“是的，一定是这样。”马龙说，“他跟踪第一个图伊兹到一个小巷里的偏僻地方，然后刺了他。然后图伊兹活了足够长的时间找到我，把钥匙给了我。第二个图伊兹临死前的举动是试图给我打电话。他们想让我找到那个储物柜和里面的东西，为他们的死报仇。那些家伙很顽强。”

“Yes, it must have been that way,” Malone said. “He trailed the first Tuesday to some lonely spot in an alley and stabbed him. Then Tuesday lived just long enough to find me and give me that key. The second Tuesday’s dying act was to try to telephone me. They wanted me to find that locker and its contents, and avenge their deaths. They were a hardy bunch, those boys.”

“新年前夜之后，”莫娜·麦克莱恩接着说，“那个我以为是杰拉尔德·图伊兹的人来找我，想通过勒索的方式进入我家。那时他知道我在试图保护伊迪莎，他威胁要把整个故事告诉警察。我警告他那个假文宁已经犯了一起谋杀罪，不会对再犯一起有丝毫犹豫——但他说他愿意冒这个险。好吧，他冒了这个险。”

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“After New Year’s Eve,” Mona McClane went on, “the man I knew as Gerald Tuesday came to me, to blackmail his way into my house. He knew, then, that I was trying to protect Editha, and he threatened to tell the whole story to the police. I warned him that the false Venning had done one murder and wouldn’t hesitate at a second—but he said he’d take his chance on that. Well, he took it.”

马龙说：“你还有别的原因。你不能告诉我你这么容易就被勒索了。”

Malone said, “You had some other reason, too. You can’t tell me you can be blackmailed that easy.”

她微微一笑。“我想如果图伊兹实施他的计划来到这里，他的兄弟会杀了他。那可能会给我实现我的计划的机会，就像今天发生的一样。”

She smiled faintly. “I thought that if Tuesday carried out his plan and came here, his brother would murder him. That might give me the opportunity to carry out my plans that it did give me—today.”

“不管怎么说，最后结果还不错。”马龙温柔地说，“好了，事情就这样了。第一个和第二个图伊兹的谋杀案——对年轻的麦克劳林的谋杀未遂，因为凶手担心他知道真相——那个敞开的坟墓。”他重新点着雪茄。“那个假文宁来到这里后的第一个举动可能就是挖出真正的迈克尔·文宁的遗体并处理掉。”他对伊迪莎·文宁微笑。“你出现找坟墓的时候让杰克吓了一跳。”

“It turned out all right in the end, anyway,” Malone said gently. “Well, that does it up. The murders of the first and second Tuesdays—the attempted murder of young McLaurin because the murderer feared he knew the truth—the open grave.” He relit his cigar. “The false Venning’s first move when he arrived here was probably to dig up the remains of the real Michael Venning and dispose of them.” He smiled at Editha Venning. “You gave Jake a bad moment when you turned up looking for the grave.”

“还有人让我更害怕。”杰克说，“那一定是第二个迈克尔·文宁在树林里向我开枪。或者他只是在安静地进行一点射击练习？”

“Somebody else gave me a much worse moment,” said Jake. “That must have been Michael Venning the Second shooting at me out in the woods. Or was he just having a little quiet target practice?”

伊迪莎淡淡地笑了笑。“在那里看到你我真的松了一口气。我确定迈克尔跟踪了我。你是一种保护。我没意识到他有多绝望。他一定认为那个敞开的坟墓会是一个明显的线索。”

Editha smiled wanly. “I was so relieved to see you out there. I was sure Michael had followed me. You were protection. I hadn’t realized how desperate he was. He must have thought the open grave would be a dead giveaway.”

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杰克叹了口气。“我想我失去了我最欣赏我的观众，那个唯一认为我是个策划大师的人。”

Jake sighed. “I guess I’ve lost my most appreciative audience, the only person who ever thought I was a mastermind.”

莫娜·麦克莱恩说：“我们都来喝一杯吧。”

Mona McClane said, “Let’s all have a drink.”

马龙看着他手里的信。“我想我们不再需要这些了。”他把信放在火里。一道耀眼的火焰照亮了房间，然后又熄灭了。小律师抬头看着彭德利·泰德韦尔。“你最好也把那张照片给我——就是你昨晚在文宁房间里拍的那张。不管怎么说，你当时在哪里？”

Malone looked at the letters in his hand. “I don’t think we need these any longer,” he said. He laid them in the fire. A brilliant blaze lighted the room and died down again. The little lawyer looked up at Pendley Tidewell. “You’d better give me that picture, too—the one you took in Venning’s room last night. Where were you, anyway?”

