Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-two
C hief-Inspector¹ Davy waited patiently until Mrs. Melford had finished talking. It had been a singularly unprofitableinterview. Cousin Mildred had been incoherent, unbelieving and generally featherheaded. Or that was Father’s privateview. Accounts of Elvira’s sweet manners, nice nature, troubles with her teeth, odd excuses told through thetelephone, had led on to serious doubts whether Elvira’s friend Bridget was really a suitable friend for her. All thesematters had been presented to the Chief-Inspector in a kind of general hasty pudding. Mrs. Melford knew nothing, hadheard nothing, had seen nothing and had apparently² deduced very little.
A short telephone call to Elvira’s guardian³, Colonel Luscombe, had been even more unproductive, thoughfortunately less wordy. “More Chinese monkeys,” he muttered to his sergeant⁴ as he put down the receiver. “See noevil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
“The trouble is that everyone who’s had anything to do with this girl has been far too nice—if you get my meaning.
Too many nice people who don’t know anything about evil. Not like my old lady.”
“The Bertram’s Hotel one?”
“Yes, that’s the one. She’s had a long life of experience in noticing evil, fancying evil, suspecting evil and goingforth to do battle with evil. Let’s see what we can get out of girlfriend Bridget.”
The difficulties in this interview were represented first, last, and most of the time by Bridget’s mamma. To talk toBridget without the assistance of her mother took all Chief-Inspector Davy’s adroitness⁵ and cajolery. He was, it mustbe admitted, ably seconded by Bridget. After a certain amount of stereotyped⁶ questions and answers and expressionsof horror on the part of Bridget’s mother at hearing of Elvira’s narrow escape from death, Bridget said, “You know it’stime for that committee meeting, Mum. You said it was very important.”
“Oh dear, dear,” said Bridget’s mother.
“You know they’ll get into a frightful⁷ mess without you, Mummy.”
“Oh they will, they certainly will. But perhaps I ought—”
“Now that’s quite all right, Madam,” said Chief-Inspector Davy, putting on his kindly⁸ old father look. “You don’twant to worry. Just you get off. I’ve finished all the important things. You’ve told me really everything I wanted toknow. I’ve just one or two routine inquiries⁹ about people in Italy which I think your daughter, Miss Bridget, might beable to help me with.”
“Well, if you think you can manage, Bridget—”
“Oh, I can manage, Mummy,” said Bridget.
Finally, with a great deal of fuss, Bridget’s mother went off to her committee.
“Oh, dear,” said Bridget, sighing, as she came back after closing the front door. “Really! I do think mothers aredifficult.”
“So they tell me,” said Chief-Inspector Davy. “A lot of young ladies I come across have a lot of trouble with theirmothers.”
“I’d have thought you’d put it the other way round,” said Bridget.
“Oh I do, I do,” said Davy. “But that’s not how the young ladies see it. Now you can tell me a little more.”
“I couldn’t really speak frankly¹⁰ in front of Mummy,” explained Bridget. “But I do feel, of course, that it is reallyimportant that you should know as much as possible about all this. I do know Elvira was terribly worried aboutsomething and afraid. She wouldn’t exactly admit she was in danger, but she was.”
“I thought that might have been so. Of course I didn’t like to ask you too much in front of your mother.”
“Oh no,” said Bridget, “we don’t want Mummy to hear about it. She gets in such a frightful state about things andshe’d go and tell everyone. I mean, if Elvira doesn’t want things like this to be known….”
“First of all,” said Chief-Inspector Davy, “I want to know about a box of chocolates in Italy. I gather there wassome idea that a box was sent to her which might have been poisoned.”
Bridget’s eyes opened wide. “Poisoned,” she said. “Oh no. I don’t think so. At least….”
“There was something?”
“Oh yes. A box of chocolates came and Elvira did eat a lot of them and she was rather sick that night. Quite ill.”
“But she didn’t suspect poison?”
“No. At least—oh yes, she did say that someone was trying to poison one of us and we looked at the chocolates tosee, you know, if anything had been injected into them.”
“And had it?”
“No, it hadn’t,” said Bridget. “At least, not as far as we could see.”
“But perhaps your friend, Miss Elvira, might still have thought so?”
“Well, she might—but she didn’t say anymore.”
“But you think she was afraid of someone?”
“I didn’t think so at the time or notice anything. It was only here, later.”
“What about this man, Guido?”
Bridget giggled¹².
“He had a terrific crush on Elvira,” she said.
“And you and your friend used to meet him places?”
“Well, I don’t mind telling you,” said Bridget. “After all you’re the police. It isn’t important to you, that sort ofthing and I expect you understand. Countess Martinelli was frightfully strict—or thought she was. And of course wehad all sorts of dodges¹³ and things. We all stood in with each other. You know.”
“And told the right lies, I suppose?”
“Well, I’m afraid so,” said Bridget. “But what can one do when anyone is so suspicious?”
“So you did meet Guido and all that. And used he to threaten Elvira?”
“Oh, not seriously, I don’t think.”
“Then perhaps there was someone else she used to meet?”
“Oh—that—well, I don’t know.”
“Please tell me, Miss Bridget. It might be—vital, you know.”
“Yes. Yes I can see that. Well there was someone. I don’t know who it was, but there was someone else—shereally minded about. She was deadly serious. I mean it was a really important thing.”
“She used to meet him?”
“I think so. I mean she’d say she was meeting Guido but it wasn’t Guido. It was this other man.”
“Any idea who it was?”
