Death On The Nile

Poirot seeks out Jackie, who is sitting alone on the hotel grounds. Jackie guesses that Linnet has hired him to speak on her behalf. Poirot admits that he has just come from Linnet, but explains that he is not Linnet’s agent; rather, he has come of his own accord to give Jackie a message: “Bury your dead!...Give up the past! Turn to the future! What is done is done. Bitterness will not undo it” (86).

Jackie admits that she sometimes enjoys the way she is tormenting Linnet, and Poirot tells her that this is “the worst of all” (87). Poirot says that although he knows Jackie loved Simon, love is not everything and Jackie’s current actions will only prolong her suffering. Jackie tells Poirot that he cannot understand; Simon was everything to her, and Linnet used her glamour to seduce Simon and take him away: “I was the moon…[w]hen the sun came out, Simon couldn’t see me any more…[he] was dazzled. He couldn’t see anything but the sun—Linnet” (88). According to Jackie, Linnet is simply too glamourous and self-assured for a simple, weak person like Simon to resist: “He loved me—he will always love me,” she declares (89). Poirot responds, “Even now?” (89).