第104章 卷37（1/2）

虾皮小说【www.xpxs.net】第一时间更新《马龙探案之三点的迷案》最新章节。

马龙探案卷三 之 错误的凶案 三十七

乔治?布兰德往一杯苏打水里倒了双份黑麦威士忌，梦幻般地看着它，说：“你怎么知道所有这些的？”

GEoRGE bRANd poUREd A doUbLE RYE into a glass of seltzer, gazed at it dreamily, and said, “how did you know all that?”

“我不知道，” 马龙立刻说。“我是边编边说的。但是该死，我总得告诉冯?弗拉纳根点什么。”

“I didn’t,” malone said promptly. “I was making it up as I went along. but damn it, I had to tell Von Flanagan something.”

已经过了午夜。在第三街格斯的店里的一个隔间里有他们五个人：杰克、海伦、马龙、乔治?布兰德和莫娜?麦克莱恩。他们选择格斯的店一部分是因为这里离机场开车距离不远，杰克和海伦要乘坐黎明的飞机（尽管马龙发誓说有海伦开车的话，密尔沃基也不算远），另一部分是因为海伦宣称她喜欢格斯，哪儿也不想去。

It was past midnight. there were five of them in the booth in Gus’s place on 3rd Street: Jake, helene, ma-lone, George brand, and mona mcclane. they had selected Gus’s partly because it was easy driving distance from the airport from which Jake and helene were to take the dawn plane (though malone swore that milwaukee would be easy driving distance with helene at the wheel) and partly because helene declared that she liked Gus and refused to go anywhere else.

“你是说，” 莫娜?麦克莱恩说，“艾伦什么也没告诉你？”

“You mean,” mona mcclane said, “that Ellen didn’t tell you anything?”

“一点也没说，” 马龙愉快地说。

“Not a thing,” malone said cheerfully.

“但是那个速记员的笔记本，” 杰克说，“上面有记录。你是怎么做到的？”

“but that stenographer’s notebook,” Jake said, “with notes in it. how did you manage that?”

马龙说：“你们两个出去的时候，我叫来了玛吉，让她赶紧到办公室，我一边讲她一边记下来。” 他把他的酒一饮而尽，微微颤抖了一下，然后钦佩地说：“我什么都能想到。”

malone said, “while you two were out, I got hold of maggie and had her e down to the office in a hurry and take it all down as I told it to her.” he poured his drink down his throat, shuddered slightly, and said admiringly, “I think of everything.”

“你是说那些都不是真的？” 杰克问道。

“You mean none of that was true?” Jake demanded.

“全都是真的。但是我没法证明。那个笔记本是关键。反正只要冯?弗拉纳根把案子结了，他才不在乎呢。”

“All of it was true. but I couldn’t prove it. the notebook was the clincher. As long as Von Flanagan had the case closed, he didn’t give a hoot anyway.”

这个小个子律师拿出一支雪茄，看了看，点燃它，然后说：“如果我动动脑子的话，今天下午我就应该想到了。”

the little lawyer took out a cigar, looked at it, lit it, and said, “If I’d used my head I’d have known it this afternoon.”

“你今天下午就应该想到什么？” 海伦问道。

“You’d have known what this afternoon?” helene demanded.

“不是莫娜?麦克莱恩干的。至少我一看到她就应该明白过来。”

“that it wasn’t mona mcclane. At least I should have tumbled the minute I looked at her.”

“为什么？”

“why?”

“因为她的皮草，” 马龙说。他快速地扫视了一下桌子周围，然后向格斯大声下了个订单。“在弗雷特被谋杀到我们见到她的这段时间里，她根本没时间回家换掉她的皮草。”

“because of her furs,” malone said. he cast a quick glance around the table and bawled an order to Gus. “She never would have had time to go home and change her furs in the time between Fleurette’s murder and when we met her.”

“我可能很笨，” 杰克开口说，“但是……”

“I may be dumb,” Jake began, “but-”

“你是很笨，” 马龙尖刻地说，“如果你不能马上明白像莫娜?麦克莱恩这样穿着讲究的女人，在穿着今天下午那种浅米色皮草的时候，是不会拿着一个大白金狐皮暖手筒的。”

“You are,” malone said acidly, “if you don’t see right away that no woman as well dressed as mona mcclane would carry a big platinum fox muff with the pale beige fur she had on this afternoon.”

格斯送来了五杯更多的黑麦威士忌。

Gus delivered five more ryes.

马龙从他的内口袋里拿出一张折叠起来的纸，递给莫娜?麦克莱恩。“你可能想要这个，” 他说。那是结婚证书。

malone took a folded paper from his inside coat pocket and handed it to mona mcclane. “You might want this,” he said. It was the marriage certificate.

