable lady who could not have possibly murdered Ratchett.
The Colonel tells Poirot that, on the previous night, he spent most of his time discussing politics with McQueen, and the two men got off the train to stretch their legs when it stopped and had a smoke together when they came back on the train, as the Colonel smokes a pipe. The only person the Colonel recalls seeing in the hallway is a woman whom he remembers smelling jolly nice and when he returned to his room at 2:45 in the morning he saw the conductor at the end of the hall. When he walked by room number sixteen, he saw a man looking through a crack in the door, but the man shut the door when he realized he had been seen.
The man who had been looking through the crack in the door turns out to be the American man on the train, named Hardman, and he is called next to speak with Poirot. Poirot notes that according to Hardman’s passport he is a traveling salesman but when Hardman finds out whom Poirot is he reveals that he is, in fact, a private investigator who was hired by Ratchett for protection.
Ratchett showed Hardman the letters that had been given to him and described his harasser as a man with a small build, a dark complexion, and a womanish voice. Hardman meant to have the compartment next to Ratchett’s so he could keep an eye on him, but he could not so instead he kept his door cracked open so he could see if there was anyone in the hallway heading toward Ratchett’s room, but he saw no strangers pass through. When Poirot reveals Ratchett’s true identity to Hardman he is surprised to learn that he is the man, Cassetti, who was responsible for the Armstrong kidnapping and murder.
The Italian man on the train is Antonio Foscanelli, and he is actually an Italian-American for the past ten years. He tells Poirot that he is not thoroughly familiar with the Armstrong case at all and the previous night he spent most of his time talking with Hardman. Poirot takes note that the Italian smokes cigarettes and is the roommate of John Bull who woke him in the night by making groaning sounds.
Mary Debenham is the next to be called in for questioning, and when she approaches Poirot sees that she is an attractive woman who states that she is twenty-six years old and lives in England. She said that she was in bed sleeping the night before though at approximately five o’clock in the morning she was awakened by the feeling the train had stopped, and she saw a woman in a red kimono in the hallway that was wearing a hat and appeared to be quite tall and lean.
Miss Debenham had no feelings about Ratchett’s death at all as she did not know him and had only seen him briefly the previous night. Poirot asks about Greta Ohlsson, Mary’s roommate, and Mary says she is a lovely lady, she has a brown robe, and she fears that she is a suspect because she seems to be the last person to have seen Ratchett alive. Mary says that Greta left to give Mrs. Hubbard aspirin at 10:30 for the night and returned only five minutes later to which Poirot tells her that Greta is not a suspect because there is no way that Ratchett could have been killed that early.
After Mary Debenham leaves Poirot tells the doctor and M. Bouc that he suspects her of the murder because of the casual and strange conversation she had with the Colonel on the other train, also because she seems singularly calm and collected and he feels that is the type of person who could have killed Ratchett. Hildegard Schmidt is the last person called in to questioning. Miss Schmidt works as the maid to Princess Dragomiroff and the previous night she was sleeping until she was summoned to the aid of the Princess who wanted a massage.
After leaving the Princess’ room Miss Schmidt returned to her room to sleep though, in the hall, she saw the conductor coming from room two or three, and he almost ran into her as he came down the hall entirely ignoring the bell that Mrs. Hubbard was ringing. Poirot has the attendants of the sleeping car come in so Miss Schmidt can identify the man she saw, but it is none of them as she described the man as being extremely short with a dark complexion. When Poirot asks her about the Armstrong case she gets highly emotional, and she says that the handkerchief that was found in Ratchett’s room did not belong to her nor did she know who it belonged to though there was some hesitation in her voice.
Everyone is dismissed from the room except M. Bouc and he and Poirot sit and discuss the evidence of the case. Poirot is not sure what time Ratchett was actually stabbed, but he has a few different theories. First he thinks that Ratchett was possibly stabbed at 1:15 in the morning because his watch was stopped at 1:15, it goes along with the doctor’s assessment of the murder, and it goes along with what Miss Schmidt and Mrs. Hubbard said. The other two options are that the murder was committed either earlier or later than 1:15 and the evidence was faked.
Despite the fact that several passengers claimed the existence of a small man with a dark complexion and a womanish voice, there is no evidence to suggest the man is on the train as the train was searched and there was no one matching that description. Several people’s testimonies support the existence of the man, as does the button found in Ratchett’s room. The only possible explanations that Poirot can think of is are that the man is in hiding, or the man does not exist, and there are multiple people involved in the murder who are all covering for one another. The two men are just about to set out and check everyone’s luggage for a red kimono when Mrs. Hubbard comes in screaming about a bloody knife she found in one of her bags and faints on the shoulder of M. Bouc.
