II t was a tired and depressed1 Inspector2 Craddock who came to see Miss Marple the following day.
“Sit down and be comfortable,” she said. “I can see you’ve had a very hard time.”
“I don’t like to be defeated,” said Inspector Craddock. “Two murders within twenty-four hours. Ah well, I’mpoorer at my job than I thought I was. Give me a nice cup of tea, Aunt Jane, with some thin bread and butter andsoothe me with your earliest remembrances of St. Mary Mead3.”
Miss Marple clicked with her tongue in a sympathetic manner.
“Now it’s no good talking like that, my dear boy, and I don’t think bread and butter is at all what you want.
Gentlemen, when they’ve had a disappointment, want something stronger than tea.”
As usual, Miss Marple said the word “gentlemen” in the way of someone describing a foreign species.
“I should advise a good stiff whisky and soda4,” she said.
“Would you really, Aunt Jane? Well, I won’t say no.”
“And I shall get it for you myself,” said Miss Marple, rising to her feet.
“Oh, no, don’t do that. Let me. Or what about Miss What’s-her-name?”
“We don’t want Miss Knight5 fussing about in here,” said Miss Marple. “She won’t be bringing my tea for anothertwenty minutes so that gives us a little peace and quiet. Clever of you to come to the window and not through the frontdoor. Now we can have a nice quiet little time by ourselves.”
She went to a corner cupboard, opened it and produced a bottle, a syphon of soda and a glass.
“You are full of surprises,” said Dermot Craddock. “I’d no idea that’s what you kept in your corner cupboard. Areyou quite sure you’re not a secret drinker, Aunt Jane?”
“Now, now,” Miss Marple admonished6 him. “I have never been an advocate of teetotalism. A little strong drink isalways advisable on the premises7 in case there is a shock or an accident. Invaluable8 at such times. Or, of course, if agentleman should arrive suddenly. There!” said Miss Marple, handing him her remedy with an air of quiet triumph.
“And you don’t need to joke anymore. Just sit quietly there and relax.”
“Wonderful wives there must have been in your young days,” said Dermot Craddock.
“I’m sure, my dear boy, you would find the young lady of the type you refer to as a very inadequate9 helpmeetnowadays. Young ladies were not encouraged to be intellectual and very few of them had university degrees or anykind of academic distinction.”
“There are things that are preferable to academic distinctions,” said Dermot. “One of them is knowing when a manwants whisky and soda and giving it to him.”
Miss Marple smiled at him affectionately.
“Come,” she said, “tell me all about it. Or as much as you are allowed to tell me.”
“I think you probably know as much as I do. And very likely you have something up your sleeve. How about yourdogsbody, your dear Miss Knight? What about her having committed the crime?”
“Now why should Miss Knight have done such a thing?” demanded Miss Marple, surprised.
“Because she’s the most unlikely person,” said Dermot. “It so often seems to hold good when you produce youranswer.”
“Not at all,” said Miss Marple with spirit. “I have said over and over again, not only to you, my dear Dermot—if Imay call you so—that it is always the obvious person who has done the crime. One thinks so often of the wife or thehusband and so very often it is the wife or the husband.”
“Meaning Jason Rudd?” He shook his head. “That man adores Marina Gregg.”
“I was speaking generally,” said Miss Marple, with dignity. “First we had Mrs. Badcock apparently10 murdered. Oneasked oneself who could have done such a thing and the first answer would naturally be the husband. So one had toexamine that possibility. Then we decided11 that the real object of the crime was Marina Gregg and there again we haveto look for the person most intimately connected with Marina Gregg, starting as I say with the husband. Because thereis no doubt about it that husbands do, very frequently, want to make away with their wives, though sometimes, ofcourse, they only wish to make away with their wives and do not actually do so. But I agree with you, my dear boy,that Jason Rudd really cares with all his heart for Marina Gregg. It might be very clever acting12, though I can hardlybelieve that. And one certainly cannot see a motive13 of any kind for his doing away with her. If he wanted to marrysomebody else there could, I should say, be nothing more simple. Divorce, if I may say so, seems second nature tofilm stars. A practical advantage does not seem to arise either. He is not a poor man by any means. He has his owncareer, and is, I understand, most successful in it. So we must go farther afield. But it certainly is difficult. Yes, verydifficult.”
“Yes,” said Craddock, “it must hold particular difficulties for you because of course this film world is entirely14 newto you. You don’t know the local scandals and all the rest of it.”
“I know a little more than you may think,” said Miss Marple. “I have studied very closely various numbers ofConfidential, Film Life, Film Talk and Film Topics.”
Dermot Craddock laughed. He couldn’t help it.
“I must say,” he said, “it tickles15 me to see you sitting there and telling me what your course of literature has been.”
