They drove along Wilbraham Crescent, turned to the right up Albany Road and then to the rightagain along the second instalment of Wilbraham Crescent.
“Simple really,” said Hardcastle.
“Once you know,” said Colin.
“61 really backs on Mrs. Hemming’s house—but a corner of it touches on 19, so that’s goodenough. It will give you a chance to look at your Mr. Bland1. No foreign help, by the way.”
“So there goes a beautiful theory.” The car drew up and the two men got out.
“Well, well,” said Colin. “Some front garden!”
It was indeed a model of surburban perfection in a small way. There were beds of geraniumswith lobelia edging. There were large fleshy-looking begonias, and there was a fine display ofgarden ornaments2—frogs, toadstools, comic gnomes3 and pixies.
“I’m sure Mr. Bland must be a nice worthy4 man,” said Colin, with a shudder5. “He couldn’t havethese terrible ideas if he wasn’t.” He added as Hardcastle pushed the bell, “Do you expect him tobe in at this time of the morning?”
“I rang up,” explained Hardcastle. “Asked him if it would be convenient.”
At that moment a smart little Traveller van drew up and turned into the garage, which hadobviously been a late addition to the house. Mr. Josaiah Bland got out, slammed the door andadvanced towards them. He was a man of medium height with a bald head and rather small blueeyes. He had a hearty6 manner.
“Inspector7 Hardcastle? Come right in.”
He led the way into the sitting room. It evinced several proofs of prosperity. There wereexpensive and rather ornate lamps, an Empire writing desk, a coruscated8 ormolu set ofmantelpiece ornaments, a marquetry cabinet, and a jardinère full of flowers in the window. Thechairs were modern and richly upholstered.
“Sit down,” said Mr. Bland heartily9. “Smoke? Or can’t you when you’re on the job?”
“No, thanks,” said Hardcastle.
“Don’t drink either, I suppose?” said Mr. Bland. “Ah well, better for both of us, I dare say. Nowwhat’s it all about? This business at Number 19 I suppose? The corners of our gardens adjoin, butwe’ve not much real view of it except from the upper floor windows. Extraordinary businessaltogether it seems to be — at least from what I read in our local paper this morning. I wasdelighted when I got your message. A chance of getting some of the real dope. You’ve no idea therumours that are flying about! It’s made my wife quite nervous—feeling there’s a killer11 on theloose, you know. The trouble is they let all these barmy people out of lunatic asylums12 nowadays.
Send them home on parole or whatever they call it. Then they do in someone else and they clapthem back again. And as I say, the rumours10! I mean, what with our daily woman and the milk andpaper boy, you’d be surprised. One says he was strangled with picture wire, and the other says hewas stabbed. Someone else that he was coshed. At any rate it was a he, wasn’t it? I mean, it wasn’tthe old girl who was done in? An unknown man, the papers said.”
Mr. Bland came to a full stop at last.
Hardcastle smiled and said in a deprecating voice:
“Well, as to unknown, he had a card and an address in his pocket.”
“So much for that story then,” said Bland. “But you know what people are. I don’t know whothinks up all these things.”
“While we’re on the subject of the victim,” said Hardcastle, “perhaps you’ll have a look at this.”
Once more he brought out the police photograph.
“So that’s him, is it?” said Bland. “He looks a perfectly13 ordinary chap, doesn’t he? Ordinary asyou and me. I suppose I mustn’t ask if he had any particular reason to be murdered?”
“It’s early days to talk about that,” said Hardcastle. “What I want to know, Mr. Bland, is ifyou’ve ever seen this man before.”
Bland shook his head.
“I’m sure I haven’t. I’m quite good at remembering faces.”
“He hasn’t called upon you for any particular purpose—selling insurance or—vacuum cleanersor washing machines, or anything of that kind?”
“No, no. Certainly not.”
“We ought perhaps to ask your wife,” said Hardcastle. “After all, if he called at the house, it’syour wife he would see.”
