R ECONSTRUCTION OF THE C RIME1
I“I ’ll put a lamp by you before I go,” said Bunch. “It’s so dark in here. There’s going to be a storm, I think.”
She lifted the small reading lamp to the other side of the table where it would throw light on Miss Marple’s knittingas she sat in a wide highbacked chair.
As the flex2 pulled across the table, Tiglath Pileser the cat leapt upon it and bit and clawed it violently.
“No, Tiglath Pileser, you mustn’t … He really is awful. Look, he’s nearly bitten it through—it’s all frayed3. Don’tyou understand, you idiotic4 puss, that you may get a nasty electric shock if you do that?”
“Thank you, dear,” said Miss Marple, and put out a hand to turn on the lamp.
“It doesn’t turn on there. You have to press that silly little switch halfway5 along the flex. Wait a minute. I’ll takethese flowers out of the way.”
She lifted a bowl of Christmas roses across the table. Tiglath Pileser, his tail switching, put out a mischievous6 pawand clawed Bunch’s arm. She spilled some of the water out of the vase. It fell on the frayed area of flex and on TiglathPileser himself, who leapt to the floor with an indignant hiss7.
Miss Marple pressed the small pear-shaped switch. Where the water had soaked the frayed flex there was a flashand a crackle.
“Oh, dear,” said Bunch. “It’s fused. Now I suppose all the lights in here are off.” She tried them. “Yes, they are. Sostupid being all on the same thingummibob. And it’s made a burn on the table, too. Naughty Tiglath Pileser—it’s allhis fault. Aunt Jane—what’s the matter? Did it startle you?”
“It’s nothing, dear. Just something I saw quite suddenly which I ought to have seen before….”
“I’ll go and fix the fuse and get the lamp from Julian’s study.”
“No, dear, don’t bother. You’ll miss your bus. I don’t want any more light. I just want to sit quietly and—thinkabout something. Hurry dear, or you won’t catch your bus.”
When Bunch had gone, Miss Marple sat quite still for about two minutes. The air of the room was heavy andmenacing with the gathering8 storm outside.
Miss Marple drew a sheet of paper towards her.
She wrote first: Lamp? and underlined it heavily.
After a moment or two, she wrote another word.
Her pencil travelled down the paper, making brief cryptic9 notes….
II
In the rather dark living room of Boulders10 with its low ceiling and latticed window panes11, Miss Hinchcliffe and MissMurgatroyd were having an argument.
“The trouble with you, Murgatroyd,” said Miss Hinchcliffe, “is that you won’t try.”
“But I tell you, Hinch, I can’t remember a thing.”
“Now look here, Amy Murgatroyd, we’re going to do some constructive12 thinking. So far we haven’t shone on thedetective angle. I was quite wrong over that door business. You didn’t hold the door open for the murderer after all.
You’re cleared, Murgatroyd!”
Miss Murgatroyd gave a rather watery13 smile.
“It’s just our luck to have the only silent cleaning woman in Chipping Cleghorn,” continued Miss Hinchcliffe.
“Usually I’m thankful for it, but this time it means we’ve got off to a bad start. Everybody else in the place knowsabout that second door in the drawing room being used—and we only heard about it yesterday—”
“I still don’t quite understand how—”
“It’s perfectly14 simple. Our original premises15 were quite right. You can’t hold open a door, wave a torch and shootwith a revolver all at the same time. We kept in the revolver and the torch and cut out the door. Well, we were wrong.
It was the revolver we ought to have cut out.”
“But he did have a revolver,” said Miss Murgatroyd. “I saw it. It was there on the floor beside him.”
“When he was dead, yes. It’s all quite clear. He didn’t fire that revolver—”
“Then who did?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out. But whoever did it, the same person put a couple of poisoned aspirin16 tabletsby Letty Blacklock’s bed—and thereby17 bumped off poor Dora Bunner. And that couldn’t have been Rudi Scherz,because he’s as dead as a doornail. It was someone who was in the room that night of the hold-up and probablysomeone who was at the birthday party, too. And the only person that lets out is Mrs. Harmon.”
“You think someone put those aspirins there the day of the birthday party?”
“Why not?”
“But how could they?”
“Well, we all went to the loo, didn’t we?” said Miss Hinchcliffe coarsely. “And I washed my hands in the bathroombecause of that sticky cake. And little Sweetie Easterbrook powdered her grubby little face in Blacklock’s bedroom,didn’t she?”
“Hinch! Do you think she—?”
“I don’t know yet. Rather obvious, if she did. I don’t think if you were going to plant some tablets, that you’d wantto be seen in the bedroom at all. Oh, yes, there were plenty of opportunities.”
“The men didn’t go upstairs.”
“There are back stairs. After all, if a man leaves the room, you don’t follow him to see if he really is going whereyou think he is going. It wouldn’t be delicate! Anyway, don’t argue, Murgatroyd. I want to get back to the originalattempt on Letty Blacklock. Now, to begin with, get the facts firmly into your head, because it’s all going to dependupon you.”
Miss Murgatroyd looked alarmed.
“Oh, dear, Hinch, you know what a muddle18 I get into!”
“It’s not a question of your brains, or the grey fluff that passes for brains with you. It’s a question of eyes. It’s aquestion of what you saw.”
“But I didn’t see anything.”
“The trouble with you is, Murgatroyd, as I said just now, that you won’t try. Now pay attention. This is whathappened. Whoever it is that’s got it in for Letty Blacklock was there in that room that evening. He (I say he becauseit’s easier, but there’s no reason why it should be a man more than a woman except, of course, that men are dirtydogs), well, he has previously19 oiled that second door that leads out of the drawing room and which is supposed to benailed up or something. Don’t ask me when he did it, because that confuses things. Actually, by choosing my time, Icould walk into any house in Chipping Cleghorn and do anything I liked there for half an hour or so with no one beingthe wiser. It’s just a question of working out where the daily women are and when the occupiers are out and exactlywhere they’ve gone and how long they’ll be. Just good staff work. Now, to continue. He’s oiled that second door. Itwill open without a sound. Here’s the setup: Lights go out, door A (the regular door) opens with a flourish. Businesswith torch and hold-up lines. In the meantime, while we’re all goggling20, X (that’s the best term to use) slips quietly outby door B into the dark hall, comes up behind that Swiss idiot, takes a couple of shots at Letty Blacklock and thenshoots the Swiss. Drops the revolver, where lazy thinkers like you will assume it’s evidence that the Swiss did theshooting, and nips back into the room again by the time that someone gets a lighter21 going. Got it?”
“Yes—ye-es, but who was it?”
“Well, if you don’t know, Murgatroyd, nobody does!”
“Me?” Miss Murgatroyd fairly twittered in alarm. “But I don’t know anything at all. I don’t really, Hinch!”
“Use that fluff of yours you call a brain. To begin with, where was everybody when the lights went out?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do. You’re maddening, Murgatroyd. You know where you were, don’t you? You were behind the door.”
“Yes—yes, I was. It knocked against my corn when it flew open.”
“Why don’t you go to a proper chiropodist instead of messing about yourself with your feet?. You’ll give yourselfblood poisoning one of these days. Come on, now—you’re behind the door. I’m standing22 against the mantelpiece withmy tongue hanging out for a drink. Letty Blacklock is by the table near the archway, getting the cigarettes. PatrickSimmons has gone through the archway into the small room where Letty Blacklock has had the drinks put. Agreed?”
“Yes, yes, I remember all that.”
“Good, now somebody else followed Patrick into that room or was just starting to follow him. One of the men. Theannoying thing is that I can’t remember whether it was Easterbrook or Edmund Swettenham. Do you remember?”
“No, I don’t.”
“You wouldn’t! And there was someone else who went through to the small room: Phillipa Haymes. I rememberthat distinctly because I remember noticing what a nice flat back she has, and I thought to myself ‘that girl would lookwell on a horse.’ I was watching her and thinking just that. She went over to the mantelpiece in the other room. I don’tknow what it was she wanted there, because at that moment the lights went out.
“So that’s the position. In the drawing room are Patrick Simmons, Phillipa Haymes, and either ColonelEasterbrook or Edmund Swettenham—we don’t know which. Now, Murgatroyd, pay attention. The most probablething is that it was one of those three who did it. If anyone wanted to get out of that far door, they’d naturally take careto put themselves in a convenient place when the lights went out. So, as I say, in all probability, it’s one of those three.
And in that case, Murgatroyd, there’s not a thing you can do about it!”
Miss Murgatroyd brightened perceptibly.
“On the other hand,” continued Miss Hinchcliffe, “there’s the possibility that it wasn’t one of those three. Andthat’s where you come in, Murgatroyd.”
“But how should I know anything about it?”
“As I said before if you don’t nobody does.”
“But I don’t! I really don’t! I couldn’t see anything at all!”
“Oh, yes, you could. You’re the only person who could see. You were standing behind the door. You couldn’t lookat the torch—because the door was between you and it. You were facing the other way, the same way as the torch waspointing. The rest of us were just dazzled. But you weren’t dazzled.”
“No—no, perhaps not, but I didn’t see anything, the torch went round and round—”
“Showing you what? It rested on faces, didn’t it? And on tables? And on chairs?”
“Yes—yes, it did … Miss Bunner, her mouth wide open and her eyes popping out of her head, staring andblinking.”
“That’s the stuff!” Miss Hinchcliffe gave a sigh of relief. “The difficulty there is in making you use that grey fluff ofyours! Now then, keep it up.”
“But I didn’t see any more, I didn’t, really.”
“You mean you saw an empty room? Nobody standing about? Nobody sitting down?”
“No, of course not that. Miss Bunner with her mouth open and Mrs. Harmon was sitting on the arm of a chair. Shehad her eyes tight shut and her knuckles23 all doubled up to her face—like a child.”
“Good, that’s Mrs. Harmon and Miss Bunner. Don’t you see yet what I’m getting at? The difficulty is that I don’twant to put ideas into your head. But when we’ve eliminated who you did see—we can get on to the important pointwhich is, was there anyone you didn’t see. Got it? Besides the tables and the chairs and the chrysanthemums24 and therest of it, there were certain people: Julia Simmons, Mrs. Swettenham, Mrs. Easterbrook—either Colonel Easterbrookor Edmund Swettenham—Dora Bunner and Bunch Harmon. All right, you saw Bunch Harmon and Dora Bunner.
Cross them off. Now think, Murgatroyd, think, was there one of those people who definitely wasn’t there?”
Miss Murgatroyd jumped slightly as a branch knocked against the open window. She shut her eyes. She murmuredto herself….
“The flowers … on the table … the big armchair … the torch didn’t come round as far as you, Hinch—Mrs.
Harmon, yes….”
The telephone rang sharply. Miss Hinchcliffe went to it.
“Hallo, yes? The station?”
The obedient Miss Murgatroyd, her eyes closed, was reliving the night of the 29th. The torch, sweeping25 slowlyround … a group of people … the windows … the sofa … Dora Bunner … the wall … the table with lamp … thearchway … the sudden spat26 of the revolver….
“… but that’s extraordinary!” said Miss Murgatroyd.
“What?” Miss Hinchcliffe was barking angrily into the telephone. “Been there since this morning? What time?
Damn and blast you, and you only ring me up now? I’ll set the S.P.C.A. after you. An oversight27? Is that all you’ve gotto say?”
She banged down the receiver.
“It’s that dog,” she said. “The red setter. Been at the station since this morning—since this morning at eighto’clock. Without a drop of water! And the idiots only ring me up now. I’m going to get her right away.”
She plunged28 out of the room, Miss Murgatroyd squeaking29 shrilly30 in her wake.
“But listen, Hinch, a most extraordinary thing … I don’t understand it….”
Miss Hinchcliffe had dashed out of the door and across to the shed which served as a garage.
“We’ll go on with it when I come back,” she called. “I can’t wait for you to come with me. You’ve got yourbedroom slippers31 on as usual.”
She pressed the starter of the car and backed out of the garage with a jerk. Miss Murgatroyd skipped nimblysideways.
“But listen, Hinch, I must tell you—”
“When I come back….”
The car jerked and shot forwards. Miss Murgatroyd’s voice came faintly after it on a high excited note.
“But, Hinch, she wasn’t there. …”
III
Overhead the clouds had been gathering thick and blue. As Miss Murgatroyd stood looking after the retreating car, thefirst big drops began to fall.
In an agitated32 fashion, Miss Murgatroyd plunged across to a line of string on which she had, some hourspreviously, hung out a couple of jumpers and a pair of woollen combinations to dry.
She was murmuring under her breath:
“Really most extraordinary … Oh, dear, I shall never get these down in time—and they were nearly dry….”
She struggled with a recalcitrant33 clothes peg34, then turned her head as she heard someone approaching.
Then she smiled a pleased welcome.
“Hallo—do go inside, you’ll get wet.”
“Let me help you.”
“Oh, if you don’t mind … so annoying if they all get soaked again. I really ought to let down the line, but I think Ican just reach.”
“Here’s your scarf. Shall I put it round your neck?”
“Oh, thank you … Yes, perhaps … If I could just reach this peg….”
The woollen scarf was slipped round her neck and then, suddenly, pulled tight….
Miss Murgatroyd’s mouth opened, but no sound came except a small choking gurgle.
And the scarf was pulled tighter still….
IV
On her way back from the station, Miss Hinchcliffe stopped the car to pick up Miss Marple who was hurrying alongthe street.
“Hallo,” she shouted. “You’ll get very wet. Come and have tea with us. I saw Bunch waiting for the bus. You’ll beall alone at the Vicarage. Come and join us. Murgatroyd and I are doing a bit of reconstruction35 of the crime. I ratherthink we’re just getting somewhere. Mind the dog. She’s rather nervous.”
“What a beauty!”
“Yes, lovely bitch, isn’t she! Those fools kept her at the station since this morning without letting me know. I toldthem off, the lazy b—s. Oh, excuse my language. I was brought up by grooms36 at home in Ireland.”
The little car turned with a jerk into the small backyard of Boulders.
A crowd of eager ducks and fowls37 encircled the two ladies as they descended38.
“Curse Murgatroyd,” said Miss Hinchcliffe, “she hasn’t given ’em their corn.”
“Is it difficult to get corn?” Miss Marple inquired.
Miss Hincliffe winked39.
“I’m in with most of the farmers,” she said.
Shooing away the hens, she escorted Miss Marple towards the cottage.
“Hope you’re not too wet?”
“No, this is a very good mackintosh.”
“I’ll light the fire if Murgatroyd hasn’t lit it. Hiyah, Murgatroyd? Where is the woman? Murgatroyd! Where’s thatdog? She’s disappeared now.”
A slow dismal40 howl came from outside.
“Curse the silly bitch.” Miss Hinchcliffe tramped to the door and called:
“Hyoup, Cutie—Cutie. Damn” silly name but that’s what they called her apparently41. We must find her anothername. Hiyah, Cutie.”
The red setter was sniffing42 at something lying below the taut43 string where a row of garments swirled44 in the wind.
“Murgatroyd’s not even had the sense to bring the washing in. Where is she?”
Again the red setter nosed at what seemed to be a pile of clothes, and raised her nose high in the air and howledagain.
“What’s the matter with the dog?”
Miss Hinchcliffe strode across the grass.
And quickly, apprehensively45, Miss Marple ran after her. They stood there, side by side, the rain beating down onthem, and the older woman’s arm went round the younger one’s shoulders.
She felt the muscles go stiff and taut as Miss Hinchcliffe stood looking down on the thing lying there, with the bluecongested face and the protruding46 tongue.
“I’ll kill whoever did this,” said Miss Hinchcliffe in a low quiet voice, “if I once get my hands on her….”
Miss Marple said questioningly:
“Her?”
Miss Hinchcliffe turned a ravaged47 face towards her.
“Yes. I know who it is—near enough … That is, it’s one of three possibles.”
She stood for another moment, looking down at her dead friend, and then turned towards the house. Her voice wasdry and hard.
