PART THREE DECEMBER 24TH VII

VII

Colonel Johnson stared at Sugden for some minutes before he spluttered:

“Do you mean to tell me, Superintendent¹, that this is one of those damned cases you get in

detective stories where a man is killed in a locked room by some apparently² supernatural agency?”

A very faint smile agitated³ the superintendent’s moustache as he replied gravely:

“I do not think it’s quite as bad as that, sir.”

Colonel Johnson said:

“Suicide. It must be suicide!”

“Where’s the weapon, if so? No, sir, suicide won’t do.”

“Then how did the murderer escape? By the window?” Sugden shook his head.

“I’ll take my oath he didn’t do that.”

“But the door was locked, you say, on the inside.”

The superintendent nodded. He drew a key from his pocket and laid it on the table.

“No fingerprints,” he announced. “But just look at that key, sir. Take a look at it with that

magnifying glass there.”

Poirot bent⁴ forward. He and Johnson examined the key together. The chief constable⁵ uttered

an exclamation⁶.

“By Jove, I get you. Those faint scratches on the end of the barrel. You see ’em, Poirot?”

“But yes, I see. That means, does it not, that the key was turned from outside the door—

turned by means of a special implement⁷ that went through the keyhole and gripped the barrel—

possibily an ordinary pair of pliers would do it.”

The superintendent nodded.

“It can be done all right.”

Poirot said: “The idea being, then, that the death would be thought to be suicide, since the

door was locked and no one was in the room?”

“That was the idea, M. Poirot, not a doubt of it, I should say.”

Poirot shook his head doubtfully.

“But the disorder⁸ in the room! As you say, that by itself wiped out the idea of suicide. Surely

the murderer would first of all have set the room to rights.”

Superintendent Sugden said: “But he hadn’t time, Mr. Poirot. That’s the whole point. He

hadn’t time. Let’s say he counted on catching⁹ the old gentleman unawares. Well, that didn’t come

off. There was a struggle—a struggle heard plainly in the room underneath¹⁰; and, what’s more, the

old gentleman called out for help. Everyone came rushing up. The murderer’s only got time to nip

out of the room and turn the key from the outside.”

“That is true,” Poirot admitted. “Your murderer, he may have made the bungle¹¹. But why, oh

why, did he not at least leave the weapon? For naturally, if there is no weapon, it cannot be

suicide! That was an error most grave.”

Superintendent Sugden said stolidly¹²:

“Criminals usually make mistakes. That’s our experience.”

Poirot gave a light sigh. He murmured:

“But all the same, in spite of his mistakes, he has escaped this criminal.”

“I don’t think he has exactly escaped.”

“You mean he is in the house still?”

“I don’t see where else he can be. It was an inside job.”

“But, tout¹³ de même,” Poirot pointed¹⁴ out gently, “he has escaped to this extent: You do not

know who he is.”

Superintendent Sugden said gently but firmly:

“I rather fancy that we soon shall. We haven’t done any questioning of the household yet.”

Colonel Johnson cut in:

“Look here, Sugden, one thing strikes me. Whoever turned that key from the outside must

have had some knowledge of the job. That’s to say, he probably has had criminal experience.

These sort of tools aren’t easy to manage.”

“You mean it was a professional job, sir?”

“That’s what I mean.”

“It does seem like it,” the other admitted. “Following that up, it looks as though there were a

professional thief among the servants. That would explain the diamonds being taken and the

murder would follow on logically from that.”

“Well, anything wrong with that theory?”

“It’s what I thought myself to begin with. But it’s difficult. There are eight servants in the

house; six of them are women, and of those six, five have been here for four years and more. Then

there’s the butler and the footman. The butler has been here for close on forty years—bit of a

record that, I should say. The footman’s local, son of the gardener, and brought up here. Don’t see

very well how he can be a professional. The only other person is Mr. Lee’s valet attendant. He’s

comparatively new, but he was out of the house—still is—went out just before eight o’clock.”

Colonel Johnson said:

“Have you got a list of just who exactly was in the house?”

“Yes, sir. I got it from the butler.” He took out his notebook. “Shall I read it to you?”

“Please, Sugden.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Lee. Mr. George Lee, M.P., and his wife, Mr. Henry Lee, Mr. and Mrs.

David Lee. Miss”—the superintendent paused a little, taking the words carefully—“Pilar”—he

pronounced it like a piece of architecture—“Estravados. Mr. Stephen Farr. Then for the servants:

Edward Tressilian, butler. Walter Champion, footman. Emily Reeves, cook. Queenie Jones,

kitchenmaid. Gladys Spent, head housemaid. Grace Best, second housemaid. Beatrice Moscombe,

third housemaid. Joan Kench, betweenmaid. Sydney Horbury, valet attendant.”

“That’s the lot, eh?”

