Who the *real* killer was! [SPOILERS]

[Diegeiros]

I want to address something that bothered me throughout the last couple of chapters of the game and how I think this reveals a few curious details that the writers left open possibly indicate there's another story that will never be told.

Specifically, when Poirot is first investigating the Major's body, he simply notes that there is only one stab wound, rather than the multiple wounds he would've expected had there been murderous intent. Nothing about the wound itself.

The next day, Margaux informs Poirot that she examined the stab wound and tells him that it was the result of self defense.

The writers made a very specific choice here, one I think is either very silly or very smart. On the silly side, the writers chose to drop this particular bit of information about the murder being an act of self defense and then have Poirot ignore this fact throughout most of his investigation, as he focuses on suspects who could have malicious motives and never bothers to zero in on the self-defense angle. Sure, this error on Poirot's part allows for the late reveal of the real killer and the writers did the best they could to keep it in the background so that it would come up when it played into the reveal. But if that was their only reason for having the information conveyed in this particular way, then it's just a frankly disappointing moment of cheapness in the story.

But if we consider my alternate theory about what really happened, it's not a lazy shortcut but in fact one of many brilliantly laid hints about who really killed the Major: Inge!

Or should I say Florette!

Think about it. After the prologue, Florette disappears after being charged with theft. We know Margaux was a friend of Cassandra's even then and certainly would've been deeply concerned about Florette's case. It would certainly make a lot of sense for Florette to end up in Margaux's shelter after being released. The game gives us so very little information on Inge but what little we do know fits perfectly with Florette, specifically that Inge was a thief who Margaux employed specifically to steal information from the Major and Cassandra, neither of whom would've recognized her because, well, they're idiots who can't see past the tips of their noses and also I'm sure she looked different as an older woman who'd been in prison and then a womens' shelter.

And it perfectly explains why Margaux and Archibald needed to deceive Poirot about the nature of the Major's death. I can only imagine what really happened when Inga stabbed the Major but I'm sure it happened similarly to how Elisabeth describes her own encounter, with the exception that Inga had much, much more dirt on the Major (remember, she knew about the affair) and provoked the Major on purpose, anticipating his rage and murdering him in cold blood, rightly deserved. It makes more sense to me than Elizabeth managing to get his knife away from him and stabbing him with it, certainly not in such a way as to kill him dead.

As for Elisabeth, knowing that if Florette/Inga was scrutinized even a bit, the truth about who she was would be revealed so with the help of Archibald and Margaux (who, I'll remind you, had been clever enough to be blackmailing several characters right under their noses the whole time) they created the two-part cover-up to fool Poirot into letting Elisabeth take the fall, counting on the Countess to testify on Elisabeth's behalf, though I have no doubt Elisabeth was willing to suffer punishment no matter what, given that she surely felt tormented over Florette's fate.

The one feature of my theory that flops is that while it's easy enough to believe the Contessa and the Major being too dumb to recognize an older and disguised Florette, that Poirot would not be able to make the connection is a bit of a stretch... except that I think buying the game's canonical explanation still makes Poirot out to be an idiot for basically ignoring, for most the investigation, that The Major was killed in self-defense. Personally, I think that most of the interactions Poirot has with Inga and his general dismissiveness about her on the few occasions they interact is perfect rationale for why he never discovered who she really was.

[1337]

How could she come and go back from the mansion when the snow masses have cut it off from the rest of the world?

[kapekkapusniak]

Throughout the game we learn three facts undermining this speculation:
Angeline and/or Elizabeth tried to reach out to Florette (at least one of them admits that). They would rather easily recognize a friend who had lived with them for a while, since they weren't self absorbed.
Archibald and Rehana were actively helping Elizabeth in avoiding repercussions of "something" she had done. If Lizzie didn't kill Major, why protectiong her?
Inge was not as close with the other servants, as they were with each other. She would have been an easy target if she was caught doing anything that serious. I mean, stealing is also serious, but she wasn't caught - Archibald thought he just lost Major's key.