He smiled at her gratefully. “I’ve got my eye on a couple. One’s in a little town in Iowa, population twelve hundred Name of the paper’s The Enterprise. Something about that name appeals to me.” He drew a long breath and quoted a glowing description of the newspaper’s standing in the munity and its potential profits.
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杰克哼了一声。“如果这是家这么好的报纸，为什么老板要卖掉它呢？”
Jake grunted. “If it’s such a swell newspaper, why does the owner want to sell it?”
“他从商界退休去当警察局长。”冯·弗拉纳根告诉他。
“He’s retiring from business to bee chief of police,” von Flanagan told him.
“嗯。”海伦缓过气来说，“这是诗意的正义。”
“Well,” Helene said, when she’d caught her breath, “poetic justice.”
“任何想当警察的人都是疯子，所以这个人可能还真有点诗意。” 冯?弗拉纳根说。
“Anyone who wants to be a policeman,” von Flanagan said, “is nuts, so probably this guy is poetic at that.”
马龙到了，他的眼睛因为睡眠不足而又红又肿。“麦克莱恩夫人马上就到。你刚才说谁是疯子？”他开始脱大衣。
Malone arrived, his eyes pink and swollen from lack of sleep. “Mrs. McClane will be here in a minute. Who were you just saying was nuts?” He began shedding his overcoat.
“任何想当警察的人。”冯·弗拉纳根重复道。他不满地看着马龙。“现在说说这个在新年前夜被杀的家伙。如果他注定要被杀，为什么他身上没有护照、驾照，甚至连张名片都没有呢？没有。什么都没有。所以我得费好大劲去查他是谁。等我查出来了，然后呢？更多麻烦。”
“Anyone who wants to be a policeman,” von Flanagan repeated. He looked plainingly at Malone. “Now you take this guy who was killed New Year’s Eve. If he was gonna be killed, why couldn’t he have had his passport on him, or a driver’s license, or even a calling card? No. Not a damn thing. So I have to go to all the trouble of finding out who he was. When I do find out, then what? More trouble.”
马龙平淡地说：“人生来就是要成为向上飞去、半路迎接麻烦的火花。”
Malone observed platitudinously, “Man is born to be the spark that flies upward to meet trouble half-way.”
他还没来得及补充更多细节，莫娜·麦克莱恩就到了。她在门口站了一会儿，身影映衬在门框中，环顾着房间。就连丹尼尔·冯·弗拉纳根似乎也觉得她不属于这里，他坐在那里，钦佩地看着她。他在想，如果冯·弗拉纳根夫人看到那件外套，她肯定会对去年的貂皮大衣极度不满。
Before he could add any more details, Mona McClane arrived. She stood for just a moment framed in the doorway, looking around the room. Even Daniel von Flanagan seemed to feel that she didn’t belong there, as he sat looking at her admiringly. He was reflecting that if Mrs. von Flanagan ever got a look at that coat, she was going to bee violently dissatisfied with last year’s mink.
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他原本准备了一番愤怒、愤慨，甚至可能是亵渎的长篇大论，主题是那些向警方隐瞒重要信息的人。现在他站起身来，显得彬彬有礼又有些尴尬，说道：“你能来真是太好了，麦克莱恩夫人。”他的语气通常是留给市长办公室来访客人的。
He had been saving up a furious, indignant, and possibly profane tirade on the subject of people who withheld important information from the police. Now he rose, looked polite and embarrassed; and said, “It’s very good of you to e here, Mrs. McClane,” in a tone he usually reserved for visitors from the mayor’s office.
她对他微笑。“我很高兴来这儿。”她听起来像是真心这么说的。
She smiled at him. “I was delighted to e.” She sounded as though she really meant it.
冯·弗拉纳根在办公桌后坐下，开始恢复常态。
Von Flanagan sat down at his desk and began to return to normal.
“麦克莱恩夫人，昨天我带你去停尸房看的那个年轻人是谁？”
“Mrs. McClane, who was that young man I took you to see over in the morgue yesterday?”
