Chapter 11 Hannibal Takes Action（1）

Chapter 11 Hannibal Takes Action

Tommy sat with the police inspector² in his office. The police officer, In-spector Norris, was nodding his head gently.
‘I hope with any luck we may get results, Mr Beresford,’ he said. ‘DrCrossfield, you say, is attending to your wife.’
‘Yes,’ said Tommy, ‘it isn’t serious, I gather. It was just grazing³ by a bul-let and it bled a good deal, but she’s going to be all right, I think. There’snothing really dangerous, Dr Crossfield said.’
‘She’s not very young, though, I suppose,’ said Inspector Norris.
‘She’s over seventy,’ said Tommy. ‘We’re both of us getting on, youknow.’
‘Yes, yes. Quite so,’ said Inspector Norris. ‘I’ve heard a good deal abouther locally, you know, since you came here to live. People have taken toher in a big way. We’ve heard about her various activities. And aboutyours.’
‘Oh, dear,’ said Tommy.
‘Can’t live down your record, you know, whatever it is. Good or bad,’
said Inspector Norris in a kindly⁴ voice. ‘You can’t live down a record ifyou’re a criminal and you can’t live down your record if you’ve been ahero either. Of one thing I can assure⁵ you. We’ll do all we can to clearthings up. You can’t describe whoever it was, I suppose?’
‘No,’ said Tommy. ‘When I saw him he was running with our dog afterhim. I should say he was not very old. He ran easily, I mean.’
‘Difficult age round about fourteen, fifteen onwards.’
‘It was someone older than that,’ said Tommy.
‘Not had any telephone calls or letters, demands for money or anythinglike that?’ said the Inspector. ‘Asking you to get out of your house, maybe?’
‘No,’ said Tommy, ‘nothing like that.’
‘And you’ve been here–how long?’
Tommy told him.
‘Hmmm. Not very long. You go to London, I gather, most days of theweek.’
‘Yes,’ said Tommy. ‘If you want particulars–’
‘No,’ said Inspector Norris, ‘no. No, I don’t need any particulars. Theonly thing I should suggest is that–well, you don’t go away too often. If youcan manage to stay at home and look after Mrs Beresford yourself…’
‘I thought of doing that anyway,’ said Tommy. ‘I think this is a good ex-cuse for my not turning up always at the various appointments I’ve got inLondon.’
‘Well, we’ll do all we can to keep an eye on things, and if we could gethold of this whoever it is…’
‘Do you feel–perhaps I oughtn’t to ask this–’ said Tommy–‘do you feelyou know who it is? Do you know his name or his reasons?’
‘Well, we know a good many things about some of the chaps⁶ aroundhere. More than they think we know very often. Sometimes we don’t makeit apparent⁷ how much we do know because that’s the best way to get atthem in the end. You find out then who they’re mixed up with, who’s pay-ing them for some of the things they do, or whether they thought of itthemselves out of their own heads. But I think–well, I think somehow thatthis isn’t one of our locals, as you might say.’
‘Why do you think that?’ asked Tommy.
‘Ah. Well, one hears things, you know. One gets information from vari-ous headquarters⁸ elsewhere⁹.’
Tommy and the Inspector looked at each other. For about five minutesneither of them spoke¹⁰. They were just looking.
‘Well,’ said Tommy, ‘I–I see. Yes. Perhaps I see.’
‘If I may say one thing,’ said Inspector Norris.
‘Yes?’ said Tommy, looking rather doubtful¹¹.
‘This garden of yours. You want a bit of help in it, I understand.’
‘Our gardener was killed, as you probably know.’
‘Yes, I know all about that. Old Isaac Bodlicott, wasn’t it? Fine old chap¹.
Told tall stories now and then about the wonderful things he’d done in histime. But he was a well-known character and a fellow you could trust,too.’
‘I can’t imagine why he was killed or who killed him,’ said Tommy.
‘Nobody seems to have had any idea or to have found out.’
‘You mean we haven’t found out. Well, these things take a little time, youknow. It doesn’t come out at the time the inquest’s on, and the Coronersums up and says “Murder by some person unknown.” That’s only the be-ginning sometimes. Well, what I was going to say was it’s likely someonemay come and ask you whether you’d like a chap to come and do a bit ofjobbing gardening for you. He’ll come along and say that he could cometwo or three days a week. Perhaps more. He’ll tell you, for reference¹², thathe worked for some years for Mr Solomon. You’ll remember that name,will you?’
‘Mr Solomon,’ said Tommy.
There seemed to be something like a twinkle¹³ for a moment in InspectorNorris’s eye.
‘Yes, he’s dead, of course. Mr Solomon, I mean. But he did live here andhe did employ several different jobbing gardeners. I’m not quite sure whatname this chap will give you. We’ll say I don’t quite remember it. It mightbe one of several–it’s likely to be Crispin, I think. Between thirty and fiftyor so, and he worked for Mr Solomon. If anyone comes along and says hecan do some jobbing gardening for you and doesn’t mention Mr Solomon,in that case, I wouldn’t accept him. That’s just a word of warning.’
‘I see,’ said Tommy. ‘Yes, I see. At least, I hope I see the point.’
‘That’s the point,’ said Inspector Norris. ‘You’re quick on the uptake, MrBeresford. Well, I suppose you’ve had to be quite often in your activities.
Nothing more you want to know that we could tell you?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Tommy. ‘I wouldn’t know what to ask.’
‘We shall be making enquiries, not necessarily¹⁴ round here, you know. Imay be in London or other parts looking round. We all help to look round.
Well, you’d know that, wouldn’t you?’
‘I want to try and keep Tuppence–keep my wife from getting herself toomixed up in things because–but it’s difficult.’
‘Women are always difficult,’ said Inspector Norris.
Tommy repeated that remark later as he sat by Tuppence’s bedside andwatched her eating grapes.
‘Do you really eat all the pips of grapes?’
‘Usually,’ said Tuppence. ‘It takes so much time getting them out, doesn’tit? I don’t think they hurt you.’
‘Well, if they haven’t hurt you by now, and you’ve been doing it all yourlife, I shouldn’t think they would,’ said Tommy.
‘What did the police say?’
‘Exactly what we thought they would say.’
‘Do they know who it’s likely to have been?’
‘They say they don’t think it’s local.’
‘Who did you see? Inspector Watson his name is, isn’t it?’
‘No. This was an Inspector Norris.’
‘Oh, that’s one I don’t know. What else did he say?’
‘He said women were always very difficult to restrain¹⁵.’
‘Really!’ said Tuppence. ‘Did he know you were coming back to tell methat?’
‘Possibly not,’ said Tommy. He got up. ‘I must put in a telephone call ortwo to London. I’m not going up for a day or two.’
‘You can go up all right. I’m quite safe here! There’s Albert looking afterme and all the rest of it. Dr Crossfield has been terribly kind and ratherlike a sort of broody hen watching over me.’
‘I’ll have to go out to get things for Albert. Anything you want?’
‘Yes,’ said Tuppence, ‘you might bring me back a melon. I’m feeling veryinclined to fruit. Nothing but fruit.’
‘All right,’ said Tommy.

