Twenty-three（2）

II
“What exactly do you want to know, Dr. Calgary?” asked SuperintendentHuish, but before Calgary could speak the telephone rang on Huish’s deskand the superintendent¹ picked it up. “Yes. Yes, speaking. Just a moment.”
He drew a piece of paper towards him, picked up a pen and prepared towrite. “Yes. Go ahead. Yes.” He wrote. “What? How do you spell that lastword? Oh, I see. Yes, doesn’t seem to make much sense yet, does it? Right.
Nothing else? Right. Thanks.” He replaced the receiver. “That was the hos-pital,” he said.
“Tina?” asked Calgary.
The superintendent nodded.
“She regained² consciousness for a few minutes.”
“Did she say anything?” asked Calgary.
“I don’t really know why I should tell you that, Dr. Calgary.”
“I ask you to tell me,” said Calgary, “because I think that I can help youover this business.”
Huish looked at him consideringly.
“You’ve taken all this very much to heart, haven’t you, Dr. Calgary?” hesaid.
“Yes, I have. You see, I felt responsible for reopening the case. I even feelresponsible for these two tragedies. Will the girl live?”
“They think so,” said Huish. “The blade of the knife missed the heart, butit may be touch and go.” He shook his head. “That’s always the trouble,”
he said. “People will not believe that a murderer is unsafe. Sounds a queerthing to say, but there it is. They all knew there was a murderer in theirmidst. They ought to have told what they knew. The only safe thing if amurderer is about is to tell the police anything you know at once. Well,they didn’t. They held out on me. Philip Durrant was a nice fellow—an in-telligent fellow; but he regarded this as a kind of game. He went pokingabout laying traps for people. And he got somewhere, or he thought he gotsomewhere. And somebody else thought he was getting somewhere. Res-ult: I get a call to say he’s dead, stabbed through the back of the neck.
That’s what comes of messing about with murder and not realizing itsdangers.” He stopped and cleared his throat.
“And the girl?” asked Calgary.
“The girl knew something,” said Huish. “Something she didn’t want totell. It’s my opinion,” he said, “she was in love with the fellow.”
“You’re talking about—Micky?”
Huish nodded. “Yes. I’d say, too, that Micky was fond of her, in a way.
But being fond of anyone isn’t enough if you’re mad with fear. Whatevershe knew was probably more deadly than she herself realized. That’s why,after she found Durrant dead and she came rushing out straight into hisarms, he took his chance and stabbed her.”
“That’s merely conjecture³ on your part, isn’t it, Superintendent Huish?”
“Not entirely⁴ conjecture, Dr. Calgary. The knife was in his pocket.”
“The actual knife?”
“Yes. It had blood on it. We’re going to test it, but it’ll be her blood allright. Her blood and the blood of Philip Durrant!”
“But—it couldn’t have been.”
“Who says it couldn’t have been?”
“Hester. I rang her up and she told me all about it.”
“She did, did she? Well, the facts are very simple. Mary Durrant wentdown to the kitchen, leaving her husband alive, at ten minutes to four—atthat time there were in the house Leo Argyle and Gwenda Vaughan in thelibrary, Hester Argyle in her bedroom on the first floor, and Kirsten Lind-strom in the kitchen. Just after four o’clock, Micky and Tina drove up.
Micky went into the garden and Tina went upstairs, following close onKirsten’s foosteps, who had just gone up with coffee and biscuits forPhilip. Tina stopped to speak to Hester, then went on to join Miss Lind-strom and together they found Philip dead.”
“And all this time Micky was in the garden. Surely that’s a perfect alibi⁵?”
“What you don’t know, Dr. Calgary, is that there’s a big magnolia treegrowing up by the side of the house. The kids used to climb it. Micky inparticular. It was one of his ways in and out of the house. He could haveshinned up that tree, gone into Durrant’s room, stabbed him, back and outagain. Oh, it needed split-second timing⁶, but it’s astonishing what audacitywill do sometimes. And he was desperate. At all costs he had to preventTina and Durrant meeting. To be safe, he had to kill them both.”
Calgary thought for a moment or two.
“You said just now, Superintendent, that Tina has recovered conscious-ness. Wasn’t she able to say definitely who stabbed her?”
“She wasn’t very coherent,” said Huish slowly. “In fact I doubt if she wasconscious in the proper sense of the term.”
He gave a tired smile.
“All right, Dr. Calgary, I’ll tell you exactly what she said. First of all shesaid a name. Micky….”
“She has accused him, then,” said Calgary.
“That’s what it looks like,” said Huish, nodding his head. “The rest ofwhat she said didn’t make sense. It’s a bit fantastic.”
“What did she say?”
Huish looked down at the pad in front of him.
“‘Micky.’ Then a pause. Then, ‘The cup was empty …’ then another pause,and then, ‘The dove on the mast.’” He looked at Calgary. “Can you make anysense of that?”
“No,” said Calgary. He shook his head and said wonderingly: “The doveon the mast… That seems a very extraordinary thing to say.”
“No masts and no doves as far as we know,” said Huish. “But it meantsomething to her, something in her own mind. But it mayn’t, you know,have been anything to do with the murder. Goodness knows what realmsof fancy she’s floating in.”
Calgary was silent for some moments. He sat thinking things over. Hesaid: “You’ve arrested Micky?”
“We’ve detained him. He will be charged within twenty-four hours.”
Huish looked curiously⁷ at Calgary.
“I gather that this lad, Micky, wasn’t your answer to the problem?”
“No,” said Calgary. “No, Micky wasn’t my answer. Even now—I don’tknow.” He got up. “I still think I’m right,” he said, “but I quite see that I’venot got enough to go on for you to believe me. I must go out there again. Imust see them all.”
“Well,” said Huish, “be careful of yourself, Dr. Calgary. What is youridea, by the way?”
“Would it mean anything to you,” said Calgary, “if I told you that it is mybelief that this was a crime of passion?”
Huish’s eyebrows⁸ rose.
“There are a lot of passions, Dr. Calgary,” he said. “Hate, avarice⁹, greed,fear, they’re all passions.”
“When I said a crime of passion,” said Calgary, “I meant exactly whatone usually means by that term.”
“If you mean Gwenda Vaughan and Leo Argyle,” said Huish, “that’s whatwe’ve thought all along, you know, but it doesn’t seem to fit.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” said Arthur Calgary.

