Charles Lemaitre, also known as Gerald Martin is the main antagonist of Agatha Christie's 1924 short story Philomel Cottage. He was a serial mariticide.
Biography[]
Alix Martin marries Gerald Martin, with whom she is in love, and buys a cottage. Before that, she dated another guy named Dick. She is happily married, but she is tormented by a strange premonition. She has nightmares in which Dick kills Gerald. One day their gardener George comes to see them. He blurts out that he came on Wednesday (and not on Friday, as usual), because he believes that Gerald and Alix should leave on Friday (and Alix herself knows nothing about this). That evening, Gerald explains to Alix that George messed something up, and today they were supposed to do photography, and now he’s not in the mood. But Alix begins to be tormented by vague doubts. The next day, she decides to search her husband's room and finds newspaper clippings there, and they talk about a criminal named Charles Lemaitre, who was suspected of murdering his wives. A human skeleton was even discovered on his property. But they couldn’t prove anything. In this Charles Lemaitre, Alix recognizes with horror her husband Gerald. That evening, Gerald tries to drag her into the basement, but she lies that she has already killed two of her husbands by adding poison to their coffee. Gerald falls into a chair in horror, having previously drunk coffee prepared by Alix. When Dick arrives, whom Alix had called in advance, Gerald is already dying of a heart attack.
 Villains(Non-Poirot & Non-Marple) | |
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Tommy and Tuppence Beresford And Then There Were None Other Mystery Stories Adaptational, Homage & Non-Canonical | |