Mr Spence

In the short story The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest, Mr Spence and his wife were guests at the party of Major Jack Rich. They spent most of the night dancing together. They were not considered suspects or even key witnesses to the death of Edward Clayton.

In the expanded version of the story The Mystery of the Spanish Chest. Mr Spence was given the full name Jeremy Spence. He was thirty-seven and a junior civil servant. During the party of Major Rich, he and Mrs Clayton were dancing together most of the time. She considered him a wonderful dancer. Although Jeremy Spence had earlier denied knowing anything about the stiletto which was used as the murder weapon, Jeremy was evasive in his answers to Poirot about it. Poirot asked Inspector Miller to question Jeremy about the stiletto again and this time he admitted that the item belonged to him and his wife.

The Spences are not featured in film adaptation of the story in Series 3 of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot.