“Mom!” said Ernie Curtin, desisting for a moment from his occupation of running a small metalmodel up and down the window pane1, accompanying it with a semi-zooming, semi-moaning noiseintended to reproduce a rocket ship going through outer space on its way to Venus, “Mom, whatd’you think?”
Mrs. Curtin, a stern-faced woman who was busy washing up crockery in the sink, made noresponse.
“Mom, there’s a police car drawn2 up outside our house.”
“Don’t you tell no more of yer lies, Ernie,” said Mrs. Curtin as she banged cups and saucersdown on the draining board. “You know what I’ve said to you about that before.”
“I never,” said Ernie virtuously3. “And it’s a police car right enough, and there’s two men gettin’
out.”
Mrs. Curtin wheeled round on her offspring.
“What’ve you been doing now?” she demanded. “Bringing us into disgrace, that’s what it is!”
“Course I ain’t,” said Ernie. “I ’aven’t done nothin’.”
“It’s going with that Alf,” said Mrs. Curtin. “Him and his gang. Gangs indeed! I’ve told you,and yer father’s told you, that gangs isn’t respectable. In the end there’s trouble. First it’ll be thejuvenile court and then you’ll be sent to a remand home as likely as not. And I won’t have it,d’you hear?”
“They’re comin’ up to the front door,” Ernie announced.
Mrs. Curtin abandoned the sink and joined her offspring at the window.
“Well,” she muttered.
At that moment the knocker was sounded. Wiping her hands quickly on the tea towel, Mrs.
Curtin went out into the passage and opened the door. She looked with defiance4 and doubt at thetwo men on her doorstep.
“Mrs. Curtin?” said the taller of the two, pleasantly.
“That’s right,” said Mrs. Curtin.
“May I come in a moment? I’m Detective Inspector5 Hardcastle.”
Mrs. Curtin drew back rather unwillingly6. She threw open a door and motioned the inspectorinside. It was a very neat, clean little room and gave the impression of seldom being entered,which impression was entirely7 correct.
Ernie, drawn by curiosity, came down the passage from the kitchen and sidled inside the door.
“Your son?” said Detective Inspector Hardcastle.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Curtin, and added belligerently8, “he’s a good boy, no matter what you say.”
“I’m sure he is,” said Detective Inspector Hardcastle, politely.
Some of the defiance in Mrs. Curtin’s face relaxed.
“I’ve come to ask you a few questions about 19, Wilbraham Crescent. You work there, Iunderstand.”
“Never said I didn’t,” said Mrs. Curtin, unable yet to shake off her previous mood.
“For a Miss Millicent Pebmarsh.”
“Yes, I work for Miss Pebmarsh. A very nice lady.”
“Blind,” said Detective Inspector Hardcastle.
“Yes, poor soul. But you’d never know it. Wonderful the way she can put her hand on anythingand find her way about. Goes out in the street, too, and over the crossings. She’s not one to make afuss about things, not like some people I know.”
“You work there in the mornings?”
“That’s right. I come about half past nine to ten, and leave at twelve o’clock or when I’mfinished.” Then sharply, “You’re not saying as anything ’as been stolen, are you?”
“Quite the reverse,” said the inspector, thinking of four clocks.
Mrs. Curtin looked at him uncomprehendingly.
“What’s the trouble?” she asked.
“A man was found dead in the sitting room at 19, Wilbraham Crescent this afternoon.”
Mrs. Curtin stared. Ernie Curtin wriggled9 in ecstasy10, opened his mouth to say “Coo,” thought itunwise to draw attention to his presence, and shut it again.
“Dead?” said Mrs. Curtin unbelievingly. And with even more unbelief, “In the sitting room?”
“Yes. He’d been stabbed.”
“You mean it’s murder?”
“Yes, murder.”
“Oo murdered ’im?” demanded Mrs. Curtin.
“I’m afraid we haven’t got quite so far as that yet,” said Inspector Hardcastle. “We thoughtperhaps you may be able to help us.”
“I don’t know anything about murder,” said Mrs. Curtin positively11.
“No, but there are one or two points that have arisen. This morning, for instance, did any mancall at the house?”
“Not that I can remember. Not today. What sort of man was he?”
“An elderly man about sixty, respectably dressed in a dark suit. He may have representedhimself as an insurance agent.”
“I wouldn’t have let him in,” said Mrs. Curtin. “No insurance agents and nobody sellingvacuum cleaners or editions of the Encyclopaedia12 Britannica. Nothing of that sort. Miss Pebmarshdoesn’t hold with selling at the door and neither do I.”