“No.” Bridget sounded a little uncertain.
“It wouldn’t be a racing¹⁴ motorist called Ladislaus Malinowski?”
Bridget gaped¹⁵ at him.
“So you know?”
“Am I right?”
“Yes—I think so. She’d got a photograph of him torn out of a paper. She kept it under her stockings.”
“That might have been just a pin-up hero, mightn’t it?”
“Well it might, of course, but I don’t think it was.”
“Did she meet him here in this country, do you know?”
“I don’t know. You see I don’t know really what she’s been doing since she came back from Italy.”
“She came up to London to the dentist,” Davy prompted her. “Or so she said. Instead she came to you. She rang upMrs. Melford with some story about an old governess.”
A faint giggle¹¹ came from Bridget.
“That wasn’t true, was it?” said the Chief-Inspector, smiling. “Where did she really go?”
Bridget hesitated and then said, “She went to Ireland.”
“She went to Ireland, did she? Why?”
“She wouldn’t tell me. She said there was something she had to find out.”
“Do you know where she went in Ireland?”
“Not exactly. She mentioned a name. Bally something. Ballygowlan, I think it was.”
“I see. You’re sure she went to Ireland?”
“I saw her off at Kensington Airport. She went by Aer Lingus.”
“She came back when?”
“The following day.”
“Also by air?”
“Yes.”
“You’re quite sure, are you, that she came back by air?”
“Well—I suppose she did!”
“Had she taken a return ticket?”
“No. No, she didn’t. I remember.”
“She might have come back another way, mightn’t she?”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“She might have come back for instance by the Irish Mail?”
“She didn’t say she had.”
“But she didn’t say she’d come by air, did she?”
“No,” Bridget agreed. “But why should she come back by boat and train instead of by air?”
“Well, if she had found out what she wanted to know and had had nowhere to stay, she might think it would beeasier to come back by the Night Mail.”
“Why, I suppose she might.”
Davy smiled faintly.
“I don’t suppose you young ladies,” he said, “think of going anywhere except in terms of flying, do you,nowadays?”
“I suppose we don’t really,” agreed Bridget.
“Anyway, she came back to England. Then what happened? Did she come to you or ring you up?”
“She rang up.”
“What time of day?”
“Oh, in the morning sometime. Yes, it must have been about eleven or twelve o’clock, I think.”
“And she said, what?”
“Well, she just asked if everything was all right.”
“And was it?”
“No, it wasn’t, because, you see, Mrs. Melford had rung up and Mummy had answered the phone and things hadbeen very difficult and I hadn’t known what to say. So Elvira said she would not come to Onslow Square, but thatshe’d ring up her cousin Mildred and try to fix up some story or other.”
“And that’s all that you can remember?”
“That’s all,” said Bridget, making certain reservations. She thought of Mr. Bollard and the bracelet¹⁶. That wascertainly a thing she was not going to tell Chief-Inspector Davy. Father knew quite well that something was being keptfrom him. He could only hope that it was not something pertinent¹⁷ to his inquiry¹⁸. He asked again:
“You think your friend was really frightened of someone or something?”
“Yes I do.”
“Did she mention it to you or did you mention it to her?”
“Oh, I asked her outright¹⁹. At first she said no and then she admitted that she was frightened. And I know she was,”
went on Bridget violently. “She was in danger. She was quite sure of it. But I don’t know why or how or anythingabout it.”
“Your surety on this point relates to that particular morning, does it, the morning she had come back from Ireland?”
“Yes. Yes, that’s when I was so sure about it.”
“On the morning when she might have come back on the Irish Mail?”
“I don’t think it’s very likely that she did. Why don’t you ask her?”
“I probably shall do in the end. But I don’t want to call attention to that point. Not at the moment. It might justpossibly make things more dangerous for her.”
Bridget opened round eyes.
“What do you mean?”
“You may not remember it, Miss Bridget, but that was the night, or rather the early morning, of the Irish Mailrobbery.”
“Do you mean that Elvira was in that and never told me a thing about it?”
“I agree it’s unlikely,” said Father. “But it just occurred to me that she might have seen something or someone, orsome incident might have occurred connected with the Irish Mail. She might have seen someone she knew, forinstance, and that might have put her in danger.”
“Oh!” said Bridget. She thought it over. “You mean—someone she knew was mixed-up in the robbery.”
Chief-Inspector Davy got up.
“I think that’s all,” he said. “Sure there’s nothing more you can tell me? Nowhere where your friend went that day?
Or the day before?”
Again visions of Mr. Bollard and the Bond Street shop rose before Bridget’s eyes.
“No,” she said.
“I think there is something you haven’t told me,” said Chief-Inspector Davy.
Bridget grasped thankfully at a straw.
“Oh, I forgot,” she said. “Yes. I mean she did go to some lawyers. Lawyers who were trustees, to find outsomething.”
“Oh, she went to some lawyers who were her trustees. I don’t suppose you know their name?”
“Their name was Egerton—Forbes Egerton and Something,” said Bridget. “Lots of names. I think that’s more orless right.”
“I see. And she wanted to find out something, did she?”
“She wanted to know how much money she’d got,” said Bridget.
Inspector Davy’s eyebrows²⁰ rose.
“Indeed!” he said. “Interesting. Why didn’t she know herself?”
“Oh, because people never told her anything about money,” said Bridget. “They seem to think it’s bad for you toknow actually how much money you have.”
“And she wanted to know badly, did she?”
“Yes,” said Bridget. “I think she thought it was important.”
“Well, thank you,” said Chief-Inspector Davy. “You’ve helped me a good deal.”

