I nspector Slack came round to see me the following morning. He is, I think, thawing1 towards me. In time, he mayforget the incident of the clock.
“Well, sir,” he greeted me. “I’ve traced that telephone call that you received.”
“Indeed?” I said eagerly.
“It’s rather odd. It was put through from the North Lodge2 of Old Hall. Now that lodge is empty, the lodgekeepershave been pensioned off and the new lodgekeepers aren’t in yet. The place was empty and convenient—a window atthe back was open. No fingerprints3 on the instrument itself—it had been wiped clear. That’s suggestive.”
“How do you mean?”
“I mean that it shows that call was put through deliberately4 to get you out of the way. Therefore the murder wascarefully planned in advance. If it had been just a harmless practical joke, the fingerprints wouldn’t have been wipedoff so carefully.”
“No. I see that.”
“It also shows that the murderer was well acquainted with Old Hall and its surroundings. It wasn’t Mrs. Protheroewho put that call through. I’ve accounted for every moment of her time that afternoon. There are half a dozen otherservants who can swear that she was at home till five thirty. Then the car came round and drove Colonel Protheroe andher to the village. The Colonel went to see Quinton, the vet5, about one of the horses. Mrs. Protheroe did some orderingat the grocers and at the fish shop, and from there came straight down the back lane where Miss Marple saw her. Allthe shops agree she carried no handbag with her. The old lady was right.”
“She usually is,” I said mildly.
“And Miss Protheroe was over at Much Benham at 5:30.”
“Quite so,” I said. “My nephew was there too.”
“That disposes of her. The maid seems all right—a bit hysterical6 and upset, but what can you expect? Of course,I’ve got my eye on the butler—what with giving notice and all. But I don’t think he knows anything about it.”
“Your inquiries7 seem to have had rather a negative result, Inspector8.”
“They do and they do not, sir. There’s one very queer thing has turned up—quite unexpectedly, I may say.”
“Yes?”
“You remember the fuss that Mrs. Price Ridley, who lives next door to you, was kicking up yesterday morning?
About being rung up on the telephone?”
“Yes?” I said.
“Well, we traced the call just to calm her—and where on this earth do you think it was put through from?”
“A call office?” I hazarded.
“No, Mr. Clement9. That call was put through from Mr. Lawrence Redding’s cottage.”
“What?” I exclaimed, surprised.
“Yes. A bit odd, isn’t it? Mr. Redding had nothing to do with it. At that time, 6:30, he was on his way to the BlueBoar with Dr. Stone in full view of the village. But there it is. Suggestive, eh? Someone walked into that emptycottage and used the telephone, who was it? That’s two queer telephone calls in one day. Makes you think there’ssome connection between them. I’ll eat my hat if they weren’t both put through by the same person.”
“But with what object?”
“Well, that’s what we’ve got to find out. There seems no particular point in the second one, but there must be apoint somewhere. And you see the significance? Mr. Redding’s house used to telephone from. Mr. Redding’s pistol.
All throwing suspicion on Mr. Redding.”
“It would be more to the point to have put through the first call from his house,” I objected.
“Ah, but I’ve been thinking that out. What did Mr. Redding do most afternoons? He went up to Old Hall andpainted Miss Protheroe. And from his cottage he’d go on his motor bicycle, passing through the North Gate. Now yousee the point of the call being put through from there. The murderer is someone who didn’t know about the quarreland that Mr. Redding wasn’t going up to Old Hall any more.”
I reflected a moment to let the Inspector’s points sink into my brain. They seemed to me logical and unavoidable.
“Were there any fingerprints on the receiver in Mr. Redding’s cottage?” I asked.
“There were not,” said the Inspector bitterly. “That dratted old woman who goes and does for him had been anddusted them off yesterday morning.” He reflected wrathfully for a few minutes. “She’s a stupid old fool, anyway.
Can’t remember when she saw the pistol last. It might have been there on the morning of the crime, or it might not.
‘She couldn’t say, she’s sure.’ They’re all alike!
