沉睡的谋杀案39
时间：2026-02-04 03:18:05
（单词翻译:单击）
IV
“Now let’s get this quite clear,” Inspector Last was saying.
He looked from Kennedy to Giles and Gwenda who had accompanied
the doctor. Gwenda was very pale and held her hands tightly clasped to-
gether. “You were expecting this woman by the train that leaves Dill-
mouth Junction at four-five? And gets to Woodleigh Bolton at four thirty-
five?”
Dr. Kennedy nodded.
Inspector Last looked down at the letter he had taken from the dead wo-
man’s body. It was quite clear.
Dear Mrs. Kimble (Dr. Kennedy had written)
I shall be glad to advise you to the best of my power. As you
will see from the heading of this letter I no longer live in
Dillmouth. If you will take the train leaving Coombeleigh
at 3.30, change at Dillmouth Junction, and come by the
Lonsbury Bay train to Woodleigh Bolton, my house is only
a few minutes’ walk. Turn to the left as you come out of the
station, then take the first road on the right. My house is at
the end of it on the right. The name is on the gate.
Yours truly,
James Kennedy.
“There was no question of her coming by an earlier train?”
“An earlier train?” Dr. Kennedy looked astonished.
“Because that’s what she did. She left Coombeleigh, not at three thirty
but at one thirty—caught the two-five from Dillmouth Junction and got
out, not at Woodleigh Bolton, but at Matchings Halt, the station before it.”
“But that’s extraordinary!”
“Was she consulting you professionally, Doctor?”
“No. I retired from practice some years ago.”
“That’s what I thought. You knew her well?”
Kennedy shook his head.
“I hadn’t seen her for nearly twenty years.”
“But you—er—recognized her just now?”
Gwenda shivered, but dead bodies did not affect a doctor and Kennedy
replied thoughtfully: “Under the circumstances it is hard to say if I recog-
nized her or not. She was strangled, I presume?”
“She was strangled. The body was found in a copse a short way along
the track leading from Matchings Halt to Woodleigh Camp. It was found
by a hiker coming down from the Camp at about ten minutes to four. Our
police surgeon puts the time of death at between two fifteen and three
o’clock. Presumably she was killed shortly after she left the station. No
other passenger got out at Matchings Halt. She was the only person to get
out of the train there.
“Now why did she get out at Matchings Halt? Did she mistake the sta-
tion? I hardly think so. In any case she was two hours early for her ap-
pointment with you, and had not come by the train you suggested, al-
though she had your letter with her.
“Now just what was her business with you, Doctor?”
Dr. Kennedy felt in his pocket and brought out Lily’s letter.
“I brought this with me. The enclosed cutting and the insertion put in
the local paper by Mr. and Mrs. Reed here.”
Inspector Last read Lily Kimble’s letter and the enclosure. Then he
looked from Dr. Kennedy to Giles and Gwenda.
“Can I have the story behind all this? It goes back a long way, I gather?”
“Eighteen years,” said Gwenda.
Piecemeal, with additions, and parentheses, the story came out. In-
spector Last was a good listener. He let the three people in front of him tell
things in their own way. Kennedy was dry, and factual, Gwenda was
slightly incoherent, but her narrative had imaginative power. Giles gave,
perhaps, the most valuable contribution. He was clear and to the point,
with less reserve than Kennedy, and with more coherence than Gwenda.
It took a long time.
Then Inspector Last sighed and summed up.
“Mrs. Halliday was Dr. Kennedy’s sister and your stepmother, Mrs.
Reed. She disappeared from the house you are at present living in eight-
een years ago. Lily Kimble (whose maiden name was Abbott) was a ser-
vant (house-parlourmaid) in the house at the time. For some reason Lily
Kimble inclines (after the passage of years) to the theory that there was
foul play. At the time it was assumed that Mrs. Halliday had gone away
with a man (identity unknown). Major Halliday died in a mental establish-
ment fifteen years ago still under the delusion that he had strangled his
wife—if it was a delusion—”
He paused.
“These are all interesting but somewhat unrelated facts. The crucial
point seems to be, is Mrs. Halliday alive or dead? If dead, when did she
die? And what did Lily Kimble know?”
“It seems, on the face of it, that she must have known something rather
important. So important that she was killed in order to prevent her talking
about it.”
Gwenda cried, “But how could anyone possibly know she was going to
talk about it—except us?”
Inspector Last turned his thoughtful eyes on her.
“It is a significant point, Mrs. Reed, that she took the two-five instead of
the four-five train from Dillmouth Junction. There must be some reason
for that. Also, she got out at the station before Woodleigh Bolton. Why? It
seems possible to me that, after writing to the doctor, she wrote to someone
else, suggesting a rendezvous at Woodleigh Camp, perhaps, and that she
proposed after that rendezvous, if it was unsatisfactory, to go on to Dr.
Kennedy and ask his advice. It is possible that she had suspicions of some
definite person, and she may have written to that person hinting at her
knowledge and suggesting a rendezvous.”
“Blackmail,” said Giles bluntly.
“I don’t suppose she thought of it that way,” said Inspector Last. “She
was just greedy and hopeful—and a little muddled about what she could
get out of it all. We’ll see. Maybe the husband can tell us more.”
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