1 superintendent   

n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长

参考例句：

• He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
• He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。

2 regained   

复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地

参考例句：

• The majority of the people in the world have regained their liberty. 世界上大多数人已重获自由。
• She hesitated briefly but quickly regained her poise. 她犹豫片刻，但很快恢复了镇静。

3 conjecture   

n./v.推测，猜测

参考例句：

• She felt it no use to conjecture his motives.她觉得猜想他的动机是没有用的。
• This conjecture is not supported by any real evidence.这种推测未被任何确切的证据所证实。

4 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

5 alibi   

n.某人当时不在犯罪现场的申辩或证明；借口

参考例句：

• Do you have any proof to substantiate your alibi? 你有证据表明你当时不在犯罪现场吗？
• The police are suspicious of his alibi because he already has a record.警方对他不在场的辩解表示怀疑，因为他已有前科。

6 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

7 curiously   

adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地

参考例句：

• He looked curiously at the people.他好奇地看着那些人。
• He took long stealthy strides. His hands were curiously cold.他迈着悄没声息的大步。他的双手出奇地冷。

8 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。

9 avarice   

n.贪婪；贪心

参考例句：

• Avarice is the bane to happiness.贪婪是损毁幸福的祸根。
• Their avarice knows no bounds and you can never satisfy them.他们贪得无厌，你永远无法满足他们。