Nineteen

Nineteen
Professor Purdy sounded irritated as he broke off dictating¹ and answered the telephone.
“Who? What? You mean he is here now? Well, ask him if tomorrow will do?—Oh, very well—very well—Tell him to come up.”
“Always something,” he said with vexation. “How can one ever be expected to do any seriouswork with these constant interruptions.” He looked with mild displeasure at Sheila Webb and said:
“Now where were we, my dear?”
Sheila was about to reply when there was a knock at the door. Professor Purdy brought himselfback with some difficulty from the chronological² difficulties of approximately three thousandyears ago.
“Yes?” he said testily³, “yes, come in, what is it? I may say I mentioned particularly that I wasnot to be disturbed this afternoon.”
“I’m very sorry, sir, very sorry indeed that it has been necessary to do so. Good evening, MissWebb.”
Sheila Webb had risen to her feet, setting aside her notebook. Hardcastle wondered if he onlyfancied that he saw sudden apprehension⁴ come into her eyes.
“Well, what is it?” said the professor again, sharply.
“I am Detective Inspector⁵ Hardcastle, as Miss Webb here will tell you.”
“Quite,” said the professor. “Quite.”
“What I really wanted was a few words with Miss Webb.”
“Can’t you wait? It is really most awkward at this moment. Most awkward. We were just at acritical point. Miss Webb will be disengaged in about a quarter of an hour—oh, well, perhaps halfan hour. Something like that. Oh, dear me, is it six o’clock already?”
“I’m very sorry, Professor Purdy,” Hardcastle’s tone was firm.
“Oh, very well, very well. What is it—some motoring offence, I suppose? How very officiousthese traffic wardens⁶ are. One insisted the other day that I had left my car four and a half hours at aparking meter. I’m sure that could not possibly be so.”
“It’s a little more serious than a parking offence, sir.”
“Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And you don’t have a car, do you, my dear?” He looked vaguely⁷ at SheilaWebb. “Yes, I remember, you come here by bus. Well, Inspector, what is it?”
“It’s about a girl called Edna Brent.” He turned to Sheila Webb. “I expect you’ve heard aboutit.”
She stared at him. Beautiful eyes. Cornflower-blue eyes. Eyes that reminded him of someone.
“Edna Brent, did you say?” She raised her eyebrows⁸. “Oh, yes, I know her, of course. Whatabout her?”
“I see the news hasn’t got to you yet. Where did you lunch, Miss Webb?”
Colour came up in her cheeks.
“I lunched with a friend at the Ho Tung restaurant, if—if it’s really any business of yours.”
“You didn’t go on afterwards to the office?”
“To the Cavendish Bureau, you mean? I called in there and was told it had been arranged that Iwas to come straight here to Professor Purdy at half past two.”
“That’s right,” said the professor, nodding his head. “Half past two. And we have been workinghere ever since. Ever since. Dear me, I should have ordered tea. I am very sorry, Miss Webb, I’mafraid you must have missed having your tea. You should have reminded me.”
“Oh, it didn’t matter, Professor Purdy, it didn’t matter at all.”
“Very remiss⁹ of me,” said the professor, “very remiss. But there. I mustn’t interrupt, since theinspector wants to ask you some questions.”
“So you don’t know what’s happened to Edna Brent?”
“Happened to her?” asked Sheila, sharply, her voice rising. “Happened to her? What do youmean? Has she had an accident or something—been run over?”
“Very dangerous, all this speeding,” put in the professor.
“Yes,” said Hardcastle, “something’s happened to her.” He paused and then said, putting it asbrutally as possible, “She was strangled about half past twelve, in a telephone box.”
“In a telephone box?” said the professor, rising to the occasion by showing some interest.
Sheila Webb said nothing. She stared at him. Her mouth opened slightly, her eyes widened.
“Either this is the first you’ve heard of it or you’re a damn’ good actress,” thought Hardcastle tohimself.
“Dear, dear,” said the professor. “Strangled in a telephone box. That seems very extraordinaryto me. Very extraordinary. Not the sort of place I would choose myself. I mean, if I were to dosuch a thing. No, indeed. Well, well. Poor girl. Most unfortunate for her.”
“Edna—killed! But why?”
“Did you know, Miss Webb, that Edna Brent was very anxious to see you the day beforeyesterday, that she came to your aunt’s house, and waited for some time for you to come back?”
“My fault again,” said the professor guiltily. “I kept Miss Webb very late that evening, Iremember. Very late indeed. I really still feel very apologetic about it. You must always remindme of the time, my dear. You really must.”
“My aunt told me about that,” said Sheila, “but I didn’t know it was anything special. Was it?
Was Edna in trouble of any kind?”
“We don’t know,” said the inspector. “We probably never shall know. Unless you can tell us?”
“I tell you? How should I know?”
“You might have had some idea, perhaps, of what Edna Brent wanted to see you about?”
She shook her head. “I’ve no idea, no idea at all.”
“Hasn’t she hinted anything to you, spoken to you in the office at all about whatever the troublewas?”
“No. No, indeed she hasn’t—hadn’t—I wasn’t at the office at all yesterday. I had to go over toLandis Bay to one of our authors for the whole day.”
“You didn’t think that she’d been worried lately?”
“Well, Edna always looked worried or puzzled. She had a very—what shall I say—diffident,uncertain kind of mind. I mean, she was never quite sure that what she thought of doing was theright thing or not. She missed out two whole pages in typing Armand Levine’s book once and shewas terribly worried about what to do then, because she’d sent it off to him before she realizedwhat had happened.”
“I see. And she asked you all your advice as to what she should do about it?”
“Yes. I told her she’d better write a note to him quickly because people don’t always startreading their typescript at once for correction. She could write and say what had happened and askhim not to complain to Miss Martindale. But she said she didn’t quite like to do that.”
“She usually came and asked for advice when one of these problems arose?”
“Oh, yes, always. But the trouble was, of course, that we didn’t always all agree as to what sheshould do. Then she got puzzled again.”
“So it would be quite natural that she should come to one of you if she had a problem? Ithappened quite frequently?”
“Yes. Yes, it did.”
“You don’t think it might have been something more serious this time?”
“I don’t suppose so. What sort of serious thing could it be?”
Was Sheila Webb, the inspector wondered, quite as much at ease as she tried to appear?”
“I don’t know what she wanted to talk to me about,” she went on, speaking faster and ratherbreathlessly. “I’ve no idea. And I certainly can’t imagine why she wanted to come out to myaunt’s house and speak to me there.”
“It would seem, wouldn’t it, that it was something she did not want to speak to you about at theCavendish Bureau? Before the other girls, shall we say? Something, perhaps, that she felt ought tobe kept private between you and her. Could that have been the case?”
“I think it’s very unlikely. I’m sure it couldn’t have been at all like that.” Her breath camequickly.
“So you can’t help me, Miss Webb?”
“No. I’m sorry. I’m very sorry about Edna, but I don’t know anything that could help you.”
“Nothing that might have a connection or a tie- up with what happened on the 9th ofSeptember?”
“You mean—that man—that man in Wilbraham Crescent?”
“That’s what I mean.”
“How could it have been? What could Edna have known about that?”
“Nothing very important, perhaps,” said the inspector, “but something. And anything wouldhelp. Anything, however small.” He paused. “The telephone box where she was killed was inWilbraham Crescent. Does that convey anything to you, Miss Webb?”
“Nothing at all.”
“Were you yourself in Wilbraham Crescent today?”
“No, I wasn’t,” she said vehemently¹⁰. “I never went near it. I’m beginning to feel that it’s ahorrible place. I wish I’d never gone there in the first place, I wish I’d never got mixed up in allthis. Why did they send for me, ask for me specially¹¹, that day? Why did Edna have to get killednear there? You must find out, Inspector, you must, you must!”
“We mean to find out, Miss Webb,” the inspector said. There was a faint menace in his voice ashe went on: “I can assure you of that.”
“You’re trembling, my dear,” said Professor Purdy. “I think, I really do think that you ought tohave a glass of sherry.”