“Just as a matter of form, I went round and saw Dr. Stone,” he went on. “I must say he was pleasant as could beabout it. He and Miss Cram10 went up to that mound—or barrow—or whatever you call it, about half past twoyesterday, and stayed there all the afternoon. Dr. Stone came back alone, and she came later. He says he didn’t hearany shot, but admits he’s absentminded. But it all bears out what we think.”
“Only,” I said, “you haven’t caught the murderer.”
“H’m,” said the Inspector. “It was a woman’s voice you heard through the telephone. It was in all probability awoman’s voice Mrs. Price Ridley heard. If only that shot hadn’t come hard on the close of the telephone call—well,I’d know where to look.”
“Where?”
“Ah! That’s just what it’s best not to say, sir.”
Unblushingly, I suggested a glass of old port. I have some very fine old vintage port. Eleven o’clock in the morningis not the usual time for drinking port, but I did not think that mattered with Inspector Slack. It was, of course, cruelabuse of the vintage port, but one must not be squeamish about such things.
When Inspector Slack had polished off the second glass, he began to unbend and become genial11. Such is the effectof that particular port.
“I don’t suppose it matters with you, sir,” he said. “You’ll keep it to yourself? No letting it get round the parish.”
I reassured12 him.
“Seeing as the whole thing happened in your house, it almost seems as though you have a right to know.”
“Just what I feel myself,” I said.
“Well, then, sir, what about the lady who called on Colonel Protheroe the night before the murder?”
“Mrs. Lestrange,” I cried, speaking rather loud in my astonishment13.
The Inspector threw me a reproachful glance.
“Not so loud, sir. Mrs. Lestrange is the lady I’ve got my eye on. You remember what I told you—blackmail14.”
“Hardly a reason for murder. Wouldn’t it be a case of killing15 the goose that laid the golden eggs? That is, assumingthat your hypothesis is true, which I don’t for a minute admit.”
The Inspector winked16 at me in a common manner.
“Ah! She’s the kind the gentlemen will always stand up for. Now look here, sir. Suppose she’s successfullyblackmailed the old gentleman in the past. After a lapse17 of years, she gets wind of him, comes down here and tries iton again. But, in the meantime, things have changed. The law has taken up a very different stand. Every facility isgiven nowadays to people prosecuting18 for blackmail—names are not allowed to be reported in the press. SupposeColonel Protheroe turns round and says he’ll have the law on her. She’s in a nasty position. They give a very severesentence for blackmail. The boot’s on the other leg. The only thing to do to save herself is to put him out good andquick.”
I was silent. I had to admit that the case the Inspector had built up was plausible19. Only one thing to my mind madeit inadmissable—the personality of Mrs. Lestrange.
“I don’t agree with you, Inspector,” I said. “Mrs. Lestrange doesn’t seem to me to be a potential blackmailer20. She’s—well, it’s an old-fashioned word, but she’s a—lady.”
He threw me a pitying glance.
“Ah! well, sir,” he said tolerantly, “you’re a clergyman. You don’t know half of what goes on. Lady indeed! You’dbe surprised if you knew some of the things I know.”
“I’m not referring to mere21 social position. Anyway, I should imagine Mrs. Lestrange to be a déclassée. What Imean is a question of—personal refinement22.”
“You don’t see her with the same eyes as I do, sir. I may be a man—but I’m a police officer, too. They can’t getover me with their personal refinement. Why, that woman is the kind who could stick a knife into you without turninga hair.”
Curiously23 enough, I could believe Mrs. Lestrange guilty of murder much more easily than I could believe hercapable of blackmail.
“But, of course, she can’t have been telephoning to the old lady next door and shooting Colonel Protheroe at oneand the same time,” continued the Inspector.
The words were hardly out of his mouth when he slapped his leg ferociously24.
“Got it,” he exclaimed. “That’s the point of the telephone call. Kind of alibi25. Knew we’d connect it with the firstone. I’m going to look into this. She may have bribed26 some village lad to do the phoning for her. He’d never think ofconnecting it with the murder.”
The Inspector hurried off.
