Mr. Goby came into the room and sat, as indicated by Poirot, in his usual chair. He glanced aroundhim before choosing what particular piece of furniture or part of the room he was about to address.
He settled, as often before, for the electric fire, not turned on at this time of year. Mr. Goby hadnever been known to address the human being he was working for directly. He selected always thecornice, a radiator1, a television set, a clock, sometimes a carpet or a mat. Out of a briefcase2 he tooka few papers.
“Well,” said Hercule Poirot, “you have something for me?”
“I have collected various details,” said Mr. Goby.
Mr. Goby was celebrated3 all over London, indeed possibly all over England and even further, asa great purveyor4 of information. How he performed these miracles nobody ever really quite knew.
He employed a not excessive staff. Sometimes he complained that his legs, as he sometimes calledthem, were not as good as they used to be. But his results were still able to astonish people whohad commissioned them.
“Mrs. Burton- Cox,” he said, announcing the name much as though he had been the localchurchwarden having his turn at reading the lessons. He might equally have been saying “Thirdverse, fourth chapter, the book of Isaiah.”
“Mrs. Burton-Cox,” he said again. “Married Mr. Cecil Aldbury, manufacturer of buttons on alarge scale. Rich man. Entered politics, was MP for Little Stansmere. Mr. Cecil Aldbury waskilled in a car accident four years after their marriage. The only child of the marriage died in anaccident shortly afterwards. Mr. Aldbury’s estate was inherited by his wife, but was not as muchas had been expected since the firm had not been doing well of late years. Mr. Aldbury also leftquite a considerable sum of money to a Miss Kathleen Fenn, with whom it seemed he had beenhaving intimate relations quite unknown to his wife. Mrs. Burton-Cox continued her politicalcareer. Some three years after that she adopted a child which had been born to Miss KathleenFenn. Miss Kathleen Fenn insisted that the child was the son of the late Mr. Aldbury. This, fromwhat I have been able to learn in my enquiries, is somewhat difficult to accept,” continued Mr.
Goby. “Miss Fenn had had many relationships, usually with gentlemen of ample means andgenerous dispositions5, but after all, so many people have their price, have they not? I’m afraid thisis quite a serious bill I may have to send you in.”
“Continue,” said Hercule Poirot.
“Mrs. Aldbury, as she then was, agreed to adopt the child. A short while later she married MajorBurton-Cox. Miss Kathleen Fenn became, I may say, a most successful actress and pop singer andmade a very large amount of money. She then wrote to Mrs. Burton-Cox saying she would bewilling to take back the adopted child. Mrs. Burton-Cox refused. Mrs. Burton-Cox has been livingquite comfortably since, I understand, Major Burton- Cox was killed in Malaya. He left hermoderately well off. A further piece of information I have obtained is that Miss Kathleen Fenn,who died a very short while ago—eighteen months, I think—left a Will by which her entirefortune, which amounted by then to a considerable sum of money, was left to her natural sonDesmond, at present known under the name of Desmond Burton-Cox.”
“Very generous,” said Poirot. “Of what did Miss Fenn die?”
“My informant tells me that she contracted leukaemia.”
“And the boy has inherited his mother’s money?”
“It was left in trust for him to acquire at the age of twenty-five.”
“So he will be independent, will have a substantial fortune? And Mrs. Burton-Cox?”
“Has not been happy in her investments, it is understood. She has sufficient to live on but notmuch more.”
“Has the boy Desmond made a Will?” asked Poirot.
“That,” said Mr. Goby, “I fear I do not know as yet. But I have certain means of finding out. If Ido, I will acquaint you with the fact without loss of time.”
Mr. Goby took his leave, absentmindedly bowing a farewell to the electric fire.
About an hour and a half later the telephone rang.
Hercule Poirot, with a sheet of paper in front of him, was making notes. Now and then hefrowned, twirled his moustaches, crossed something out and rewrote it and then proceededonward. When the telephone rang he picked up the receiver and listened.
“Thank you,” he said, “that was quick work. Yes .?.?. yes, I’m grateful. I really do not knowsometimes how you manage these things .?.?. Yes, that sets out the position clearly. It makes senseof something that did not make sense before .?.?. Yes .?.?. I gather .?.?. yes, I’m listening .?.?. you arepretty sure that that is the case. He knows he is adopted .?.?. but he never has been told who his realmother was .?.?. yes. Yes, I see .?.?. Very well. You will clear up the other point too? Thank you.”
He replaced the receiver and started once more writing down words. In half an hour thetelephone rang once more. Once again he picked up the phone.
“I’m back from Cheltenham,” said a voice which Poirot had no difficulty in recognizing.
“Ah, chère madame, you have returned? You have seen Mrs. Rosentelle?”
“Yes. She is nice. Very nice. And you were quite right, you know, she is another elephant.”
“Meaning, chère madame?”
“I mean that she remembered Molly Ravenscroft.”
“And she remembered her wigs6?”
“Yes.”
Briefly7 she outlined what the retired8 hairdresser had told her about the wigs.
“Yes,” said Poirot, “that agrees. That is exactly what Superintendent9 Garroway mentioned tome. The four wigs that the police found. Curls, an evening type of headdress, and two otherplainer ones. Four.”
“So I really only told you what you knew already?”
“No, you told me something more than that. She said—that is what you told me just now, is itnot?—that Lady Ravenscroft wanted two extra wigs to add to the two that she already had and thatthis was about three weeks to six weeks before the suicide tragedy occurred. Yes, that isinteresting, is it not?”
“It’s very natural,” said Mrs. Oliver. “I mean, you know that people, women, I mean, may doawful damage to things. To false hair and things of that kind. If it can’t be redressed10 and cleaned,if it’s got burnt or got stuff spilt on it you can’t get out, or it’s been dyed and dyed all wrong—something like that—well then, of course you have to get two new wigs or switches or whateverthey are. I don’t see what makes you excited about that.”
“Not exactly excited,” said Poirot, “no. It is a point, but the more interesting point is what youhave just added. It was a French lady, was it not, who brought the wigs to be copied or matched?”
“Yes. I gathered some kind of companion or something. Lady Ravenscroft had been or was inhospital or in a nursing home somewhere and she was not in good health and she could not comeherself to make a choice or anything of that kind.”
“I see.”
“And so her French companion came.”
“Do you know the name of that companion by any chance?”
“No. I don’t think Mrs. Rosentelle mentioned it. In fact I don’t think she knew. Theappointment was made by Lady Ravenscroft and the French girl or woman just brought the wigsalong for size and matching and all the rest of it, I suppose.”
“Well,” said Poirot, “that helps me towards the further step that I am about to take.”
“What have you learnt?” said Mrs. Oliver. “Have you done anything?”
“You are always so sceptical,” said Poirot. “You always consider that I do nothing, that I sit in achair and repose11 myself.”
“Well I think you sit in a chair and think,” admitted Mrs. Oliver, “but I quite agree that youdon’t often go out and do things.”
“In the near future I think I may possibly go out and do things,” said Hercule Poirot, “and thatwill please you. I may even cross the Channel though certainly not in a boat. A plane, I think isindicated.”
“Oh,” said Mrs. Oliver. “Do you want me to come too?”
“No,” said Poirot, “I think it would be better if I went alone on this occasion.”
“You really will go?”
“Oh yes, oh yes. I will run about with all activity and so you should be pleased with me,madame.”
When he had rung off, he dialled another number which he looked up from a note he had madein his pocketbook. Presently he was connected to the person whom he wished to speak to.
“My dear Superintendent Garroway, it is Hercule Poirot who addresses you. I do not derangeyou too much? You are not very busy at this moment?”
“No, I am not busy,” said Superintendent Garroway. “I am pruning12 my roses, that’s all.”
“There is something that I want to ask you. Quite a small thing.”
“About our problem of the double suicide?”
“Yes, about our problem. You said there was a dog in the house. You said that the dog went forwalks with the family, or so you understood.”
“Yes, there was some mention made of a dog. I think it may have been either the housekeeperor someone who said that they went for a walk with the dog as usual that day.”
“In examination of the body was there any sign that Lady Ravenscroft had been bitten by a dog?
Not necessarily very recently or on that particular day?”
“Well, it’s odd you should say that. I can’t say I’d have remembered about it if you hadn’tmentioned such a thing. But yes, there were a couple of scars. Not bad ones. But again thehousekeeper mentioned that the dog had attacked its mistress more than once and bitten her,though not very severely13. Look here, Poirot, there was no rabies about, if that’s what you arethinking. There couldn’t have been anything of that kind. After all she was shot—they were bothshot. There was no question of any septic poisoning or danger of tetanus.”
“I do not blame the dog,” said Poirot, “it was only something I wanted to know.”
“One dog bite was fairly recent, about a week before, I think, or two weeks somebody said.
There was no case of necessary injections or anything of that kind. It had healed quite well.
What’s that quotation14?” went on Superintendent Garroway. “‘The dog it was that died.’ I can’tremember where it comes from but—”
“Anyway, it wasn’t the dog that died,” said Poirot. “That wasn’t the point of my question. Iwould like to have known that dog. He was perhaps a very intelligent dog.”
After he had replaced the receiver with thanks to the Superintendent, Poirot murmured: “Anintelligent dog. More intelligent perhaps than the police were.”
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radiator
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| n.暖气片，散热器 | |
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briefcase
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| n.手提箱，公事皮包 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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purveyor
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| n.承办商，伙食承办商 | |
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dispositions
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| 安排( disposition的名词复数 )； 倾向； （财产、金钱的）处置； 气质 | |
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wigs
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| n.假发，法官帽( wig的名词复数 ) | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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superintendent
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| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
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redressed
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| v.改正( redress的过去式和过去分词 )；重加权衡；恢复平衡 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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12
pruning
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| n.修枝，剪枝，修剪v.修剪（树木等）( prune的现在分词 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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quotation
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| n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情 | |
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