“谢谢，” 她说。她看了一眼，眼神突然柔和下来，然后温柔地说：“那是一种疯狂的冲动，当你非常年轻、容易受影响又备受呵护的时候，你无法抗拒。你可能不会相信，但是他是一个极其有魅力的年轻人，没有钱也没有前途。我不敢告诉任何人，然后突然发现自己被推进了一场……” 她做了个苦脸，“一场时髦的婚姻。我不敢做任何关于宣告婚姻无效的事情，而他已经消失了。当你十七岁的时候发生了这样的事情，你不知道该怎么办。我只是继续着这场时髦的婚姻，吓得要死。过了好几年我才又见到他。”

“thanks,” she said. She glanced at it, her eyes suddenly softened, and she said gently, “It was one of those mad impulses you can’t resist when you’re very young and impressionable and sheltered. You wouldn’t believe it, but he was an extremely attractive young man, with no money and no prospects. I didn’t dare tell anybody, and all of a sudden I found myself being pushed into,” she made a wry face, “a fashionable marriage. I didn’t dare do anything about an annulment, and he had disappeared. when you’re seventeen and something like that happens to you, you don’t know what to do. I just went ahead with the fashionable marriage, scared to death. It was years before I saw him again.”

她长长地、颤抖着、叹息着吸了一口气，接着说：“我只见过他一次。那时他已经变得富有了，他也变成了一个罪犯。那时我才知道，他在报纸上看到我订婚的消息后就离开了，因为他觉得这是唯一该做的事情。”

She drew a long, quivering, sighing breath and went on, “I only saw him once. he’d bee wealthy then, he’d also bee a criminal. I learned then that he’d gone away when he read in the papers of my engagement because he thought it was the only thing to do.”

“他曾经试图勒索过你吗？” 马龙非常温柔地问道。

“did he ever try to blackmail you?” malone asked very gently.

“从来没有。这是一件人们会忘记的事情。因为对此无能为力。那次见面之后，我甚至都没有再想起过他，直到……” 她嘴角微微上扬笑了笑，“我在报纸上看到他被谋杀的消息。” 她长久而若有所思地看着那张证书，把它折起来放进了她的钱包，然后说：“你在哪里找到这个的？”

“Never. It was one of those things one forgets. because there was nothing to be done about it. After that meeting I didn’t even think of him again until,” she smiled with just one half of her mouth, “I read of his murder in the newspapers.” She looked long and thoughtfully at the certificate, folded it and put it in her purse, and said, “where did you find that?”

马龙告诉她是在那个金属公文箱里发现的。

malone told her of its discovery in the metal dispatch box.

“在我找到那个之前，” 他说，“我相信是你杀了他。”

“Until I found that,” he said, “I believed that you’d killed him.”

杰克在狭窄的桌子下伸直了他的长腿，说：“不管怎么说，这些关于有动机和没动机的到底是怎么回事？”

Jake stretched his long legs under the narrow table and said, “what the hell is all this about motives and no motives, anyway?”

马龙说：“只要我找不到她犯罪的动机，我就认为是莫娜杀了他。一旦我找到了，我就知道她没有。” 他停顿了一下然后说：“听着。假设莫娜知道那个盒子里有那张证书的存在。假设冈布里尔一直在用它来勒索她，因此，她杀了他。事情看起来是这样的，不是吗？”

malone said, “As long as I couldn’t find her motive for the crime I believed mona had killed him. As soon as I found it, I knew she hadn’t.” he paused and said, “Look. Suppose mona knew of the existence of that certificate in that box. Suppose Gumbril had been using it to blackmail her, and, consequently, she killed him. that’s how it appeared, wasn’t it?”

“然后呢？” 杰克不耐烦地说。

“well?” Jake said crossly.

“那么，她会那么平静地离开，把那张证书留在那里让任何人都能找到吗？”

“would she, then, have calmly gone away and left that certificate there for anybody in the world to find?”

过了一会儿，杰克不好意思地说：“不，她不会。但也许她不知道去哪里找它。”

After a moment Jake said sheepishly, “No, she wouldn’t. but maybe she wouldn’t have known where to look for it.”

“你也不知道，” 律师说，“但你找到了。而且你没有知道要找什么的优势。即使她没有发现盒子没锁，她也会猜到证书在里面，然后把整个盒子都拿走。这就是为什么当我发现盒子里的东西时，我知道我一直都错了。这就是为什么当我发现它的时候那么震惊，因为按照我的所有推理，它不应该在那里。” 他喝完了他的黑麦威士忌，用手帕擦了擦嘴唇，然后相当自负地说：“观众还有问题吗？”

“Neither did you,” the lawyer said, “but you found it. And you didn’t have the advantage of knowing what to look for. Even if she hadn’t discovered the box was unlocked, she’d have guessed that the certificate was in it and carried the whole thing away. that’s why, when I found what was in the box, I knew I’d been wrong all along. that’s why I was so dumfounded when I discovered it, because, by all my reasoning, it shouldn’t have been there.” he finished his rye, wiped his lips on his handkerchief, and said, rather pompously, “Any more questions from the audience?”

“有上千个问题，” 杰克说，“但我才不会问呢。”

“thousands,” Jake said, “but I’m damned if I’ll ask.”

莫娜?麦克莱恩说：“你怎么知道是艾伦？”

mona mcclane said, “how did you know it was Ellen?”

“因为和我知道不是你的原因正好相反，” 马龙说。他停顿了一下然后大喊：“格斯！”

“For the reverse of the reason I knew it wasn’t you,” malone said. he paused and yelled, “Gus!”

“别理他，” 海伦说。“他靠让人困惑为生。”