In the short story The Third Floor Flat, Donovan Bailey was a friend of Patricia Garnett, a young woman who had a flat on the third floor of the Friar Mansions, the building Poirot was living in. Donovan, Patricia and two other friends were coming back to Friar Mansions after dinner and the theatre when Patricia discovered that she had mislaid her key. Donovan and Jimmy Faulkener then tried to get into Patricia's flat via the coal lift but ended up on the third floor flat instead. There they discovered the body of a dead woman Ernestine Grant. Investigations by Poirot ultimately revealed that Ernestine was the wife of Donovan and that he had murdered her because he had become interested in Patricia. Poirot surmised that Donovan must have tried to convince Ernestine that there was a flaw in the marriage which had taken place in a foreign country. Ernestine had written to her solicitors and secured confirmation that her marriage was valid. So Donovan shot her and contrived to steal the correspondence and marriage certificate.
Portrayals[]
Donovan Bailey was played by Nicholas Pritchard in the film adaptation of The Third Floor Flat in Series 3 of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot. In the adaptation, Ernestine's marriage certificate states that his name was actually "Donovan Grant". This is not mentioned in the original story but is implied, since otherwise Ernestine wouldn't have been Mrs Grant. In the adaptation, Jimmy Faulkener also mentions that Donovan is engaged to Patricia. Again, there is no mention of this in the original, only that he was interested in her.