第134章 卷30 (第2/2页)

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“or,” jake said, “von flanagan wants to find me and have me pick out some more journalism text-books for him.”

“再这样下去，”海伦说，“他就要去剪纸而不是编辑报纸了。”

“much more of this,” helene said, “and he’ll be cutting up papers instead of editing one.”

他们走到了华盛顿街。突然马龙说：“我不知道你们感觉怎么样，但我需要喝一杯。”

they had reached washington street. suddenly malone said, “i don’t know how you feel, but i need a drink.”

杰克意识到自己又累又饿又冷。“我需要喝一杯，然后睡二十个小时。”

jake realized that he was tired and hungry and cold. “i need a drink and twenty hours’ sleep.”

“折衷一下，喝两杯。”海伦说。

“compromise on two drinks,” helene said.

天使乔的市政厅酒吧在早上五点离开的顾客和早餐前光顾的新顾客之间惯常的短暂停歇后刚刚开门。乔本人在后面，对着一小堆账目咒骂着。酒吧里除了一个来自州检察官办公室的整洁年轻人（他在去办公室之前快速喝几杯）和一个前一晚留下来的孤独而忧郁的醉汉外，没有其他人。

joe the angel’s city hall bar was just opening after the customary brief pause between the patrons who left at five in the morning and the new bunch who dropped in before breakfast. joe himself was out in back, swearing over a small job of bookkeeping. there was no one in the place except a dapper young man from the state’s attorney’s office, who was getting a few quick ones before showing up at the office, and a solitary and morose drunk left over from the night before.

马龙要了三杯浓黑咖啡，每杯里倒了两小杯古巴朗姆酒，然后看了看表。正好九点。他向酒保要了一杯烈酒，走进电话亭，给莫娜麦克莱恩打电话。

malone called for three cups of strong black coffee with two jiggers of cuban rum poured into each, and looked at his watch. it was just nine o’clock. he asked the bartender for a slug went into the phone booth, and called mona mcclane.

“我想你可能想知道罗斯麦克劳林还活着，而且情况很好。”

“i thought you might like to know ross mclaurin is alive and doing nicely.”

“谢天谢地。”她说，“我一直在担心。他在哪里”

“thank heaven,” she said. “i was worrying. where is he?”

“在亨罗廷医院，但别再担心了。他会好起来的。”

“in henrotin hospital, but don’t worry any more. he’ll pull through.”

在她说话之前有一个极短暂的停顿，然后她说：“你看报纸了吗”

there was just the barest pause before she said, “have you seen the papers?”

“没有。”

“no.”

“你可以看看。我们昨晚遭了入室盗窃。”

“you might look at them. we had a burglary last night.”

在律师能问更多问题之前，她挂了电话。

she hung up before the lawyer could ask any more questions.

马龙生气地咒骂着，向酒保要了一份报纸，一边仔细阅读一边向杰克和海伦讲述刚才的通话。

malone swore angrily, asked the bartender for a paper, and pored over it while he reported the conversation to jake and helene.

“在这儿。”杰克说，指着一小段报道，上面说麦克莱恩大厦发生了一起未遂盗窃案。什么也没被偷走，闯入者逃走了。然而，迈克尔文宁夫人，即前伊迪莎普特南，她是麦克莱恩夫人的客人，发现了窃贼，头部受了点轻伤。

“there it is,” jake said, pointing to a small paragraph that told of the attempted burglary of the mcclane mansion. nothing had been taken, and the intruders had got away. however, mrs. michael venning, the former editha putnam, who was a guest of mrs. mcclane, and who discovered the burglars, had been slightly injured by a blow on the head.

“嗯，”海伦看了报纸好一会儿后说，“那她昨晚就没打算去枫树公园探查了。”

“well,” helene said, after looking at the paper for a long time, “then she wasn’t planning to explore maple park last night.”

杰克喝完了最后一口朗姆酒和咖啡，然后去打电话。

jake finished the last of the rum and coffee and went to the telephone.

“我给芝加哥大街警察局的一个朋友打了个电话，”他回来后说，“显然窃贼在迈克尔文宁的房间里。文宁不在。不在房子里。警察不知道他在哪里。她——文宁夫人——走进他的房间，被打了头，还没等发出警报，窃贼就完全逃走了。”

“i called a pal at the chicago avenue police station,” he said when he returned. “apparently the burglar was in michael venning’s room. venning was out. out of the house. the cops don’t know where he was. she—mrs. venning—went into his room, got conked on the bean, and before the alarm could be given, the burglars got clean away.”

马龙沉默了一会儿。“就像你前几天自己说的，这么多年了，他们还总是上那老一套盗窃把戏的当，真是不可思议。可惜彭德利不在现场。他可能以前从来没有机会给窃贼拍照。”

“malone was silent for a moment. “as you yourself said the other day, it’s wonderful how they go on falling for that old burglary gag after all these years. too bad pendley wasn’t on the scene. he probably never had a chance to photograph a burglar before.”

海伦皱起眉头。“不管怎么说，我也该回家了。也许我能了解到更多发生的事情。你们两个打算做什么”

“helene frowned. “it’s about time i was going home anyway. maybe i can find out more of what happened. what are you two going to do?”

“我们去杰克的公寓，”律师宣布，“希望那里不会有警察等着。快速刮个胡子，冲个澡，吃点早餐，我们就准备好迎接新的一天了。”

“we’ll go up to jake’s apartment,” the lawyer announced. “there won’t be any cops waiting there, i hope. a quick shave and a shower, a little breakfast, and we’ll be ready to tackle a new day.”

他还没来得及详细说明，天使乔就从后面的房间走了出来。

before he could go into any more details, joe the angel appeared from the back room.

“嘿，马龙，你最近去哪儿了我一直想联系你。”

“say, malone, where’ve you been keeping yourself? i been trying to get in touch with you.”

“你打过我办公室电话吗”马龙问。

“did you try calling my office?” malone asked.

“当然打了。但你办公室的那个女孩，她总是说你出去了，不知道你什么时候回来。”

“sure. but your girl there, she always says you’re out and she don’t know when you’ll be back.”

“她可能觉得你是我欠钱的人。”马龙说，“你找我什么事”

“she probably thinks you’re someone i owe money to,” malone said. “what’s on your mind?”

“我想你还不知道，前几天晚上你在这儿丢了东西。就是那个人被杀的那晚。肯定是从你口袋里掉出来的。我觉得这东西不重要，不然你早就回来找了。我在这儿某个地方找到了它。”

“i guess you don’t know it, but you lost sumpin here the other night. the night that fella was killed, it was. it musta fallen outa your pocket. i figured it wasn’t important or you’da been in here looking for it. i got it around here someplace.”

他在收银机上面和后面、在自己的口袋里、在酒吧后面所有的抽屉里都找了一遍，最后得意洋洋地拿出一把钥匙，只是一把普通的钥匙，钥匙柄上印着数字 114。

he hunted on top of and behind the cash register, through his pockets, and in all the drawers back of the bar, before he triumphantly produced a key, just an ordinary key, with the number 114 printed on its handle.