“在床底下。”年轻人温顺地说。“自从他来到这里我就一直想给他拍张照片。昨天我弄到了一个那种灯，在他的房间里安装好，然后藏在那里。我想我可以在他不知道的情况下给他拍张照片。然后伊迪莎阿姨进来开始四处窥探。我给她拍了一张，就在那时他从衣柜里出来，给了她一拳，然后从门跑出去，顺着那个侧楼梯下去了。但我给他拍了几张照片。”

“Under the bed,” the young man said meekly. “I’d been trying to get a picture of him ever since he got here. Yesterday I got one of those lamps and rigged it up in his room and hid there. I figured I could get a picture of him without his knowing it. Then Aunt Editha came in and began prowling around. I took one of her, and just then he came out of the wardrobe and bopped her one and ducked out the door and down that side stairway. But I got a couple of pictures of him.”

“如果我们需要任何证据的话……”马龙说。他叹了口气。“把它们扔进壁炉里，孩子。”

“If we’d needed any proof—” Malone said. He sighed. “Toss them in the fireplace, son.”

彭德利·泰德韦尔似乎快要哭了。“但是，天哪。它们是我拍过的最好的照片。”

“Pendley Tidewell seemed on the verge of tears. “But gosh. They’re the first good pictures I ever took.”

杰克说：“没关系。我会安排让你偷拍一张凯利市长的照片。你以前从没有机会给市长拍照。”

Jake said, “Never mind. I’ll fix it so you can get a candid-camera shot of Mayor Kelly. You never had a chance to photograph a mayor before.”

壁炉里又燃起一团火焰。

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A second blaze sprang up in the fireplace.

“你在那个房间里找什么？”马龙问伊迪莎·文宁。“现在这已经不重要了。”

“What were you looking for in that room?” Malone asked Editha Venning. “Not that it matters now.”

“我知道迈克尔——杰拉尔德——谋杀了他的兄弟们。我想他一定拿回了他们掌握的关于欺骗的证据。所以当我以为他昨晚要离开的时候，我给怀特小姐——怀特先生——下了药，然后去搜查那个房间。但他起了疑心，比我先到了那里。”

“I knew Michael—Gerald—had murdered his brothers. I figured he must have gotten back the proof they had of the deception. So when I thought he was going to be away last night, I doped Miss White—Mr. White—and went to search the room. But he suspected something was up, and got there ahead of me.”

“你做得很好，”杰克说，“他显然计划去枫树公园，去把坟墓填上，把罗斯·麦克劳林简单地放进去的坟墓。如果你没有拖延他，我们可能就得在那时那地和他枪战了，而我们唯一的武器是一瓶黑麦威士忌。”

“A good thing you did,” Jake said. “He evidently planned to go out to Maple Park and fill in the grave where he’d so conveniently placed Ross McLaurin. If you hadn’t delayed him, we might have had to shoot it out with him right then and there, and the only weapon we had was a bottle of rye.”

“这让我想起了一件事，”马龙说，“卢·怀特——我说得对吗？文宁在你来到这个国家的时候雇了他，让他留意你，以防万一，却没有告诉他到底是怎么回事？”

“That reminds me,” Malone said. “Lou White—am I right that Venning engaged him when you got to this country, to keep an eye on you, just in case, without telling him what it was all about?”

伊迪莎·文宁点了点头。“我不知道他跟怀特说了什么——但那不是真相。”

Editha Venning nodded. “I don’t know what he told White—but it wasn’t the truth.”

“好的，”律师说，“我警告过怀特要一字不差地告诉警察我告诉他的话，他现在正在这么做。我威胁他说如果他不这么做，我就告诉纽约的每一个私家侦探卢·怀特会织毛衣。”

“O.K.,” the lawyer said. “I warned White to tell the police exactly what I told him, and he’s doing it now. I threatened that if he didn’t, I’d tell every private dick in New York that Lou White knew how to knit.”

在鸡尾酒桌周围出现了一阵短暂而愉快的混乱。混乱中，女仆突然出现并宣布：“医院刚刚打来电话。麦克劳林先生恢复了意识，正在找艾伦小姐。”

There was a brief and pleasant confusion around the cocktail table. In the midst of it the maid suddenly appeared and announced, “The hospital just called. Mr. McLaurin is conscious and asking for Miss Allen.”

原名安杰洛的洛特斯·艾伦说了声“谢谢”，几乎在她的声音消失之前就离开了房间。

Lotus Allen, nee Angelo, said “Thank you,” and was out of the room almost before the sound of her voice had died away.

莫娜·麦克莱恩的眼睛里闪着光。“这会很有趣。这房子里好几年都没有举行过婚礼了。”她停顿了一下，微笑着说：“虽然这里似乎什么都发生过！”

A light came into Mona McClane’s eyes. “It’s going to be fun. There hasn’t been a wedding in the house in years.” She paused, smiled. “Though there does seem to have been everything else!”