Poirot summons Fanthorp to his cabin and confronts him with an observation: the other day, Fanthorp interrupted a private conversation between Linnet and Pennington to compliment Linnet on her prudent habit of reading contracts thoroughly before signing. That was, Poirot says, a clear violation of the norms of propriety someone like Fanthorp (whose social class is betrayed by his Old Etonian tie) normally observes. Because of that uncharacteristic action, and because Fanthorp seems too young and not sufficiently wealthy to be able to afford such an expensive holiday, Poirot deduces that Fanthorp is not on holiday. Rather, he has come from his firm (which is not far from Wode Hall) to make sure that Linnet does not sign any document without reading it.

Fanthorp initially denies Poirot’s claims, but when Poirot reveals that Mrs. Otterbourne has been murdered with Pennington’s revolver, Fanthorp agrees to speak frankly. He explains that his uncle, Mr. Carmichael, is Linnet’s English solicitor. Carmichael was frequently in correspondence with Pennington and came to suspect that Pennington was doing something dishonest with Linnet’s money.

After learning that Linnet had run into Pennington in Egypt unexpectedly, Carmichael feared that Pennington would try to get Linnet to sign documents that would cover up his own misdeeds.