Four INSPECTOR NARRACOTT

Four INSPECTOR¹ NARRACOTT
It was the morning after the tragedy, and two men were standing² in thelittle study of Hazelmoor.
Inspector Narracott looked round him. A little frown appeared upon hisforehead.
“Ye-es,” he said thoughtfully. “Ye-es.”
Inspector Narracott was a very efficient officer. He had a quiet persist-ence, a logical mind and a keen attention to detail which brought him suc-cess where many another man might have failed.
He was a tall man with a quiet manner, rather faraway grey eyes, and aslow soft Devonshire voice.
Summoned from Exeter to take charge of the case, he had arrived on thefirst train that morning. The roads had been impassable for cars, evenwith chains, otherwise he would have arrived the night before. He wasstanding now in Captain Trevelyan’s study having just completed his ex-amination of the room. With him was Sergeant⁴ Pollock of the Exhamptonpolice.
“Ye-es,” said Inspector Narracott.
A ray of pale wintry sunshine came in through the window. Outside wasthe snowy landscape. There was a fence about a hundred yards from thewindow and beyond it the steep ascending⁵ slope of the snow-covered hill-side.
Inspector Narracott bent⁶ once more over the body which had been leftfor his inspection⁷. An athletic⁸ man himself, he recognized the athlete’stype, the broad shoulders, narrow flanks, and the good muscular develop-ment. The head was small and well set on the shoulders, and the pointednaval beard was carefully trimmed. Captain Trevelyan’s age, he had ascer-tained, was sixty, but he looked not much more than fifty-one or two.
“Ah!” said Sergeant Pollock.
The other turned on him.
“What is your view of it?”
“Well—” Sergeant Pollock scratched his head. He was a cautious man,unwilling to advance further than necessary.
“Well,” he said, “as I see it, sir, I should say that the man came to thewindow, forced the lock, and started rifling the room. Captain Trevelyan, Isuppose, must have been upstairs. Doubtless the burglar thought thehouse was empty—”
“Where is Captain Trevelyan’s bedroom situated¹⁰?”
“Upstairs, sir. Over this room.”
“At the present time of year it is dark at four o’clock. If Captain Trev-elyan was up in his bedroom the electric light would have been on, theburglar would have seen it as he approached this window.”
“You mean he’d have waited.”
“No man in his senses would break into a house with a light in it. If any-one forced this window — he did it because he thought the house wasempty.”
Sergeant Pollock scratched his head.
“Seems a bit odd, I admit. But there it is.”
“We’ll let it pass for the moment. Go on.”
“Well, suppose the Captain hears a noise downstairs. He comes down toinvestigate. The burglar hears him coming. He snatches up that bolster¹¹ ar-rangement, gets behind the door, and as the Captain enters the roomstrikes him down from behind.”
Inspector Narracott nodded.
“Yes, that’s true enough. He was struck down when he was facing thewindow. But all the same, Pollock, I don’t like it.”
“No, sir?”
“No, as I say, I don’t believe in houses that are broken into at five o’clockin the afternoon.”
“We-ell, he may have thought it a good opportunity—”
“It is not a question of opportunity—slipping in because he found a win-dow unlatched. It was deliberate housebreaking—look at the confusioneverywhere—what would a burglar go for first? The pantry where the sil-ver is kept.”
“That’s true enough,” admitted the Sergeant.
“And this confusion—this chaos,” continued Narracott, “these drawerspulled out and their contents scattered¹³. Pah! It’s bunkum.”
“Bunkum?”
“Look at the window, Sergeant. That window was not locked and forcedopen! It was merely shut and then splintered from the outside to give theappearance of forcing.”
Pollock examined the latch¹² of the window closely, uttering an ejacula-tion to himself as he did so.
“You are right, sir,” he said with respect in his voice. “Who’d havethought of that now!”
“Someone who wishes to throw dust in our eyes — and hasn’t suc-ceeded.”
Sergeant Pollock was grateful for the “our.” In such small ways did In-spector Narracott endear himself to his subordinates.
“Then it wasn’t burglary. You mean, sir, it was an inside job.”
Inspector Narracott nodded. “Yes,” he said. “The only curious thing is,though, that I think the murderer did actually enter by the window. Asyou and Graves reported, and as I can still see for myself, there are damppatches still visible where the snow melted and was trodden in by themurderer’s boots. These damp patches are only in this room. ConstableGraves was quite positive that there was nothing of the kind in the hallwhen he and Dr. Warren passed through it. In this room he noticed themimmediately. In that case it seems clear that the murderer was admittedby Captain Trevelyan through the window. Therefore it must have beensomeone whom Captain Trevelyan knew. You are a local man, Sergeant,can you tell me if Captain Trevelyan was a man who made enemies eas-ily?”
“No, sir, I should say he hadn’t an enemy in the world. A bit keen onmoney, and a bit of a martinet—wouldn’t stand for any slackness or inci-vility—but bless my soul, he was respected for that.”
“No enemies,” said Narracott thoughtfully.
“Not here, that is.”
“Very true—we don’t know what enemies he may have made during hisnaval career. It’s my experience, Sergeant, that a man who makes enemiesin one place will make them in another, but I agree that we can’t put thatpossibility entirely¹⁴ aside. We come logically now to the next motive¹⁵—themost common motive for every crime—gain. Captain Trevelyan was, I un-derstand, a rich man?”
“Very warm indeed by all accounts. But close. Not an easy man to touchfor a subscription¹⁶.”
“Ah!” said Narracott thoughtfully.
“Pity it snowed as it did,” said the Sergeant. “But for that we’d have hadhis footprints as something to go on.”
“There was no one else in the house?” asked the Inspector.
“No. For the last five years Captain Trevelyan has only had one servant—retired¹⁷ naval⁹ chap. Up at Sittaford House a woman came in daily, butthis chap, Evans, cooked and looked after his master. About a month agohe got married—much to the Captain’s annoyance¹⁸. I believe that’s one ofthe reasons he let Sittaford House to this South African lady. He wouldn’thave any woman living in the house. Evans lives just round the cornerhere in Fore³ Street with his wife, and comes in daily to do for his master.
I’ve got him here now for you to see. His statement is that he left here athalf past two yesterday afternoon, the Captain having no further need forhim.”
“Yes, I shall want to see him. He may be able to tell us something—use-ful.”
Sergeant Pollock looked at his superior officer curiously¹⁹. There wassomething so odd about his tone.
“You think—” he began.
“I think,” said Inspector Narracott deliberately²⁰, “that there’s a lot morein this case than meets the eye.”
“In what way, sir?”
But the Inspector refused to be drawn²¹.
“You say this man, Evans, is here now?”
“He’s waiting in the dining room.”
“Good. I’ll see him straight away. What sort of a fellow is he?”
Sergeant Pollock was better at reporting facts than at descriptive accur-acy.
“He’s a retired naval chap. Ugly customer in a scrap²², I should say.”
“Does he drink?”
“Never been the worse for it that I know of.”
“What about this wife of his? Not a fancy of the Captain’s or anything ofthat sort?”
“Oh! no, sir, nothing of that kind about Captain Trevelyan. He wasn’tthat kind at all. He was known as a woman hater, if anything.”
“And Evans was supposed to be devoted²³ to his master?”
“That’s the general idea, sir, and I think it would be known if he wasn’t.
Exhampton’s a small place.”
Inspector Narracott nodded.
“Well,” he said, “there’s nothing more to be seen here. I’ll interviewEvans and I’ll take a look at the rest of the house and after that we will goover to the Three Crowns and see this Major Burnaby. That remark of hisabout the time was curious. Twenty- five past five, eh? He must knowsomething he hasn’t told, or why should he suggest the time of the crimeso accurately²⁴?”
The two men moved towards the door.
“It’s a rum business,” said Sergeant Pollock, his eye wandering to thelittered floor. “All this burglary fake!”
“It’s not that that strikes me as odd,” said Narracott, “under the circum-stances it was probably the natural thing to do. No—what strikes me asodd is the window.”
“The window, sir?”
“Yes. Why should the murderer go to the window? Assuming it wassomeone Trevelyan knew and admitted without question, why not go tothe front door? To get round to this window from the road on a night likelast night would have been a difficult and unpleasant proceeding²⁵ with thesnow lying as thick as it does. Yet there must have been some reason.”
“Perhaps,” suggested Pollock, “the man didn’t want to be seen turning into the house from the road.”
“There wouldn’t be many people about yesterday afternoon to see him.
Nobody who could help it was out of doors. No — there’s some otherreason. Well, perhaps it will come to light in due course.”

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 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

3 fore   

adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部

参考例句：

• Your seat is in the fore part of the aircraft.你的座位在飞机的前部。
• I have the gift of fore knowledge.我能够未卜先知。

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 ascending   

adj.上升的，向上的

参考例句：

• Now draw or trace ten dinosaurs in ascending order of size.现在按照体型由小到大的顺序画出或是临摹出10只恐龙。

6 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

7 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

8 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

9 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

10 situated   

adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的

参考例句：

• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
• She is awkwardly situated.她的处境困难。

11 bolster   

n.枕垫；v.支持，鼓励

参考例句：

• The high interest rates helped to bolster up the economy.高利率使经济更稳健。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

12 latch   

n.门闩，窗闩；弹簧锁

参考例句：

• She laid her hand on the latch of the door.她把手放在门闩上。
• The repairman installed an iron latch on the door.修理工在门上安了铁门闩。

13 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

14 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。

15 motive   

n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的

参考例句：

• The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机。
• He had some motive in telling this fable.他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

16 subscription   

n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方）

参考例句：

• We paid a subscription of 5 pounds yearly.我们按年度缴纳5英镑的订阅费。
• Subscription selling bloomed splendidly.订阅销售量激增。

17 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

18 annoyance   

n.恼怒，生气，烦恼

参考例句：

• Why do you always take your annoyance out on me?为什么你不高兴时总是对我出气？
• I felt annoyance at being teased.我恼恨别人取笑我。

19 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。

20 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

21 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

22 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

23 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

24 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

25 proceeding   

n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报

参考例句：

• This train is now proceeding from Paris to London.这次列车从巴黎开往伦敦。
• The work is proceeding briskly.工作很有生气地进展着。