1 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

2 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

3 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。

4 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？

5 adroitness   

参考例句：

• He showed similar adroitness and persistence in strategic arm control. 在战略武器方面，他显示出了同样的机敏和执著。 来自辞典例句
• He turned his large car with some adroitness and drove away. 他熟练地把他那辆大车子调了个头，开走了。 来自辞典例句

6 stereotyped   

adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的

参考例句：

• There is a sameness about all these tales. They're so stereotyped -- all about talented scholars and lovely ladies. 这些书就是一套子，左不过是些才子佳人，最没趣儿。
• He is the stereotyped monster of the horror films and the adventure books, and an obvious (though not perhaps strictly scientific) link with our ancestral past. 它们是恐怖电影和惊险小说中的老一套的怪物，并且与我们的祖先有着明显的（虽然可能没有科学的）联系。

7 frightful   

adj.可怕的；讨厌的

参考例句：

• How frightful to have a husband who snores!有一个发鼾声的丈夫多讨厌啊！
• We're having frightful weather these days.这几天天气坏极了。

8 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

9 inquiries   

n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending further inquiries. 他获得保释，等候进一步调查。
• I have failed to reach them by postal inquiries. 我未能通过邮政查询与他们取得联系。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

11 giggle   

n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说

参考例句：

• Both girls began to giggle.两个女孩都咯咯地笑了起来。
• All that giggle and whisper is too much for me.我受不了那些咯咯的笑声和交头接耳的样子。

12 giggled   

v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The girls giggled at the joke. 女孩子们让这笑话逗得咯咯笑。
• The children giggled hysterically. 孩子们歇斯底里地傻笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 dodges   

n.闪躲( dodge的名词复数 )；躲避；伎俩；妙计v.闪躲( dodge的第三人称单数 )；回避

参考例句：

• He tried all sorts of dodges to avoid being called up. 他挖空心思，耍弄各种花招以逃避被征召入伍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Those were the dodges he used to escape taxation. 那些是他用以逃税的诡计。 来自辞典例句

14 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

15 gaped   

v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大

参考例句：

• A huge chasm gaped before them. 他们面前有个巨大的裂痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The front door was missing. A hole gaped in the roof. 前门不翼而飞，屋顶豁开了一个洞。 来自辞典例句

16 bracelet   

n.手镯，臂镯

参考例句：

• The jeweler charges lots of money to set diamonds in a bracelet.珠宝匠要很多钱才肯把钻石镶在手镯上。
• She left her gold bracelet as a pledge.她留下她的金手镯作抵押品。

17 pertinent   

adj.恰当的；贴切的；中肯的；有关的；相干的

参考例句：

• The expert made some pertinent comments on the scheme.那专家对规划提出了一些中肯的意见。
• These should guide him to pertinent questions for further study.这些将有助于他进一步研究有关问题。

18 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

19 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。

20 eyebrows   

眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
• His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。