The Two Solutions
The Two Solutions are the two alternative explanations for the murder of Samuel Edward Ratchett that Hercule Poirot presents to the assembled passengers in the final chapter of the novel. The first solution is a deliberately false, conventional explanation that would allow the real conspirators to escape justice; the second is the true solution, revealing that the murder was carried out by a self-appointed jury of twelve people, all connected to the Armstrong kidnapping case, who each stabbed Ratchett once.
The First Solution: A Conventional Explanation
Poirot's first solution is a straightforward, almost formulaic detective-story explanation. He proposes that Ratchett's feared enemy, a small dark man with a womanish voice, joined the train at Belgrade or Vincovci using the door left open by Colonel Arbuthnot and Hector MacQueen. This man, disguised in a Wagon Lit uniform and using a pass-key, entered Ratchett's compartment while Ratchett was drugged, stabbed him, and escaped through Mrs. Hubbard's compartment, dropping the dagger in her sponge-bag and losing a uniform button. He then hid the uniform in an empty compartment and left the train before it departed. Poirot explains the watch stopped at 1:15 by claiming Ratchett had forgotten to set his watch back an hour at the time-zone change, so the murder actually occurred at 12:15. The voice speaking French at 12:37, he suggests, was a third person who found the body and pretended to be Ratchett out of fear. This solution is neat, requires no conspiracy, and would satisfy the police. M. Bouc immediately endorses it as the version to offer the Jugo-Slavian authorities.
The Second Solution: The True Explanation
Poirot's second solution is the true one, arrived at through his methodical reasoning. He realized that the extraordinary coincidence of so many people connected to the Armstrong case traveling together was impossible; it must be design. He recalled Colonel Arbuthnot's remark about trial by jury and noted that there were twelve passengers and Ratchett had been stabbed twelve times. He concluded that the passengers had constituted themselves a jury, condemned Ratchett to death for the kidnapping and murder of Daisy Armstrong, and carried out the sentence collectively. Each person entered Ratchett's darkened compartment through Mrs. Hubbard's and struck once, so that no one knew which blow actually killed him. The threatening letters were fakes, planted to mislead. The pipe-cleaner and the handkerchief were deliberately dropped clues to confuse the investigation. The woman in the scarlet kimono was a red herring. The entire plan was meticulously orchestrated, with each passenger playing an assigned role.
The Composition of the Jury
The twelve executioners were all directly or indirectly connected to the Armstrong tragedy. Mrs. Hubbard was actually Linda Arden, the famous actress and grandmother of the murdered child. Colonel Arbuthnot was Colonel Armstrong's best friend. Hector MacQueen's father had been the district attorney on the case. Mary Debenham had been the governess in the Armstrong household. Greta Ohlsson had been Daisy's nurse. Antonio Foscarelli had been the chauffeur. Edward Masterman had been Colonel Armstrong's batman and valet. Princess Dragomiroff was Sonia Armstrong's godmother. Countess Andrenyi was Sonia's younger sister, Helena Goldenberg. Hildegarde Schmidt had been the cook. Cyrus Hardman had been in love with Susanne, the French nursery-maid who committed suicide. Pierre Michel, the Wagon Lit conductor, was Susanne's father. The plan was conceived in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, when grief and rage were at their peak, and took years to execute.
The Role of the Snow and the Final Confession
The snowdrift that stranded the train forced the conspirators to abandon their original plan, which had been to make the murder look like an outside job with the killer escaping at Brod. Instead, they had to proceed with all passengers under suspicion, relying on their carefully prepared alibis and false clues. When Poirot revealed the truth, Linda Arden, still in character as Mrs. Hubbard, confessed, explaining that the idea of a collective execution had been suggested by the chauffeur, Antonio, and that the details had been worked out by Mary Debenham and Hector MacQueen. She asked Poirot to lay the blame on her alone, but he refused. M. Bouc and Dr. Constantine agreed to accept the first, false solution as the official one, allowing the conspirators to go free. Poirot then retired from the case, having presented both solutions and left the choice to the representatives of the company.