1 dictating   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的现在分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• The manager was dictating a letter to the secretary. 经理在向秘书口授信稿。 来自辞典例句
• Her face is impassive as she listens to Miller dictating the warrant for her arrest. 她毫无表情地在听米勒口述拘留她的证书。 来自辞典例句

2 chronological   

adj.按年月顺序排列的，年代学的

参考例句：

• The paintings are exhibited in chronological sequence.这些画是按创作的时间顺序展出的。
• Give me the dates in chronological order.把日期按年月顺序给我。

3 testily   

adv. 易怒地, 暴躁地

参考例句：

• He reacted testily to reports that he'd opposed military involvement. 有报道称他反对军队参与，对此他很是恼火。 来自柯林斯例句

4 apprehension   

n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑

参考例句：

• There were still areas of doubt and her apprehension grew.有些地方仍然存疑，于是她越来越担心。
• She is a girl of weak apprehension.她是一个理解力很差的女孩。

5 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

6 wardens   

n.看守人( warden的名词复数 )；管理员；监察员；监察官

参考例句：

• Air raid wardens in tin hats self-importantly stalked the streets. 空袭民防队员戴着钢盔神气活现地走在街上昂首阔步。 来自辞典例句
• The game wardens tranquillized the rhinoceros with a drugged dart. 猎物保护区管理员用麻醉射器让犀牛静了下来。 来自辞典例句

7 vaguely   

adv.含糊地，暖昧地

参考例句：

• He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
• He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面，对一切都视而不见。

8 eyebrows   

眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
• His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。

9 remiss   

adj.不小心的，马虎

参考例句：

• It was remiss of him to forget her birthday.他竟忘了她的生日，实在是糊涂。
• I would be remiss if I did not do something about it.如果我对此不做点儿什么就是不负责任。

10 vehemently   

adv. 热烈地

参考例句：

• He argued with his wife so vehemently that he talked himself hoarse. 他和妻子争论得很激烈，以致讲话的声音都嘶哑了。
• Both women vehemently deny the charges against them. 两名妇女都激烈地否认了对她们的指控。

11 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。