Chief Inspector Neele

In the novel Third Girl, Chief Inspector Neele is Poirot's friend and police source. He remains in the background for most of the novel and does not take an active part in an ongoing investigation because until near the end does not exist an event recognised by the police as a murder. He spends much of the novel providing Poirot with background information on individuals and doing discreet checks on topics which Poirot raised to him. In the last few chapters, after a murder at Borodene Mansions (actually the second because an earlier one had been regarded as a suicide), Poirot summons Neele to the crime scene. There, the denouement is delivered with Poirot's conclusions and information which Neele had researched.