Twenty-five AT DELLER’S CAF?

Twenty-five AT DELLER’S CAF?

Emily Trefusis and Charles Enderby were seated at a small table in Del-ler’s Café in Exeter. It was half past three, and at that hour there was com-parative peace and quiet. A few people were having a quiet cup of tea, butthe restaurant on the whole was deserted¹.
“Well,” said Charles, “what do you think of him?”
Emily frowned.
“It’s difficult,” she said.
After his interview with the police, Brian Pearson had lunched withthem. He had been extremely polite to Emily, rather too polite in her opin-ion.
To that astute² girl it seemed a shade unnatural³. Here was a young manconducting a clandestine⁴ love affair and an officious stranger butts⁵ in.
Brian Pearson had taken it like a lamb; had fallen in with Charles’s sugges-tion of having a car and driving over to see the police. Why this attitude ofmeek acquiescence⁶? It seemed to Emily entirely⁷ untypical of the naturalBrian Pearson as she read his character.
“I’ll see you in hell first!” would, she felt sure, have been far more his at-titude.
This lamb-like demeanour was suspicious. She tried to convey some-thing of her feelings to Enderby.
“I get you,” said Enderby. “Our Brian has got something to conceal,therefore he can’t be his natural high-handed self.”
“That’s it exactly.”
“Do you think he might possibly have killed old Trevelyan?”
“Brian,” said Emily thoughtfully, “is — well, a person to be reckonedwith. He is rather unscrupulous, I should think, and if he wanted any-thing, I don’t think he would let ordinary conventional standards stand inhis way. He’s not plain tame English.”
“Putting all personal considerations on one side, he’s a more likelystarter than Jim?” said Enderby.
Emily nodded.
“Much more likely. He would carry a thing through well—because hewould never lose his nerve.”
“Honestly, Emily, do you think he did it?”
“I—I don’t know. He fulfils the conditions—the only person who does.”
“What do you mean by fulfils the conditions?”
“Well, (1) Motive⁸.” She ticked off the items on her fingers. “The samemotive. Twenty thousand pounds. (2) Opportunity. Nobody knows wherehe was on Friday afternoon, and if he was anywhere that he could say—well—surely he would say it? So we assume that he was actually in theneighbourhood of Hazelmoor on Friday.”
“They haven’t found anyone who saw him in Exhampton,” Charles poin-ted out, “and he’s a fairly noticeable person.”
Emily shook her head scornfully.
“He wasn’t in Exhampton. Don’t you see, Charles, if he committed themurder, he planned it beforehand. It’s only poor innocent Jim who camedown like a mug and stayed there. There’s Lydford and Chagford or per-haps Exeter. He might have walked over from Lydford — that’s a mainroad and the snow wouldn’t have been impassable. It would have beenpretty good going.”
“I suppose we ought to make inquiries⁹ all round.”
“The police are doing that,” said Emily, “and they’ll do it a lot better thanwe shall. All public things are much better done by the police. It’s privateand personal things like listening to Mrs. Curtis and picking up a hint fromMiss Percehouse and watching the Willetts—that’s where we score.”
“Or don’t, as the case may be,” said Charles.
“To go back to Brian Pearson fulfilling the conditions,” said Emily.
“We’ve done two, motive and opportunity, and there’s the third—the onethat in a way I think is the most important of all.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, I have felt from the beginning that we couldn’t ignore that queerbusiness of the table-turning. I have tried to look at it as logically andclear-sightedly as possible. There are just three solutions of it. (1) That itwas supernatural. Well, of course, that may be so, but personally I am rul-ing it out. (2) That it was deliberate—someone did it on purpose, but asone can’t arrive at any conceivable reason, we can rule that out also. (3)Accidental. Someone gave himself away without meaning to do so—in-deed quite against his will. An unconscious piece of self-revelation. If so,someone among those six people either knew definitely that Captain Trev-elyan was going to be killed at a certain time that afternoon, or thatsomeone was having an interview with him from which violence mightresult. None of those six people could have been the actual murderer, butone of them must have been in collusion with the murderer. There’s nolink between Major Burnaby and anybody else, or Mr. Rycroft and any-body else, or Ronald Garfield and anybody else, but when we come to theWilletts it’s different. There’s a link between Violet Willett and Brian Pear-son. Those two are on very intimate terms and that girl was all on thejump after the murder.”
“You think she knew?” said Charles.
“She or her mother—one or other of them.”
“There’s one person you haven’t mentioned,” said Charles. “Mr. Duke.”
“I know,” said Emily. “It’s queer. He’s the one person we know abso-lutely nothing about. I’ve tried to see him twice and failed. There seems noconnection between him and Captain Trevelyan, or between him and anyof Captain Trevelyan’s relations, there’s absolutely nothing to connect himwith the case in any way, and yet—”
“Well?” said Charles Enderby as Emily paused.
“And yet we met Inspector¹⁰ Narracott coming out of his cottage. Whatdoes Inspector Narracott know about him that we don’t? I wish I knew.”
“You think—”
“Supposing Duke is a suspicious character and the police know it. Sup-posing Captain Trevelyan had found out something about Duke. He wasparticular about his tenants¹¹, remember, and supposing he was going totell the police what he knew. And Duke arranges with an accomplice¹² tohave him killed. Oh, I know it all sounds dreadfully melodramatic put likethat, and yet, after all, something of the kind might be possible.”
“It’s an idea certainly,” said Charles slowly.
They were both silent, each one deep in thought.
Suddenly Emily said:
“Do you know that queer feeling you get when somebody is looking atyou? I feel now as though someone’s eyes were burning the back of myneck. Is it all fancy or is there really someone staring at me now?”
Charles moved his chair an inch or two and looked round the café in acasual manner.
“There’s a woman at a table in the window,” he reported. “Tall, dark andhandsome. She’s staring at you.”
“Young?”
“No, not very young. Hello!”
“What is it?”
“Ronnie Garfield. He has just come in and he’s shaking hands with herand he’s sitting down at her table. I think she’s saying something aboutus.”
Emily opened her handbag. Rather ostentatiously she powdered hernose, adjusting the small pocket mirror to a convenient angle.
“It’s Aunt Jennifer,” she said softly. “They are getting up.”
“They are going,” said Charles. “Do you want to speak to her?”
“No,” said Emily. “I think it’s better for me to pretend that I haven’t seenher.”
“After all,” said Charles, “why shouldn’t Aunt Jennifer know Ronnie Gar-field and ask him to tea?”
“Why should she?” said Emily.
“Why shouldn’t she?”
“Oh, for goodness sake, Charles, don’t let’s go on and on like this, should—shouldn’t—should—shouldn’t. Of course it’s all nonsense, and it doesn’tmean anything! But we were just saying that nobody else at that séance hadany relation with the family, and not five minutes later we see Ronnie Gar-field having tea with Captain Trevelyan’s sister.”
“It shows,” said Charles, “that you never know.”
“It shows,” said Emily, “that you are always having to begin again.”
“In more ways than one,” said Charles.
Emily looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing at present,” said Charles.
He put his hand over hers. She did not draw it away.
“We’ve got to put this through,” said Charles. “Afterwards—”
“Afterwards?” said Emily softly.
“I’d do anything for you, Emily,” said Charles. “Simply anything—”
“Would you?” said Emily. “That’s rather nice of you, Charles dear.”

1 deserted   

adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的

参考例句：

• The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
• The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。

2 astute   

adj.机敏的，精明的

参考例句：

• A good leader must be an astute judge of ability.一个优秀的领导人必须善于识别人的能力。
• The criminal was very astute and well matched the detective in intelligence.这个罪犯非常狡猾，足以对付侦探的机智。

3 unnatural   

adj.不自然的；反常的

参考例句：

• Did her behaviour seem unnatural in any way?她有任何反常表现吗？
• She has an unnatural smile on her face.她脸上挂着做作的微笑。

4 clandestine   

adj.秘密的，暗中从事的

参考例句：

• She is the director of clandestine operations of the CIA.她是中央情报局秘密行动的负责人。
• The early Christians held clandestine meetings in caves.早期的基督徒在洞穴中秘密聚会。

5 butts   

笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。
• The house butts to a cemetery. 这所房子和墓地相连。

6 acquiescence   

n.默许；顺从

参考例句：

• The chief inclined his head in sign of acquiescence.首领点点头表示允许。
• This is due to his acquiescence.这是因为他的默许。

7 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。

8 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。

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 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。

11 tenants   

n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者

参考例句：

• A number of tenants have been evicted for not paying the rent. 许多房客因不付房租被赶了出来。
• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。

12 accomplice   

n.从犯，帮凶，同谋

参考例句：

• She was her husband's accomplice in murdering a rich old man.她是她丈夫谋杀一个老富翁的帮凶。
• He is suspected as an accomplice of the murder.他涉嫌为这次凶杀案的同谋。