Chapter 11 County Fair Mystery
"Look, I'm going to tell you about the county fair this time, ain't I? Pull up a chair and let me pour us some-er-drinks. Come near the fire, It is warmer. This is a story that happened in summer, but it will definitely make you cold to the bone..."
It was the summer of 1927 (continued Dr. Sam Hawthorne), and my practice was good and steady, and North Hill hadn't happened since the Election Day mystery the year before. For the first time in the murder case, I felt that the Grim Reaper had left and forgotten us.Even my nurse, Aibo, was talking about it that warm August morning as we left for the county fair. "It's been almost a year since the last murder case, Dr. Sam, do you think Beishan Town finally has law and order?" "I try not to think about it at all," I told her, "for fear of breaking the spell." She got into my yellow Arrow convertible and I got in the driver's seat and it was a short walk from the main road to the market place via Riverside Road.The place where the market is held is usually an open space on a small hill not far from the river.The first thing that catches our eyes is a grandstand, surrounded by high wooden walls, painted bright yellow, and a small Ferris wheel in the distance. We parked the convertible in a large, dirty lot behind the grandstand, and judging from some license plates, the county fair drew, as usual, crowds from nearby counties and towns, and it was a big one. The market is also a very good market, and there are many things that arouse the interest of the public.While Aibo didn't want to go to the side events—snake players, overweight women, dancers in cool dresses, and two-headed calves—the stalls were popular with men and boys who had left their wives. There are also quite a few gamblers who are using their petty deceptions, most of them are deceiving young people.The older ones, who have probably grown tired of watching pornographic dancers over the years, usually wander into the cattle show to see the animals.They'd stand there while their women went to the tent where the pies and cakes and cross-stitching were on display.The younger children, tired and dusty, usually stayed with the women unless a brother or sister would take them to play. "This is really wonderful, Dr. Sam!" Aibo exclaimed, her face full of childish delight, "I really hope this fair can last a whole year." "But that wouldn't be so great," I argued logically. "In fact, I think we'll be bored pretty soon." "Look, it's Mayor Chadwick." Every time I see Felix Chadwick, I think of his predecessor who was killed three years ago during the Fourth of July celebrations.But Mayor Chadwick probably wouldn't encounter such a thing.He's a chicken farmer, and it's useless to host a celebration in his political capacity.I think I was surprised that he was there—it was only later that I remembered about the time capsule. The time capsule was the brainchild of Emma Janney.She can be regarded as a cultural and historical worker in our town.She found some vague evidence that in 1627 William Bradford, a merchant and adventurer of the Plymouth Colony, had established a trading post at the present site of North Hill. “In a way, this is our tricentennial,” she declared at a town council meeting earlier this year, “and it should be celebrated properly.” Because Beishan Town always likes to set off fireworks all over the sky on National Day, this has caused a debate about what to do for the 300th anniversary celebration.Is there another fireworks show?Make it bigger? "No," said Emma Janney, stamping her knobbed cane on the floor, urging everyone to listen to her. "We should bury a time capsule and open it in a hundred years." Well, everyone agrees with this idea, especially Gus Antwerp, the owner of "Metal Workers", who said that he can make us a steel time capsule, and even bury it for us, without the town paying a dime at all.That was his contribution to the celebration, and Mayor Chadwick accepted it right away. So now the mayor himself has approached Aibo and me to put aside the chicken business for a while on this big day of politics and pomp. "I don't want to disturb you two. The weather is really nice this year, isn't it? Great sun and no clouds in the sky! A day like this must be very good." "It's a good day." I agreed, "And the whole market is very lively. I saw a lot of cars from other counties." "There's a race that draws them," he said in a low voice, as if he were revealing some dark secret known only to the town council. "Are you going to be racing this afternoon, doctor?" It is already a traditional event in our county fair to hold a horse-drawn carriage race on the oval track in front of the grandstand. The local people drive a single-seater two-wheeled carriage to compete.But I have never been interested in this kind of game. "Not this year, Felix," I replied, and I just couldn't bring myself to call him mayor. "Hey, I'll see you at the time capsule later. Have you brought anything to put in it?" "Oh, of course I did." He smiled at Aibo, walked away, and was immediately overwhelmed by the crowds flocking to those performance booths. "This guy!" Aibo scolded after he got out of hearing, "I don't know if he will give away chickens for free again in the next general election. That's how he got elected last time." "Oh, Phillis isn't that bad, he's just not up to the job, but does North Hill really need a competent mayor?" Aibo met a young woman she knew, and the two went to see a cross-stitch exhibition together. I wandered over to the performance booth and promised to meet her in the grandstand in an hour to watch the burial ceremony of the time capsule. I was watching a fast hand at a three-card game near a gaming table when a voice behind me said, "Dr. Hawthorne, I have the most wonderful news!" I recognized the voice before I turned to accept the cheek kiss she always greeted me with.Jill Fryer was a good friend, the liveliest and brightest unmarried woman in North Hills.I tried to court her last summer, but apparently her heart belonged to a guy named Marcus McNeill at that time. "Must be news about Marcus," I said quickly, looking into her smiling blue eyes, hiding my disappointment that she still wouldn't call me by my first name. "He's coming home! He called me three days ago from Cleveland. He should be here today." "It was great to see him again," I said insincerely, with a smile on my face the whole time.Max McNeill was a touring musician and a troublemaker.He once organized a small band to play country music for the local square dancers, and Jill even sang with them a few times.That's how she first met Marcos.But after the last dance, he passed out from too much bootlegging, beat up the local lads, and found himself rather ostracized by the community.By last summer, the only one speaking for him was Jill Flair.Now that he came back to Beishan Town, he would probably make some people in the town frown again. "I talked to him about burying the time capsule, and he said he'd be there in time to see it." "That's great, Jill." As she walked by my side, the smile on her face suddenly disappeared. "You never really liked Marcus, did you, Dr. Hawthorne?" "I feel like your father when you call me that. Please call me Sam." "Okay," the smile quickly returned to her face, "Sam." "Very well! You know, I'm not much older than you." "But it looks like you've been here for a long time. I remember you were the one who cured me when I got measles." "I was just out of medical school, and I came here in 1922." "Only five and a half years?" "These years have been very important to you, Jill, and you've grown into a woman." "I'm only twenty years old." "Where's Marcus—how old is he?" "Thirty-one. I know—I've heard my parents say that so many times. Said he's too old for me. He's not good, he drinks." Her voice softened. "But I love him, Sam." "I remember you being sad when he left town." "I think it's because of the sudden relationship. He was here one day and disappeared the next day. He didn't even leave me a note." "The police are after him. After he beat Mayor Chadwick's son, Sergeant Lens is going to put him in jail." "I know. It's really bad for him to drink. But he told me on the phone that he's sober now, he hasn't had a drink in months." "amazing!" "You'll be nice to him, won't you, Sam? He doesn't have many friends here, and that means a lot to me." "I'll be nice to him for you." I looked at my pocket watch and realized it was almost noon. "But we'd better go over to the Grandstand right now, or you might lose your job." Jill was Gus Antwerp's secretary, and it looked as if he wanted her by his side to bury the stone he made of steel. time capsule. Our crowd flocked to the grandstand surrounded by yellow walls, while the solicitors were still trying to yell for everyone to enter the tent for sex dancing.But even children temporarily put aside the joy and excitement brought by the small Ferris wheel to witness that historic moment.The first person we saw as we walked into the grandstand was Emma Janney, propped up on her knuckle-ridden cane, smoldering.She blocked our way as soon as she saw Jill. "Hey miss, I see your man is back." "Marcus! Is he here?" "Almost knocked me over with his truck, and you told him to be more considerate of other people, and if he came back to North Hills to cause more trouble, you told him we'd rather he never come back." "I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt you," murmured Jill Flair.I could see that she wanted above all to get out of the way of the old woman and fly into Marcus McNeil's arms. But Emma Janney doesn't want to let us off the hook just yet. "People here have to have the guts to deal with a guy like Marcus McNeill. They have to tell him he has to live like a part of the community. The law says we can't drink intoxicating beverages, and this The same law applies to you, to me, and to Max McNeil." "I'm sure he understands that, Miss Janey." "Didn't know he'd understand! Driving around like he was drunk again. Same as before!" But now she steps aside and we're finally able to pass.I finally said something about the weather and went into the grandstand and saw the Gais Antwerp time capsule for the first time. He dug a hole in the very middle of the oval, and the outer track was to be used for horse-drawn carts in the afternoon.From my vantage point, the time capsule looked like a huge silver cigar hanging straight down from a plank and pulley, its lower half blocked by the dirt surrounding the hole.At the top of the eight-foot-tall time capsule, a hinged metal door opens to allow modern artefacts to be placed inside. Mayor Chadwick, still trying to shed his chicken-farmer image, stood up and made a scene out of a cacophony loudspeaker he had just bought with county money.Then ask Emma Janney to come forward and praise her for a great idea.The mayor helped her to the mound so she could reach through the door on top of the upright time capsule to put in her memento—a copy of the day's newspaper.Then came a group of elementary school students, some of whom had to be picked up by the mayor to reach the door of the time capsule, and what they put in were some textbooks they had chosen. I left Jill Flair standing in the stands and continued to search for Marcus's familiar face, and walked into the arena by myself, the almost clean-looking Gus Antwerp in a neatly pressed suit was very hard shake my hand. "It's good to see you, Doc! Anything for this time capsule?" I pulled a booklet out of my inside pocket. "The medical records from the last year of our primary school. A hundred years from now, they may be interested in why our children are sick." "Great!" I looked up at this steel time capsule. "How long did it take you to do this?" "In less than one night. I rolled up the steel, welded the seams, and put a slab on the bottom and a door on top." Mayor Chadwick told me to go up front and announced my name barely intelligibly through the faulty loudspeaker.But that doesn't matter, almost everyone knows me.There was a small cheer and I saw Aibo wave to me from the edge of the crowd. I climbed up the mound with my notebook and took a moment to look inside the time capsule, examining it out of sheer curiosity.The hinged door was round like the top of the time capsule, about two feet in diameter.With the direct sunlight overhead, I could see all the way to the bottom of the time capsule, newspapers, books, and other things starting to form a little pile, and from what little we had put in, the time capsule was a Too big, but I'd never criticize someone's hard work.Besides, this thing looks great hanging from a rope—almost like a spaceship on the cover of Amazing Stories magazine, pointing straight at the stars. I tapped the thin metal wall with my knuckles, wondering if it would last a full century, and then I dropped my notebook among the other things and climbed down.Then someone threw in some small kitchen and farming tools, plus recipes from the winning bake-offs at the bazaar, a picture of the winning bull, a mail-order catalog from Sears Leubach, and finally Chadway Mayor Ke put in a copy of the town's certificate of title to complete the storage of all cultural relics. As we all watched, the mayor closed the door at the top of the time capsule, and Gus Antwerp sealed it with his great welding equipment.Then, like a captain leading a boat through a narrow waterway, Gase pulled the metal support plate under the upright time capsule and signaled that the time capsule would descend to the ground, amidst a burst of metal scraping.The entire time capsule disappears before our eyes.The mayor then handed Emma Janney a shovel tied with a red ribbon to help her shed the symbolic first shovel. I went to find Aibo. "You're great. Dr. Sam," she exclaimed. "The whole event was so touching! I wish I could be here in a hundred years and watch them dig this up." Before I could respond, Jill Fryer was beside us, fear in her dark blue eyes. "Doctor Huo-Sam, you must help me!" "What's up?" "I looked everywhere for Marcos and finally found his car, but he wasn't in the car." "Probably somewhere in the crowd." "Sam, I think there's blood on the front seat of the car." Aibo and I looked at each other. "I'll go and see," I said quietly.
It was a Ford truck with "Marcus Music Productions" painted on the side canvas.It was a common sight on the roads of North Hills before Marcus McNeill suddenly disappeared last summer.Now bring him back—with what result? "It's blood, indeed," I confirmed, "but it could be interpreted in many ways. He may have cut his finger, and it may even be animal blood." "Do you believe that?" Jill asked. I didn't answer directly. "Let's go find him." "I've looked. I've looked everywhere." I want to take this as a joke. "But you didn't go to the tent where the dance was performed, did you?" "Sam, please." "Well, I'll help you. You know Marcus McNeill, Abby, don't you? We'll spread out all over the fair to find him, and we'll meet up here in thirty minutes." I took the road of performance booths, and checked the tents of sexy dancers and the exhibition hall of fat women.But there was no sign of Max McNeill.Towards the end of that half hour, I bumped into Emma Janney and asked her about the truck. "You said the car almost hit you, Miss Jenny, when was that?" "About eleven o'clock, maybe a little earlier, did you see him?" "We're looking for it, but he seems to have disappeared again." Like a year ago, I couldn't help but think so. After returning to the truck, I knew that Aibo and Jill were also not found. "I've got to find him," Jill insisted. "The bloodstains mean he's hurt." Or dead, I add in my mind.But then I had another thought. "Ji'er, are you sure that the person who spoke to you that night was Marcus? Sometimes you can't hear clearly on long-distance calls, you know." I saw her hesitate. "Well, of course it's Marcus. If it's not him, why should he be?" "I don't know," I admitted. "If I can't even hear Marcus's voice, then I'm a sucker." I watched several children running in and out of the crowd next to the cake stand.Some men in the distance were gathering for the afternoon horse-drawn truck race, and everything seemed normal except for Max McNeill's blood-stained truck. "Well," I said, "Maybe Marcus didn't come back today." "Didn't come back? Of course he came back!" "Only Emma Janney saw him, and in fact, all she really saw was this truck. It may be hard for you, Jill, but I have to say this. Maybe Marcus Didn't come back at all, because he never left at all. A year ago, he had many enemies, and maybe one of them killed him." She gasped and her voice sounded like a scream: "No, no, let me tell you, it's Marcos on the phone!" "Okay," I said with a sigh, "let's keep looking." This time we agreed to meet at the carriage races beyond the Grandstand.Aibo stayed with me, and as soon as we were alone she asked, "Do you really think he's dead, Dr. Sam?" "I don't know what to think, Aibo. Do you remember what happened a year ago? Who were Marcus' enemies?" "I just know what they were talking about, he beat up Mayor Chadwick's son, you know." "I remember that." "Damn it, everybody he knows probably hates Marcus McNeill. He's the kind of guy, and if Jill catches him with a nineteen-year-old girl behind somebody's barn, she'll will hate him." "Which girl stole Jill's person?" "It's not one, I know a few, people like Marcus McNeill, just look at him." "Jile had finished high school by then, was she working at Gais Antwerp?" Aibo shook her head. "Remember? Gus didn't move to town until last fall, and Marcus was long gone. Jill didn't know what to do, and Gus needed a girl for help, so he hired her." There's another place I'm going to look for--there's a stable where some people who intend to race the afternoon carts prepare there.Ib went with me, and we went through the row of stables—but no Max McNeil was in sight. "Changed your mind about racing?" Mayor Chadwick asked when he bumped into us there. "Impossible," I said, "I don't even drive a horse-drawn cart now. I drive carts without horses." He walked with us to the grandstand, where most of the people who hadn't attended the fair had gathered again.Even gamblers and scammers picked up their tricks and were busy collecting bets on horse-drawn chariots.In the center of the oval, Gus Antwerp and a few others had buried the time capsule, with its wooden frame and windlass still hanging above it—like an empty gallows, waiting for its next victim. There was a cheer from the crowd as the first horse-drawn carriages emerged on the oval.But there was one other thing that caught my eye—a white thing on the ground near where the time capsule was buried was fluttering in the afternoon breeze. "Come to Jill," I said to Aibo, "I'll be right there." I sprinted across the dirt track to the grass oval and headed straight for the men still holding the shovels.Gus Antwerp saw me walking by and waved to me. On the floor was a book with white pages open. It was a book that a primary school student brought and put in a time capsule—a seventh-grade math textbook. The pages were spattered with blood.
