Chapter 4 third chapter

Grant and the girl accompanied Robert and Marion Sharp to inspect the house, while Hallam waited in the living room with the policewoman. The girl confirmed the kitchen, and they went to the corner of the stairs on the first floor. At this time, Robert said: "Miss Keen said that the second staircase looks like something hard, but the carpet of the same texture continues here." "Only around the corner," said Marion. "As far as the eye can see. Rough felt round the corners. Victorian thrift. In this day and age, if you're poor, you buy cheap rugs that run from bottom to top. But the way it was then I think other people's opinions are very important, so this luxurious thing should be spread where the eyes can see it from downstairs."

The girl's description of the third staircase is also correct.The short steps leading to the attic were not paved. The attic that is most relevant to the whole case is a low, square box-like room with a ceiling that slopes abruptly in three directions to match the stone-tiled roof outside.Light comes in only from the round windows that open onto the front yard.The windows were not a sloping slab of slate extending to a short, low white wall.The window was divided into four parts by a wooden frame, and each part had serious cracks.It doesn't appear to have been opened. The loft does not have any furniture.Robert thought, the unnatural emptiness may be for the convenience of storing items.

"There was stuff here when we first got here," Marion said, as if answering him, "but when we found out we had to clean up most of the time ourselves, we threw it away." Grant turned to the girl questioningly. "The one with the bed in the corner," she said, pointing to the corner away from the window. "There was also a wooden chest of drawers by the bed. In the corner behind the door there were three empty suitcases - two suitcases, a flat-topped trunk. There was also a chair, but after I tried to break the window with it, She took it." She mentioned Marion deadpan, as if she wasn't there. "That's where I tried to break the window."

It seemed to Robert that the crack in the window had been there for weeks; but there was a crack there. Grant crossed the room to the far corner and bent over the bare floor, but that didn't require such a close inspection.Even from where Robert stood now, he could see the wheel marks where the bed had been. "There used to be a bed there," said Marion. "That was one of the pieces of furniture we threw away." "What did you do with that bed?" "Let me see. Hmm! We gave it to the owner's wife at Staples Farm. Her oldest son was too old to share a room with the other kids, so she got him a room in the attic .We buy our dairy from Staples Farm. You can’t see the farm from there, but it’s not far from here.”

"Where do you keep the spare trunk, Miss Sharp? Do you have any other storage room?" Marian hesitated for the first time. “We do have a big square chest of drawers that my mother uses for storage. When we inherited the Franchise there was a valuable wardrobe in the room that is my mother’s current bedroom and we sold it Instead, the square flat-topped suitcase was covered with a printed cotton cloth. My own box is stored in a cupboard around the corner of the stairs on the second floor. " "Miss Kean, do you remember what those boxes looked like?" "Remember. One is brown leather, with covers on the corners; the other is American, covered with striped canvas."

This description is indeed precise. Grant continued to scan the room, studying the sight from the window, then turned to leave. "Can we go and see the box in the cupboard?" he asked Marianne. "Of course." Marian replied, but her tone seemed not very happy. At the corner of the next flight of stairs, she opened the cupboard door and stepped back to make room for the inspector.As Robert moved forward together, he noticed a fleeting smug look on the girl's face.That victorious expression completely changed her originally calm, childlike face, and greatly shocked him.It was a savage emotion, primitive and cruel; especially appalling and inexplicable in the faces of schoolgirls whose guardians and teachers spoke of their demure demeanor.

The open cabinet had some housekeeping linens on the shelves and four boxes on the bottom shelf.Two of them are larger, one is covered with cloth surface, the other is made of rawhide; the other two are: cowhide boxes with covered corners.And a square box covered with canvas, thickly striped canvas of various colours. "Are these boxes?" Grant asked c "Yes," said the girl. "Those two." "I don't want to bother my mother anymore," Marianne said, with sudden exasperation. "I admit the trunk in her room is huge and flat-topped. It's been in place for the past three years and hasn't been moved."

"Very well, Miss Sharp. Now, if we can, we'll go to the garage." Behind the house was a garage that had been converted from a stable a long time ago. A group of people came to inspect an old gray car.Grant read the transcript with the girl's very technical description of it, and it fits perfectly.However, Blair thought, that statement could easily be matched by at least the thousands of cars seen on British streets. This is difficult to constitute favorable evidence. "'There was a wheel with a different paint that looked like it was added. When the car was parked on the pavement, the different colored wheel was on the side of the front of the car near me."

Grant finished. After the sound of reciting finished, the four of them silently looked at the different gray wheels on the front wheel.No objection, it does. "Thank you very much, Miss Sharp," said Grant at last, closing the notebook and setting it aside. "I am very grateful for your kind help. If I need to contact you further, I think I can call you anytime in the next few days?" "Yes, Inspector. We have no intention of going anywhere." Even if Grant caught the sarcasm in her tone, he showed no displeasure. He led the girl to the policewoman, and they left without looking back.Then he and Hallam followed suit.