“Miss Marple wants to see you,” said Griselda, putting her head in. “She sent over a very incoherent note—allspidery and underlined. I couldn’t read most of it. Apparently27 she can’t leave home herself. Hurry up and go acrossand see her and find out what it is. I’ve got my old women coming in two minutes or I’d come myself. I do hate oldwomen—they tell you about their bad legs and sometimes insist on showing them to you. What luck that the inquest isthis afternoon! You won’t have to go and watch the Boys’ Club Cricket Match.”
I hurried off, considerably28 exercised in my mind as to the reason for this summons.
I found Miss Marple in what, I believe, is described as a fluster29. She was very pink and slightly incoherent.
“My nephew,” she explained. “My nephew, Raymond West, the author. He is coming down today. Such a to-do. Ihave to see to everything myself. You cannot trust a maid to air a bed properly, and we must, of course, have a meatmeal tonight. Gentlemen require such a lot of meat, do they not? And drink. There certainly should be some drink inthe house—and a siphon.”
“If I can do anything—” I began.
“Oh! How very kind. But I did not mean that. There is plenty of time really. He brings his own pipe and tobacco, Iam glad to say. Glad because it saves me from knowing which kind of cigarettes are right to buy. But rather sorry, too,because it takes so long for the smell to get out of the curtains. Of course, I open the window and shake them well veryearly every morning. Raymond gets up very late—I think writers often do. He writes very clever books, I believe,though people are not really nearly so unpleasant as he makes out. Clever young men know so little of life, don’t youthink?”
“Would you like to bring him to dinner at the Vicarage?” I asked, still unable to gather why I had been summoned.
“Oh! No, thank you,” said Miss Marple. “It’s very kind of you,” she added.
“There was—er—something you wanted to see me about, I think,” I suggested desperately30.
“Oh! Of course. In all the excitement it had gone right out of my head.” She broke off and called to her maid.
“Emily—Emily. Not those sheets. The frilled ones with the monogram31, and don’t put them too near the fire.”
She closed the door and returned to me on tiptoe.
“It’s just rather a curious thing that happened last night,” she explained. “I thought you would like to hear about it,though at the moment it doesn’t seem to make sense. I felt very wakeful last night—wondering about all this sadbusiness. And I got up and looked out of my window. And what do you think I saw?”
I looked, inquiring.
“Gladys Cram,” said Miss Marple, with great emphasis. “As I live, going into the wood with a suitcase.”
“A suitcase?”
“Isn’t it extraordinary? What should she want with a suitcase in the wood at twelve o’clock at night?
“You see,” said Miss Marple, “I dare say it has nothing to do with the murder. But it is a Peculiar32 Thing. And justat present we all feel we must take notice of Peculiar Things.”
“Perfectly amazing,” I said. “Was she going to—er—sleep in the barrow by any chance?”
“She didn’t, at any rate,” said Miss Marple. “Because quite a short time afterwards she came back, and she hadn’tgot the suitcase with her.”
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1
thawing
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| n.熔化，融化v.（气候）解冻( thaw的现在分词 )；（态度、感情等）缓和；（冰、雪及冷冻食物）溶化；软化 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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fingerprints
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| n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 ) | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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vet
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| n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查 | |
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6
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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clement
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| adj.仁慈的；温和的 | |
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cram
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| v.填塞，塞满，临时抱佛脚，为考试而学习 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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13
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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14
blackmail
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| n.讹诈，敲诈，勒索，胁迫，恫吓 | |
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15
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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16
winked
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| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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17
lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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prosecuting
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| 检举、告发某人( prosecute的现在分词 )； 对某人提起公诉； 继续从事（某事物）； 担任控方律师 | |
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19
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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blackmailer
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| 敲诈者，勒索者 | |
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21
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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ferociously
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| 野蛮地，残忍地 | |
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25
alibi
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| n.某人当时不在犯罪现场的申辩或证明；借口 | |
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26
bribed
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| v.贿赂( bribe的过去式和过去分词 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂 | |
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27
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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28
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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29
fluster
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| adj.慌乱，狼狈，混乱，激动 | |
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30
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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31
monogram
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| n.字母组合 | |
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32
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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