福爾摩斯探案經典:《恐怖谷》第4章Part17

"A lie, Watson--a great, big, thumping, obtrusive, uncompromising lie--that's what meets us on the threshold! There is our starting point. The whole story told by Barker is a lie. But Barker's story is corroborated by Mrs. Douglas. Therefore she is lying also. They are both lying, and in a conspiracy. So now we have the clear problem. Why are they lying, and what is the truth which they are trying so hard to conceal? Let us try, Watson, you and I, if we can get behind the lie and reconstruct the truth.
"How do I know that they are lying? Because it is a clumsy fabrication which simply could not be true. Consider! According to the story given to us, the assassin had less than a minute after the murder had been committed to take that ring, which was under another ring, from the dead man's finger, to replace the other ring--a thing which he would surely never have done--and to put that singular card beside his victim. I say that this was obviously impossible.
"You may argue--but I have too much respect for your judgment, Watson, to think that you will do so--that the ring may have been taken before the man was killed. The fact that the candle had been lit only a short time shows that there had been no lengthy interview. Was Douglas, from what we hear of his fearless character, a man who would be likely to give up his wedding ring at such short notice, or could we conceive of his giving it up at all? No, no, Watson, the assassin was alone with the dead man for some time with the lamp lit. Of that I have no doubt at all.
"But the gunshot was apparently the cause of death. Therefore the shot must have been fired some time earlier than we are told. But there could be no mistake about such a matter as that. We are in the presence, therefore, of a deliberate conspiracy upon the part of the two people who heard the gunshot--of the man Barker and of the woman Douglas. When on the top of this I am able to show that the blood mark on the windowsill was deliberately placed there by Barker, in order to give a false clue to the police, you will admit that the case grows dark against him.
"Now we have to ask ourselves at what hour the murder actually did occur. Up to half-past ten the servants were moving about the house; so it was certainly not before that time. At a quarter to eleven they had all gone to their rooms with the exception of Ames, who was in the pantry. I have been trying some experiments after you left us this afternoon, and I find that no noise which MacDonald can make in the study can penetrate to me in the pantry when the doors are all shut.
"It is otherwise, however, from the housekeeper's room. It is not so far down the corridor, and from it I could vaguely hear a voice when it was very loudly raised. The sound from a shotgun is to some extent muffled when the discharge is at very close range, as it undoubtedly was in this instance. It would not be very loud, and yet in the silence of the night it should have easily penetrated to Mrs. Allen's room. She is, as she has told us, somewhat deaf; but none the less she mentioned in her evidence that she did hear something like a door slamming half an hour before the alarm was given. Half an hour before the alarm was given would be a quarter to eleven. I have no doubt that what she heard was the report of the gun, and that this was the real instant of the murder.
"If this is so, we have now to determine what Barker and Mrs. Douglas, presuming that they are not the actual murderers, could have been doing from quarter to eleven, when the sound of the shot brought them down, until quarter past eleven, when they rang the bell and summoned the servants. What were they doing, and why did they not instantly give the alarm? That is the question which faces us, and when it has been answered we shall surely have gone some way to solve our problem."
"I am convinced myself," said I, "that there is an understanding between those two people. She must be a heartless creature to sit laughing at some jest within a few hours of her husband's murder."
"Exactly. She does not shine as a wife even in her own account of what occurred. I am not a whole-souled admirer of womankind, as you are aware, Watson, but my experience of life has taught me that there are few wives, having any regard for their husbands, who would let any man's spoken word stand between them and that husband's dead body. Should I ever marry, Watson, I should hope to inspire my wife with some feeling which would prevent her from being walked off by a housekeeper when my corpse was lying within a few yards of her. It was badly stage-managed; for even the rawest investigators must be struck by the absence of the usual feminine ululation. If there had been nothing else, this incident alone would have suggested a prearranged conspiracy to my mind."
"You think then, definitely, that Barker and Mrs. Douglas are guilty of the murder?"

