黑麦奇案26
时间：2025-10-10 08:31:05
（单词翻译:单击）
Chapter Sixteen
I
“Is there anything—what—are there—”
“Please sit down, Mrs. Fortescue. There are only just a few more ques-
tions I would like to ask you.”
“Oh, yes. Yes, of course, Inspector. It’s all so dreadful, isn’t it? So very
dreadful.”
She sat down rather nervously in an armchair. Inspector Neele sat
down in the small, straight chair near her. He studied her rather more
woman, he thought—and thought also that she was not very happy. Rest-
less, unsatisfied, limited in mental outlook, yet he thought she might have
been efficient and skilled in her own profession of hospital nurse. Though
she had achieved leisure by her marriage with a well-to-do man, leisure
had not satisfied her. She bought clothes, read novels and ate sweets, but
and he saw in it not so much a ghoulish satisfaction but rather a revela-
lids fluttered and fell before his searching glance. They gave her the ap-
pearance of being both nervous and guilty, but he could not be sure that
that was really the case.
“I’m afraid,” he said soothingly8, “we have to ask people questions again
down to tea rather late, I understand? In fact, Miss Dove came up and
fetched you.”
“Yes. Yes, she did. She came and said tea was in. I had no idea it was so
late. I’d been writing letters.”
Inspector Neele just glanced over at the writing desk.
“I see,” he said. “Somehow or other, I thought you’d been out for a
walk.”
“Did she say so? Yes—now I believe you’re right. I had been writing let-
for a walk. Only round the garden.”
“I see. You didn’t meet anyone?”
“Meet anyone?” She stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“I just wondered if you’d seen anybody or anybody had seen you during
this walk of yours.”
“I saw the gardener in the distance, that’s all.” She was looking at him
suspiciously.
“Then you came in, came up here to your room and you were just taking
your things off when Miss Dove came to tell you that tea was ready?”
“Yes. Yes, and so I came down.”
“And who was there?”
“Adele and Elaine, and a minute or two later Lance arrived. My brother-
in-law, you know. The one who’s come back from Kenya.”
“And then you all had tea?”
“Yes, we had tea. Then Lance went up to see Aunt Effie and I came up
here to finish my letters. I left Elaine there with Adele.”
He nodded reassuringly12.
“Yes. Miss Fortescue seems to have been with Mrs. Fortescue for quite
five or ten minutes after you left. Your husband hadn’t come home yet?”
“Oh no. Percy—Val—didn’t get home until about half past six or seven.
He’d been kept up in town.”
“He came back by train?”
“Yes. He took a taxi from the station.”
“Was it unusual for him to come back by train?”
“He does sometimes. Not very often. I think he’d been to places in the
city where it’s rather difficult to park the car. It was easier for him to take
“I see,” said Inspector Neele. He went on: “I asked your husband if Mrs.
Fortescue had made a will before she died. He said he thought not. I sup-
pose you don’t happen to have any idea?”
To his surprise Jennifer Fortescue nodded vigorously.
“Oh, yes,” she said. “Adele made a will. She told me so.”
“Indeed! When was this?”
“Oh, it wasn’t very long ago. About a month ago, I think.”
“That’s very interesting,” said Inspector Neele.
She clearly enjoyed exhibiting her superior knowledge.
“Val didn’t know about it,” she said. “Nobody knew. It just happened
that I found out about it. I was in the street. I had just come out of the sta-
tioner’s, then I saw Adele coming out of the solicitor’s office. Ansell and
Worrall’s, you know. In the High Street.”
“Ah,” said Neele, “the local solicitors15?”
“Yes. And I said to Adele: ‘Whatever have you been doing there?’ I said.
And she laughed and said: ‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’ And then as we
walked along together she said: ‘I’ll tell you, Jennifer. I’ve been making my
will.’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘why are you doing that, Adele, you’re not ill or any-
thing, are you?’ And she said no, of course she wasn’t ill. She’d never felt
better. But everyone ought to make a will. She said she wasn’t going to
those stuck-up family solicitors in London, Mr. Billingsley. She said the old
business, Jennifer, and I’ll make it my own way and nobody’s going to
know about it.’ ‘Well, Adele,’ I said, ‘I shan’t tell anybody.’ She said: ‘It
doesn’t matter if you do. You won’t know what’s in it.’ But I didn’t tell any-
one. No, not even Percy. I do think women ought to stick together, don’t
you, Inspector Neele?”
“I’m sure that’s a very nice feeling on your part, Mrs. Fortescue,” said In-
spector Neele diplomatically.
“I’m sure I’m never ill-natured,” said Jennifer. “I didn’t particularly care
for Adele, if you know what I mean. I always thought she was the kind of
woman who would stick at nothing in order to get what she wanted. Now
she’s dead, perhaps I misjudged her, poor soul.”
“Well, thank you very much, Mrs. Fortescue, for being so helpful to me.”
“You’re welcome, I’m sure. I’m only too glad to do anything I can. It’s all
so very terrible, isn’t it? Who is the old lady who’s arrived this morning?”
ation she could about the girl Gladys. It seems Gladys Martin was once in
service with her.”
“Really? How interesting.”
“There’s one other thing, Mrs. Percival. Do you know anything about
blackbirds?”
Jennifer Fortescue started violently. She dropped her handbag on the
“Blackbirds, Inspector? Blackbirds? What kind of blackbirds?”
Her voice was rather breathless. Smiling a little, Inspector, Neele said:
“Just blackbirds. Alive or dead or even, shall we say, symbolical19?”
Jennifer Fortescue said sharply:
“I don’t know what you mean. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You don’t know anything about blackbirds, then, Mrs. Fortescue?”
She said slowly:
“I suppose you mean the ones last summer in the pie. All very silly.”
“There were some left on the library table, too, weren’t there?”
“It was all a very silly practical joke. I don’t know who’s been talking to
you about it. Mr. Fortescue, my father-in-law, was very much annoyed by
it.”
“Just annoyed? Nothing more?”
“Oh. I see what you mean. Yes, I suppose—yes, it’s true. He asked us if
there were any strangers about the place.”
“Well, that’s what he said,” said Mrs. Percival defensively.
“Strangers,” repeated Inspector Neele thoughtfully. Then he asked: “Did
he seem afraid in any way?”
“Afraid? I don’t know what you mean.”
“Nervous. About strangers, I mean.”
“Yes. Yes, he did, rather. Of course I don’t remember very well. It was
several months ago, you know. I don’t think it was anything except a silly
practical joke. Crump perhaps. I really do think that Crump is a very un-
solent in his manner sometimes. I’ve sometimes wondered if he could
spector?”
“Anything’s possible,” said Inspector Neele and went away.
点击
收听单词发音
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1
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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3
mediocre
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| adj.平常的，普通的 | |
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avid
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| adj.热心的；贪婪的；渴望的；劲头十足的 | |
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arid
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| adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的 | |
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boredom
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| n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊 | |
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encompassed
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| v.围绕( encompass的过去式和过去分词 )；包围；包含；包括 | |
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soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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timing
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| n.时间安排，时间选择 | |
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stuffy
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| adj.不透气的，闷热的 | |
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reassuringly
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| ad.安心，可靠 | |
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13
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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solicitors
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| 初级律师( solicitor的名词复数 ) | |
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sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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19
symbolical
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| a.象征性的 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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