“Yes, that’s perfectly true. I don’t know, though … Valerie’s not got very good health, youknow. I wouldn’t like to upset her. What I mean is, well, I suppose that’s a picture of him whenhe’s dead, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Hardcastle, “that is quite true. But it is not a painful photograph in any way.”
“No, no. Very well done. The chap might be asleep, really.”
“Are you talking about me, Josaiah?”
An adjoining door from the other room was pushed open and a middle-aged14 woman entered theroom. She had, Hardcastle decided15, been listening with close attention on the other side of thedoor.
“Ah, there you are, my dear,” said Bland, “I thought you were having your morning nap. This ismy wife, Detective Inspector Hardcastle.”
“That terrible murder,” murmured Mrs. Bland. “It really makes me shiver to think of it.”
She sat down on the sofa with a little gasping16 sigh.
“Put your feet up, dear,” said Bland.
Mrs. Bland obeyed. She was a sandy-haired woman, with a faint whining17 voice. She lookedanaemic, and had all the airs of an invalid18 who accepts her invalidism19 with a certain amount ofenjoyment. For a moment or two, she reminded Inspector Hardcastle of somebody. He tried tothink who it was, but failed. The faint, rather plaintive20 voice continued.
“My health isn’t very good, Inspector Hardcastle, so my husband naturally tries to spare me anyshocks or worry. I’m very sensitive. You were speaking about a photograph, I think, of the—ofthe murdered man. Oh dear, how terrible that sounds. I don’t know that I can bear to look!”
“Dying to see it, really,” thought Hardcastle to himself.
With faint malice21 in his voice, he said:
“Perhaps I’d better not ask you to look at it, then, Mrs. Bland. I just thought you might be ableto help us, in case the man has called at this house at any time.”
“I must do my duty, mustn’t I,” said Mrs. Bland, with a sweet brave smile. She held out herhand.
“Do you think you’d better upset yourself, Val?”
“Don’t be foolish, Josaiah. Of course I must see.”
She looked at the photograph with much interest and, or so the inspector thought, a certainamount of disappointment.
“He looks—really, he doesn’t look dead at all,” she said. “Not at all as though he’d beenmurdered. Was he—he can’t have been strangled?”
“He was stabbed,” said the inspector.
Mrs. Bland closed her eyes and shivered.
“Oh dear,” she said, “how terrible.”
“You don’t feel you’ve ever seen him, Mrs. Bland?”
“No,” said Mrs. Bland with obvious reluctance22, “no, no, I’m afraid not. Was he the sort of manwho—who calls at houses selling things?”
“He seems to have been an insurance agent,” said the inspector carefully.
“Oh, I see. No, there’s been nobody of that kind, I’m sure. You never remember my mentioninganything of that kind, do you, Josaiah?”
“Can’t say I do,” said Mr. Bland.
“Was he any relation to Miss Pebmarsh?” asked Mrs. Bland.
“No,” said the inspector, “he was quite unknown to her.”
“Very peculiar,” said Mrs. Bland.
“You know Mrs. Pebmarsh?”
“Oh yes, I mean, we know her as neighbours, of course. She asks my husband for advicesometimes about the garden.”
“You’re a very keen gardener, I gather?” said the inspector.
“Not really, not really,” said Bland deprecatingly. “Haven’t the time, you know. Of course, Iknow what’s what. But I’ve got an excellent fellow—comes twice a week. He sees the garden’skept well stocked, and well tidied up. I’d say you couldn’t beat our garden round here, but I’m notone of those real gardeners like my neighbour.”
“Mrs. Ramsay?” said Hardcastle in some surprise.
“No, no, farther along. 63. Mr. McNaughton. He just lives for his garden. In it all day long, andmad on compost. Really, he’s quite a bore on the subject of compost—but I don’t suppose that’swhat you want to talk about.”
“Not exactly,” said the inspector. “I only wondered if anyone—you or your wife, for instance—were out in your garden yesterday. After all, as you say, it does touch on the border of 19 andthere’s just a chance that you might have seen something interesting yesterday — or heardsomething, perhaps?”