The two men go to Mrs. Hubbard’s room to see what she was talking about, and all of the passengers are gathered around her door. Poirot sees that the bad the knife had been in is hanging from the handle of the communicating door that connects her room to Ratchett’s, and the knife is on the floor below it. According to the doctor the knife could certainly have caused Ratchett’s wounds, but Poirot is more interested in the door lock. He notices that the lock is above the handle rather than under the bag so there is no reason that Mrs. Hubbard would have needed someone else to check that the door is locked for her as she claimed to do, however, when her luggage was searched nothing suspicious was found, and she was moved to another room. When M. Bouc and Poirot go through everyone’s luggage, they find some things that spark their interest. First they find that the Colonel has some pipe cleaners that match the one found in Ratchett’s room. The Princess’ luggage tag is wet, and the red kimono is folded up on top of Poirot’s own suitcase. Poirot has stimulating conversations with both the Princess and Mary Debenham.
The Princess tells him that she loved Daisy Armstrong’s mother, Sonia, and Mary says that she cannot reveal any details about her conversation with the Colonel on the previous train but maintains that she never saw Ratchett before getting on the Orient Express nor did she know the Colonel before meeting him on the train.
Part Three
Poirot sits down with M. Bouc and Doctor Constantine to go over the evidence but he is frustrated because he normally has all of the bells and whistles for solving his cases that are allowed to the police and here he has nothing but his own intellect and problem-solving skills to find the murderer which M. Bouc and the doctor are not convinced to be enough. Poirot lays out all of the evidence and his attention is first drawn to Hector McQueen, Ratchett’s assistant. He distinctly recalls McQueen telling them that Ratchett did not speak any foreign languages; therefore, he could not have spoken French which is the language that responded to the conductor when he knocked on Ratchett’s door to be sure he was okay.
The voice said, “Ce n’est rien. Je ne suis trompe” which essentially translates to “There is no problem, I was mistaken.” In this case, the voice that responded to the conductor was not Ratchett’s voice but one of a person who spoke French, and this occurred at 12:47. Poirot believes that the only time a person could have gotten into Ratchett’s compartment undetected was when the train stopped in Vincovci, and the conductors all got off the train to stretch their legs. The only other option is that a person snuck into the room between 1 and 1:15 when the conductor left his post for a few moments. Poirot proceeds to make a list of all of the passengers on the train, their motives for killing Ratchett/Cassetti, and their supposed alibis.
Poirot’s main questions came from a list of who belonged to what evidence: who owned the pipe cleaners and handkerchief? Who wore the kimono and Wagon Lit jacket? Also, why was Ratchett’s watched stopped at 1:15, what time did he actually die, and how many people killed him?
Poirot believes that the dropping of the handkerchief was purely accidental, but the pipe cleaner was probably placed as false evidence to put the heat on someone else, but the stopped time on the watch is puzzling to him. Poirot knows that the wounds were caused by both left- and right-handed people and recalls that when he asked all of the passengers to write out their names everyone wrote with their right hand except for the Princess who did not write anything at all, leading Poirot to believe that she is the sole left-handed person. The fact that the wounds were inflicted with varying amounts of force and from different angles leads Poirot to be certain that he is looking for more than one murderer.
After the men sit and think about the evidence for fifteen minutes or so, M. Bouc and Doctor Constantine admit that they are lost, but Poirot seems to find things coming together for him quite nicely. He thinks about how rare it is for people of such varying nationalities are all on the train together, how McQueen tried to suggest that Ratchett’s burned the paper bearing the Armstrong name himself so he would not be caught, the fact that Mrs. Hubbard’s bag was not obstructing the view of her door lock at all, Hardman’s failed detective work, the grease spot on the Countess’ passport, and the Princess’ Christian name. He believes that the Countess’ maiden name is Goldenberg, making her Helena Goldenberg, sister of Mrs. Armstrong and the Princess had obviously lied about not knowing where Mrs. Armstrong’s sister was located. He believes that the murderer burned the paper to erase any evidence of a connection to the Armstrong family and that the Countess put the smudge on her own passport so Poirot would not realize she is related to the Armstrong family.
Poirot confronts Countess Andrenyi and tells her that he knows that she is extremely Helena Goldenberg and despite the fact that the Count denies it the Countess breaks down and confesses. She says the reason she tried to hide her identity is because she knew she would be seen as a suspect because of her close tie to the Armstrong family. She says that not only did she not touch Ratchett she also did not ever leave her own compartment that night and the handkerchief with the “H” on it did not belong to her. Poirot asks Helena many questions about the case, especially about Daisy’s nurse and nursery maid, the latter of who committed suicide for fear that she was considered a suspect in the kidnapping/murder. The nurse, Miss Stengleberg, was a trained hospital nurse, and there was also a governess named Miss Freebody who was a large woman with large red hair. Countess Andrenyi swears to Poirot that the Princess is the only person she recognizes on the train.
M. Bouc immediately decides that the Countess is guilty because she had concealed her identity, but Poirot does not seem convinced. Poirot believes that the Count may be telling the truth of his wife’s innocence. Just as the men are discussing what they heard from the Countess, Princess Dragomiroff enters the room requesting back her handkerchief that was found in Ratchett’s room. The “H” is actually the Russian letter for “N”, which Poirot had not thought of though he did suspect she was involved in some way.
