Death on the Nile: Chapter Thirteen  Summary & Analysis

The next morning, Poirot has just finished shaving when Race comes to his room and informs him that Linnet has been killed by a bullet to the head. Poirot recalls a girl’s voice in his head: “I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.” Poirot and Race discuss the matter and agree that the murderer probably didn’t come from shore; it must be someone on the boat. They go to the cabin to see what Dr. Bessner can tell them.

Dr. Bessner tells Poirot and Race that the pistol shot was point-blank to the head while Linnet was asleep. Poirot finds this shocking because he suspects Jacqueline but feels that such an act does not fit her psychology. Poirot then notices that before she died, Linnet seems to have written the letter J using some blood on her finger. Poirot says that it reminds him of old mystery stories, and that perhaps Linnet did not write the letter and it was instead written by a murderer with a taste for the old-fashioned. Poirot does agree, however, that the J stands for Jacqueline—and Jacqueline recently told him of her desire to kill Linnet.

Race asks Bessner about the time of Linnet’s death, and Bessner puts it between midnight and two a.m. Race then asks about Simon, and Bessner replies that he’s asleep in Bessner’s cabin. Race didn’t know about Simon’s injury the previous night, but Bessner explains. Race decides they must gather all the facts.

The manager of the Karnak waits by the smoking room, which he gives to Poirot and Race for the investigation before going back to his work. Race asks Bessner for the whole story of the previous night, and then afterward tells a hypothetical version of the murder in which Jacqueline murders Linnet. Dr. Bessner, however, claims this version of events is not possible. To begin with, he argues that Jacqueline wouldn’t have written the J on the wall to incriminate herself. He then notes that, even more importantly, Jacqueline couldn’t have committed the murder because she was sedated on morphine under Miss Bowers’s care the whole night.

Poirot asks who discovered the murder, and Race reveals it was Louise Bourget, Linnet’s maid. Race says Simon must be informed, then dismisses Bessner. Alone with Poirot, Race says he’ll follow Poirot’s lead. Poirot proposes first getting the story straight by speaking with Fanthorp and Cornelia, since the disappearing pistol is an important clue. They hypothesize together without getting anywhere until Fanthorp and Cornelia come in.

Cornelia is in shock as she begins to tell Race and Poirot her story. They establish that she last saw Linnet alive at 11:20 p.m. Pennington left for bed a few minutes after, leaving Jacqueline, Simon, Fanthorp, and Cornelia in the saloon. They retell the story of Jacqueline shooting Simon, establishing that the shot must’ve gone off around 12:20 a.m. They also establish that after Linnet left the saloon, no one else did at any point. Because Jacqueline was never left alone at any point (Simon feared she might commit suicide), she has a perfect alibi.

Cornelia goes on to describe how Jacqueline dropped the pistol, then kicked it away under the settee, as if she hated it. Fanthorp recalls going back to look for the gun at 12:30 a.m. Since he was only away from the saloon for five minutes, that means that in the five minutes before 12:30 a.m., someone who knew the location of the gun must have gone to move it. Fanthorp admits that, since he went out the starboard door, someone could’ve been watching from the port door.

Race notes that no one—as far as he knows—heard the shot that killed Linnet. He and Poirot continue to ask Fanthorp and Cornelia for more information.  At one point, when they ask Fanthorp why he’s on the trip, he hesitates before ultimately saying “pleasure.” Race asks him if he heard anything unusual after going back to his cabin and Fanthorp remembers he may have heard a splash around 1 a.m.

Race and Poirot turn their attention to Cornelia. She claims she’s never met Linnet before and that she didn’t hear the splash that Fanthorp did (although she wouldn’t have, based on where her cabin is located). She and Fanthorp leave and send in Miss Bowers.

Miss Bowers enters and gives her information to Race and Poirot. She tells them there’s nothing particularly wrong with Miss Van Schuyler and that she just likes having a nurse around. Miss Bowers is able to confirm that Jacqueline was with her the whole night and didn’t leave her cabin. This seems to be an airtight alibi, so Poirot and Race are left to wonder who could have possibly shot Linnet.