Once in safety, Miranda reveals that she had witnessed the murder Joyce claimed she had seen more precisely, she saw Garfield and Rowena drag Olga’s body through the quarry garden and only later realized she had witnessed a murder. However, he commits suicide when two men, recruited by Poirot to trail Miranda, thwart him and save her life. However, Miranda disappears when the group stops for lunch, and meets up with Garfield, who takes her to a pagan sacrificial altar with the intention of poisoning her. Fearing another murder, Poirot sends a telegram to Mrs Oliver, instructing her to take Judith and her daughter to London as quickly as possible. The search turns up Olga’s body in an abandoned well, having been stabbed in the same manner as Ferrier. Poirot soon has a theory, and advises the police to search the woods near the quarry. Rowena, unusually upset about the death, informs Poirot she had seen him in the library the night of the party, and believes he witnessed his sister’s killer. Leopold is later found dead, having been drowned in a small brook. Poirot learns a few interesting facts: Judith’s daughter Miranda was Joyce’s closest friend, and the pair shared secrets between them Joyce was known to be a teller of tales to gain attention Elizabeth Whittaker, a mathematics teacher attending the party, witnessed Rowena become startled and drop a glass vase of water outside the door of the library, while the party-goers were playing snapdragon Ferrier had previous convictions for forgery, and many suspected that he and Olga were working together to steal Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe’s fortune a one-time cleaner of Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe had been witness to her employer making the codicil a beautiful garden built within an abandoned quarry for Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe, was designed by Michael Garfield, a man with narcissistic behaviour the victim’s brother, Leopold Reynolds, has become flush with money of late. With help from retired Superintendent Spence, Poirot makes a list of deaths and disappearances for the last few years in Woodleigh Common: Rowena’s aunt, Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe, died suddenly her au pair Olga Seminoff disappeared, when a codicil that favoured her in her employer’s will was found to be a forgery Leslie Ferrier, a lawyer’s clerk, was stabbed in the back by an unknown assailant Charlotte Benfield, a sixteen-year-old shop assistant, was found dead with multiple head injuries and Janet White, a teacher at Elms School, was strangled to death. Ariadne Oliver, attending the party while visiting her friend Judith Butler, calls on Hercule Poirot to investigate the murder and Joyce’s claim.

When the party ends, Joyce is found dead, having been drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. At a Hallowe’en party held at Rowena Drake’s home in Woodleigh Common, thirteen-year-old Joyce Reynolds tells everyone attending she had once seen a murder, but had not realised it was one until later.

Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie