IM iss Marple, sitting erect1 against a background of china dogs and presents from Margate, smiled approvingly atInspector Dermot Craddock.
“I’m so glad,” she said, “that you have been assigned to the case. I hoped you would be.”
“When I got your letter,” said Craddock, “I took it straight to the A.C. As it happened he had just heard from theBrackhampton people calling us in. They seemed to think it wasn’t a local crime. The A.C. was very interested in whatI had to tell him about you. He’d heard about you, I gather, from my godfather.”
“Dear Sir Henry,” murmured Miss Marple affectionately.
“He got me to tell him all about the Little Paddocks business. Do you want to hear what he said next?”
“Please tell me if it is not a breach3 of confidence.”
“He said, ‘Well, as this seems a completely cockeyed business, all thought up by a couple of old ladies who’veturned out, against all probability, to be right, and since you already know one of these old ladies, I’m sending youdown on the case.’ So here I am! And now, my dear Miss Marple, where do we go from here? This is not, as youprobably appreciate, an official visit. I haven’t got my henchmen with me. I thought you and I might take down ourback hair together first.”
Miss Marple smiled at him.
“I’m sure,” she said, “that no one who only knows you officially would ever guess that you could be so human, andbetter-looking than ever—don’t blush… Now, what, exactly, have you been told so far?”
“I’ve got everything, I think. Your friend, Mrs. McGillicuddy’s original statement to the police at St. Mary Mead,confirmation4 of her statement by the ticket collector, and also the note to the stationmaster at Brackhampton. I may saythat all the proper inquiries5 were made by the people concerned—the railway people and the police. But there’s nodoubt that you outsmarted them all by a most fantastic process of guesswork.”
“Not guesswork,” said Miss Marple. “And I had a great advantage. I knew Elspeth McGillicuddy. Nobody else did.
There was no obvious confirmation of her story, and if there was no question of any woman being reported missing,then quite naturally they would think it was just an elderly lady imagining things—as elderly ladies often do—but notElspeth McGillicuddy.”
“Not Elspeth McGillicuddy,” agreed the inspector2. “I’m looking forward to meeting her, you know. I wish shehadn’t gone to Ceylon. We’re arranging for her to be interviewed there, by the way.”
“My own process of reasoning was not really original,” said Miss Marple. “It’s all in Mark Twain. The boy whofound the horse. He just imagined where he would go if he were a horse and he went there and there was the horse.”
“You imagined what you’d do if you were a cruel and cold- blooded murderer?” said Craddock lookingthoughtfully at Miss Marple’s pink and white elderly fragility. “Really, your mind—”
“Like a sink, my nephew Raymond used to say,” Miss Marple agreed, nodding her head briskly. “But as I alwaystold him, sinks are necessary domestic equipment and actually very hygienic.”
“Can you go a little further still, put yourself in the murderer’s place, and tell me just where he is now?”
Miss Marple sighed.
“I wish I could. I’ve no idea—no idea at all. But he must be someone who has lived in, or knows all about,Rutherford Hall.”
“I agree. But that opens up a very wide field. Quite a succession of daily women have worked there. There’s theWomen’s Institute—and the A.R.P. Wardens7 before them. They all know the Long Barn and the sarcophagus andwhere the key was kept. The whole setup there is widely known locally. Anybody living round about might hit on it asa good spot for his purpose.”
“Yes, indeed. I quite understand your difficulties.”
Craddock said: “We’ll never get anywhere until we identify the body.”
“And that, too, may be difficult?”
“Oh, we’ll get there—in the end. We’re checking up on all the reported disappearances8 of a woman of that age andappearance. There’s no one outstanding who fits the bill. The M.O. puts her down as about thirty-five, healthy,probably a married woman, has had at least one child. Her fur coat is a cheap one purchased at a London store.
Hundreds of such coats were sold in the last three months, about sixty per cent of them to blonde women. No sales girlcan recognize the photograph of the dead woman, or is likely to if the purchase were made just before Christmas. Herother clothes seem mainly of foreign manufacture mostly purchased in Paris. There are no English laundry marks.
We’ve communicated with Paris and they are checking up there for us. Sooner or later, of course, someone will comeforward with a missing relative or lodger9. It’s just a matter of time.”
“The compact wasn’t any help?”
“Unfortunately, no. It’s a type sold by the hundred in the Rue6 de Rivoli, quite cheap. By the way, you ought tohave turned that over to the police at once, you know—or rather Miss Eyelesbarrow should have done so.”
Miss Marple shook her head.
“But at that moment there wasn’t any question of a crime having been committed,” she pointed10 out. “If a younglady, practising golf shots, picks up an old compact of no particular value in the long grass, surely she doesn’t rushstraight off to the police with it?” Miss Marple paused, and then added firmly: “I thought it much wiser to find thebody first.”
Inspector Craddock was tickled11.
“You don’t seem ever to have had any doubts but that it would be found?”
“I was sure it would. Lucy Eyelesbarrow is a most efficient and intelligent person.”
“I’ll say she is! She scares the life out of me, she’s so devastatingly12 efficient! No man will ever dare marry thatgirl.”
“Now you know, I wouldn’t say that… It would have to be a special type of man, of course.” Miss Marple broodedon this thought a moment. “How is she getting on at Rutherford Hall?”
“They’re completely dependent on her as far as I can see. Eating out of her hand—literally as you might say. Bythe way, they know nothing about her connection with you. We’ve kept that dark.”
“She has no connection now with me. She has done what I asked her to do.”
“So she could hand in her notice and go if she wanted to?”
“Yes.”
“But she stops on. Why?”
“She has not mentioned her reasons to me. She is a very intelligent girl. I suspect that she has become interested.”
“In the problem? Or in the family?”
“It may be,” said Miss Marple, “that it is rather difficult to separate the two.”
Craddock looked hard at her.
“Oh, no—oh, dear me, no.”
“Have you got anything particular in mind?”
“I think you have.”
Miss Marple shook her head.
Dermot Craddock sighed. “So all I can do is to ‘prosecute my inquiries’—to put it in jargon13. A policeman’s life is adull one!”
“You’ll get results, I’m sure.”
“Any ideas for me? More inspired guesswork?”
“I was thinking of things like theatrical14 companies,” said Miss Marple rather vaguely15. “Touring from place to placeand perhaps not many home ties. One of those young women would be much less likely to be missed.”
“Yes. Perhaps you’ve got something there. We’ll pay special attention to that angle.” He added, “What are yousmiling about?”
“I was just thinking,” said Miss Marple, “of Elspeth McGillicuddy’s face when she hears we’ve found the body!”
II
“Well!” said Mrs. McGillicuddy. “Well!”
Words failed her. She looked across at the nicely spoken pleasant young man who had called upon her with officialcredentials and then down at the photograph that he handed her.
“That’s her all right,” she said. “Yes, that’s her. Poor soul. Well, I must say I’m glad you’ve found her body.
Nobody believed a word I said! The police, or the railway people or anyone else. It’s very galling16 not to be believed.
At any rate, nobody could say I didn’t do all I possibly could.”
The nice young man made sympathetic and appreciative17 noises.
“Where did you say the body was found?”
“In a barn at a house called Rutherford Hall, just outside Brackhampton.”
“Never heard of it. How did it get there, I wonder?”
The young man didn’t reply.
“Jane Marple found it, I suppose. Trust Jane.”
“The body,” said the young man, referring to some notes, “was found by a Miss Lucy Eyelesbarrow.”
“Never heard of her either,” said Mrs. McGillicuddy. “I still think Jane Marple had something to do with it.”
“Anyway, Mrs. McGillicuddy, you definitely identify this picture as that of the woman whom you saw in a train?”
“Being strangled by a man. Yes, I do.”
“Now, can you describe this man?”
“He was a tall man,” said Mrs. McGillicuddy.
“Yes?”
“And dark.”
“Yes?”
“That’s all I can tell you,” said Mrs. McGillicuddy. “He had his back to me. I didn’t see his face.”
“Would you be able to recognize him if you saw him?”
“Of course I shouldn’t! He had his back to me. I never saw his face.”
“You’ve no idea at all as to his age?”
Mrs. McGillicuddy considered.
“No—not really. I mean, I don’t know… He wasn’t, I’m almost sure—very young. His shoulders looked—well,set, if you know what I mean.” The young man nodded. “Thirty and upward, I can’t get closer than that. I wasn’treally looking at him, you see. It was her—with those hands round her throat and her face—all blue… You know,sometimes I dream of it even now….”
“It must have been a distressing18 experience,” said the young man sympathetically.
He closed his notebook and said:
“When are you returning to England?”
“Not for another three weeks. It isn’t necessary, is it, for me?”
He quickly reassured19 her.
“Oh, no. There’s nothing you could do at present. Of course, if we make an arrest—”
It was left like that.
The mail brought a letter from Miss Marple to her friend. The writing was spiky20 and spidery and heavilyunderlined. Long practice made it easy for Mrs. McGillicuddy to decipher. Miss Marple wrote a very full account toher friend who devoured21 every word with great satisfaction.
She and Jane had shown them all right!
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收听单词发音
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1
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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3
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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4
confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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5
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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7
wardens
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| n.看守人( warden的名词复数 )；管理员；监察员；监察官 | |
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disappearances
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| n.消失( disappearance的名词复数 )；丢失；失踪；失踪案 | |
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9
lodger
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| n.寄宿人，房客 | |
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10
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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11
tickled
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| （使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐 | |
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12
devastatingly
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| adv. 破坏性地，毁灭性地，极其 | |
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13
jargon
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| n.术语，行话 | |
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14
theatrical
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| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
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15
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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16
galling
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| adj.难堪的,使烦恼的,使焦躁的 | |
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17
appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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18
distressing
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| a.使人痛苦的 | |
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19
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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20
spiky
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| adj.长而尖的，大钉似的 | |
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21
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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