The Mysterious Affair at Styles Chapter 4 In this chapter, detective Poirot had inspected the victim’s room and found several points of interest, afterwards, he asked housemaid Dorcas and housemaid Annie some questions. Here are several points of interest. First ,a coffee cup was smashed to powder. Someone was likely to step on it. Second, a despatch case with a key in the lock. Third, a stain on the floor. Forth, a fragment of some dark green fabric on the bolt of the door leading to Cynthia’s room. Fifth, a large splash of candle grease on the floor. Sixth, a sample of cocoa remained in the saucepan. Seventh, a small piece of will was covered in the dead ashes in the fireplace. Eighth, the sleeping powder which Mrs.Inglethorp used to take. There was no chemist’s name label on the medicine box. According to the dialogue, I arrange the time line of the date when the murder happened as followed. Perhaps 4 p.m. in the afternoon , a intense quarrel between Mr.Inglethorp and Mrs.Inglethorp. From the quarrel , it looked like Mr.Inglethorp betrayed his wife’s trust and had secret affair with another woman. The quarrel was overheard by maid Dorcas. 5 p.m. Mrs.Inglethorp told Dorcas to bring her a cup of tea. Subsequently, Mrs. Inglethorp confided few of her thought to Dorcas. Previously, she had writing four letters. One is for Miss Howard,one is for Mr. Wells,the lawyer,one is for Ross’s and the last one is still unknown. 6 p.m. Dorcas went out. Afterwards, she spent the whole night outside. Before 7.15 p.m. The cook needed to prepare for the supper , so they made a cup of cocoa early. 7.15 p.m. Annie brought a cup of cocoa upstairs.At this very moment,she didn’t notice the powder that looks like salt on the tray. 7.15 p.m. ~8 p.m. Annie used to put it on the table by the swing. So in this period of time, it remained on the table. 8 p.m. Then Annie brought it into Mrs. Inglethorp’s room. She noticed the the powder that looked like salt on the tray. She didn’t came back to take a new one ,she wiped the powder out . And she was very sure that no patch of candle oil was on the floor at that moment. After 8 p.m. Mrs. Inglethorp was very likely to lock the door near the passage as usual. She was very likely to drink cocoa in the middle of night. My conclusion : It seemed like the cocoa was poisoned. But the plot can’t be such simple.The murder must be more complex than I thought.