The Princess maintains that she did not kill Ratchett, and she has no idea how her handkerchief found itself in his compartment. Doctor Constantine believes that no one as frail as the Princess could possibly have inflicted stab wounds on Ratchett though Poirot is not so sure as he remembers the Princess stating that she has “more strength in her arms than in her will”, making herself seem pathetic though probably on purpose. While M. Bouc is flabbergasted by the number of lies that have been uncovered Poirot seems excited at the prospect of uncovering even more.
Poirot calls the Colonel in for another interview and asks him straight out about the pipe cleaner that was found in Ratchett’s room. The Colonel maintains that he was never in Ratchett’s room and had never even spoken to the man to which Poirot asks if it is possible that the Colonel murdered him without speaking to him. The Colonel swears that he has nothing to do with the murder and still refuses to clarify the conversation he and Mary Debenham had on the train a few days prior. Poirot next calls in Mary Debenham, and immediately asks her why she did not tell them that she worked at the Armstrong house, and she broke down in tears. She admitted that she did work for the Armstrong family but had changed her identity because she did not think others would hire her because of her connection. She said she did not recognize the Countess at first and breaks down in tears, led out of the room by the Colonel who is furious at how upset Poirot made her. M. Bouc is amazed by Poirot’s detective work and does not understand how he knew Mary worked for the Armstrong family. He says that he knew only because of how hard the Countess had worked to protect her. The Countess had described the governess as a big woman with red hair, the exact opposite of Mary and had said her name was Freebody because it is the first name she thought of. In London, there is a store called Debenham and Freebody, and thus Poirot knew the Countess was covering for Mary Debenham.
M. Bouc, amazed at the revelations, tells Poirot that he would not be surprised if everyone who is on the train turned out to be connected to the Armstrong family in some way, an assessment that Poirot is impressed by. Antonio Foscanelli, the Italian man, is called back in to speak with Poirot and immediately breaks down, and admits that he was the chauffeur for the Armstrong family, but he did not kill Ratchett. He tells Poirot that little Daisy was the light of the family. Next, Great Ohlsson is called in, and she admits without hesitation that she was Daisy’s nurse, and she is sorry that she hid the fact from Poirot.
Masterman is the next to be called in, and he admits that he was a close acquaintance of Colonel Armstrong and implores Poirot to believe that Antonio could not have possibly had anything to do with the murder because he is too gentle and kind a man to have committed such a crime. When Hardman comes into the room, Poirot asks if he is connected to the Armstrong family and he denies a connection though admits that he thinks he may be the only one not connected. He asks Poirot if he may know who the American woman and her maid are and Poirot tells him that he is sure they are the housekeeper and the cook from the Armstrong household. When Hardman asks Poirot if he knows who committed the murder Poirot tells him that he has known for some time and asks that all of the passengers be called in to the dining car to join him.
When all of the passengers assemble in the dining car Poirot tells them that he has two separate theories for what happened to Ratchett and when he reveals them it will be up to M. Bouc and Doctor Constantine to decide which one of them is the truth. The first theory states that a man matching the description given to Hardman by Ratchett entered the train through the door left open by the Colonel and McQueen when the train stopped in Vincovci, wearing a Wagon Lit jacket so he may fit in. He murdered Ratchett and the reason the watch was stopped at 1:15 is because Ratchett forgot to set his watch back when they changed time zones. In this explanation, the voice that was heard coming from Ratchett’s room at 12:47 was a third party, uninvolved.
The second explanation is that all of the passengers are involved in Ratchett’s murder. There were many suspicious circumstances, such as the fact that so many different nationalities were represented on the train together. McQueen was shocked when he learned of the paper bearing the name Armstrong as he was sure it had been burned, Masterman’s revelation that Ratchett took a sleeping draught because no one who is scared of being murdered would want to sleep so badly, and Mrs. Hubbard’s insistence that she had Greta Ohlsson check her door lock as it was in clear view. In addition, Ratchett would not have cried out at 12:43 because not only had he been drugged with a sleeping draught but also there was no sign of struggle, and also there was an extraordinarily casual relationship between the Colonel and Mary Debenham considering their insistence that they had just met.
Poirot reached the conclusion that every passenger must have been in on the murder and each had inflicted one stab wound. As Poirot believed the conductor to have been in on the plot he knew one passenger must be innocent, and that was Countess Andrenyi whose husband had taken her place. Poirot reveals the true identities of the passengers, ending with Mrs. Hubbard who is actually Linda Arden, grandmother to Daisy Armstrong.
Mrs. Hubbard explains that Cassetti had unfairly skipped his death sentence, and they felt he should be forced to serve his punishment and took matters into their own hands. She insisted that she be convicted and let everyone else go but when Poirot asked M. Bouc what he thought they should do M. Bouc decided that when the train stops they tell the police the first version of the story rather than the truth. Poirot agrees, believing M. Bouc has made the correct decision.