I found Mayor Chadwick standing on the judging stand, watching the horse-drawn carriages parade around the field. "You came at the right time, doctor, have you placed your bet? Did you know that Sergeant Lansi is also driving a car for the race?" "Mayor, I want you to order the time capsule to be dug out again." "T-what did you say?" "A time capsule. You have to dig it up." "Why? Did you forget to put some love letters in there? Haha!" "I mean it, Mayor. Marcon McNeill is missing." His face hardened. "McNeil disappeared a year ago." "And now he's gone again." "Uh, he's definitely not in the time capsule!" I took out the blood-spattered math textbook. "This should be in the time capsule, but I found it on the ground outside. I think the time capsule was opened after it was buried." "impossible!" "I know this is impossible, but there have been several impossible things in Beishan Town before this. I should be very clear-I am almost an expert in this field." "You mean it. Don't you, doctor?" he said, squinting at me. "Absolutely speaking!" He sighed and started to walk up the stairs. "Let's see what Sheriff Lan Si said." The sheriff was sitting in his buggy, trying to button up the plaid silk shirt over his paunch. "I give in on the spur of the moment," he muttered as we passed. "I don't want to hear your jokes, doctor." "Doctors don't tell jokes today," Chadwick said. "He wants us to dig up the time capsule because Marcus McNeill is missing again." "what are you talking about?" I explained quickly and told Sheriff Lens what had happened.After I finished speaking, he snorted and climbed down from the carriage. "I think you're out of your mind, doctor, and honestly, I'm open to any excuse that will keep me from driving that stupid thing. Come on, let's dig." Gas Antwerp put the shovel down as we passed and listened to our demands. "We just buried it, and you want us to dig it up again?" "Yes." I said. "What about after we dig it up?" "We're going to open it. Look inside." "You don't make sense! You're all crazy!" I took out the blood-stained textbook. "It's unreasonable, but it's true! There's blood in McNeill's car, and there's blood on this book from the time capsule. I'm going to open the time capsule." "But he can't be in there!" insisted Antwerp. "I still have to take a look." The bald man shrugged and handed me his shovel. "You are ten years younger than me, doctor, please dig." I started digging, and the others joined in.Antwerp saw us coming for real, and helped to clear the upper part of the time capsule, and then tied the rope back. "The soil is still loose," he said. "We might be able to pull that thing out with a frame and a pulley." A few of us used to pull the rope, but the time capsule didn't move at that time. "Go and find a group of horses," Sergeant Lan Si suggested, "you can pull them out right away." Someone went to get some horses, and the rest of us dug a little longer.The buzz of conversation in the stands above turned into loud inquiries about what was going on and when the game would start, and none of us answered their questions. After the horse was tied up, the metal cylinder was pulled up in less than a minute.We laid it across the ground, and Gus used a chisel to open up where he had welded.I watched him work and started to feel a little stupid. Jill Fryer and April also came out to watch the time capsule reopen.I wanted Jill to back away, but she insisted.Before I could look inside myself, I heard her screaming. Then Aibo held her up, and I pushed Sergeant Lens, who looked dead pale, to see the impossible.Among the scattered piles of books and utensils intended for the twenty-first century lay the body of Max McNeil.
Let's try to look at it logically. Someone dug a tunnel to get to that time capsule, and put the body in from there. It's just that we dug out all the soil in the cave, and found no tunnel.Nothing but dirt. Or maybe Gus Antwerp has been hiding dead bodies in time capsules.It's just that Gus doesn't even recognize McNeil, and I've seen the time capsule myself before, and there's no dead body in it. Or maybe the time capsule was dug up between noon and my discovery of the bloody textbook. It's just that Antwerp and two or three others have been filling the hole. "I only left for about ten minutes to get a hot dog," Gase said, "but there were people in the grandstand eating and watching us all the time. The time capsule was buried and never moved." Let's look at it in a logical way. Logically, this cannot happen. "How did he die, Doctor?" Sergeant Lens asked as we dragged the body out of that metal cylinder, giving me a chance to examine it. "A blunt blow to the head with some kind of blunt instrument." "Has he been dead for a long time?" "It's hard to tell in this heat, but he's been dead for hours at least. All the bleeding has stopped and the body is stiff. I think he was dead when Emma saw his truck this morning .” "That means—" "It means he didn't drive the car, maybe he died in the front seat and the murderer was driving." Sergeant Lan Si only snorted when he heard this. "But no, doctor, if the bleeding has stopped, why is there so much blood in that math textbook you found? It looks fresh to me." "I don't know," I admitted. "Will the corpse still bleed?" "Not necessarily. But the blood will gather at the lowest point. If there is a big wound at that point, sometimes the blood will still flow out after death." When I saw Aibo approaching, I went to meet him. "Is Jill okay?" "I'm afraid it's not very good. You'd better give her some sleeping pills. He came back a year later and was killed again. It's really scary." "Not only is it surprising, but it really shouldn't be. Who would hold a grudge for so long?" Aibo took me to the tent where the cross-stitch works were exhibited, and Jill was lying on a small bed.Old Emma Janney bent over to apply a wet washcloth to her forehead while Gus Antwerp held her hand. "I kept telling her it was okay," he said. "But she just can't recover." "She's been too frightened," I said, "and she'll be all right with a little rest. Get out of here, all of you." When Abe and I were alone with her, Jill opened her eyes and said, "When the door opened, I saw the top of his head. His hair was full of blood." She said trembling all over. "Jiel. I have to ask you a few questions. Either Sergeant Lens or I will ask them. I think you'd rather talk to me." "What's the matter, doctor?" "Who else knew about the call from Cleveland? Who else knew he was coming back today?" "nobody." "Think about it, Jill. You told me when you saw me today, and maybe you told someone else. Does your boss know?" She shook her head. "Gase doesn't know Marcus at all, so I have no reason to tell him, oh, he probably heard me mention Marcus, but they never met." "Where's Emma Janney?" "Why should I tell her?" "I don't know. It's just that she didn't seem too surprised when she saw his truck this morning." She sat up suddenly. "A man heard me say it. He saw me yesterday and asked if I would come to see the time capsule burying ceremony. I said yes, and then I mentioned that Marcus would be back to attend." "Who did you tell?" "Mayor Chadwick." I found the mayor beyond the grandstand, staring at the time capsule still lying on the edge of the mound.He gave me a blank look and said, "I'm going to say that's a fucking clever way to bury a body! Can you imagine a hundred years from now when they open this thing up and find a skeleton , will there be any expression on your face?" "It's probably going to look like our faces this afternoon," I said.The sun had set beyond the yellow fence, and it was nearly dusk. "That's true," he agreed, "but who's going to kill him. Doctor?" "Must be someone who knew he was coming back. You know that, don't you, Phillips?" "What did you say?" "Jile told you he'd be back today." "She may have mentioned it, but I didn't pay much attention." "How is your son? The one who was beaten badly by Marcus." "Joy went off to college," he replied quickly. "During summer