1 chap   

n.男人；小伙子；家伙

参考例句：

• This chap can't keep anything to himself.这人肚里藏不住话。
• This chap is quite a smooth character.这人很世故。

2 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。

3 grazing   

n. 放牧, 牧草 动词graze的现在分词

参考例句：

• There were cows grazing beside the river. 有些牛在河边吃草。
• Cows were grazing on the marshes. 牛群在湿地上吃草。

4 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。

5 assure   

vt.使确信；向…保证，使有保证

参考例句：

• The only ladder to assure success is to work hard.确保成功的惟一途径是刻苦努力。
• I assure you that she can be trusted to do the job.我担保她能做好这项工作。

6 chaps   

n.[复][美]牧人穿的皮护腿套裤

参考例句：

• a pair of chaps 一条皮套裤
• "Oh, we'll be right back, Miss Madenda,'said one of the chaps, bowing. “哦，我们马上就回来，麦登达小姐，"小伙子中的一个鞠了鞠躬说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

7 apparent   

adj.表面上的，貌似真实的，显然的，明明白白的

参考例句：

• The apparent truth was really a lie.表面上看似实话，实际上是个谎言。
• His guilt is apparent to all.他的罪恶尽人皆知。

8 headquarters   

n.司令部，指挥部；总部，总店

参考例句：

• Several great guns from the headquarters are coming to see us today.总部的几个大人物今天要来看我们。
• The bank has its headquarters in Pairs.这家银行的总行在巴黎。

9 elsewhere   

adv.在别处，到别处

参考例句：

• Our favourite restaurant was full so we had to go elsewhere.我们最喜欢去的那家饭店客满了，因此不得不改去别处。
• I have half a mind to move elsewhere.我有点想搬到别处去。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 doubtful   

adj.难以预测的，未定的；怀疑的，可疑的

参考例句：

• Let's try to clear up our difficult and doubtful points.让我们设法把难处和疑点解决一下。
• Everyone was doubtful at first,but his statement in detail held up.起初大家都怀疑，但他的详细叙述证明情况属实。

12 reference   

n.提到，说到，暗示，查看，查阅

参考例句：

• We spent days going through all related reference material.我们花了好多天功夫查阅所有有关的参考资料。
• I like to have my reference books within my reach.我喜欢把参考书放到伸手可取的地方。

13 twinkle   

n.闪烁，闪耀，眨眼，瞬息；v.闪烁，使...闪耀，眨眼，迅速移动

参考例句：

• The twinkle of distant town lights was very beautiful.远处城镇灯火闪烁，煞是好看。
• At night,lights twinkle in distant villages across the valleys.夜间，山谷那头的遥远村落里灯光闪闪。

14 necessarily   

adv.必要地，必需地；必定地，必然地

参考例句：

• More work does not necessarily call for more men.增加工作量不一定就要增添人员。
• A voter must necessarily be no younger than eighteen.选民必须在18岁以上。

15 restrain   

vt.阻止，控制；抑制，遏制

参考例句：

• If you can't restrain your dog you must lock it up.如果你无法管住你的狗，就必须把它关起来。
• They couldn't restrain their excitement.他们无法抑制自己的激动。