命案目睹记19
时间：2025-10-20 07:22:24
（单词翻译:单击）
Nine
I
The only people who really did justice to Lucy’s excellent lunch were the
two boys and Cedric Crackenthorpe who appeared completely unaffected
by the circumstances which had caused him to return to England. He
seemed, indeed, to regard the whole thing as a rather good joke of a
Harold seemed to take the murder as a kind of personal insult to the
hardly any lunch. Emma looked worried and unhappy and also ate very
little. He was quite a good-looking man with a thin dark face and eyes set
rather too close together.
After lunch the police officers returned and politely asked if they could
have a few words with Mr. Cedric Crackenthorpe.
“Sit down, Mr. Crackenthorpe. I understand you have just come back
from the Balearics? You live out there?”
“Have done for the past six years. In Ibiza. Suits me better than this
“You get a good deal more sunshine than we do, I expect,” said Inspector
Craddock agreeably. “You were home not so very long ago, I understand—
for Christmas, to be exact. What made it necessary for you to come back
again so soon?”
Cedric grinned.
“Got a wire from Emma—my sister. We’ve never had a murder on the
“You are interested in criminology?”
“Oh, we needn’t put it in such highbrow terms! I just like murders—
Whodunnits and all that! With a Whodunnit parked right on the family
doorstep, it seemed the chance of a lifetime. Besides, I thought poor Em
might need a spot of help—managing the old man and the police and all
the rest of it.”
“I see. It appealed to your sporting instincts and also to your family feel-
ings. I’ve no doubt your sister will be very grateful to you—although her
two other brothers have also come to be with her.”
“But not to cheer and comfort,” Cedric told him. “Harold is terrifically
put out. It’s not at all the thing for a City magnate to be mixed up with the
murder of a questionable8 female.”
“Was she—a questionable female?”
“Well, you’re the authority on that point. Going by the facts, it seemed to
me likely.”
“I thought perhaps you might have been able to make a guess at who
she was?”
“Come now, Inspector, you already know—or your colleagues will tell
you, that I haven’t been able to identify her.”
“I said a guess, Mr. Crackenthorpe. You might never have seen the wo-
man before—but you might have been able to make a guess at who she
was—or who she might have been?”
Cedric shook his head.
“You’re barking up the wrong tree. I’ve absolutely no idea. You’re sug-
gesting, I suppose, that she may have come to the Long Barn to keep an as-
signation with one of us? But we none of us live here. The only people in
the house were a woman and an old man. You don’t seriously believe that
“Our point is—Inspector Bacon agrees with me—that the woman may
once have had some association with this house. It may have been a con-
siderable number of years ago. Cast your mind back, Mr. Crackenthorpe.”
Cedric thought a moment or two, then shook his head.
“We’ve had foreign help from time to time, like most people, but I can’t
think of any likely possibility. Better ask the others—they’d know more
than I would.”
“We shall do that, of course.”
Craddock leaned back in his chair and went on:
“As you have heard at the inquest, the medical evidence cannot fix the
time of death very accurately11. Longer than two weeks, less than four—
which brings it somewhere around Christmas-time. You have told me you
came home for Christmas. When did you arrive in England and when did
you leave?”
Cedric reflected.
“Let me see… I flew. Got here on the Saturday before Christmas—that
would be the 21st.”
“You flew straight from Majorca?”
“Yes. Left at five in the morning and got here midday.”
“And you left?”
“I flew back on the following Friday, the 27th.”
“Thank you.”
Cedric grinned.
“Leaves me well within the limit, unfortunately. But really, Inspector,
strangling young women is not my favourite form of Christmas fun.”
“I hope not, Mr. Crackenthorpe.”
Inspector Bacon merely looked disapproving12.
“There would be a remarkable13 absence of peace and good will about
such an action, don’t you agree?”
Inspector Craddock said politely:
“Well, thank you, Mr. Crackenthorpe. That will be all.”
“And what do you think of him?” Craddock asked as Cedric shut the
door behind him.
Bacon grunted again.
“Cocky enough for anything,” he said. “I don’t care for the type myself. A
loose-living lot, these artists, and very likely to be mixed up with a disrep-
utable class of woman.”
Craddock smiled.