vacation?" He was silent for a while, then said: "I'll tell you the truth. Anyway, if you ask my wife, she will tell you. Joey has been in the wrong head since that beating. Dropped out of college." I sit where the sun used to be above the yellow fence. "Is that enough to make a father murderous?" He took a piece of chewing tobacco from his pocket. "Damn it, I'll just kill him and let him lie there! I can't imagine hiding a body in a time capsule like this." I want to remember that he is just a chicken farmer, pretending to be the mayor, and maybe the plan of killing people like this is really beyond his imagination. "Well," I said finally, "I'll see you later, Phillips." "Finding that body really messed up our market," he grumbled, as if speaking to himself instead of me. Packing, they don't want to deal with the police." "It's always been a good fair," I told him. I walked away, desperate to find those show booths before they disappeared.I found the showgirl solicitor and called him aside. "I need a little news," I said. He frowned. "I can't ask anything here." "I'm not a policeman, I'm a doctor." "We didn't see anything, the girls and I are innocent." "Of course, hey, sometimes the jockeys do the bury-alive stunt—right?" "Yeah," he said, shrugging his shoulders, "I know a guy who does this kind of show. It's buried in the ground the whole time the fair goes on. Visitors pay twenty-five cents, and the Look down and see him lying in the coffin." "How is that done?" I asked. "what?" "What trick?" I pulled a bill from my wallet and held it suggestively. He snatched the banknote away. "Don't say I said it." "Won't." "The man in the coffin is a wax dummy, and once he's buried, he crawls out of the tunnel. Indian dervishes have been doing this for hundreds of years." "typical……" "Of course, what do you think?" I thanked him and walked away, he didn't help me at all.There were no tunnels leading to the time capsule, and if there were, how would the corpse get through the metal walls of the cylinder? I went back to the grandstand and decided to take one last look at that time capsule.The mayor of Chadwick has gone, and the dusk has covered the land. Several children playing on the mound saw me and scattered. For a long time, I just stood there and watched. Suppose there are two time capsules, and the one we dug out is the second one.No, there are books, newspapers, and tools inside, and even my primary school student health record is with the corpse.The time capsule is still the same. But there were more corpses inside. I tapped the metal cylinder with my knuckles as before. Then I tapped again. The sound was not the one I heard in the afternoon.The sound is different now, much thicker. 然后我想起了另外一件事，我想起了金属的刮擦声…… “原来你知道是怎么做的了？”在我身后有个声音问道。 我转过身去，看到艾玛·詹尼站在黑暗中，她那多瘤节的拐杖在一只手里握得紧紧的。 一时之间，我几乎扑向她，想要解除她的武装。可是她紧接着轻咳两声，再重复她的问题，而我放松下来，甚至微微一笑。“我想我知道了，詹尼小姐，我想我刚刚想通了。” “他根本不该回来的，这里的人不要他。只是过去的因造成了现在的果。” “奇怪的是，我倒觉得是起于未来的因呢。” "How to say?" 我用手指轻敲了下她的拐杖。“你应该小心这个东西，詹尼小姐，有人可能误以为这是件钝器。” 我走了开去，留下她站在那个是她美梦一部分的时光胶囊旁边。 我回来的时候，爱玻正和蓝思警长一起站在十字绣的展览场外。“姬儿呢？”我问道。 “她的老板开车送她回家去了，”爱玻回答道。 我不想再拿别人的生命来碰运气。“快来，我们得拦住他们！很可能会再有桩命案！”我一面说着，已经朝我的汽车跑去。 爱玻追了上来。“你不可能说你认为姬儿杀了马可思吧！” "of course not." 警长、爱玻和我挤进两人座的前座。“可是盖斯根本从来不认得死者呀！”蓝思警长争辩道。 “这正是他杀人的原因，”我回答道，说话的语气就像G·K·切斯特顿小说里那种似非而是的理论。“你们先前没有注意到盖斯握着姬儿的手吗？对一个像盖斯·安特卫普这样的中年人来说，会想象自己爱上漂亮的二十岁女秘书，并不是件多奇怪的事。他从来没见过马可思·麦克尼尔，可是他从姬儿和其他人那里却听说过他很多事。他想到姬儿的爱人一回来就会让她神魂颠倒，那他什么办法也没有了。引发动机的不是马可思的过去，而是盖斯·安特卫普的未来。” 我们看到安特卫普卡车的尾灯在前面，我按着喇叭，一副想要超车的样子。然后我开到卡车前面，逼得他停了下来。盖斯想把姬儿从座位上拉下来，可是等他看到蓝思警长的时候，就放开了手，朝附近的树林跑去。警长紧追在他后面。 “你还好吧？”我问姬儿。 她揉着瘀青的手腕。“我——我想还好吧，他疯了。山姆，他要我今晚和他一起逃走。” “我就怕他决定逃走，还把你拉着一起走。一看到我们发现了尸体，他就知道我们会想到所有真相只是迟早的问题。” 蓝思警长一个人走了回来。“安特卫普跳进河里去了，”他说，“我看他游不到对岸的。” 我们开车回镇上，警长驾着盖斯·安特卫普的卡车跟在后面。他通知了州警注意盖斯的行踪，以防万一他没有淹死在河里。然后，回到警长的办公室，轮到我来把话再说清楚。 “这是一件很奇怪而不可能的犯罪——可是我一旦想清楚尸体是怎么到那个时光胶囊里之后，唯一可能的凶手就是盖斯了。你知道，尸体不是在时光胶囊封起来之前放进去的，也不是打开之后放进去的。所以是在时光胶囊埋下去的过程中，进到了钢片做的壁内。” “你这样弄得听起来更不可能了，”警长抱怨道。 “不见得。今天傍晚我用指节敲那个时光胶囊的时候，声音听起来和先前不一样，更加厚实。我想起在时光胶囊送进地下时有一阵金属的刮擦声。要是你仔细地检查，就会发现有两层金属壁而不是一层。盖斯·安特卫普把马可思的尸体放在第二个圆筒里，大概直径比我们所看到的那个小一吋左右。那个已经埋在地里，就在直立的时光胶囊的正下方。 “等我们把文物放进去之后，盖斯抽掉下方支撑的钢片——其实那也就是那个时光胶囊的底。所有的东西都掉进了底下那个圆筒里，那个圆筒顶上是开口，而马可思·麦克尼尔的尸体已经藏在里面。然后盖斯让上面那个比较大的圆筒降下去，正好密合地贴在地底下那个比较小的圆筒外面。我猜他在外侧涂了油，可是在滑到一起的时候还是有金属刮擦的情形。因为接合得非常紧密，所以等到把时光胶囊挖起来的时候，看起来只有一个金属圆筒。” “他做这些怎么没人看见呢？”蓝思警长问道。 “昨天晚上的话就很容易，因为那附近一个人也没有，万一有人看到他从卡车上卸下第二个圆筒，他也可以说那是个备份。而一旦藏着尸体的那个比较窄的圆筒埋进地下之后，就没有被人看见的危险了，你们还记得那个洞里的四周围堆着土。而上面那个圆筒又有一部分已经进了洞里，其实是正架在底下那个上面。” “可是安特卫普怎么知道马可思要回来呢？”爱玻问道。“姬儿说她根本没告诉过他。” “我们可以猜得到吧，马可思应该是今天回来的。可是他想必提早了一天，才会让盖斯在昨晚就杀了他还移尸。马可思再打电话给姬儿说他计划改变，也是很合逻辑的。她不在办公室，而她的老板接了电话，盖斯·安特卫普没有把口讯转告姬儿，他那因爱而疯狂的头脑却想出了这个奸计，他自己告诉我说他做那个时光胶囊用不到一晚上的时间。对他来说，再做一个比较小一点、可以套进第一个里的圆筒，是件很简单的事。 “盖斯等着马可思昨晚回到这里，很可能就在马可思卡车的前座打破了他的头，留下了那些血迹。然后他把尸体和两个大圆筒用他自己的卡车运到现场。今天早上他开着马可思的卡车过去，差点撞到艾玛·詹尼。这样看起来就好像马可思是照预定行程在今天抵达，然后又失踪了。” Chief Lan Si snorted. “我听说过凶手把尸体埋在一些选得相当聪明的地方，可这还是我第一回知道有人想把尸体埋到下一个世纪呢！”
山姆·霍桑医生喝了口酒，把他的故事说完。“他们第二天早上在河里找到安特卫普的尸体，事情就此结案了。走之前再来一点——呃——喝的吗？你说什么？你还不满意？我没有解释到那本有血迹的数学课本？ “呃，那事爱玻第二天弄清楚了。在时光胶囊前面排队的一个男孩子突然流鼻血，流到了他的课本上，他不能就这样把书放进时光胶囊里，所以他就把书本丢在地上一堆土的后面。那和命案毫无关系，只不过让我把时光胶囊挖起来，找到了尸体。我通常都不说这个部分，因为这让我看起来有点蠢，我真希望你没问起这件事。 “才一次？呃，一九二七年是摄制了第一部有声电影的那年。北山镇离好菜坞远得很。可是有个电影公司到那里来拍一部早期的有声电影的时候，却有个意想不到的可怕结果。不过那要等下回再说了。来吧，让我给你再斟上点。”
Notes:
It was the summer of 1927 (continued Dr. Sam Hawthorne), and my practice was good and steady, and North Hill hadn't happened since the Election Day mystery the year before. For the first time in the murder case, I felt that the Grim Reaper had left and forgotten us.Even my nurse, Aibo, was talking about it that warm August morning as we left for the county fair. "It's been almost a year since the last murder case, Dr. Sam, do you think Beishan Town finally has law and order?" "I try not to think about it at all," I told her, "for fear of breaking the spell." She got into my yellow Arrow convertible and I got in the driver's seat and it was a short walk from the main road to the market place via Riverside Road.The place where the market is held is usually an open space on a small hill not far from the river.The first thing that catches our eyes is a grandstand, surrounded by high wooden walls, painted bright yellow, and a small Ferris wheel in the distance. We parked the convertible in a large, dirty lot behind the grandstand, and judging from some license plates, the county fair drew, as usual, crowds from nearby counties and towns, and it was a big one. The market is also a very good market, and there are many things that arouse the interest of the public.While Aibo didn't want to go to the side events—snake players, overweight women, dancers in cool dresses, and two-headed calves—the stalls were popular with men and boys who had left their wives. There are also quite a few gamblers who are using their petty deceptions, most of them are deceiving young people.The older ones, who have probably grown tired of watching pornographic dancers over the years, usually wander into the cattle show to see the animals.They'd stand there while their women went to the tent where the pies and cakes and cross-stitching were on display.The younger children, tired and dusty, usually stayed with the women unless a brother or sister would take them to play. "This is really wonderful, Dr. Sam!" Aibo exclaimed, her face full of childish delight, "I really hope this fair can last a whole year." "But that wouldn't be so great," I argued logically. "In fact, I think we'll be bored pretty soon." "Look, it's Mayor Chadwick." Every time I see Felix Chadwick, I think of his predecessor who was killed three years ago during the Fourth of July celebrations.But Mayor Chadwick probably wouldn't encounter such a thing.He's a chicken farmer, and it's useless to host a celebration in his political capacity.I think I was surprised that he was there—it was only later that I remembered about the time capsule. The time capsule was the brainchild of Emma Janney.She can be regarded as a cultural and historical worker in our town.She found some vague evidence that in 1627 William Bradford, a merchant and adventurer of the Plymouth Colony, had established a trading post at the present site of North Hill. “In a way, this is our tricentennial,” she declared at a town council meeting earlier this year, “and it should be celebrated properly.” Because Beishan Town always likes to set off fireworks all over the sky on National Day, this has caused a debate about what to do for the 300th anniversary celebration.Is there another fireworks show?Make it bigger? "No," said Emma Janney, stamping her knobbed cane on the floor, urging everyone to listen to her. "We should bury a time capsule and open it in a hundred years." Well, everyone agrees with this idea, especially Gus Antwerp, the owner of "Metal Workers", who said that he can make us a steel time capsule, and even bury it for us, without the town paying a dime at all.That was his contribution to the celebration, and Mayor Chadwick accepted it right away. So now the mayor himself has approached Aibo and me to put aside the chicken business for a while on this big day of politics and pomp. "I don't want to disturb you two. The weather is really nice this year, isn't it? Great sun and no clouds in the sky! A day like this must be very good." "It's a good day." I agreed, "And the whole market is very lively. I saw a lot of cars from other counties." "There's a race that draws them," he said in a low voice, as if he were revealing some dark secret known only to the town council. "Are you going to be racing this afternoon, doctor?" It is already a traditional event in our county fair to hold a horse-drawn carriage race on the oval track in front of the grandstand. The local people drive a single-seater two-wheeled carriage to compete.But I have never been interested in this kind of game. "Not this year, Felix," I replied, and I just couldn't bring myself to call him mayor. "Hey, I'll see you at the time capsule later. Have you brought anything to put in it?" "Oh, of course I did." He smiled at Aibo, walked away, and was immediately overwhelmed by the crowds flocking to those performance booths. "This guy!" Aibo scolded after he got out of hearing, "I don't know if he will give away chickens for free again in the next general election. That's how he got elected last time." "Oh, Phillis isn't that bad, he's just not up to the job, but does North Hill really need a competent mayor?" Aibo met a young woman she knew, and the two went to see a cross-stitch exhibition together. I wandered over to the performance booth and promised to meet her in the grandstand in an hour to watch the burial ceremony of the time capsule. I was watching a fast hand at a three-card game near a gaming table when a voice behind me said, "Dr. Hawthorne, I have the most wonderful news!" I recognized the voice before I turned to accept the cheek kiss she always greeted me with.Jill Fryer was a good friend, the liveliest and brightest unmarried woman in North Hills.I tried to court her last summer, but apparently her heart belonged to a guy named Marcus McNeill at that time. "Must be news about Marcus," I said quickly, looking into her smiling blue eyes, hiding my disappointment that she still wouldn't call me by my first name. "He's coming home! He called me three days ago from Cleveland. He should be here today." "It was great to see him again," I said insincerely, with a smile on my face the whole time.Max McNeill was a touring musician and a troublemaker.He once organized a small band to play country music for the local square dancers, and Jill even sang with them a few times.That's how she first met Marcos.But after the last dance, he passed out from too much bootlegging, beat up the local lads, and found himself rather ostracized by the community.By last summer, the only one speaking for him was Jill Flair.Now that he came back to Beishan Town, he would probably make some people in the town frown again. "I talked to him about burying the time capsule, and he said he'd be there in time to see it." "That's great, Jill." As she walked by my side, the smile on her face suddenly disappeared. "You never really liked Marcus, did you, Dr. Hawthorne?" "I feel like your father when you call me that. Please call me Sam." "Okay," the smile quickly returned to her face, "Sam." "Very well! You know, I'm not much older than you." "But it looks like you've been here for a long time. I remember you were the one who cured me when I got measles." "I was just out of medical school, and I came here in 1922." "Only five and a half years?" "These years have been very important to you, Jill, and you've grown into a woman." "I'm only twenty years old." "Where's Marcus—how old is he?" "Thirty-one. I know—I've heard my parents say that so many times. Said he's too old for me. He's not good, he drinks." Her voice softened. "But I love him, Sam." "I remember you being sad when he left town." "I think it's because of the sudden relationship. He was here one day and disappeared the next day. He didn't even leave me a note." "The police are after him. After he beat Mayor Chadwick's son, Sergeant Lens is going to put him in jail." "I know. It's really bad for him to drink. But he told me on the phone that he's sober now, he hasn't had a drink in months." "amazing!" "You'll be nice to him, won't you, Sam? He doesn't have many friends here, and that means a lot to me." "I'll be nice to him for you." I looked at my pocket watch and realized it was almost noon. "But we'd better go over to the Grandstand right now, or you might lose your job." Jill was Gus Antwerp's secretary, and it looked as if he wanted her by his side to bury the stone he made of steel. time capsule. Our crowd flocked to the grandstand surrounded by yellow walls, while the solicitors were still trying to yell for everyone to enter the tent for sex dancing.But even children temporarily put aside the joy and excitement brought by the small Ferris wheel to witness that historic moment.The first person we saw as we walked into the grandstand was Emma Janney, propped up on her knuckle-ridden cane, smoldering.She blocked our way as soon as she saw Jill. "Hey miss, I see your man is back." "Marcus! Is he here?" "Almost knocked me over with his truck, and you told him to be more considerate of other people, and if he came back to North Hills to cause more trouble, you told him we'd rather he never come back." "I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt you," murmured Jill Flair.I could see that she wanted above all to get out of the way of the old woman and fly into Marcus McNeil's arms. But Emma Janney doesn't want to let us off the hook just yet. "People here have to have the guts to deal with a guy like Marcus McNeill. They have to tell him he has to live like a part of the community. The law says we can't drink intoxicating beverages, and this The same law applies to you, to me, and to Max McNeil." "I'm sure he understands that, Miss Janey." "Didn't know he'd understand! Driving around like he was drunk again. Same as before!" But now she steps aside and we're finally able to pass.I finally said something about the weather and went into the grandstand and saw the Gais Antwerp time capsule for the first time. He dug a hole in the very middle of the oval, and the outer track was to be used for horse-drawn carts in the afternoon.From my vantage point, the time capsule looked like a huge silver cigar hanging straight down from a plank and pulley, its lower half blocked by the dirt surrounding the hole.At the top of the eight-foot-tall time capsule, a hinged metal door opens to allow modern artefacts to be placed inside. Mayor Chadwick, still trying to shed his chicken-farmer image, stood up and made a scene out of a cacophony loudspeaker he had just bought with county money.Then ask Emma Janney to come forward and praise her for a great idea.The mayor helped her to the mound so she could reach through the door on top of the upright time capsule to put in her memento—a copy of the day's newspaper.Then came a group of elementary school students, some of whom had to be picked up by the mayor to reach the door of