“That’s the lot, sir.”

“Any idea where everybody was at the time of the murder?”

“Only roughly. As I told you, I haven’t questioned anybody yet. According to Tressilian, the

gentlemen were in the dining room still. The ladies had gone to the drawing room. Tressilian had

served coffee. According to his statement, he had just got back to his pantry when he heard a noise

upstairs. It was followed by a scream. He ran out into the hall and upstairs in the wake of the

others.”

Colonel Johnson said:

“How many of the family live in the house, and who are just staying here?”

“Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Lee live here. The others are just visiting.”

Johnson nodded.

“Where are they all?”

“I asked them to stay in the drawing-room until I was ready to take their statements.”

“I see. Well, we’d better go upstairs and take a look at the doings.”

The superintendent led the way up the broad stairs and along the passage.

As he entered the room where the crime had taken place, Johnson drew a deep breath.

“Pretty horrible,” he commented.

He stood for a minute studying the overturned chairs, the smashed china, and the blood-

bespattered débris.

A thin elderly man stood up from where he had been kneeling by the body and gave a nod.

“Evening, Johnson,” he said. “Bit of a shambles¹⁵, eh?”

“I should say it was. Got anything for us, doctor?”

The doctor shrugged¹⁶ his shoulders. He grinned.

“I’ll let you have the scientific language at the inquest! Nothing complicated about it. Throat

cut like a pig. He bled to death in less than a minute. No sign of the weapon.”

Poirot went across the room to the windows. As the superintendent had said, one was shut

and bolted. The other was open about four inches at the bottom. A thick patent screw of the kind

known many years ago as an anti-burglar screw secured it in that position.

Sugden said: “According to the butler, that window was never shut wet or fine. There’s a

linoleum¹⁷ mat underneath it in case rain beat in, but it didn’t much, as the overhanging roof

protects it.”

Poirot nodded.

He came back to the body and stared down at the old man.

The lips were drawn¹⁸ back from the bloodless gums in something that looked like a snarl¹⁹. The

fingers were curved like claws.

Poirot said:

“He does not seem a strong man, no.”

The doctor said:

“He was pretty tough, I believe. He’d survived several pretty bad illnesses that would have

killed most men.”

Poirot said: “I do not mean that. I mean, he was not big, not strong physically²⁰.”

“No, he’s frail²¹ enough.”

Poirot turned from the dead man. He bent to examine an overturned chair, a big chair of

mahogany. Beside it was a round mahogany table and the fragments of a big china lamp. Two

other smaller chairs lay nearby, also the smashed fragments of a decanter and two glasses, a heavy

glass paperweight was unbroken, some miscellaneous books, a big Japanese vase smashed in

pieces, and a bronze statuette of a naked girl completed the débris.

Poirot bent over all these exhibits, studying them gravely, but without touching²² them. He

frowned to himself as though perplexed²³.

The chief constable said:

“Anything strike you, Poirot?”

Hercule Poirot sighed. He murmured:

“Such a frail shrunken old man—and yet—all this.”

Johnson looked puzzled. He turned away and said to the sergeant²⁴, who was busy at his work:

“What about prints?”

“Plenty of them, sir, all over the room.”

“What about the safe?”

“No good. Only prints on that are those of the old gentleman himself.”

Johnson turned to the doctor.

“What about bloodstains?” he asked. “Surely whoever killed him must have got blood on

him.”

The doctor said doubtfully:

“Not necessarily. Bleeding was almost entirely²⁵ from the jugular²⁶ vein²⁷. That wouldn’t spout²⁸

like an artery²⁹.”

“No, no. Still, there seems a lot of blood about.”

Poirot said:

“Yes, there is a lot of blood—it strikes one, that. A lot of blood.”

Superintendent Sugden said respectfully:

“Do you—er—does that suggest anything to you, Mr. Poirot?”

Poirot looked about him. He shook his head perplexedly.

He said:

“There is something here—some violence . . .” He stopped a minute, then went on: “Yes, that

is it—violence . . . And blood—an insistence³⁰ on blood . . . There is—how shall I put it?—there is

too much blood. Blood on the chairs, on the tables, on the carpet . . . The blood ritual? Sacrificial

blood? Is that it? Perhaps. Such a frail old man, so thin, so shrivelled, so dried up—and yet—in his

death—so much blood . . .”

His voice died away. Superintendent Sugden, staring at him with round, startled eyes, said in

an awed³¹ voice:

“Funny—that’s what she said—the lady. . . .”

Poirot said sharply:

“What lady? What was it she said?”

Sugden answered: “Mrs. Lee—Mrs. Alfred. Stood over there by the door and half whispered

it. It didn’t make sense to me.”

“What did she say?”

“Something about who would have thought the old gentleman had so much blood in him.

. . .”

