Topic Tracking: Trust and Suspicion
Chapter 2
Trust and Suspicion 1: Macarthur just doesn't trust Lombard. He can't put his finger on exactly what it is, but his military instincts tell him that there's something that's just not right.
Chapter 3
Trust and Suspicion 2: Lombard chooses not to reveal to everyone the real reason he's there on the Island. His experience teaches him not to trust other people.
Chapter 6
Trust and Suspicion 3: Now that they're sure someone has been murdered, they start pointing fingers at one another. First at Rogers, because it's his wife, and then at Armstrong, because he was the last one to have any contact with her.
Chapter 7
Trust and Suspicion 4: Knowing full well that he isn't the killer, Armstrong is scared and alone, so he goes looking for someone to trust - he tries Lombard, but finds that he can't be sure about the man.
Chapter 8
Trust and Suspicion 5: Armstrong is desperate to find the killer, so he latches onto any theory. Assuming that the killer is, in fact, crazy, he decides that the most obviously unbalanced person - Macarthur - must be the killer. He begins testing his theory out with others.
Chapter 9
Trust and Suspicion 6: Lombard brings distrust onto himself by revealing his hidden gun and admitting his fake story. Now that he's admitted he lied, no one will be able to trust him again.
Trust and Suspicion 7: The Judge's announcement that It could be any one of them shatters all possible trust between the characters. He then sets them all at each other's throats by asking for random speculation.
Chapter 10
Trust and Suspicion 8: Despite the Judge's warnings, the first thing that everyone does is break into smaller groups, hoping to find someone they can trust.
Trust and Suspicion 9: The announcement of the stolen items reminds everyone of their situation, that they absolutely can't trust one another, just when they were beginning to build bonds.
Chapter 11
Trust and Suspicion 10: Just like what happened with Macarthur, Emily's increasingly odd behavior leads people to believe she's going mad, and convinces some that she's the killer.
Chapter 12
Trust and Suspicion 11: Lombard and Armstrong claim that the revolver and syringe were stolen, but no one knows whether they can believe them or not. They know that it's impossible that both of them are the killer, so at least one of them is cleared of suspicion - but which one?
Chapter 13
Trust and Suspicion 12: Even at her most shocked, Vera can't trust any of the men not to poison her. At the same time, to the men, Vera is no longer a suspect.
Chapter 14
Trust and Suspicion 13: With Wargrave dead, and the list of suspects down to three, everyone has a theory of who the killer is - one that they're completely sure of.
Trust and Suspicion 14: Blore has become so paranoid that although all common sense tells him that Lombard can't be the killer, he still can't trust him.
Chapter 15
Trust and Suspicion 15: Blore's inability to trust Lombard leads to his death - even though he knows that there's no way that Lombard could be the killer, he still can't trust him enough to bring him along into the house. This makes him an easy target, and keeps the killer from being caught.
Chapter 16
Trust and Suspicion 16: Vera's lack of creativity leads her to murder Lombard. She can't understand how anyone else could be the killer - even though logically Lombard can't be.
Manuscript
Trust and Suspicion 17: Wargrave used his abilities as an experienced jurist to manipulate everyone into suspecting each other, and then to convince Armstrong to trust him. He was in the perfect person to commit the murders, because he was the most trustworthy of all of them - which is exactly how he arranged it.
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