the time capsule, and what they put in were some textbooks they had chosen. I left Jill Flair standing in the stands and continued to search for Marcus's familiar face, and walked into the arena by myself, the almost clean-looking Gus Antwerp in a neatly pressed suit was very hard shake my hand. "It's good to see you, Doc! Anything for this time capsule?" I pulled a booklet out of my inside pocket. "The medical records from the last year of our primary school. A hundred years from now, they may be interested in why our children are sick." "Great!" I looked up at this steel time capsule. "How long did it take you to do this?" "In less than one night. I rolled up the steel, welded the seams, and put a slab on the bottom and a door on top." Mayor Chadwick told me to go up front and announced my name barely intelligibly through the faulty loudspeaker.But that doesn't matter, almost everyone knows me.There was a small cheer and I saw Aibo wave to me from the edge of the crowd. I climbed up the mound with my notebook and took a moment to look inside the time capsule, examining it out of sheer curiosity.The hinged door was round like the top of the time capsule, about two feet in diameter.With the direct sunlight overhead, I could see all the way to the bottom of the time capsule, newspapers, books, and other things starting to form a little pile, and from what little we had put in, the time capsule was a Too big, but I'd never criticize someone's hard work.Besides, this thing looks great hanging from a rope—almost like a spaceship on the cover of Amazing Stories magazine, pointing straight at the stars. I tapped the thin metal wall with my knuckles, wondering if it would last a full century, and then I dropped my notebook among the other things and climbed down.Then someone threw in some small kitchen and farming tools, plus recipes from the winning bake-offs at the bazaar, a picture of the winning bull, a mail-order catalog from Sears Leubach, and finally Chadway Mayor Ke put in a copy of the town's certificate of title to complete the storage of all cultural relics. As we all watched, the mayor closed the door at the top of the time capsule, and Gus Antwerp sealed it with his great welding equipment.Then, like a captain leading a boat through a narrow waterway, Gase pulled the metal support plate under the upright time capsule and signaled that the time capsule would descend to the ground, amidst a burst of metal scraping.The entire time capsule disappears before our eyes.The mayor then handed Emma Janney a shovel tied with a red ribbon to help her shed the symbolic first shovel. I went to find Aibo. "You're great. Dr. Sam," she exclaimed. "The whole event was so touching! I wish I could be here in a hundred years and watch them dig this up." Before I could respond, Jill Fryer was beside us, fear in her dark blue eyes. "Doctor Huo-Sam, you must help me!" "What's up?" "I looked everywhere for Marcos and finally found his car, but he wasn't in the car." "Probably somewhere in the crowd." "Sam, I think there's blood on the front seat of the car." Aibo and I looked at each other. "I'll go and see," I said quietly.
It was a Ford truck with "Marcus Music Productions" painted on the side canvas.It was a common sight on the roads of North Hills before Marcus McNeill suddenly disappeared last summer.Now bring him back—with what result? "It's blood, indeed," I confirmed, "but it could be interpreted in many ways. He may have cut his finger, and it may even be animal blood." "Do you believe that?" Jill asked. I didn't answer directly. "Let's go find him." "I've looked. I've looked everywhere." I want to take this as a joke. "But you didn't go to the tent where the dance was performed, did you?" "Sam, please." "Well, I'll help you. You know Marcus McNeill, Abby, don't you? We'll spread out all over the fair to find him, and we'll meet up here in thirty minutes." I took the road of performance booths, and checked the tents of sexy dancers and the exhibition hall of fat women.But there was no sign of Max McNeill.Towards the end of that half hour, I bumped into Emma Janney and asked her about the truck. "You said the car almost hit you, Miss Jenny, when was that?" "About eleven o'clock, maybe a little earlier, did you see him?" "We're looking for it, but he seems to have disappeared again." Like a year ago, I couldn't help but think so. After returning to the truck, I knew that Aibo and Jill were also not found. "I've got to find him," Jill insisted. "The bloodstains mean he's hurt." Or dead, I add in my mind.But then I had another thought. "Ji'er, are you sure that the person who spoke to you that night was Marcus? Sometimes you can't hear clearly on long-distance calls, you know." I saw her hesitate. "Well, of course it's Marcus. If it's not him, why should he be?" "I don't know," I admitted. "If I can't even hear Marcus's voice, then I'm a sucker." I watched several children running in and out of the crowd next to the cake stand.Some men in the distance were gathering for the afternoon horse-drawn truck race, and everything seemed normal except for Max McNeill's blood-stained truck. "Well," I said, "Maybe Marcus didn't come back today." "Didn't come back? Of course he came back!" "Only Emma Janney saw him, and in fact, all she really saw was this truck. It may be hard for you, Jill, but I have to say this. Maybe Marcus Didn't come back at all, because he never left at all. A year ago, he had many enemies, and maybe one of them killed him." She gasped and her voice sounded like a scream: "No, no, let me tell you, it's Marcos on the phone!" "Okay," I said with a sigh, "let's keep looking." This time we agreed to meet at the carriage races beyond the Grandstand.Aibo stayed with me, and as soon as we were alone she asked, "Do you really think he's dead, Dr. Sam?" "I don't know what to think, Aibo. Do you remember what happened a year ago? Who were Marcus' enemies?" "I just know what they were talking about, he beat up Mayor Chadwick's son, you know." "I remember that." "Damn it, everybody he knows probably hates Marcus McNeill. He's the kind of guy, and if Jill catches him with a nineteen-year-old girl behind somebody's barn, she'll will hate him." "Which girl stole Jill's person?" "It's not one, I know a few, people like Marcus McNeill, just look at him." "Jile had finished high school by then, was she working at Gais Antwerp?" Aibo shook her head. "Remember? Gus didn't move to town until last fall, and Marcus was long gone. Jill didn't know what to do, and Gus needed a girl for help, so he hired her." There's another place I'm going to look for--there's a stable where some people who intend to race the afternoon carts prepare there.Ib went with me, and we went through the row of stables—but no Max McNeil was in sight. "Changed your mind about racing?" Mayor Chadwick asked when he bumped into us there. "Impossible," I said, "I don't even drive a horse-drawn cart now. I drive carts without horses." He walked with us to the grandstand, where most of the people who hadn't attended the fair had gathered again.Even gamblers and scammers picked up their tricks and were busy collecting bets on horse-drawn chariots.In the center of the oval, Gus Antwerp and a few others had buried the time capsule, with its wooden frame and windlass still hanging above it—like an empty gallows, waiting for its next victim. There was a cheer from the crowd as the first horse-drawn carriages emerged on the oval.But there was one other thing that caught my eye—a white thing on the ground near where the time capsule was buried was fluttering in the afternoon breeze. "Come to Jill," I said to Aibo, "I'll be right there." I sprinted across the dirt track to the grass oval and headed straight for the men still holding the shovels.Gus Antwerp saw me walking by and waved to me. On the floor was a book with white pages open. It was a book that a primary school student brought and put in a time capsule—a seventh-grade math textbook. The pages were spattered with blood.