Poirot said softly:

“‘Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?’ The words of

Lady Macbeth. She said that . . . Ah, that is interesting. . . .”

1 superintendent   

n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长

参考例句：

• He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
• He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。

2 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

3 agitated   

adj.被鼓动的，不安的

参考例句：

• His answers were all mixed up,so agitated was he.他是那样心神不定，回答全乱了。
• She was agitated because her train was an hour late.她乘坐的火车晚点一个小时，她十分焦虑。

4 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

5 constable   

n.(英国)警察，警官

参考例句：

• The constable conducted the suspect to the police station.警官把嫌疑犯带到派出所。
• The constable kept his temper,and would not be provoked.那警察压制着自己的怒气，不肯冒起火来。

6 exclamation   

n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词

参考例句：

• He could not restrain an exclamation of approval.他禁不住喝一声采。
• The author used three exclamation marks at the end of the last sentence to wake up the readers.作者在文章的最后一句连用了三个惊叹号，以引起读者的注意。

7 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

8 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

9 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

10 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

11 bungle   

v.搞糟；n.拙劣的工作

参考例句：

• If you bungle a job,you must do it again!要是你把这件事搞糟了，你得重做！
• That last stupid bungle of his is the end.他那最后一次愚蠢的错误使我再也无法容忍了。

12 stolidly   

adv.迟钝地，神经麻木地

参考例句：

• Too often people sat stolidly watching the noisy little fiddler. 人们往往不动声色地坐在那里，瞧着这位瘦小的提琴手闹腾一番。 来自辞典例句
• He dropped into a chair and sat looking stolidly at the floor. 他坐在椅子上，两眼呆呆地望着地板。 来自辞典例句

13 tout   

v.推销，招徕；兜售；吹捧，劝诱

参考例句：

• They say it will let them tout progress in the war.他们称这将有助于鼓吹他们在战争中的成果。
• If your case studies just tout results,don't bother requiring registration to view them.如果你的案例研究只是吹捧结果，就别烦扰别人来注册访问了。

14 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

15 shambles   

n.混乱之处；废墟

参考例句：

• My room is a shambles.我房间里乱七八糟。
• The fighting reduced the city to a shambles.这场战斗使这座城市成了一片废墟。

16 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 linoleum   

n.油布，油毯

参考例句：

• They mislaid the linoleum.他们把油毡放错了地方。
• Who will lay the linoleum?谁将铺设地板油毡？

18 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

19 snarl   

v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮

参考例句：

• At the seaside we could hear the snarl of the waves.在海边我们可以听见波涛的咆哮。
• The traffic was all in a snarl near the accident.事故发生处附近交通一片混乱。

20 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

21 frail   

adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的

参考例句：

• Mrs. Warner is already 96 and too frail to live by herself.华纳太太已经九十六岁了，身体虚弱，不便独居。
• She lay in bed looking particularly frail.她躺在床上，看上去特别虚弱。

22 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

23 perplexed   

adj.不知所措的

参考例句：

• The farmer felt the cow,went away,returned,sorely perplexed,always afraid of being cheated.那农民摸摸那头牛，走了又回来，犹豫不决，总怕上当受骗。
• The child was perplexed by the intricate plot of the story.这孩子被那头绪纷繁的故事弄得迷惑不解。

24 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？

25 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

26 jugular   

n.颈静脉

参考例句：

• He always goes for the jugular.他总是直奔要害而去。
• Bilateral internal jugular vein stenting is also a rare procedure.两侧内颈静脉支架置放术也是少见的技术。

27 vein   

n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络

参考例句：

• The girl is not in the vein for singing today.那女孩今天没有心情唱歌。
• The doctor injects glucose into the patient's vein.医生把葡萄糖注射入病人的静脉。

28 spout   

v.喷出，涌出；滔滔不绝地讲；n.喷管；水柱

参考例句：

• Implication in folk wealth creativity and undertaking vigor spout.蕴藏于民间的财富创造力和创业活力喷涌而出。
• This acts as a spout to drain off water during a rainstorm.在暴风雨季，这东西被用作喷管来排水。

29 artery   

n.干线，要道；动脉

参考例句：

• We couldn't feel the changes in the blood pressure within the artery.我们无法感觉到动脉血管内血压的变化。
• The aorta is the largest artery in the body.主动脉是人体中的最大动脉。

30 insistence   

n.坚持；强调；坚决主张

参考例句：

• They were united in their insistence that she should go to college.他们一致坚持她应上大学。
• His insistence upon strict obedience is correct.他坚持绝对服从是对的。

31 awed   

adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The audience was awed into silence by her stunning performance. 观众席上鸦雀无声，人们对他出色的表演感到惊叹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I was awed by the huge gorilla. 那只大猩猩使我惊惧。 来自《简明英汉词典》