S02E04 - The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim

Poirot and Hastings are entertaining Japp to tea when the conversation turns to the recent disappearance of a banker, Mr. Davenheim, from his large country house, 'The Cedars'. Boasting, Poirot makes a five pound bet with Japp that he could solve the case within a week without moving from his chair. The facts of the case are that Davenheim arrived home from the city at midday on Saturday. He seemed normal and went out to post some letters late in the afternoon saying that he was expecting a business visitor, a Mr. Lowen, who should be shown into the study to wait his return. Mr. Davenheim never did return and no trace of him can be found once he left the grounds. The police were called on Sunday morning and on the Monday it was discovered that the concealed safe in Davenheim's study had been broken into and the contents taken out – cash, a large amount of bearer bonds and a substantial collection of jewellery. Despite being in the study, Lowen has not been arrested, merely under observation. He was there to discuss some business in South America with Mr. Davenheim who himself was in Buenos Aries last autumn. Poirot is interested in the fact that the house has a boating lake, which Japp tells him is being searched tomorrow, and that Mr. Davenheim wears his hair rather long with a moustache and bushy beard.