I found Mayor Chadwick standing on the judging stand, watching the horse-drawn carriages parade around the field. "You came at the right time, doctor, have you placed your bet? Did you know that Sergeant Lansi is also driving a car for the race?" "Mayor, I want you to order the time capsule to be dug out again." "T-what did you say?" "A time capsule. You have to dig it up." "Why? Did you forget to put some love letters in there? Haha!" "I mean it, Mayor. Marcon McNeill is missing." His face hardened. "McNeil disappeared a year ago." "And now he's gone again." "Uh, he's definitely not in the time capsule!" I took out the blood-spattered math textbook. "This should be in the time capsule, but I found it on the ground outside. I think the time capsule was opened after it was buried." "impossible!" "I know this is impossible, but there have been several impossible things in Beishan Town before this. I should be very clear-I am almost an expert in this field." "You mean it. Don't you, doctor?" he said, squinting at me. "Absolutely speaking!" He sighed and started to walk up the stairs. "Let's see what Sheriff Lan Si said." The sheriff was sitting in his buggy, trying to button up the plaid silk shirt over his paunch. "I give in on the spur of the moment," he muttered as we passed. "I don't want to hear your jokes, doctor." "Doctors don't tell jokes today," Chadwick said. "He wants us to dig up the time capsule because Marcus McNeill is missing again." "what are you talking about?" I explained quickly and told Sheriff Lens what had happened.After I finished speaking, he snorted and climbed down from the carriage. "I think you're out of your mind, doctor, and honestly, I'm open to any excuse that will keep me from driving that stupid thing. Come on, let's dig." Gas Antwerp put the shovel down as we passed and listened to our demands. "We just buried it, and you want us to dig it up again?" "Yes." I said. "What about after we dig it up?" "We're going to open it. Look inside." "You don't make sense! You're all crazy!" I took out the blood-stained textbook. "It's unreasonable, but it's true! There's blood in McNeill's car, and there's blood on this book from the time capsule. I'm going to open the time capsule." "But he can't be in there!" insisted Antwerp. "I still have to take a look." The bald man shrugged and handed me his shovel. "You are ten years younger than me, doctor, please dig." I started digging, and the others joined in.Antwerp saw us coming for real, and helped to clear the upper part of the time capsule, and then tied the rope back. "The soil is still loose," he said. "We might be able to pull that thing out with a frame and a pulley." A few of us used to pull the rope, but the time capsule didn't move at that time. "Go and find a group of horses," Sergeant Lan Si suggested, "you can pull them out right away." Someone went to get some horses, and the rest of us dug a little longer.The buzz of conversation in the stands above turned into loud inquiries about what was going on and when the game would start, and none of us answered their questions. After the horse was tied up, the metal cylinder was pulled up in less than a minute.We laid it across the ground, and Gus used a chisel to open up where he had welded.I watched him work and started to feel a little stupid. Jill Fryer and April also came out to watch the time capsule reopen.I wanted Jill to back away, but she insisted.Before I could look inside myself, I heard her screaming. Then Aibo held her up, and I pushed Sergeant Lens, who looked dead pale, to see the impossible.Among the scattered piles of books and utensils intended for the twenty-first century lay the body of Max McNeil.
Let's try to look at it logically. Someone dug a tunnel to get to that time capsule, and put the body in from there. It's just that we dug out all the soil in the cave, and found no tunnel.Nothing but dirt. Or maybe Gus Antwerp has been hiding dead bodies in time capsules.It's just that Gus doesn't even recognize McNeil, and I've seen the time capsule myself before, and there's no dead body in it. Or maybe the time capsule was dug up between noon and my discovery of the bloody textbook. It's just that Antwerp and two or three others have been filling the hole. "I only left for about ten minutes to get a hot dog," Gase said, "but there were people in the grandstand eating and watching us all the time. The time capsule was buried and never moved." Let's look at it in a logical way. Logically, this cannot happen. "How did he die, Doctor?" Sergeant Lens asked as we dragged the body out of that metal cylinder, giving me a chance to examine it. "A blunt blow to the head with some kind of blunt instrument." "Has he been dead for a long time?" "It's hard to tell in this heat, but he's been dead for hours at least. All the bleeding has stopped and the body is stiff. I think he was dead when Emma saw his truck this morning .” "That means—" "It means he didn't drive the car, maybe he died in the front seat and the murderer was driving." Sergeant Lan Si only snorted when he heard this. "But no, doctor, if the bleeding has stopped, why is there so much blood in that math textbook you found? It looks fresh to me." "I don't know," I admitted. "Will the corpse still bleed?" "Not necessarily. But the blood will gather at the lowest point. If there is a big wound at that point, sometimes the blood will still flow out after death." When I saw Aibo approaching, I went to meet him. "Is Jill okay?" "I'm afraid it's not very good. You'd better give her some sleeping pills. He came back a year later and was killed again. It's really scary." "Not only is it surprising, but it really shouldn't be. Who would hold a grudge for so long?" Aibo took me to the tent where the cross-stitch works were exhibited, and Jill was lying on a small bed.Old Emma Janney bent over to apply a wet washcloth to her forehead while Gus Antwerp held her hand. "I kept telling her it was okay," he said. "But she just can't recover." "She's been too frightened," I said, "and she'll be all right with a little rest. Get out of here, all of you." When Abe and I were alone with her, Jill opened her eyes and said, "When the door opened, I saw the top of his head. His hair was full of blood." She said trembling all over. "Jiel. I have to ask you a few questions. Either Sergeant Lens or I will ask them. I think you'd rather talk to me." "What's the matter, doctor?" "Who else knew about the call from Cleveland? Who else knew he was coming back today?" "nobody." "Think about it, Jill. You told me when you saw me today, and maybe you told