SPOILERS!!!
My suspicions turn out to be wrong. After George is conviced that his wife was murdered, he makes the decision to have a party for Iris's 18th birthday with the same guests and at the same place. He convinces everybody to attend. He also wants Colonel Race to attend, but when he explains his plan, Race thinks it is crazy and refuses to go.
The night comes according to plan. George proposes a toast for Iris, and then they all go out to dance, and when they return, George drinks his champagne and dies. The champagne also contains cyanide and a sachet is found under the table.
Colonel Race and Chief Inspector Kemp investigate. They start by questioning the people who were at the other tables. There was a couple who don't remember anything, and at the next one was an American man called Pedro Morales who was quite drunk and doesn't seem to remember anything. He was with a woman called Chrissie, and she admits that she watched the other table as Pedro bored her. The interesting bit was that during the dance a waiter approached to place Iris's dropped bag on the table.
Then Race and Kemp question the Farradays. Sandra tells them that they don't know who could have wished George dead, and then they question Stephen, and he admits to having had an affair with Rosemary and how she got clingy when he wanted to break things up, but he swears that he didn't kill her. He also says that his wife didn't know about the affair, which is a lie, and Kemp thinks that he was a fool to say that because if his wife knew, there was no reason why he would kill Rosemary to silence her.
Ruth, the secretary, is also questioned, and she admits to being in love with George, which would give her a motive to kill Rosemary, but he had no reason to kill George.
When Race talks to Aunt Lucilla, she lets out that a parlourmaid that she fired for carelesness was impertinent to tell her that she would find a house where people wouldn't be bumped off, meaning Rosemary, as this was before George's murder. Aunt Lucilla also mentioned that she was worried about Iris because she had become good friend with Anthony Browne, and she has announced that she wanted to marry him as soon a possible.
Race recognises the new mistress of the parlourmaid, as he and her husband were in India together, so she goes there. When she talks to the parlourmaid, she says that she has always suspected that Rosemary was killed because she overheard a conversation between her and Anthony Browne. Rosemary said that she knew that his name was not Browne, and the man threatened to kill her. When Race asks what his name was, the girl remembers that it is Tony Morelli.
Then Race goes to talk to Browne, who up to this point has been a suspicious character. The man admits that he is Morelli, and he was in prison for some sabotage, and then when he came into contact with some industrial lord, certain incidents took place. Then Race realises that this man is not a criminal, but one of his won. Morelli has to admit that he is an undercover officer who is after some European band. What he also knows is that he wants to marry Iris.
My theory so far was that the killer was George, and she was after Iris's money. I knew that the key was in the position of the bag, and he drank Iris's glass. So I thought that George killed his wife, and then he pretended that he had received those anonymous letters, and then he arranged everything to kill Iris, but it backfired when he grabbed the wrong glass.
There was something true in my theory as the money was the motive. Race, Kemp and Tony talk about the crime and how it could be difficult to prove the crime. One new piece of evidence came when Iris confessed to Tony that when she opened her handbag, the sache of cyanide was there and she never put it there in the first place. So she dropped it, and she knows Ruth saw her, but didn't say anything afterwards. Tony made her go to the police, and then Ruth arrived to talk to Lucilla about the funeral. Iris told the police and then Tony drove her back.
It is during the conversation with Race and Kemp that Tony realises that the position of the bag was the key, and then he remembers that Iris told her that a car had almost run her over, and he realises that she is in danger. Kemp, Race and Tony rush to the house, and Tony finds Iris's room locked and when he manages to break the door, she rescues Iris from her death as the room was full of gas.
The last chapter shows Iris with Tony, Kemp and Race, and here is where we have the explanation. The brain behind the deaths was Victor Drake, Aunt Lucilla's son. If Iris were to die, the money would go to Lucilla, and therefore, Victor would be able to lay his hands on it. When Ruth first met him, she fell for him, and he used her to carry out the murders. He didn't leave England when Ruth claimed he did, but the next day. And when George died, he was the man calling himself Pedro Morales, who was sitting at the next table. What happened was that Ruth put the cyanide in Iris's bag when they were in the wardrobe (and we understand that she did the same with Rosemary). Then when the cabaret was on, he excused himself from Chrissie, and he dressed himself up as a waiter. The guests were focused on the music to notice the waiter, and he poured the drinks and poisoned the intended glasses. What went wrong was that George took the wrong glass and died instead of Iris.
This was another masterful mystery by Agatha Chrisie.
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