Bexhill-on-Sea

Bexhill-on-Sea becomes the setting of the second crime announced by the sender signing himself A B C. The advance letter turns the seaside town into a point on a threatened sequence: it names Bexhill-on-Sea and the 25th, and the discovery of a murder there the following morning makes the place central to the investigation’s growing pattern.

The Announced Crime

In a letter addressed to Hercule Poirot, the writer refers to the earlier Andover crime and directs attention to Bexhill-on-Sea, specifying the 25th. Its jaunty tone presents the crimes as a game and implies that the first murder was only the beginning. For Poirot and Arthur Hastings, the named town and date make the warning a practical challenge: the next crime is no longer merely a possibility but an anticipated event with a location and deadline.

The Beach Discovery

On the morning of July 25, Arthur Hastings recalls being awakened at about half past seven by Hercule Poirot. The victim had been discovered on the beach by Colonel Jerome, who was walking with his dog at about six in the morning along the seafront in the direction of Cooden. When the dog went off and did not return at his call, Jerome investigated, realized that something was wrong, and immediately contacted the authorities without touching the body.

Place, Timing, and the Pattern

The investigation establishes that the death occurred between midnight and one o’clock, making the murder consistent with the date specified in the letter, even if only by minutes. The discovery on an early-morning walk links Bexhill-on-Sea’s open seafront to the case’s precise timetable: the warning identifies the town and day, while the interval around midnight leaves little room between promised date and crime.

A copy of the A.B.C. railway guide is found open at the Bexhill page. It appears new and little used; it has no fingerprints, and the superintendent has been unable to trace it to likely local stationers. The guide gives the town a second role in the sequence: besides being the scene of the murder, Bexhill is marked in the object associated with the killer’s alphabetical design. Together, the letter, the dated death, and the open page make the town a conspicuous link between advance warning and apparent fulfillment.