死亡约会 Part II Chapter 17（1）

 

Chapter 17

‘What really happened?’ Poirot repeated.

He reached behind him, drew forward a chair and sat down. His manner was now friendly—informal.

‘It is a question, is it not? For the digitoxin was taken—the syringe was missing—there was themark of a hypodermic on Mrs Boynton’s wrist.

‘It is true that in a few days’ time we shall know definitely—the autopsy¹ will tell us—whetherMrs Boynton died of an overdose of digitalis or not. But then it may be too late! It would be betterto reach the truth tonight—while the murderer is here under our hand.’

Nadine raised her head sharply².

‘You mean that you still believe—that one of us—here in this room…’ Her voice died away.

Poirot was slowly nodding to himself.

‘The truth, that is what I promised Colonel³ Carbury. And so, having cleared our path we areback again where I was earlier in the day, writing down a list of printed facts and being facedstraightway with two glaring⁴ inconsistencies.’

Colonel Carbury spoke⁵ for the first time. ‘Suppose, now, we hear what they are?’ he suggested.

Poirot said with dignity: ‘I am about to tell you. We will take once more those first two facts onmy list. Mrs Boynton was taking a mixture of digitalis and Dr Gerard missed a hypodermicsyringe. Take those facts and set them against the undeniable fact (with which I was immediatelyconfronted) that the Boynton family showed unmistakably guilty reactions. It would seem,therefore, certain that one of the Boynton family must have committed the crime! And yet, thosetwo facts I mentioned were all against the theory. For, you see, to take a concentrated solution ofdigitalis—that, yes, it is a clever idea, because Mrs Boynton was already taking the drug. But whatwould a member of her family do then? Ah, ma foi! there was only one sensible thing to do. Putthe poison into her bottle of medicine! That is what anyone, anyone with a grain of sense and whohad access to the medicine would certainly do!

 

1 autopsy   

n.尸体解剖；尸检

参考例句：

• They're carrying out an autopsy on the victim.他们正在给受害者验尸。
• A hemorrhagic gut was the predominant lesion at autopsy.尸检的主要发现是肠出血。

2 sharply   

adj.锐利地，急速；adv.严厉地，鲜明地

参考例句：

• The plane dived sharply and rose again.飞机猛然俯冲而后又拉了起来。
• Demand for personal computers has risen sharply.对个人电脑的需求急剧增长。

3 colonel   

n.(英国陆军、美国陆空军及海军陆战队)上校

参考例句：

• It's a pity we didn't mend our fences with the colonel.可惜我们还没有和上校先生调整好关系。
• An army major ranks between a captain and a colonel.陆军少校的军阶在上尉与中校之间。

4 glaring   

a.耀眼的，极度光亮的；显眼的，显著的

参考例句：

• At the examination he made several glaring blunders,and that did for him. 他在考试中出了几个大错，这下就完了。
• The report contained some glaring errors. 报告中有些大错误。

5 spoke   

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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。