“I found it very interesting,” said Miss Marple. “They’re not particularly well written, if I may say so. But it reallyis disappointing in a way that it is all so much the same as it used to be in my young days. Modern Society and Tit Bitsand all the rest of them. A lot of gossip. A lot of scandal. A great preoccupation with who is in love with whom, andall the rest of it. Really, you know, practically exactly the same sort of thing goes on in St. Mary Mead. And in theDevelopment too. Human nature, I mean, is just the same everywhere. One comes back, I think, to the question of whocould have been likely to want to kill Marina Gregg, to want to so much that having failed once they sent threateningletters and made repeated attempts to do so. Someone perhaps a little—” very gently she tapped her forehead.
“Yes,” said Craddock, “that certainly seems indicated. And of course it doesn’t always show.”
“Oh, I know,” agreed Miss Marple, fervently16. “Old Mrs. Pike’s second boy, Alfred, seemed perfectly17 rational andnormal. Almost painfully prosaic18, if you know what I mean, but actually, it seems, he had the most abnormalpsychology, or so I understand. Really positively19 dangerous. He seems quite happy and contented20, so Mrs. Pike toldme, now that he is in Fairways Mental Home. They understand him there, and the doctors think him a most interestingcase. That of course pleases him very much. Yes, it all ended quite happily, but she had one or two very near escapes.”
Craddock revolved21 in his mind the possibility of a parallel between someone in Marina Gregg’s entourage andMrs. Pike’s second son.
“The Italian butler,” continued Miss Marple, “the one who was killed. He went to London, I understand, on the dayof his death. Does anyone know what he did there—if you are allowed to tell me, that is,” she added conscientiously22.
“He arrived in London at eleven-thirty in the morning,” said Craddock, “and what he did in London nobody knowsuntil a quarter to two he visited his bank and made a deposit of five hundred pounds in cash. I may say that there wasno confirmation23 of his story that he went to London to visit an ill relative or a relative who had got into trouble. Noneof his relatives there had seen him.”
Miss Marple nodded her head appreciatively.
“Five hundred pounds,” she said. “Yes, that’s quite an interesting sum, isn’t it? I should imagine it would be thefirst instalment of a good many other sums, wouldn’t you?”
“It looks that way,” said Craddock.
“It was probably all the ready money the person he was threatening could raise. He may even have pretended to besatisfied with that or he may have accepted it as a down payment and the victim may have promised to raise furthersums in the immediate24 future. It seems to knock out the idea that Marina Gregg’s killer25 could have been someone inhumble circumstances who had a private vendetta26 against her. It would also knock out, I should say, the idea ofsomeone who’d obtained work as a studio helper or attendant or a servant or a gardener. Unless”—Miss Marplepointed out—“such a person may have been the active agent whereas the employing agent may not have been in theneighbourhood. Hence the visit to London.”
“Exactly. We have in London Ardwyck Fenn, Lola Brewster and Margot Bence. All three were present at theparty. All three of them could have met Giuseppe at an arranged meeting place somewhere in London between thehours of eleven and a quarter to two. Ardwyck Fenn was out of his office during those hours. Lola Brewster had lefther suite27 to go shopping. Margot Bence was not in her studio. By the way—”
“Yes?” said Miss Marple. “Have you something to tell me?”
“You asked me,” said Dermot, “about the children. The children that Marina Gregg adopted before she knew shecould have a child of her own.”
“Yes I did.”
Craddock told her what he had learned.
“Margot Bence,” said Miss Marple softly. “I had a feeling, you know, that it had something to do with children….”
“I can’t believe that after all these years—”
“I know, I know. One never can. But do you really, my dear Dermot, know very much about children? Think backto your own childhood. Can’t you remember some incident, some happening that caused you grief, or a passion quiteincommensurate with its real importance? Some sorrow or passionate28 resentment29 that has really never been equalledsince? There was such a book, you know, written by that brilliant writer. Mr. Richard Hughes. I forget the name of itbut it was about some children who had been through a hurricane. Oh yes—the hurricane in Jamaica. What made avivid impression on them was their cat rushing madly through the house. It was the only thing they remembered. Butthe whole of the horror and excitement and fear that they had experienced was bound up in that one incident.”
“It’s odd you should say that,” said Craddock thoughtfully.
“Why, has it made you remember something?”
“I was thinking of when my mother died. I was five I think. Five or six. I was having dinner in the nursery, jam rollpudding. I was very fond of jam roll pudding. One of the servants came in and said to my nursery governess, ‘Isn’t itawful? There’s been an accident and Mrs. Craddock has been killed.’… Whenever I think of my mother’s death,d’you know what I see?”
“What?”