Hallam still has an apologetic attitude about trespassing on private land. Marianne walks them to the gate, while Blair remains in the living room.When she came in again she was holding a tray with sherry and glasses. "I'm not keeping you for dinner," she said, setting down the tray and pouring the wine, "partly because our dinner was very simple and different from what you're used to. (Did you know that your aunt's dinner is famous in Milford? See, even I've heard of it.) On the other hand, it's because—well, my mother said the case involving Birdmore Hospital wasn't your expertise. " "On that point," said Robert. "You do realize that the girl is very against you in terms of evidence, don't you? She is free to describe any object or decoration in your house as she pleases.If it is true, it will become evidence in her favor; on the contrary, if it is not true, it will not be beneficial to you.Because from the perspective of reasoning logic, you may have discarded it.For example, if the boxes weren't there, she could argue that they were in the attic once and you just took them away. "

"But she has never seen those things, but she can describe them so clearly." "You're saying she described those two cases. If your four cases are from the same series, then there's maybe a one in four chance of her being right. But since you just happen to have one of each common style, The chances of what she said will be relatively increased." He took a sip of the sherry that lay beside him, and was surprised to find it surprisingly good. She smiled at him and said, "We save, but not on wine." He blushed slightly, thinking maybe his surprise was too obvious. "However, how does she know that our car has mismatched wheels? This whole trap layout is really extraordinary. How does she know about my mother, me, and the structure of the house? Never. Even if she had opened the iron gate--what she was doing on that silent road still baffles me--well, even if she had opened the iron gate and looked in, As for knowing my mother and me." "Could she be a friend of one of your servants? Or the gardener?" "We never had a gardener because there was only lawn out there. For almost a year we didn't have any maid help. Just a girl from the farm who came in once a week to do rough work." Robert sympathetically said that it was not easy to maintain a large house without help. "Yes: but two things lighten the burden. I am not a woman who prides herself on being a good housekeeper; and the pleasure of finally having a house of my own makes me willing to suffer these inconveniences. Old Mr. Clore was my father My cousin, but we barely know him. My mother and I have long lived in a flat in Kensington, London." A sardonic smirk welled up on her lips. "You can't imagine how welcome Mother is in that building." The smile faded. "When I was very young, my father passed away. He was the kind of optimist who always believed that he would become a rich man tomorrow. One day, when he found out that his speculation failed so much that he couldn't even make up the money for tomorrow's bread, Suicide. Leave a mess behind and let my mother face the burden alone." It seemed to Robert that this experience somehow explained old Mrs. Sharp's pungency. "I didn't have any vocational training, so I did a lot of casual work. Not the housework kind - I hate it so much - but the kind of ladylike career that abounds in Kensington.Such as lampshade design, travel advisory services, flower arrangements or antiques and the like.When old Mr. Clore passed away, I worked in a tea shop, the kind where you go to have a cup of coffee in the morning and stop by the owner and the west.Alas, yes, it wasn't easy. "What's not easy?" "To imagine me mixed in with a bunch of teacups." Robert was uneasy for a while, because he was not used to being read at any time—his Aunt Lin was the worst at guessing other people's minds, and she still didn't understand even after others had tried their best to explain them.However, she obviously didn't want to answer the doubts in his heart. "We were just starting to feel settled when this happened." For the first time since she had asked him for a favor, Robert felt that he was on her side. "It's all about a girl needing excuses," he said. "We must find out more about Betty Kane." "I can tell you one thing about her. She's not a virgin anymore. "From a female instinct?" "No. I'm not a very feminine person, and I don't have intuition. But I've never seen a virgin, man or woman, have eyes that color. A dark dark blue, like faded navy." , can't go wrong." Robert smiled indulgently at her.She is quite feminine after all. "Don't dismiss it just because it doesn't fit a lawyer's dialectic logic," she added. "Go and testify with your friends around you." He couldn't help thinking of Gerald Brent, the protagonist of the great scandal in Milford Town.Gerald did have dark blue-gray eyes.So did Arthur-Wallis.He is a waiter at the White Hart Tavern and pays three fines a week.And that—hey! This hateful woman, she really shouldn't make such general remarks that seem groundless at first glance, but they seem to make sense after thinking about it. "It's fascinating to speculate about what she was doing that month," she said. Marianne said. "Knowing that someone beat her with a bruised nose gives me satisfaction. At least that means that there is still such a person in this world who made a correct judgment on her. I hope to meet him one day, and I would be more than happy to shake his hand. ""he? " "Of course 'he' has that vision." "Well," said Robert, getting up to leave, "I very much doubt that Grant will have a case that can be transferred to court. It's just you and the girl's individual unilateral arguments, and there is no other corroboration. It is against you that she The testimony of the , and that testimony depends on the circumstances. Against her, the story itself is not credible. I don't think there is any way for him to get any verdictc "But it has happened, whether it goes to the courts or not, or is just the Scotland Yard files; it won't be long before the word gets out and becomes the gossip of others. If the truth isn't clear, we'll be haunted by the story." in the shadows." "Don't worry, the truth will come out. But I think at this moment we can only give the police a day or two to decide what to do. After all, they are more capable than us to find out the truth." "It's really the most touching compliment to the police from a lawyer." "Believe me, honesty may be a virtue, but Scotland Yard discovered early on that it was also an asset. It's an asset that doesn't get discounted just because he's a police officer." "If he does take this case to court," she said, accompanying him to the gate, "and get a verdict, what will happen to us?" "I'm not sure. It'll be two years, or seven years of hard labor. I told you I'm not good at criminal procedure. But I'll look it up." "My trouble," she said. "They sound very different." He didn't think he resented her taunting habits, especially in the face of a criminal case. "Goodbye," she said. "Thank you again for stopping by. You put my mind at ease." Robert, remembering how close he was to throwing her case to Callie, walked to the door, blushing, when she said that.