Агата Кристи - Hercule Poirot's Christmas / Рождество Эркюля Пуаро. Книга для чтения на английском языке

Poirot said: ‘You will tell us now?’

She nodded. ‘I was with David in the music-room. He was playing. He was in a very queer mood. I was a little frightened and I felt my responsibility very keenly because it was I who had insisted on coming here. David began to play the Dead March , and suddenly I made up my mind. However odd it might seem [428] However odd it might seem – ( разг. ) Каким бы странным это ни казалось , I determined that we would both leave at once – that night. I went quietly out of the music-room and upstairs. I meant to go to old Mr Lee and tell him quite plainly why we were going. I went along the corridor to his room and knocked on the door. There was no answer. I knocked again a little louder. There was still no answer. Then I tried the door handle. The door was locked. And then, as I stood hesitating, I heard a sound inside the room —’

She stopped.

‘You won’t believe me, but it’s true! Someone was in there – assaulting Mr Lee. I heard tables and chairs overturned and the crash of glass and china, and then I heard that one last horrible cry that died away to nothing – and then silence.

‘I stood there paralysed! I couldn’t move! And then Mr Farr came running along and Magdalene and all the others and Mr Farr and Harry began to batter on the door. It went down and we saw the room, and there was no one in it – except Mr Lee lying dead in all that blood.’

Her quiet voice rose higher. She cried: ‘There was no one else there – no one, you understand! And no one had come out of the room…’

Superintendent Sugden drew a deep breath. He said: ‘Either I’m going mad or everybody else is! What you’ve said, Mrs Lee, is just plumb impossible [429] is just plumb impossible – ( разг. ) совершенно невозможно . It’s crazy!’

Hilda Lee cried: ‘I tell you I heard them fighting in there, and I heard the old man scream when his throat was cut – and no one came out and no one was in the room!’

Hercule Poirot said: ‘And all this time you have said nothing.’

Hilda Lee’s face was white, but she said steadily: ‘No, because if I told you what had happened, there’s only one thing you could say or think – that it was I who killed him…’

Poirot shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘You did not kill him. His son killed him.’

Stephen Farr said: ‘I swear before God [430] I swear before God – ( разг. ) Богом клянусь I never touched him!’

‘Not you,’ said Poirot. ‘He had other sons!’

Harry said: ‘What the hell – ’

George stared. David drew his hand across his eyes. Alfred blinked twice.

Poirot said: ‘The very first night I was here – the night of the murder – I saw a ghost. It was the ghost of the dead man. When I first saw Harry Lee I was puzzled. I felt I had seen him before. Then I noted his features carefully and I realized how like his father he was, and I told myself that that was what caused the feeling of familiarity.

‘But yesterday a man sitting opposite me threw back his head and laughed – and I knew who it was Harry Lee reminded me of. And I traced again, in another face, the features of the dead man.

‘No wonder poor old Tressilian felt confused when he had answered the door not to two, but to three men who resembled each other closely. No wonder he confessed to getting muddled about people when there were three men in the house who, at a little distance, could pass for each other [431] could pass for each other – ( разг. ) могут сойти один за другого ! The same build, the same gestures (one in particular, a trick of stroking the jaw), the same habit of laughing with the head thrown back, the same distinctive high-bridged nose. Yet the similarity was not always easy to see – for the third man had a moustache.’

He leaned forward.

‘One forgets sometimes that police officers are men, that they have wives and children, mothers’ – he paused – ‘and fathers… Remember Simeon Lee’s local reputation: a man who broke his wife’s heart because of his affairs with women. A son born the wrong side of the blanket may inherit many things. He may inherit his father’s features and even his gestures. He may inherit his pride and his patience and his revengeful spirit!’

His voice rose.

‘All your life, Sugden, you’ve resented the wrong your father did you. I think you determined long ago to kill him. You come from the next county, not very far away. Doubtless your mother, with the money Simeon Lee so generously gave her, was able to find a husband who would stand father to her child [432] who would stand father to her child – ( разг. ) который воспитал бы ее сына как отец . Easy for you to enter the Middleshire Police Force and wait your opportunity. A police superintendent has a grand opportunity of committing a murder and getting away with it.’

Sugden’s face had gone white as paper. He said: ‘You’re mad! I was outside the house [433] I was outside the house – ( разг. ) Меня в доме-то не было when he was killed.’

Poirot shook his head. ‘No, you killed him before you left the house the first time. No one saw him alive after you left. It was all so easy for you. Simeon Lee expected you, yes, but he never sent for you. It was you who rang him up and spoke vaguely about an attempt at robbery. You said you would call upon him just before eight that night and would pretend to be collecting for a police charity. Simeon Lee had no suspicions. He did not know you were his son. You came and told him a tale of substituted diamonds. He opened the safe to show you that the real diamonds were safe in his possession. You apologized, came back to the hearth with him and, catching him unawares [434] catching him unawares – ( уст. ) застав его врасплох , you cut his throat, holding your hand over his mouth so that he shouldn’t cry out. Child’s play to a man of your powerful physique.

‘Then you set the scene. You took the diamonds. You piled up tables and chairs, lamps and glasses, and twined a very thin rope or cord which you had brought in coiled round your body, in and out between them. You had with you a bottle of some freshly killed animal’s blood to which you had added a quantity of sodium citrate. You sprinkled this about freely and added more sodium citrate to the pool of blood which flowed from Simeon Lee’s wound. You made up the fire so that the body should keep its warmth. Then you passed the two ends of the cord out through the narrow slit at the bottom of the window and let them hang down the wall. You left the room and turned the key from the outside. That was vital, since no one must, by any chance, enter that room.

‘Then you went out and hid the diamonds in the stone sink garden. If, sooner or later, they were discovered there, they would only focus suspicion more strongly where you wanted it: on the members of Simeon Lee’s legitimate family. A little before nine-fifteen you returned and, going up to the wall underneath the window, you pulled on the cord. That dislodged the carefully piled-up structure you had arranged. Furniture and china fell with a crash. You pulled on one end of the cord and re-wound it round your body under your coat and waistcoat.

‘You had one further device! [435] You had one further device! – ( зд. ) Но и это еще не все! (У вас в запасе было еще одно приспособление.) ’

He turned to the others.

‘Do you remember, all of you, how each of you described the dying scream of Mr Lee in a different way? You, Mr Lee, described it as the cry of a man in mortal agony. Your wife and David Lee both used the expression: a soul in hell. Mrs David Lee, on the contrary, said it was the cry of someone who had no soul. She said it was inhuman, like a beast. It was Harry Lee who came nearest to the truth. He said it sounded like killing a pig.