最後，福爾摩斯點着了菸斗，坐在這家老式鄉村旅館的爐火旁，不慌不忙地，隨意地談起這個案子來，這與其說是深思熟慮的講述，不如說是自言自語的回憶。
“謊言，華生，是一個很大的、出奇的、不折不扣的彌天大謊，我們一開頭就碰到這個謊言，這就是我們的出發點。巴克所說的話完全是撒謊。不過巴克的話被道格拉斯夫人進一步證實了。所以說，道格拉斯夫人也是在撒謊。他們兩個都撒謊，而且是串通一起的。所以現在我們的問題很清楚，就是查清楚他們爲什麼要撒謊？他們千方百計力圖隱瞞的真相又是什麼？華生，你我兩人試試看，能不能查出這些謊言背後的真情。
“我怎麼知道他們是在撒謊呢？因爲他們捏造得非常笨拙，根本違背了事實。試想一想吧！照他們所說，兇手殺人後，在不到一分鐘的時間裏從死者手指上摘去這個戒指，而這個戒指上面還套着另一隻戒指，然後再把這另一隻戒指套回原處——這是他肯定做不到的，還把這張奇怪的卡片放在受害者身旁。我說這顯然是辦不到的。你也可能會爭辯說，那指環也許是在他被害以前被摘下去的。可是，華生，我非常尊重你的判斷能力，因此我想你是不會這麼說的。蠟燭只點了很短時間，這個事實說明，死者和兇手會面的時間不會很長。我們聽說道格拉斯膽量很大，他是那種稍經嚇唬就自動交出結婚戒指的人嗎？我們能想象他竟然會交出結婚戒指嗎？不，不會的，華生，燈點着後，兇手獨自一人和死者呆了一段時間。對於這一點，我是深信不疑的。
“不過致死的原因，很明顯是槍殺。所以，開槍的時間比他們所說的要早許多。事情經過就是這樣，這是決不會錯的。因此，我們面臨的是一種蓄意合謀，是由兩個聽到槍聲的人，也就是巴克這個男人和道格拉斯夫人這個女人乾的。首先，只我能證明窗臺上的血跡是巴克故意印上去的，目的是給警方造成假線索時，你也就會承認，這一案件的發展變得對他不利了。
“現在，我們必須向自己提出一個問題：兇殺究竟是在什麼時間發生的呢？直到十點半鐘，僕人們還在這屋裏來來往往，所以謀殺肯定不是在這之前發生的。十點四十五分，僕人們都回到了下處，只有艾姆斯還留在餐具室。你在下午離開我們以後，我曾作過一些試驗，發現只要房門都關上，麥克唐納在書房不管發出多大聲音，我在餐具室裏也休想聽到。
“然而，女管家的臥室就不同了。這間臥室離走廊不遠，當聲音非常響時，我在這間臥室是可以模模糊糊地聽到的。在從極近距離射擊時——本案無疑是如此——火槍的槍聲在某種程度上消聲了，槍聲不會很響，但在寂靜的夜晚艾倫太太臥室是能聽到的。艾倫太太告訴我們她有些耳聾，儘管如此，她還是在證詞中提到過，在警報發出前半小時，她聽到砰的一聲象關門的聲音。警報發出前半小時當然是十點四十五分。我確信她聽到的就是槍聲，那纔是真正的行兇時間。
“假如確實如此，我們現在必須查明一個問題：假定巴克先生和道格拉斯夫人不是兇手，那麼，十點四十五分他們聽到槍聲下樓，到十一點一刻他們拉鈴叫來僕人爲止，這段時間裏他們倆都幹了些什麼。他們在幹些什麼呢？爲什麼他們不馬上報警呢？這就是擺在我們面前的問題。這個問題一經查明，就向解決問題前進了幾步。”
“我也相信，"我說道，“他們兩個是串通一起的。道格拉斯夫人在丈夫死後不到幾小時，竟然聽見笑話就坐在那裏哈哈大笑，那她一定是個毫無心肝的東西了。”
“不錯。甚至當她自己講述案情時，也不象個被害人的妻子。華生，我不是一個崇拜女性的人，這一點你是知道的。可是我的生活經驗告訴我，那種聽了別人的話就不去看她丈夫屍體的妻子，很少是把丈夫放在心上的。華生，要是我娶妻的話，我一定願意給我妻子灌輸一種感情，當我的屍體躺在離她不遠的地方時，她決不會隨管家婦走開。他們這種安排非常拙劣，即使是最沒有經驗的偵探，也會因爲沒有出現通常會有的婦女尖聲悲號的場面而感到吃驚的。即使沒有其它原因，單憑這件小事也會使我認爲這是預謀。”
“那麼，你一定認爲巴克和道格拉斯夫人就是殺人犯了？”