Mr Simpson

In the short story The Adventure of the Clapham Cook, Mr Simpson is a lodger in the Clapham home of Mr and Mrs Todd at 88 Prince Albert Road. He is a bank employee at the same bank as Mr Davis whom the police believed had absconded with fifty thousand pounds worth of negotiable securities.

Simpson is described as about 28 years of age, a "quiet inconspicuous young man with spectacles."

When Mrs Todd asked Poirot to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her cook Eliza Dunn, he discovered that the lodger Simpson was behind the entire sequence of events. He was the one who stole the securities from the bank and then lured Davis away and killed him, casting suspicion upon him. The difficulty was how to get rid of the body. To do this, Simpson disguised himself as an Australian lawyer "Crochet". CrocEll approached Eliza Dunn on her day off and told her that a friend of her grandmother had left her a house in Cumberland and a sum of money. But to qualify for the inheritance, she must depart for Cumberland immediately. Crochet offered to inform her employer and send her things to her. Having sent Eliza Dunn away, Simpson then used her trunk to store Davis's body. He then had it consigned by rail to Glasgow, to be left till called for.

Simpson attempted to escape by sea but, by the help of radio, he was discovered and arrested on board the Olympia enroute to America.

Portrayals
In the ITV 1989 adaptation of the story, Simpson is given the first name "Arthur" and Dermot Crawley. This portrayal is fairly close to the original story. The bank he works for is the Belgravia and Overseas Bank and the amount he absconds with is 90 thousand pounds. He is arrested at the docks just as he is about to board a ship for Venezuela.

In NHK's anime adaptation The Adventure of the Clapham Cook, Simpson is described as working for the Victoria Bank and the amount he absconds with is 100 thousand pounds. Various parts of his crimes are dramatised, including meeting Eliza disguised as Crotchet, luring Davis to the house, knocking him out, putting him into Eliza's trunk and consigning it to a small station in the London suburbs (not Glasgow). He is also shown being arrested just before boarding a ship for America. Simpson does have a few lines but most of his actions are described by Poirot or Mabel West in voiceovers. The voice talent behind Simpson is not credited.