“我能想象得到。”马龙平静地说，他的眼神很严厉。
“I rather imagined so,” Malone said quietly, and his eyes looked hard.
她继续说道：“总是要躲避那些认识迈克尔的人。当这样的人来到我们所在的地方时，他要么去打猎了，要么生病了。但我们开始担心，如果从来没有人见过他，人们会开始怀疑。”她脸颊上的血色开始褪去。“然后战争来了。我们冒险回到了这里。他确信这么久了没人会记得迈克尔。莫娜前一年在印度见过我们，并且把他当成了迈克尔·文宁，所以当莫娜的邀请到来时，我们决定接受。他确信如果莫娜把他介绍成迈克尔·文宁，并且相信他就是迈克尔·文宁，那么其他人也会。”她现在脸色苍白。“我在那里非常讨厌那样的生活。我很孤独，一直都很孤独。我再也受不了他了……”就在这时，她的声音真的哽咽了。
She went on, “There was always the business of dodging people who’d known Michael. When people like that came to wherever we were, he would be away on a hunting trip, or ill. But we were beginning to be afraid that people would start to wonder, if no one ever saw him.” The color began to recede from her cheeks. “Then the war came. We took a chance on ing back here. He felt sure that no one would remember Michael after so long. Mona had seen us in India the year before, and accepted him as Michael Venning, so when Mona’s invitation came, we decided to accept it. He felt sure that if Mona introduced him as Michael Venning, and believed he was Michael Venning, everyone else would.” Her face was colorless now. “I hated it so over there. I was so lonely, always lonely. I couldn’t stand him any longer—” That was when her voice did break.
小主，
“好了，”马龙温柔地说，“你不用再说了。让莫娜来讲吧。”他弹掉雪茄上的烟灰。“或者我来讲？”
“All right,” Malone said gently. “You don’t need to talk any more. Let Mona tell it.” He knocked the ashes off his cigar. “Or shall I?”
莫娜·麦克莱恩用白皙、紧张的手指点燃一支香烟，坐着看着烟头。在昏暗的灯光下，她的脸尖尖的，模糊不清，在黑暗中是一个有点苍白的三角形。
Mona McClane lighted a cigarette with white, nervous fingers and sat looking at the end of it. In the dim light her face was pointed, shadowy, a little pale triangle in the darkness.
“我计划杀了他，”她简单地说，“没有别的办法。他就是我想杀的人。”
“I planned to kill him,” she said simply. “There was no other way. He was the man I meant to murder.”
杰克和海伦同时转过头看着对方。
Jake and Helene turned their heads to look at each other at exactly the same moment.
她说：“我一直都很喜欢伊迪莎。”仅此而已。
She said, “I had always been so fond of Editha.” That was all.
马龙站起来，一只胳膊肘支在壁炉架的角上。“她来到这里后把整个故事都告诉你了，”他对莫娜·麦克莱恩说，“迈克尔·文宁——真正的迈克尔·文宁——很快就五十岁了。如果在那个生日或之后，那个被认为是迈克尔·文宁的人去世了，而真相永远不被揭露，那么不仅伊迪莎·文宁在这场欺骗中的角色永远不会被人知道，而且她还会继承遗产。这些年来他一直恶劣地对待她，他该死。”他把烟灰弹进壁炉里。“此外，他谋杀了真正的迈克尔·文宁。那不是一场意外。”
Malone rose and stood leaning one elbow on the corner of the mantel. “She told you the whole story after she came here,” he said to Mona McClane. “Michael Venning—the real Michael Venning—would soon have been fifty. If on, or after, that birthdate the man believed to be Michael Venning died, and the truth never came up, not only would Editha Venning’s part in the deception never be known, but she would inherit the estate. He had treated her abominably all these years, and he deserved to die.” He flicked his ashes into the fireplace. “Besides, he had murdered the real Michael Venning. It wasn’t an accident.”
杰克突然向前倾身。“但是那个赌注——当你和我打赌的时候……”
Jake leaned forward suddenly. “But that bet—when you made that bet with me—”
“我那时就计划好了，”莫娜·麦克莱恩说，“伊迪莎来了后不久，我就从她那里得知了整个故事——迈克尔不怕让伊迪莎单独和我谈话。他认为她不敢把真相告诉任何人。毕竟——她不能揭露他而不牵连自己。她告诉我这个故事后，我只能想到一件事要做。”
小主，
“I had planned it then,” Mona McClane said. “I learned the whole story from Editha very soon after her arrival—Michael wasn’t afraid to let Editha talk alone with me. He didn’t think she would dare tell the truth to anyone. After all—she couldn’t expose him without incriminating herself. After she’d told me the story, I could think of only one thing to do.”
她对杰克和海伦微笑。“我们进行那场疯狂的谈话，赌注出现的那天，我就下定了决心。这个想法让我觉得好笑。我这辈子几乎在所有事情上都赌过，为什么不在谋杀上赌一把呢？我也不是真的想打扰你们的蜜月。你们预计在迈克尔·文宁的生日前回到芝加哥，而他的冒名顶替者必须活到那时。”
She smiled at Jake and Helene. “I’d made up my mind the day we got into that insane conversation and the bet came up. The idea amused me. I’d gambled on almost everything else in my life, so why not murder? I didn’t really mean to interfere with your honeymoon, either. You were expected back in Chicago by Michael Venning’s birthday, and his impersonator had to remain alive until then.”
她优雅地耸了耸肩。“如果不是另外两个图伊兹把事情搞得这么复杂，一切都会按计划进行。”
She lifted her shoulders delicately. “It would all have gone off according to schedule, if only the other two Tuesdays hadn’t plicated everything.”
海伦突然抬起头。“对。在他们的兄弟冒充迈克尔·文宁的这段时间里，他们在哪里呢？”
Helene looked up suddenly. “That’s right. Where were they, all this time their brother was impersonating Michael Venning?”
“环游世界，过着奢华的生活，”马龙说，“杰拉尔德和他们分道扬镳了，因为他们知道真相。但当他回到这里时，他决定把他们排除在外。罗斯代尔公墓里已经有一个坟墓，上面有一块石头，刻着‘杰拉尔德·图伊兹’和日期。坟墓是空的——可能是因为他没有机会把迈克尔·文宁的尸体放进去。这些年来，尸体一直留在枫树公园的那个坟墓里。但他回来后的第一件事就是转移尸体。”
“Traveling around the world, living on the fat of the land,” Malone said. “Gerald split with them, because they knew the truth. But when he came back here he decided to cut them out. There already was a grave in Rosedale cemetery with a stone marked ‘Gerald Tuesday’ and the dates. The grave was empty—probably because he didn’t have a chance to put Michael Venning’s body in it. The body stayed in that grave out in Maple Park all those years. But his first act when he came back was to transfer it.”
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“但是，”海伦说，然后停顿了一下。“一开始立那个墓碑的目的是什么呢？”
“But.” Helene said, and paused. “What was the idea of the gravestone in the first place?”
“必须有某种方式来解释两个男人从东方来到这里，却只有一个回去的事实，”马龙说，“当杰拉尔德·图伊兹决定成为迈克尔·文宁时，他立了一块石头，标志着杰拉尔德·图伊兹的死亡。”
“There had to be some way to account for the fact that two men came here from the Orient and only one went back,” Malone said. “When Gerald Tuesday decided to bee Michael Venning, he put up a stone marking the death of Gerald Tuesday.”
