Stanley Weber

[first lines]

Hercule Poirot: No! Lieutenant, you lie to Poirot. You say that you were in the barracks by midnight, but Poirot has proved this to be false. At a quarter to one in the morning you were seen over two miles away in the company of the woman who died. General, this is not a murder, as is suggested by the Palestinian police, but I do believe the lieutenant lied about his whereabouts, first out of panic and then, by sticking to this *lie*, but reinforcing it with *lie* after *lie* for weeks and weeks of deception, he has heaped suspicion and a deep shame on himself, his regiment, and his wife. General, the neck of this woman was not broken by the human hand but by a fall.