“We must ring up the police,” she said. “And while we’re waiting for them, I’ll tell you. My fault, in a way, thatMurgatroyd’s lying out there. I made a game of it … Murder isn’t a game….”
“No,” said Miss Marple. “Murder isn’t a game.”
“You know something about it, don’t you?” said Miss Hinchcliffe as she lifted the receiver and dialled.
She made a brief report and hung up.
“They’ll be here in a few minutes … Yes, I heard that you’d been mixed up in this sort of business before … Ithink it was Edmund Swettenham told me so … Do you want to hear what we were doing, Murgatroyd and I?”
Succinctly48 she described the conversation held before her departure for the station.
“She called after me, you know, just as I was leaving … That’s how I know it’s a woman and not a man … If I’dwaited—if only I’d listened! God dammit, the dog could have stopped where she was for another quarter of an hour.”
“Don’t blame yourself, my dear. That does no good. One can’t foresee.”
“No, one can’t … Something tapped against the window, I remember. Perhaps she was outside there, then—yes, ofcourse, she must have been … coming to the house … and there were Murgatroyd and I shouting at each other. Top ofour voices … She heard … She heard it all….”
“You haven’t told me yet what your friend said.”
“Just one sentence! ‘She wasn’t there.’”
She paused. “You see? There were three women we hadn’t eliminated. Mrs. Swettenham, Mrs. Easterbrook, JuliaSimmons. And one of those three—wasn’t there … She wasn’t there in the drawing room because she had slipped outthrough the other door and was out in the hall.”
“Yes,” said Miss Marple, “I see.”
“It’s one of those three women. I don’t know which. But I’ll find out!”
“Excuse me,” said Miss Marple. “But did she—did Miss Murgatroyd, I mean, say it exactly as you said it?”
“How d’you mean—as I said it?”
“Oh, dear, how can I explain? You said it like this. She-wasn’t-there. An equal emphasis on every word. You see,there are three ways you could say it. You could say, ‘She wasn’t there.’ Very personal. Or again, ‘She wasn’t there.’
Confirming, some suspicion already held. Or else you could say (and this is nearer to the way you said it just now),‘She wasn’t there…’ quite blankly—with the emphasis, if there was emphasis—on the ‘there.’”
“I don’t know.” Miss Hinchcliffe shook her head. “I can’t remember … How the hell can I remember? I think, yes,surely she’d say “She wasn’t there.’ That would be the natural way, I should think. But I simply don’t know. Does itmake any difference?”
“Yes,” said Miss Marple, thoughtfully. “I think so. It’s a very slight indication, of course, but I think it is anindication. Yes, I should think it makes a lot of difference….”
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rime
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| n.白霜；v.使蒙霜 | |
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flex
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| n.皮线，花线；vt.弯曲或伸展 | |
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frayed
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| adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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idiotic
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| adj.白痴的 | |
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halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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cryptic
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| adj.秘密的，神秘的，含义模糊的 | |
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boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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panes
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| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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constructive
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| adj.建设的，建设性的 | |
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watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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aspirin
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| n.阿司匹林 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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muddle
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| n.困惑，混浊状态；vt.使混乱，使糊涂，使惊呆；vi.胡乱应付，混乱 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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goggling
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| v.睁大眼睛瞪视， （惊讶的）转动眼珠( goggle的现在分词 ) | |
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lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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chrysanthemums
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| n.菊花( chrysanthemum的名词复数 ) | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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oversight
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| n.勘漏，失察，疏忽 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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squeaking
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| v.短促地尖叫( squeak的现在分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者 | |
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shrilly
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| 尖声的； 光亮的，耀眼的 | |
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slippers
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agitated
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recalcitrant
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peg
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reconstruction
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grooms
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| n.新郎( groom的名词复数 )；马夫v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的第三人称单数 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗 | |
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fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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descended
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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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40
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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41
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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42
sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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43
taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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44
swirled
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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apprehensively
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| adv.担心地 | |
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46
protruding
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
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47
ravaged
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| 毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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succinctly
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| adv.简洁地；简洁地，简便地 | |
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