Interviewing the maid in the house, Poirot finds out that the trunk was already packed, meaning that Eliza had planned to leave even though her departure was swift. The other occupants of the house are Mr. Todd, who works in the city, and their lodger, Mr Simpson, who works in the same bank at which Mr. Davis (the man who has disappeared with fifty thousand pounds of securities) worked. Struck by this coincidence as he is, Poirot cannot see a connection between an absconding bank clerk and a missing cook.