Tape-measure Murder
生死场读后感Miss Marple's Final Cas
Tape-Measure Murder
Miss Politt took hold of the knocker and rapped politely on the cottage door. After a discreet interval she knocked again. The parcel under her left arm shifted a little as she did so, and she readjusted it. Inside the parcel was Mrs. Spenlow's new green winter dress, ready for fitting. From Miss Politt's left hand dangled a bag of black silk, containing a tape measure, a pincushion, and a large, practical pair of scissors.
Miss Politt was tall and gaunt, with a sharp no, purd lips, and
a meagre iron-grey hair. She hesitated before using the knocker for the third time. Glancing down the street, she saw a figure rapidly approaching. Miss Hartnell, jolly, weather-beaten, fifty-five, shouted out in her usual loud bass voice, "Good afternoon, Miss Politt!"
The dressmaker answered, "Good afternoon, Miss Hartnell." Her voice was excessively thin and genteel in its accents. She had started life as a lady's maid. "Excu me," she went on, "but do you ha
ppen to know if
by any chance Mrs. Spenlow isn't at home?"
"Not the least idea," said Miss Hartnell.
"It's rather awkward, you e. I was to fit on Mrs. Spenlow's new dress this afternoon. Three-thirty, she said."
Miss Hartnell consulted her wrist watch. "It's a little past the
half-hour now."
"Yes. I have knocked three times, but there doesn't em to be any answer, so I was wondering if perhaps Mrs. Spenlow might have gone out and forgotten. She doesn't forget appointments as a rule, and she wants the dress to wear the day after tomorrow."
国际象棋图片马鞍山工业学校Miss Hartnell entered the gate and walked up the path to join Miss Politt outside the door of Laburnam Cottage.
"Why doesn't Gladys answer the door?" she demanded. "Oh, no, of cour, it's Thursday - Gladys's day out. I expect Mrs. Spenlow has
fallen asleep. I don't expect you've made enough noi with this thing."
Seizing the knocker, she executed a deafening rat-a-tat-tat, and in addition, thumped
upon the panels of the door. She also called out in a stentorian voice: "What ho, within there!"
There was no respon.
Miss Politt murmured, "Oh, I think Mrs. Spenlow must have forgotten and gone out. I'll call round some other time." She began edging away down the path.
"Nonn," said Miss Hartnell firmly. "She can't have gone out. I'd have met her. I'll just take a look through the windows and e if I can find any signs of life."
爸爸妈妈我想对您说
She laughed in her usual hearty manner, to indicate that it was a joke, and applied a perfunctory glance to the nearest windowpane -
苹果录视频
perfunctory becau she knew quite well that the front room was ldom ud, Mr. and Mrs. Spenlow preferring the small back sitting room.
Perfunctory as it was, though, it succeeded in its object. Miss Hartnell, it is true, saw no signs of life. On the contrary, she saw, through the window, Mrs. Spenlow lying on the hearthrug - dead.
"Of cour," said Miss Hartnell, telling the story afterward, "I managed to keep my head. That Politt creature wouldn't have had the
least idea of what to do. 'Got to keep our heads,' I said to her. 'You stay here and I'll go for Constable Palk.' She said关于元旦的祝福语
something about not wanting to be left, but I paid no attention at all. One has to be firm with that sort of person. I've always found they enjoy making a fuss. So I was just going off when, at that very moment, Mr. Spenlow came round the corner of the hou."
Here Miss Hartnell made a significant pau. It enabled her audience to ask breathlessly, "Tell me, how did he look?"
关于自然的作文
Miss Hartnell would then go on: "Frankly, I suspected something at once! He was
far too calm. He didn't em surprid in the least. And you may say what you like, it isn't natural for a man to hear that his wife is dead and display no emotion whatever."
Everybody agreed with this statement.
The police agreed with it too. So suspicious did they consider Mr. Spenlow's detachment that they lost no time in ascertaining how that gentleman was situated as a result of his wife's death. When they
discovered that Mrs. Spenlow had been the moneyed partner, and that her money went to her husband under a will made soon after their marriage, they were more suspicious than ever.
Miss Marple, that sweet-faced - and, some said, vinegar-tongued - elderly spinster who lived in the hou next to the rectory, was interviewed very early - within half an hour of the discovery of the crime. She was approached by Police Constable Palk, importantly thumbing a notebook. "If you don't mind, ma'am, I've a few questions to ask you."
Miss marple said, "In connection with the murder of Mrs. Spenlow?"
Palk was startled. "May I ask, madam, how you got to know of it?"
"The fish," said Miss Marple.
The reply was perfectly intelligible to Constable Palk. He assumed correctly that the fishmonger's boy had brought it, together with Miss Marple's evening meal.
Miss Marple continued gently. "Lying on the floor in the sitting room, strangled - possibly by a very narrow belt. But whatever it was,
it was taken away."
Palk's face was wrathful. "How that young Fred gets to know
everything - "
Miss Marple cut him short adroitly. She said, "There's a pin in your tunic."
Constable Palk looked down, startled. He said, "They do say: 'See a pin and pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck.'"
"I hope that will come true. Now what is it you want me to tell you?"
梁皇宝忏
Constable Palk cleared his throat, looked important, and consulted his notebook. "Statement was made to me by Mr. Arthur Spenlow, husband of the decead. Mr. Spenlow says that at two-thirty, as far as he can say, he was rung up by Miss Marple and asked if he would come over at a quarter past three, as she was anxious to consult him about something. Now, ma'am, is that true?"
"Certainly not," said Miss Marple.
"You did not ring up Mr. Spenlow at two-thirty?"
"Neither at two-thirty nor any other time."
"Ah," said Constable Palk, and sucked his moustache with a good deal of satisfaction.
"What el did Mr. Spenlow say?"
"Mr. Spenlow's statement was that he came over here as requested, leaving his own hou at ten minutes past three; that on arrival here he was informed by the maidrvant that Miss Marple was 'not at 'ome.'"
"That part of it is true," said Miss Marple. "He did come here, but I was at a meeting at the Women's Institute."
"Ah," said Constable Palk again.
"Miss Marple exclaimed, "Do tell me, Constable, do you suspect Mr. Spenlow?"
"It's not for me to say at this stage, but it looks to me as though somebody, naming no names, had been trying to be artful."