“A plate with jam roll pudding on it, and I’m staring at it. Staring at it and I can see as well now as then, how thejam oozed30 out of it at one side. I didn’t cry or say anything. I remember just sitting there as though I’d been frozenstiff, staring at the pudding. And d’you know, even now if I see in a shop or a restaurant or in anyone’s house a portionof jam roll pudding, a whole wave of horror and misery31 and despair comes over me. Sometimes for a moment I don’tremember why. Does that seem very crazy to you?”
“No,” said Miss Marple, “it seems entirely natural. It’s very interesting, that. It’s given me a sort of idea….”
II
The door opened and Miss Knight appeared bearing the tea tray.
“Dear, dear,” she exclaimed, “and so we’ve got a visitor, have we? How very nice. How do you do, InspectorCraddock. I’ll just fetch another cup.”
“Don’t bother,” Dermot called after her. “I’ve had a drink instead.”
Miss Knight popped her head back round the door.
“I wonder—could you just come here a minute, Mr. Craddock?”
Dermot joined her in the hall. She went to the dining room and shut the door.
“You will be careful, won’t you?” she said.
“Careful? In what way, Miss Knight?”
“Our old dear in there. You know, she’s so interested in everything but it’s not very good for her to get excitedover murders and nasty things like that. We don’t want her to brood and have bad dreams. She’s very old and frail,and she really must lead a very sheltered life. She always has, you know. I’m sure all this talk of murders andgangsters and things like that is very, very bad for her.”
Dermot looked at her with faint amusement.
“I don’t think,” he said gently, “that anything that you or I could say about murders is likely unduly32 to excite orshock Miss Marple. I can assure you, my dear Miss Knight, that Miss Marple can contemplate33 murder and suddendeath and indeed crime of all kinds with the utmost equanimity34.”
He went back to the drawing room, and Miss Knight, clucking a little in an indignant manner, followed him. Shetalked briskly during tea with an emphasis on political news in the paper and the most cheerful subjects she couldthink of. When she finally removed the tea tray and shut the door behind her, Miss Marple drew a deep breath.
“At last we’ve got some peace,” she said. “I hope I shan’t murder that woman some day. Now listen, Dermot, thereare some things I want to know.”
“Yes? What are they?”
“I want to go over very carefully what happened on the day of the fête. Mrs. Bantry has arrived, and the vicarshortly after her. Then come Mr. and Mrs. Badcock, and on the stairs at that time were the mayor and his wife, thisman Ardwyck Fenn, Lola Brewster, a reporter from the Herald35 & Argus of Much Benham, and this photographer girl,Margot Bence. Margot Bence, you said, had her camera at an angle on the stairs, and was taking photographs of theproceedings. Have you seen any of those photographs?”
“Actually I brought one to show you.”
He took from his pocket an unmounted print. Miss Marple looked at it steadfastly36. Marina Gregg with Jason Rudda little behind her to one side, Arthur Badcock, his hand to his face, looking slightly embarrassed, was standing37 back,whilst his wife had Marina Gregg’s hand in hers and was looking up at her and talking. Marina was not looking atMrs. Badcock. She was staring over her head looking, it seemed, full into the camera, or possibly just slightly to theleft of it.
“Very interesting,” said Miss Marple. “I’ve had descriptions, you know, of what this look was on her face. A frozenlook. Yes, that describes it quite well. A look of doom38. I’m not really so sure about that. It’s more a kind of paralysisof feeling rather than apprehension39 of doom. Don’t you think so? I wouldn’t say it was actually fear, would you,although fear of course might take you that way. It might paralyse you. But I don’t think it was fear. I think rather thatit was shock. Dermot, my dear boy, I want you to tell me, if you’ve got notes of it, what exactly Heather Badcock saidto Marina Gregg on that occasion. I know roughly the gist40 of it, of course, but how near can you get to the actualwords. I suppose you had accounts of it from different people.”
Dermot nodded.
“Yes. Let me see. Your friend, Mrs. Bantry, then Jason Rudd and I think Arthur Badcock. As you say they varied41 alittle in wording, but the gist of them was the same.”
“I know. It’s the variations that I want. I think it might help us.”
“I don’t see how,” said Dermot, “though perhaps you do. Your friend, Mrs. Bantry, was probably the most definiteon the point. As far as I remember—wait—I carry a good many of my jottings around with me.”
He took out a small notebook from his pocket, looked through it to refresh his memory.
“I haven’t got the exact words here,” he said, “but I made a rough note. Apparently Mrs. Badcock was verycheerful, rather arch, and delighted with herself. She said something like ‘I can’t tell you how wonderful this is for me.
You won’t remember but years ago in Bermuda—I got up from bed when I had chicken pox and came along to seeyou and you gave me an autograph and it’s one of the proudest days of my life which I have never forgotten.’”
“I see,” said Miss Marple, “she mentioned the place but not the date, did she?”
“Yes.”
“And what did Rudd say?”
“Jason Rudd? He said that Mrs. Badcock told his wife that she’d got up from bed when she had the flu and hadcome to meet Marina and she still had her autograph. It was a shorter account than your friend’s but the gist of it wasthe same.”
“Did he mention the time and place?”
“No. I don’t think he did. I think he said roughly that it was some ten or twelve years ago.”
“I see. And what about Mr. Badcock?”
“Mr. Badcock said that Heather was extremely excited and anxious to meet Marina Gregg, that she was a great fanof Marina Gregg’s and that she’d told him that once when she was ill as a girl she managed to get up and meet MissGregg and get her autograph. He didn’t go into any close particulars, as it was evidently in the days before he wasmarried to his wife. He impressed me as not thinking the incident of much importance.”
“I see,” said Miss Marple. “Yes, I see….”
“And what do you see?” asked Craddock.
“Not quite as much as I’d like to yet,” said Miss Marple, honestly, “but I have a sort of feeling if I only knew whyshe’d ruined her new dress—”
“Who—Mrs. Badcock?”
“Yes. It seems to me such a very odd thing—such an inexplicable42 one unless—of course—Dear me, I think I mustbe very stupid!”
Miss Knight opened the door and entered, switching the light on as she did so.
“I think we want a little light in here,” she said brightly.
“Yes,” said Miss Marple, “you are so right, Miss Knight. That is exactly what we did want. A little light. I think,you know, that at last we’ve got it.”
The tête-à-tête seemed ended and Craddock rose to his feet.
“There only remains43 one thing,” he said, “and that is for you to tell me just what particular memory from your ownpast is agitating44 your mind now.”
“Everyone always teases me about that,” said Miss Marple, “but I must say that I was reminded just for a momentof the Lauristons’ parlourmaid.”
“The Lauristons’ parlourmaid?” Craddock looked completely mystified.
“She had, of course, to take messages on the telephone,” said Miss Marple, “and she wasn’t very good at it. Sheused to get the general sense right, if you know what I mean, but the way she wrote it down used to make quitenonsense of it sometimes. I suppose really, because her grammar was so bad. The result was that some veryunfortunate incidents occurred. I remember one in particular. A Mr. Burroughs, I think it was, rang up and said he hadbeen to see Mr. Elvaston about the fence being broken down but he said that the fence wasn’t his business at all torepair. It was on the other side of the property and he said he would like to know if that was really the case beforeproceeding further as it would depend on whether he was liable or not and it was important for him to know the properlie of the land before instructing solicitors45. A very obscure message, as you see. It confused rather than enlightened.”
“If you’re talking about parlourmaids,” said Miss Knight with a little laugh, “that must have been a very long timeago. I’ve never heard of a parlourmaid for many years now.”
“It was a good many years ago,” said Miss Marple, “but nevertheless human nature was very much the same thenas it is now. Mistakes were made for very much the same reasons. Oh dear,” she added, “I am thankful that that girl issafely in Bournemouth.”
“The girl? What girl?” asked Dermot.
“That girl who did dressmaking and went up to see Giuseppe that day. What was her name— Gladys something.”
“Gladys Dixon?”
“Yes, that’s the name.”
“She’s in Bournemouth, do you say? How on earth do you know that?”
“I know,” said Miss Marple, “because I sent her there.”
“What?” Dermot stared at her. “You? Why?”
“I went out to see her,” said Miss Marple, “and I gave her some money and told her to take a holiday and not towrite home.”
“Why on earth did you do that?”
“Because I didn’t want her to be killed, of course,” said Miss Marple, and blinked at him placidly46.
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1
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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mead
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| n.蜂蜜酒 | |
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soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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6
admonished
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| v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
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premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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invaluable
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| adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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10
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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tickles
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| （使）发痒( tickle的第三人称单数 )； （使）愉快，逗乐 | |
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fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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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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prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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revolved
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| v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想 | |
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conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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killer
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| n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者 | |
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vendetta
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| n.世仇，宿怨 | |
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suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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oozed
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的过去式和过去分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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equanimity
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| n.沉着，镇定 | |
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herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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steadfastly
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| adv.踏实地，不变地；岿然；坚定不渝 | |
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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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doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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gist
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| n.要旨；梗概 | |
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41
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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43
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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44
agitating
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| 搅动( agitate的现在分词 )； 激怒； 使焦虑不安； （尤指为法律、社会状况的改变而）激烈争论 | |
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45
solicitors
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| 初级律师( solicitor的名词复数 ) | |
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46
placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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