IOver the telephone, Craddock’s voice came in sharp disbelief.
“Alfred?” he said. “Alfred?”
Inspector1 Bacon, shifting the telephone receiver a little, said: “You didn’t expect that?”
“No, indeed. As a matter of fact, I’d just got him taped for the murderer!”
“I heard about him being spotted2 by the ticket collector. Looked bad for him all right. Yes, looked as though we’dgot our man.”
“Well,” said Craddock flatly, “we were wrong.”
There was a moment’s silence. Then Craddock asked:
“There was a nurse in charge. How did she come to slip up?”
“Can’t blame her. Miss Eyelesbarrow was all in and went to get a bit of sleep. The nurse had five patients on herhands, the old man, Emma, Cedric, Harold and Alfred. She couldn’t be everywhere at once. It seems old Mr.
Crackenthorpe started creating in a big way. Said he was dying. She went in, got him soothed3 down, came back againand took Alfred in some tea with glucose4. He drank it and that was that.”
“Arsenic5 again?”
“Seems so. Of course it could have been a relapse, but Quimper doesn’t think so and Johnstone agrees.”
“I suppose,” said Craddock, doubtfully, “that Alfred was meant to be the victim?”
Bacon sounded interested. “You mean that whereas Alfred’s death wouldn’t do anyone a penn’orth of good, the oldman’s death would benefit the lot of them? I suppose it might have been a mistake—somebody might have thought thetea was intended for the old man.”
“Are they sure that that’s the way the stuff was administered?”
“No, of course they aren’t sure. The nurse, like a good nurse, washed up the whole contraption. Cups, spoons,teapot—everything. But it seems the only feasible method.”
“Meaning,” said Craddock thoughtfully, “that one of the patients wasn’t as ill as the others? Saw his chance anddoped the cup?”
“Well, there won’t be anymore funny business,” said Inspector Bacon grimly. “We’ve got two nurses on the jobnow, to say nothing of Miss Eyelesbarrow, and I’ve got a couple of men there too. You coming down?”
“As fast as I can make it!”
II
Lucy Eyelesbarrow came across the hall to meet Inspector Craddock. She looked pale and drawn6.
“You’ve been having a bad time of it,” said Craddock.
“It’s been like one long ghastly nightmare,” said Lucy. “I really thought last night that they were all dying.”
“About this curry7—”
“It was the curry?”
“Yes, very nicely laced with arsenic—quite the Borgia touch.”
“If that’s true,” said Lucy. “It must—it’s got to be—one of the family.”
“No other possibility?”
“No, you see I only started making that damned curry quite late—after six o’clock—because Mr. Crackenthorpespecially asked for curry. And I had to open a new tin of curry powder—so that couldn’t have been tampered8 with. Isuppose curry would disguise the taste?”
“Arsenic hasn’t any taste,” said Craddock absently. “Now, opportunity. Which of them had the chance to tamperwith the curry while it was cooking?”
Lucy considered.
“Actually,” she said, “anyone could have sneaked9 into the kitchen whilst I was laying the table in the dining room.”
“I see. Now, who was here in the house? Old Mr. Crackenthorpe, Emma, Cedric—”
“Harold and Alfred. They’d come down from London in the afternoon. Oh, and Bryan—Bryan Eastley. But he leftjust before dinner. He had to meet a man in Brackhampton.”
Craddock said thoughtfully, “It ties up with the old man’s illness at Christmas. Quimper suspected that that wasarsenic. Did they all seem equally ill last night?”
Lucy considered. “I think old Mr. Crackenthorpe seemed the worst. Dr. Quimper had to work like a maniac10 onhim. He’s a jolly good doctor, I will say. Cedric made by far the most fuss. Of course, strong healthy people alwaysdo.”
“What about Emma?”
“She has been pretty bad.”
“Why Alfred, I wonder?” said Craddock.
“I know,” said Lucy. “I suppose it was meant to be Alfred?”
“Funny— I asked that too!”
“It seems, somehow, so pointless.”
“If I could only get at the motive11 for all this business,” said Craddock. “It doesn’t seem to tie up. The strangledwoman in the sarcophagus was Edmund Crackenthorpe’s widow, Martine. Let’s assume that. It’s pretty well provedby now. There must be a connection between that and the deliberate poisoning of Alfred. It’s all here, in the familysomewhere. Even saying one of them’s mad doesn’t help.”
“Not really,” Lucy agreed.
“Well, look after yourself,” said Craddock warningly. “There’s a poisoner in this house, remember, and one ofyour patients upstairs probably isn’t as ill as he pretends to be.”
Lucy went upstairs again slowly after Craddock’s departure. An imperious voice, somewhat weakened by illness,called to her as she passed old Mr. Crackenthorpe’s room.
“Girl—girl—is that you? Come here.”
Lucy entered the room. Mr. Crackenthorpe was lying in bed well propped12 up with pillows. For a sick man he waslooking Lucy thought, remarkably13 cheerful.
“The house is full of damned hospital nurses,” complained Mr. Crackenthorpe. “Rustling about, makingthemselves important, taking my temperature, not giving me what I want to eat—a pretty penny all that must becosting. Tell Emma to send ’em away. You could look after me quite well.”
“Everybody’s been taken ill, Mr. Crackenthorpe,” said Lucy. “I can’t look after everybody, you know.”
“Mushrooms,” said Mr. Crackenthorpe. “Damned dangerous things, mushrooms. It was that soup we had last night.
You made it,” he added accusingly.
“The mushrooms were quite all right, Mr. Crackenthorpe.”
“I’m not blaming you, girl, I’m not blaming you. It’s happened before. One blasted fungus14 slips in and does it.
Nobody can tell. I know you’re a good girl. You wouldn’t do it on purpose. How’s Emma?”
“Feeling rather better this afternoon.”
“Ah, and Harold?”
“He’s better too.”
“What’s this about Alfred having kicked the bucket?”
“Nobody’s supposed to have told you that, Mr. Crackenthorpe.”
Mr. Crackenthorpe laughed, a high, whinnying laugh of intense amusement. “I hear things,” he said. “Can’t keepthings from the old man. They try to. So Alfred’s dead, is he? He won’t sponge on me anymore, and he won’t get anyof the money either. They’ve all been waiting for me to die, you know—Alfred in particular. Now he’s dead. I call thatrather a good joke.”
“That’s not very kind of you, Mr. Crackenthorpe,” said Lucy severely15.
Mr. Crackenthorpe laughed again. “I’ll outlive them all,” he crowed. “You see if I don’t, my girl. You see if Idon’t.”
Lucy went to her room, she took out her dictionary and looked up the word “tontine.” She closed the bookthoughtfully and stared ahead of her.
III
“Don’t see why you want to come to me,” said Dr. Morris, irritably16.
“You’ve known the Crackenthorpe family a long time,” said Inspector Craddock.
“Yes, yes, I knew all the Crackenthorpes. I remember old Josiah Crackenthorpe. He was a hard nut—shrewd man,though. Made a lot of money,” he shifted his aged17 form in his chair and peered under bushy eyebrows18 at InspectorCraddock. “So you’ve been listening to that young fool, Quimper,” he said. “These zealous19 young doctors! Alwaysgetting ideas in their heads. Got it into his head that somebody was trying to poison Luther Crackenthorpe. Nonsense!
Melodrama20! Of course, he had gastric21 attacks. I treated him for them. Didn’t happen very often—nothing peculiarabout them.”
“Dr. Quimper,” said Craddock, “seemed to think there was.”
“Doesn’t do for a doctor to go thinking. After all, I should hope I could recognize arsenical poisoning when I sawit.”
“Quite a lot of well-known doctors haven’t noticed it,” Craddock pointed23 out. “There was”—he drew upon hismemory—“the Greenbarrow case, Mrs. Teney, Charles Leeds, three people in the Westbury family, all buried nicelyand tidily without the doctors who attended them having the least suspicion. Those doctors were all good, reputablemen.”
“All right, all right,” said Doctor Morris, “you’re saying that I could have made a mistake. Well, I don’t think Idid.” He paused a minute and then said, “Who did Quimper think was doing it—if it was being done?”
“He didn’t know,” said Craddock. “He was worried. After all, you know,” he added, “there’s a great deal of moneythere.”
“Yes, yes, I know, which they’ll get when Luther Crackenthorpe dies. And they want it pretty badly. That is trueenough, but it doesn’t follow that they’d kill the old man to get it.”
“Not necessarily,” agreed Inspector Craddock.
“Anyway,” said Dr. Morris, “my principle is not to go about suspecting things without due cause. Due cause,” herepeated. “I’ll admit that what you’ve just told me has shaken me up a bit. Arsenic on a big scale, apparently—but Istill don’t see why you come to me. All I can tell you is that I didn’t suspect it. Maybe I should have. Maybe I shouldhave taken those gastric attacks of Luther Crackenthorpe’s much more seriously. But you’ve got a long way beyondthat now.”
Craddock agreed. “What I really need,” he said, “is to know a little more about the Crackenthorpe family. Is thereany queer mental strain in them—a kink of any kind?”
The eyes under the bushy eyebrows looked at him sharply. “Yes, I can see your thoughts might run that way. Well,old Josiah was sane24 enough. Hard as nails, very much all there. His wife was neurotic25, had a tendency to melancholia.
Came of an inbred family. She died soon after her second son was born. I’d say, you know, that Luther inherited acertain—well, instability, from her. He was commonplace enough as a young man, but he was always at loggerheadswith his father. His father was disappointed in him and I think he resented that and brooded on it, and in the end got akind of obsession26 about it. He carried that on into his married life. You’ll notice, if you talk to him at all, that he’s gota hearty27 dislike for all his own sons. His daughters he was fond of. Both Emma and Edie—the one who died.”
“Why does he dislike the sons so much?” asked Craddock.
“You’ll have to go to one of these new-fashioned psychiatrists28 to find that out. I’d just say that Luther has neverfelt very adequate as a man himself, and that he bitterly resents his financial position. He has possession of an incomebut no power of appointment of capital. If he had the power to disinherit his sons he probably wouldn’t dislike them asmuch. Being powerless in that respect gives him a feeling of humiliation29.”
“That’s why he’s so pleased at the idea of outliving them all?” said Inspector Craddock.
“Possibly. It is the root, too, of his parsimony30, I think. I should say that he’s managed to save a considerable sumout of his large income—mostly, of course, before taxation31 rose to its present giddy heights.”
A new idea struck Inspector Craddock. “I suppose he’s left his savings32 by will to someone? That he can do.”
“Oh, yes, though God knows who he has left it to. Maybe to Emma, but I should rather doubt it. She’ll get hershare of the old man’s property. Maybe to Alexander, the grandson.”
“He’s fond of him, is he?” said Craddock.
“Used to be. Of course he was his daughter’s child, not a son’s child. That may have made a difference. And he hadquite an affection for Bryan Eastley, Edie’s husband. Of course I don’t know Bryan well, it’s some years since I’veseen any of the family. But it struck me that he was going to be very much at a loose end after the war. He’s got thosequalities that you need in wartime; courage, dash, and a tendency to let the future take care of itself. But I don’t thinkhe’s got any stability. He’ll probably turn into a drifter.”
“As far as you know there’s no peculiar22 kink in any of the younger generation?”
“Cedric’s an eccentric type, one of those natural rebels. I wouldn’t say he was perfectly33 normal, but you might say,who is? Harold’s fairly orthodox, not what I call a very pleasant character, coldhearted, eye to the main chance.
Alfred’s got a touch of the delinquent34 about him. He’s a wrong ’un, always was. Saw him taking money out of amissionary box once that they used to keep in the hall. That type of thing. Ah, well, the poor fellow’s dead, I suppose Ishouldn’t be talking against him.”
“What about…” Craddock hesitated. “Emma Crackenthorpe?”
“Nice girl, quiet, one doesn’t always know what she’s thinking. Has her own plans and her own ideas, but shekeeps them to herself. She’s more character than you might think from her general appearance.”
“You knew Edmund, I suppose, the son who was killed in France?”
“Yes. He was the best of the bunch I’d say. Goodhearted, gay, a nice boy.”
“Did you ever hear that he was going to marry, or had married, a French girl just before he was killed?”
Dr. Morris frowned. “It seems as though I remember something about it,” he said, “but it’s a long time ago.”
“Quite early on in the war, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. Ah, well, I dare say he’d have lived to regret it if he had married a foreign wife.”
“There’s some reason to believe that he did do just that,” said Craddock.
In a few brief sentences he gave an account of recent happenings.
“I remember seeing something in the papers about a woman found in a sarcophagus. So it was at Rutherford Hall.”
“And there’s reason to believe that the woman was Edmund Crackenthorpe’s widow.”
“Well, well, that seems extraordinary. More like a novel than real life. But who’d want to kill the poor thing—Imean, how does it tie up with arsenical poisoning in the Crackenthorpe family?”
“In one of two ways,” said Craddock; “but they are both very farfetched. Somebody perhaps is greedy and wantsthe whole of Josiah Crackenthorpe’s fortune.”
“Damn fool if he does,” said Dr. Morris. “He’ll only have to pay the most stupendous taxes on the income from it.”
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inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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glucose
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arsenic
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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curry
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| n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革 | |
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tampered
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| v.窜改( tamper的过去式 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
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sneaked
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| v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状 | |
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maniac
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| n.精神癫狂的人；疯子 | |
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motive
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propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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fungus
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| n.真菌，真菌类植物 | |
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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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irritably
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aged
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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melodrama
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| n.音乐剧；情节剧 | |
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gastric
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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pointed
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sane
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neurotic
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obsession
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| n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感) | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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psychiatrists
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| n.精神病专家，精神病医生( psychiatrist的名词复数 ) | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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parsimony
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| n.过度节俭，吝啬 | |
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taxation
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| n.征税，税收，税金 | |
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savings
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| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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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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delinquent
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