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The following morning, very early, Carol Boynton was seen to throwsomething into the stream. There is reason to believe that that something was a hypodermicsyringe.’
‘Comment?’ Dr Gerard looked up surprised. ‘But my hypodermic was returned. Yes, yes, Ihave it now.’
Poirot nodded vigorously.
‘Yes, yes. This second hypodermic, it is very curious—very interesting. I have been given tounderstand that this hypodermic belonged to Miss King. Is that so?’
Sarah paused for a fraction of a second.
Carol spoke1 quickly: ‘It was not Miss King’s syringe,’ she said. ‘It was mine.’
‘Then you admit throwing it away, mademoiselle?’
She hesitated just a second.
‘Yes, of course. Why shouldn’t I?’
‘Carol!’ It was Nadine. She leaned forward, her eyes wide and distressed2. ‘Carol…Oh, I don’tunderstand…’
Carol turned and looked at her. There was something hostile in her glance.
‘There’s nothing to understand! I threw away an old hypodermic. I never touched the—thepoison.’
Sarah’s voice broke in: ‘It is quite true what Miss Pierce told you, M. Poirot. It was mysyringe.’
Poirot smiled.
‘It is very confusing, this affair of the hypodermic—and yet, I think, it could be explained. Ah,well, we have now two cases made out—the case for the innocence3 of Raymond Boynton—thecase for the guilt4 of his sister Carol. But me, I am scrupulously5 fair. I look always on both sides.
Let us examine what occurred if Carol Boynton was innocent.
‘She returns to the camp, she goes up to her stepmother, and she finds her—shall we say—dead!
What is the first thing she will think? She will suspect that her brother Raymond may have killedher. She does not know what to do. So she says nothing. And presently, about an hour later,Raymond Boynton returns and having presumably spoken to his mother, says nothing of anythingbeing amiss. Do you not think that then her suspicions would become certainties? Perhaps shegoes to his tent and finds there a hypodermic syringe. Then, indeed, she is sure! She takes itquickly and hides it. Early in the morning she flings it as far away as she can.
‘There is one more indication that Carol Boynton is innocent. She assures me when I questionher that she and her brother never seriously intended to carry out their plan. I ask her to swear—and she swears immediately and with the utmost solemnity that she is not guilty of the crime! Yousee, that is the way she puts it. She does not swear that they are not guilty. She swears for herself,not her brother—and thinks that I will not pay special attention to the pronoun.
‘Eh bien, that is the case for the innocence of Carol Boynton. And now let us go back a step andconsider not the innocence but the possible guilt of Raymond. Let us suppose that Carol isspeaking the truth, that Mrs Boynton was alive at five- ten. Under what circumstances canRaymond be guilty? We can suppose that he killed his mother at ten minutes to six when he wentup to speak to her. There were boys about the camp, true, but the light was fading. It might havebeen managed, but it then follows that Miss King lied. Remember, she came back to the camponly five minutes after Raymond. From the distance she would see him go up to his mother. Then,when later she is found dead, Miss King realizes that Raymond has killed her, and to save him, shelies—knowing that Dr Gerard is down with fever and cannot expose her lie!’
‘I did not lie!’ said Sarah clearly.
‘There is yet another possibility. Miss King, as I have said, reached the camp a few minutesafter Raymond. If Raymond Boynton found his mother alive, it may have been Miss King whoadministered the fatal injection. She believed that Mrs Boynton was fundamentally evil. She mayhave seen herself as a just executioner. That would equally well explain her lying about the time ofdeath.’
Sarah had grown very pale. She spoke in a low, steady voice.
‘It is true that I spoke of the expediency6 of one person dying to save many. It was the Place ofSacrifice that suggested the idea to me. But I can swear to you that I never harmed that disgustingold woman—nor would the idea of doing so ever have entered my head!’
‘And yet,’ said Poirot softly, ‘one of you two must be lying.’
Raymond Boynton shifted in his chair. He cried out impetuously:
‘You win, M. Poirot! I’m the liar7. Mother was dead when I went up to her. It—it quite knockedme out. I’d been going, you see, to have it out with her. To tell her that from henceforth I was afree agent. I was—all set, you understand. And there she was—dead! Her hand all cold and flabby.
And I thought—just what you said. I thought maybe Carol—you see, there was the mark on herwrist—’
Poirot said quickly: ‘That is the one point on which I am not completely informed. What wasthe method you counted on employing? You had a method — and it was connected with ahypodermic syringe. That much I know. If you want me to believe you, you must tell me the rest.’
Raymond said hurriedly: ‘It was a way I read in a book—an English detective story—you stuckan empty hypodermic syringe into someone and it did the trick. It sounded perfectly8 scientific. I—I thought we’d do it that way.’
‘Ah,’ said Poirot. ‘I comprehend. And you purchased a syringe?’
‘No. As a matter of fact I pinched Nadine’s.’
Poirot shot a quick look at her. ‘The syringe that is in your baggage in Jerusalem?’ hemurmured.
A faint colour showed in the young woman’s face.
‘I—I wasn’t sure what had become of it,’ she murmured. Poirot murmured: ‘You are so quick-witted, madame.’
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1
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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2
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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3
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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4
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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5
scrupulously
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| adv.一丝不苟地；小心翼翼地，多顾虑地 | |
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6
expediency
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| n.适宜；方便；合算；利己 | |
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7
liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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8
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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