Towards Zero

by Agatha Christie

“I like a good detective story,” he said. “But, you know, they begin in the wrong place! They begin with the murder. But the murder is the end. The story begins long before that—years before sometimes—with all the causes and events that bring certain people to a certain place at a certain time on a certain day.

“All converging towards a given spot…And then, when the time comes—over the top! Zero Hour. Yes, all of them converging towards zero….” He repeated: “Towards zero….” Then gave a quick little shudder.

“Even now,” thought Mr. Treves to himself, “some drama—some murder to be—is in course of preparation. If I were writing one of these amusing stories of blood and crime, I should begin now with an elderly gentleman sitting in front of the fire opening his letters—going, unbeknownst to himself—towards zero….”

Epic foreshadowing

His friends had learned to gauge his reactions correctly from the quality of his silences.

“You are already disturbed, are you not?” asked Mr. Treves shrewdly. “There is tension. I have felt it in the atmosphere.” “So you feel it too?” said Lady Tressilian sharply. “Yes, I am puzzled, I must confess. The true feelings of the parties remain obscure, but in my opinion, there is gunpowder about. The explosion may come any minute.” “Stop talking like Guy Fawkes and tell me what to do,” said Lady Tressilian.

It had indeed been an unusually hot and fine spell for September. On several days the thermometer had registered 70 in the shade.

I always wondered what "hot" meant in books set in Britain 😂 ok...

“Shut up, Kay. For goodness’ sake. You can’t make this kind of scene here.” “Can’t I? You’ll see. I’ll—” Hurstall stepped out on the terrace. His face was quite impassive. “Tea is served in the drawing room,” he announced.

All drama stops for tea

“But what’s really worrying me is—what put Hercule Poirot into my head? Upstairs—that’s where it was. Now what did I see that reminded me of that little guy?”

“It’s Zero Hour now.”

Ooooh

He peered over the side of the boat. “It’s quite true,” he said with interest. “He can’t swim. It’s all right. They’ve got him. I’ll apologize presently, but really there’s only one way to make sure that a person can’t swim and that’s to throw them in and watch.

😂 an unexpected moment