他停下来重新点着雪茄。“他认为，一旦他让认识真正的迈克尔·文宁的芝加哥人接受了他，并且把真正的迈克尔的尸骨重新埋葬在罗斯代尔的坟墓里，他的兄弟们就不敢叫嚷了。但他不知道他们的执着。”他看着莫娜。“你帮了他们多少忙？”
He paused to relight his cigar. “He figured that once he’d gotten Chicagoans who’d known the real Michael Venning to accept him, and reburied the real Michael’s bones in the Rosedale grave, his brothers wouldn’t dare yelp. But he didn’t know their persistence.” He looked at Mona. “How much did you help them?”
“我把他们送到你那里，”莫娜说，“带着证据。”她突然停了下来。“现在它在哪里？”
“I sent them to you,” Mona said, “with the proof.” She stopped suddenly. “Where is it now?”
“我正坐在它上面。”杰克出人意料地说。他从自己身下抽出那个大的牛皮纸信封，递给马龙。“州街汽车站的 114 号行李寄存柜。”
“I’m sitting on it,” Jake said unexpectedly. He pulled the big manila envelope out from under him and handed it to Malone.
马龙抽出一小把信，边缘已经褪色发黄，他匆匆浏览了一遍。
Malone drew out a small handful of letters, faded and yellowed around the edges, and glanced through them hurriedly.
“这些就足够了。”他轻声说。他把信递给杰克和海伦。“这些是写给当时在新加坡的乔治·图伊兹的信，真正的迈克尔·文宁和杰拉尔德来到这里的时候。有些是文宁写的，讨论他们要参与的生意的安排，并提到杰拉尔德和他在一起。有一封——我没有仔细读，但我了解得够多了——是杰拉尔德写的，暗示会有一个更令人满意的安排，并要求乔治留在新加坡处理那里的事情。最后的关键证据是文宁死后杰拉尔德写的一封信，在信中他要求乔治为他以迈克尔·文宁的新身份回到东方铺平道路。”
“This would have done it,” he said quietly. He handed them to Jake and Helene. “Letters to George Tuesday who was in Singapore at the time the real Michael Venning and Gerald came over here. Some are from Venning discussing arrangements of the business they were to go into and referring to the fact that Gerald was with him. One—I didn’t read it closely but I gathered enough—is from Gerald, hinting that a more satisfactory arrangement would be made and asking George to stay in Singapore to handle things there. The final clincher is a letter written after Venning’s death in which Gerald asked George to pave the way for his return to the Orient in his new character of Michael Venning.”
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莫娜·麦克莱恩说：“那个我们以为是杰拉尔德·图伊兹的人来到这里找文宁先生。他不在。当那个人说他叫杰拉尔德·图伊兹时，我把他叫进来，告诉他我知道真相。我建议他把证据放在一个安全的地方，然后去找你充当中间人。我知道如果文宁——那个假文宁——发现他的兄弟在这里，就会发生谋杀。然后警察就会被叫来，一切都会暴露——你明白吗？但我想如果把你牵扯进这件事，你就能处理任何出现的情况。”
Mona McClane said, “The man we knew as Gerald Tuesday came here asking for Mr. Venning. He was out. When the man said his name was Gerald Tuesday, I called him in and told him that I knew the truth. I advised him to put his proof in a safe place and go to you to act as intermediary. I knew that if Venning—the false Venning—discovered that his brother were here, there would be murder done. Then the police would be called in, everything would e out—you see? But I thought that if you had been drawn into the affair, you could handle anything that came up.”
“谢谢。”马龙说。他的耳垂有点红。
“Thanks,” Malone said. The tips of his ears were pink.
“另一个图伊兹——第一个被杀的那个——出去找你。顺便说一下，我说我以前从没见过他是实话。我只见过那个我们以为是杰拉尔德的人。新年前夜，文宁——我想不出别的称呼——看到了他的兄弟，然后跟踪他。”
“The other Tuesday—the one who was killed first—went out looking for you. By the way, I was telling the truth when I said I never saw him before. I only saw the one we knew as Gerald. New Year’s Eve, Venning—I can’t think to call him anything else—saw his brother and trailed him.”