“I don’t like the way he dresses, either,” went on Bacon. “No respect—
going to an inquest like that. Dirtiest pair of trousers I’ve seen in a long
while. And did you see his tie? Looked as though it was made of coloured
string. If you ask me, he’s the kind that would easily strangle a woman
and make no bones about it.”
“Well, he didn’t strangle this one—if he didn’t leave Majorca until the
21st. And that’s a thing we can verify easily enough.”
Bacon threw him a sharp glance.
“I notice that you’re not tipping your hand yet about the actual date of
the crime.”
“No, we’ll keep that dark for the present. I always like to have some-
thing up my sleeve in the early stages.”
Bacon nodded in full agreement.
“Spring it on ’em when the time comes,” he said. “That’s the best plan.”
“And now,” said Craddock, “we’ll see what our correct City gentleman
has to say about it all.”
Harold Crackenthorpe, thin-lipped, had very little to say about it. It was
most distasteful—a very unfortunate incident. The newspapers, he was
afraid… Reporters, he understood, had already been asking for inter-
views… All that sort of thing… Most regrettable….
Harold’s staccato unfinished sentences ended. He leaned back in his
chair with the expression of a man confronted with a very bad smell.
The inspector’s probing produced no result. No, he had no idea who the
woman was or could be. Yes, he had been at Rutherford Hall for Christ-
mas. He had been unable to come down until Christmas Eve—but had
stayed on over the following weekend.
“That’s that, then,” said Inspector Craddock, without pressing his ques-
tions further. He had already made up his mind that Harold Cracken-
thorpe was not going to be helpful.
He passed on to Alfred, who came into the room with a nonchalance15
Craddock looked at Alfred Crackenthorpe with a faint feeling of recogni-
tion. Surely he had seen this particular member of the family somewhere
before? Or had it been his picture in the paper? There was something dis-
creditable attached to the memory. He asked Alfred his occupation and Al-
fred’s answer was vague.
“I’m in insurance at the moment. Until recently I’ve been interested in
putting a new type of talking machine on the market. Quite revolutionary.
I did very well out of that as a matter of fact.”
Inspector Craddock looked appreciative—and no one could have had
the least idea that he was noticing the superficially smart appearance of
clothes had been disreputable, almost threadbare, but they had been ori-
ginally of good cut and excellent material. Here there was a cheap smart-
ness that told its own tale. Craddock passed pleasantly on to his routine
questions. Alfred seemed interested—even slightly amused.
“It’s quite an idea, that the woman might once have had a job here. Not
as a lady’s maid; I doubt if my sister has ever had such a thing. I don’t
think anyone has nowadays. But, of course, there is a good deal of foreign
domestic labour floating about. We’ve had Poles—and a temperamental
German or two. As Emma definitely didn’t recognize the woman, I think
that washes your idea out, Inspector, Emma’s got a very good memory for
a face. No, if the woman came from London… What gives you the idea she
came from London, by the way?”
interested.
Inspector Craddock smiled and shook his head.
Alfred looked at him keenly.
“Not telling, eh? Return ticket in her coat pocket, perhaps, is that it?”
“It could be, Mr. Crackenthorpe.”
“Well, granting she came from London, perhaps the chap she came to
meet had the idea that the Long Barn would be a nice place to do a quiet
murder. He knows the setup here, evidently. I should go looking for him if
I were you, Inspector.”
“We are,” said Inspector Craddock, and made the two little words sound
quiet and confident.
He thanked Alfred and dismissed him.
“You know,” he said to Bacon, “I’ve seen that chap somewhere before….”
Inspector Bacon gave his verdict.
“Sharp customer,” he said. “So sharp that he cuts himself sometimes.”
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1
macabre
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| adj.骇人的，可怖的 | |
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2
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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3
outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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4
spoke
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| 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 | |
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5
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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6
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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7
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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8
questionable
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| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
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9
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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10
revered
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| v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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12
disapproving
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| adj.不满的，反对的v.不赞成( disapprove的现在分词 ) | |
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13
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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14
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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15
nonchalance
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| n.冷淡，漠不关心 | |
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16
overdone
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| v.做得过分( overdo的过去分词 )；太夸张；把…煮得太久；（工作等）过度 | |
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17
gauging
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| n.测量[试]，测定，计量v.（用仪器）测量( gauge的现在分词 )；估计；计量；划分 | |
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18
casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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