她那双形状奇特的浅绿色眼睛睁得大大的。“我一点都不知道。我告诉过你，我这辈子从没见过他。”
Her odd-shaped, greenish eyes widened. “I haven’t the faintest idea. I told you, I never saw him before in my life.”
冯·弗拉纳根不赞同地摇了摇头。“现在，夫人，你坚持那样说对你自己和别人都没有好处。我不是在暗示我不相信你，你明白，但这次我希望你告诉我真相。”
Von Flanagan shook his head reprovingly. “Now, ma’am, you aren’t helping yourself or anybody else by sticking to that. I’m not insinuating I don’t believe you, y’understand, but this time I want you to tell me the truth.”
“但这就是事实。我真的从没见过他。”
“But it is the truth. I never did see him.”
他深深地叹了口气。“好吧，也许你能更好地回答这个问题。你对在你家被谋杀的那个人了解多少？”
He sighed heavily. “All right, maybe you can do better with this one. How well did you know that guy who was murdered up at your house?”
她看起来有点烦恼。“我告诉过你——不太熟。我们有共同的朋友——我见过他几次。仅此而已。”
She looked faintly troubled. “I told you—not well. We had mutual friends—and I’d met him a few times. That’s all.”
冯·弗拉纳根皱起眉头说：“不可能有两个叫杰拉尔德·图伊兹的人。”
Von Flanagan scowled and said, “There couldn’t have been two guys named Gerald Tuesday.”
莫娜·麦克莱恩什么也没说。
Mona McClane said nothing.
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他又换了个问题。“你对住在你那里的其他人了解多少？”
He tried something else. “How well do you know the rest of the mob staying up at your place?”
“文宁夫妇——我小时候就认识他们。但直到——哦，大约一年前在印度，我已经好几年没见过他们中的任何一个了。他们俩都已经——很久很久没在这个国家了。迈克尔在 1921 年匆匆来过这里一趟，那是最后一次。”
“The Vennings—I knew when I was a little girl. But I hadn’t seen either of them for years until—oh, about a year ago, in India. Neither of them have been in this country for—ages and ages. Michael made a flying trip here in 1921, and that was the last.”
“我都知道这些。”冯·弗拉纳根疲倦地说，“我想知道的是——文宁夫妇中的任何一个可能认识这两个叫图伊兹的人吗？”
“I know all that,” von Flanagan said wearily. “What I want to find out is—could either of the Vennings have known these two Tuesday guys?”
她耸了耸她那窄窄的肩膀。“我觉得不可能。当然，我也不能确定。”
She shrugged her narrow shoulders. “I don’t think so. Of course, I can’t be sure.”
“你对罗斯·麦克劳林了解多少？”
“How well did you know Ross McLaurin?”
“我认识他一辈子了。我是他母亲的密友。但我觉得他从没听说过杰拉尔德·图伊兹——任何一个杰拉尔德·图伊兹。”
“I’ve known him all his life. I was a close friend of his mother. But I don’t think he’d ever heard of Gerald Tuesday—of either Gerald Tuesday.”
“这个痴迷摄影的年轻人呢？”
“This young camera nut?”
“彭德利？他是个不错的年轻人，刚大学毕业，还没工作。”她微微露出一丝笑容，“不过如果迈克尔能活到五十岁，他很有希望有一天继承文宁家所有的财产——迈克尔明天就五十岁了，所以……”
“Pendley? He’s a nice young man, just out of college, and no job yet.” She smiled faintly. “Though he stands a fair chance to inherit all the Venning money some day—if Michael lives to be fifty. And he’ll be fifty tomorrow, so—”
“这都是怎么回事？”马龙问。
“What’s all this?” Malone asked.
“文宁家的遗嘱。”莫娜说，好像每个人都知道这件事似的。
“The Venning will,” Mona said, as though everyone knew all about it.
冯·弗拉纳根没理会这个。“还有这个艾伦女孩。你知道她是个骗子吗？”
Von Flanagan ignored that. “And this Allen girl. Did you know she was a phony?”