“The man’s name, according to a card that was on him, was Mr. Curry13. Have you ever heardthat name?”
“Curry? Curry?” Mrs. Curtin shook her head. “Sounds Indian to me,” she said, suspiciously.
“Oh, no,” said Inspector Hardcastle, “he wasn’t an Indian.”
“Who found him—Miss Pebmarsh?”
“A young lady, a shorthand typist, had arrived because, owing to a misunderstanding, shethought she’d been sent for to do some work for Miss Pebmarsh. It was she who discovered thebody. Miss Pebmarsh returned almost at the same moment.”
Mrs. Curtin uttered a deep sigh.
“What a to-do,” she said, “what a to-do!”
“We may ask you at some time,” said Inspector Hardcastle, “to look at this man’s body and tellus if he is a man you have ever seen in Wilbraham Crescent or calling at the house before. MissPebmarsh is quite positive he has never been there. Now there are various small points I wouldlike to know. Can you recall offhand14 how many clocks there are in the sitting room?”
Mrs. Curtin did not even pause.
“There’s that big clock in the corner, grandfather they call it, and there’s the cuckoo clock onthe wall. It springs out and says ‘cuckoo.’ Doesn’t half make you jump sometimes.” She addedhastily, “I didn’t touch neither of them. I never do. Miss Pebmarsh likes to wind them herself.”
“There’s nothing wrong with them,” the inspector assured her. “You’re sure these were the onlytwo clocks in the room this morning?”
“Of course. What others should there be?”
“There was not, for instance, a small square silver clock, what they call a carriage clock, or alittle gilt15 clock—on the mantelpiece that was, or a china clock with flowers on it—or a leatherclock with the name Rosemary written across the corner?”
“Of course there wasn’t. No such thing.”
“You would have noticed them if they had been there?”
“Of course I should.”
“Each of these four clocks represented a time about an hour later than the cuckoo clock and thegrandfather clock.”
“Must have been foreign,” said Mrs. Curtin. “Me and my old man went on a coach trip toSwitzerland and Italy once and it was a whole hour further on there. Must be something to do withthis Common Market. I don’t hold with the Common Market and nor does Mr. Curtin. England’sgood enough for me.”
Inspector Hardcastle declined to be drawn into politics.
“Can you tell me exactly when you left Miss Pebmarsh’s house this morning?”
“Quarter past twelve, near as nothing,” said Mrs. Curtin.
“Was Miss Pebmarsh in the house then?”
“No, she hadn’t come back. She usually comes back some time between twelve and half past,but it varies.”
“And she had left the house—when?”
“Before I got there. Ten o’clock’s my time.”
“Well, thank you, Mrs. Curtin.”
“Seems queer about these clocks,” said Mrs. Curtin. “Perhaps Miss Pebmarsh had been to asale. Antiques, were they? They sound like it by what you say.”
“Does Miss Pebmarsh often go to sales?”
“Got a roll of hair carpet about four months ago at a sale. Quite good condition. Very cheap, shetold me. Got some velour curtains too. They needed cutting down, but they were really as good asnew.”
“But she doesn’t usually buy bric-à-brac or things like pictures or china or that kind of thing atsales?”
Mrs. Curtin shook her head.
“Not that I’ve ever known her, but of course, there’s no saying in sales, is there? I mean, youget carried away. When you get home you say to yourself ‘whatever did I want with that?’ Boughtsix pots of jam once. When I thought about it I could have made it cheaper myself. Cups andsaucers, too. Them I could have got better in the market on a Wednesday.”
She shook her head darkly. Feeling that he had no more to learn for the moment, InspectorHardcastle departed. Ernie then made his contribution to the subject that had been underdiscussion.
“Murder! Coo!” said Ernie.
Momentarily the conquest of outer space was displaced in his mind by a present-day subject ofreally thrilling appeal.
“Miss Pebmarsh couldn’t have done ’im in, could she?” he suggested yearningly16.
“Don’t talk so silly,” said his mother. A thought crossed her mind. “I wonder if I ought to havetold him—”
“Told him what, Mom?”
“Never you mind,” said Mrs. Curtin. “It was nothing, really.”
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收听单词发音
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1
pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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virtuously
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| 合乎道德地，善良地 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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unwillingly
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| adv.不情愿地 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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belligerently
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9
wriggled
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等） | |
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ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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encyclopaedia
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| n.百科全书 | |
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13
curry
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| n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革 | |
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14
offhand
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| adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的 | |
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15
gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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16
yearningly
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| 怀念地，思慕地，同情地； 渴 | |
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