“Midday, wasn’t it? When the murder happened I mean?”
“The relevant times are between one o’clock and three o’clock.”
Bland shook his head. “I wouldn’t have seen much then. I was here. So was Valerie, but we’dbe having lunch, you know, and our dining room looks out on the roadside. We shouldn’t seeanything that was going on in the garden.”
“What time do you have your meal?”
“One o’clock or thereabouts. Sometimes it’s one thirty.”
“And you didn’t go out in the garden at all afterwards?”
Bland shook his head.
“Matter of fact,” he said, “my wife always goes up to rest after lunch and, if things aren’t toobusy, I take a bit of shuteye myself in that chair there. I must have left the house about—oh, Isuppose a quarter to three, but unfortunately I didn’t go out in the garden at all.”
“Oh, well,” said Hardcastle with a sigh, “we have to ask everyone.”
“Of course, of course. Wish I could be more helpful.”
“Nice place you have here,” said the inspector. “No money spared, if I may say so.”
Bland laughed jovially23.
“Ah well, we like things that are nice. My wife’s got a lot of taste. We had a bit of a windfall ayear ago. My wife came into some money from an uncle of hers. She hadn’t seen him for twenty-five years. Quite a surprise it was! It made a bit of difference to us, I can tell you. We’ve been ableto do ourselves well and we’re thinking of going on one of these cruises later in the year. Veryeducational they are, I believe. Greece and all that. A lot of professors on them lecturing. Well, ofcourse, I’m a self- made man and I haven’t had much time for that sort of thing but I’d beinterested. That chap who went and dug up Troy, he was a grocer, I believe. Very romantic. I mustsay I like going to foreign parts—not that I’ve done much of that—an occasional weekend in gayParee, that’s all. I’ve toyed with the idea of selling up here and going to live in Spain or Portugalor even the West Indies. A lot of people are doing it. Saves income tax and all that. But my wifedoesn’t fancy the idea.”
“I’m fond of travel, but I wouldn’t care to live out of England,” said Mrs. Bland. “We’ve got allour friends here—and my sister lives here, and everybody knows us. If we went abroad we’d bestrangers. And then we’ve got a very good doctor here. He really understands my health. Ishouldn’t care at all for a foreign doctor. I wouldn’t have any confidence in him.”
“We’ll see,” said Mr. Bland cheerfully. “We’ll go on a cruise and you may fall in love with aGreek island.”
Mrs. Bland looked as though that were very unlikely.
“There’d be a proper English doctor aboard, I suppose,” she said doubtfully.
“Sure to be,” said her husband.
He accompanied Hardcastle and Colin to the front door, repeating once more how sorry he wasthat he couldn’t help them.
“Well,” said Hardcastle. “What do you think of him?”
“I wouldn’t care to let him build a house for me,” said Colin. “But a crooked24 little builder isn’twhat I’m after. I’m looking for a man who is dedicated25. And as regards your murder case, you’vegot the wrong kind of murder. Now if Bland was to feed his wife arsenic26 or push her into theAegean in order to inherit her money and marry a slap-up blonde—”
“We’ll see about that when it happens,” said Inspector Hardcastle. “In the meantime we’ve gotto get on with this murder.”
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1
bland
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| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
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ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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3
gnomes
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| n.矮子( gnome的名词复数 )；侏儒；（尤指金融市场上搞投机的）银行家；守护神 | |
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4
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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coruscated
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| v.闪光，闪烁( coruscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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10
rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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killer
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| n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者 | |
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12
asylums
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| n.避难所( asylum的名词复数 )；庇护；政治避难；精神病院 | |
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13
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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16
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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17
whining
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| n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚 | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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invalidism
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| 病弱，病身； 伤残 | |
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20
plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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21
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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22
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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23
jovially
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| adv.愉快地，高兴地 | |
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24
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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arsenic
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| n.砒霜，砷；adj.砷的 | |
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