someone else. Does your boss know?" She shook her head. "Gase doesn't know Marcus at all, so I have no reason to tell him, oh, he probably heard me mention Marcus, but they never met." "Where's Emma Janney?" "Why should I tell her?" "I don't know. It's just that she didn't seem too surprised when she saw his truck this morning." She sat up suddenly. "A man heard me say it. He saw me yesterday and asked if I would come to see the time capsule burying ceremony. I said yes, and then I mentioned that Marcus would be back to attend." "Who did you tell?" "Mayor Chadwick." I found the mayor beyond the grandstand, staring at the time capsule still lying on the edge of the mound.He gave me a blank look and said, "I'm going to say that's a fucking clever way to bury a body! Can you imagine a hundred years from now when they open this thing up and find a skeleton , will there be any expression on your face?" "It's probably going to look like our faces this afternoon," I said.The sun had set beyond the yellow fence, and it was nearly dusk. "That's true," he agreed, "but who's going to kill him. Doctor?" "Must be someone who knew he was coming back. You know that, don't you, Phillips?" "What did you say?" "Jile told you he'd be back today." "She may have mentioned it, but I didn't pay much attention." "How is your son? The one who was beaten badly by Marcus." "Joy went off to college," he replied quickly. "During summer vacation?" He was silent for a while, then said: "I'll tell you the truth. Anyway, if you ask my wife, she will tell you. Joey has been in the wrong head since that beating. Dropped out of college." I sit where the sun used to be above the yellow fence. "Is that enough to make a father murderous?" He took a piece of chewing tobacco from his pocket. "Damn it, I'll just kill him and let him lie there! I can't imagine hiding a body in a time capsule like this." I want to remember that he is just a chicken farmer, pretending to be the mayor, and maybe the plan of killing people like this is really beyond his imagination. "Well," I said finally, "I'll see you later, Phillips." "Finding that body really messed up our market," he grumbled, as if speaking to himself instead of me. Packing, they don't want to deal with the police." "It's always been a good fair," I told him. I walked away, desperate to find those show booths before they disappeared.I found the showgirl solicitor and called him aside. "I need a little news," I said. He frowned. "I can't ask anything here." "I'm not a policeman, I'm a doctor." "We didn't see anything, the girls and I are innocent." "Of course, hey, sometimes the jockeys do the bury-alive stunt—right?" "Yeah," he said, shrugging his shoulders, "I know a guy who does this kind of show. It's buried in the ground the whole time the fair goes on. Visitors pay twenty-five cents, and the Look down and see him lying in the coffin." "How is that done?" I asked. "what?" "What trick?" I pulled a bill from my wallet and held it suggestively. He snatched the banknote away. "Don't say I said it." "Won't." "The man in the coffin is a wax dummy, and once he's buried, he crawls out of the tunnel. Indian dervishes have been doing this for hundreds of years." "typical……" "Of course, what do you think?" I thanked him and walked away, he didn't help me at all.There were no tunnels leading to the time capsule, and if there were, how would the corpse get through the metal walls of the cylinder? I went back to the grandstand and decided to take one last look at that time capsule.The mayor of Chadwick has gone, and the dusk has covered the land. Several children playing on the mound saw me and scattered. For a long time, I just stood there and watched. Suppose there are two time capsules, and the one we dug out is the second one.No, there are books, newspapers, and tools inside, and even my primary school student health record is with the corpse.The time capsule is still the same. But there were more corpses inside. I tapped the metal cylinder with my knuckles as before. Then I tapped again. The sound was not the one I heard in the afternoon.The sound is different now, much thicker. 然后我想起了另外一件事，我想起了金属的刮擦声…… “原来你知道是怎么做的了？”在我身后有个声音问道。 我转过身去，看到艾玛·詹尼站在黑暗中，她那多瘤节的拐杖在一只手里握得紧紧的。 一时之间，我几乎扑向她，想要解除她的武装。可是她紧接着轻咳两声，再重复她的问题，而我放松下来，甚至微微一笑。“我想我知道了，詹尼小姐，我想我刚刚想通了。” “他根本不该回来的，这里的人不要他。只是过去的因造成了现在的果。” “奇怪的是，我倒觉得是起于未来的因呢。” "How to say?" 我用手指轻敲了下她的拐杖。“你应该小心这个东西，詹尼小姐，有人可能误以为这是件钝器。” 我走了开去，留下她站在那个是她美梦一部分的时光胶囊旁边。 我回来的时候，爱玻正和蓝思警长一起站在十字绣的展览场外。“姬儿呢？”我问道。 “她的老板开车送她回家去了，”爱玻回答道。 我不想再拿别人的生命来碰运气。“快来，我们得拦住他们！很可能会再有桩命案！”我一面说着，已经朝我的汽车跑去。 爱玻追了上来。“你不可能说你认为姬儿杀了马可思吧！” "of course not." 警长、爱玻和我挤进两人座的前座。“可是盖斯根本从来不认得死者呀！”蓝思警长争辩道。 “这正是他杀人的原因，”我回答道，说话的语气就像G·K·切斯特顿小说里那种似非而是的理论。“你们先前没有注意到盖斯握着姬儿的手吗？对一个像盖斯·安特卫普这样的中年人来说，会想象自己爱上漂亮的二十岁女秘书，并不是件多奇怪的事。他从来没见过马可思·麦克尼尔，可是他从姬儿和其他人那里却听说过他很多事。他想到姬儿的爱人一回来就会让她神魂颠倒，那他什么办法也没有了。引发动机的不是马可思的过去，而是盖斯·安特卫普的未来。” 我们看到安特卫普卡车的尾灯在前面，我按着喇叭，一副想要超车的样子。然后我开到卡车前面，逼得他停了下来。盖斯想把姬儿从座位上拉下来，可是等他看到蓝思警长的时候，就放开了手，朝附近的树林跑去。警长紧追在他后面。 “你还好吧？”我问姬儿。 她揉着瘀青的手腕。“我——我想还好吧，他疯了。山姆，他要我今晚和他一起逃走。” “我就怕他决定逃走，还把你拉着一起走。一看到我们发现了尸体，他就知道我们会想到所有真相只是迟早的问题。” 蓝思警长一个人走了回来。“安特卫普跳进河里去了，”他说，“我看他游不到对岸的。” 我们开车回镇上，警长驾着盖斯·安特卫普的卡车跟在后面。他通知了州警注意盖斯的行踪，以防万一他没有淹死在河里。然后，回到警长的办公室，轮到我来把话再说清楚。 “这是一件很奇怪而不可能的犯罪——可是我一旦想清楚尸体是怎么到那个时光胶囊里之后，唯一可能的凶手就是盖斯了。你知道，尸体不是在时光胶囊封起来之前放进去的，也不是打开之后放进去的。所以是在时光胶囊埋下去的过程中，进到了钢片做的壁内。” “你这样弄得听起来更不可能了，”警长抱怨道。 “不见得。今天傍晚我用指节敲那个时光胶囊的时候，声音听起来和先前不一样，更加厚实。我想起在时光胶囊送进地下时有一阵金属的刮擦声。要是你仔细地检查，就会发现有两层金属壁而不是一层。盖斯·安特卫普把马可思的尸体放在第二个圆筒里，大概直径比我们所看到的那个小一吋左右。那个已经埋在地里，就在直立的时光胶囊的正下方。 “等我们把文物放进去之后，盖斯抽掉下方支撑的钢片——其实那也就是那个时光胶囊的底。所有的东西都掉进了底下那个圆筒里，那个圆筒顶上是开口，而马可思·麦克尼尔的尸体已经藏在里面。然后盖斯让上面那个比较大的圆筒降下去，正好密合地贴在地底下那个比较小的圆筒外面。我猜他在外侧涂了油，可是在滑到一起的时候还是有金属刮擦的情形。因为接合得非常紧密，所以等到把时光胶囊挖起来的时候，看起来只有一个金属圆筒。” “他做这些怎么没人看见呢？”蓝思警长问道。 “昨天晚上的话就很容易，因为那附近一个人也没有，万一有人看到他从卡车上卸下第二个圆筒，他也可以说那是个备份。而一旦藏着尸体的那个比较窄的圆筒埋进地下之后，就没有被人看见的危险了，你们还记得那个洞里的四周围堆着土。而上面那个圆筒又有一部分已经进了洞里，其实是正架在底下那个上面。” “可是安特卫普怎么知道马可思要回来呢？”爱玻问道。“姬儿说她根本没告诉过他。” “我们可以猜得到吧，马可思应该是今天回来的。可是他想必提早了一天，才会让盖斯在昨晚就杀了他还移尸。马可思再打电话给姬儿说他计划改变，也是很合逻辑的。她不在办公室，而她的老板接了电话，盖斯·安特卫普没有把口讯转告姬儿，他那因爱而疯狂的头脑却想出了这个奸计，他自己告诉我说他做那个时光胶囊用不到一晚上的时间。对他来说，再做一个比较小一点、可以套进第一个里的圆筒，是件很简单的事。 “盖斯等着马可思昨晚回到这里，很可能就在马可思卡车的前座打破了他的头，留下了那些血迹。然后他把尸体和两个大圆筒用他自己的卡车运到现场。今天早上他开着马可思的卡车过去，差点撞到艾玛·詹尼。这样看起来就好像马可思是照预定行程在今天抵达，然后又失踪了。” Chief Lan Si snorted. “我听说过凶手把尸体埋在一些选得相当聪明的地方，可这还是我第一回知道有人想把尸体埋到下一个世纪呢！”
山姆·霍桑医生喝了口酒，把他的故事说完。“他们第二天早上在河里找到安特卫普的尸体，事情就此结案了。走之前再来一点——呃——喝的吗？你说什么？你还不满意？我没有解释到那本有血迹的数学课本？ “呃，那事爱玻第二天弄清楚了。在时光胶囊前面排队的一个男孩子突然流鼻血，流到了他的课本上，他不能就这样把书放进时光胶囊里，所以他就把书本丢在地上一堆土的后面。那和命案毫无关系，只不过让我把时光胶囊挖起来，找到了尸体。我通常都不说这个部分，因为这让我看起来有点蠢，我真希望你没问起这件事。 “才一次？呃，一九二七年是摄制了第一部有声电影的那年。北山镇离好菜坞远得很。可是有个电影公司到那里来拍一部早期的有声电影的时候，却有个意想不到的可怕结果。不过那要等下回再说了。来吧，让我给你再斟上点。”
Notes: