Murder on the Orient Express Part 2, Chapter 10 Summary

The Evidence of the Italian

  • Next, Poirot interviews the Italian, Antonio Foscarelli. M. Bouc is stoked, because he thinks the Italian committed the murder.
  • On to the interview:
    • Foscarelli is Italian, and speaks French very well, but he's a naturalized American. He sells cars for Ford and blabs on at length about this.
    • He didn't recognize that Ratchett was Cassetti, but he faintly remembers the case. He claims not to know the Armstrong family.
    • After dinner, Foscarelli went to his compartment, where the valet was. He smoked, read, and slept in the top berth. He heard the valet groaning with a toothache, and says he didn't leave the compartment, or talk much.
    • He only smokes cigarettes.
  • After Foscarelli leaves, M. Bouc goes on again about how Italians are liars, how he doesn't trust them, and how they always use knives. Poirot points out that there's no evidence against Foscarelli.
  • Poirot says he thinks the crime was planned by "an Anglo-Saxon brain" (2.10.54). With that, they call in Mary Debenham.