“马龙，会不会有人溜进房子杀了他然后又走了呢？”
“Malone, could anybody have slipped into the house and murdered him and gone away again?”
“除非他是从烟囱下去的，”律师说，“而且圣诞节已经过去十天了。”
“Not unless he went down the chimney,” the lawyer said. “And Christmas was over ten days ago.”
“那么要么是洛特斯，要么是卢埃拉·怀特，要么是罗斯·麦克劳林，要么是彭德利·泰德韦尔，要么是我杀了他。你选吧。”
“Then either Lotus or Louella White or Ross McLaurin or Pendley Tidewell or I murdered him. Take your pick.”
杰克皱着眉头看着他的杜松子酒。“你确定你经过他房门的时候他还活着吗？”
Jake scowled at his gin. “Are you sure he was alive when you passed his door?”
“肯定。而且，马龙知道他在给办公室打电话的时候还活着。”
“Positive. Besides, Malone knows he was alive when he telephoned his office.”
“没错，”马龙说，“这就把他的死亡时间精确到了分钟。玛吉总是把电话打进来的准确时间记下来；我们有时候发现这在伪造不在场证明的时候非常有用。是四点十九分。”
“That’s right,” Malone said. “That fixes the time of his death to the minute. Maggie always makes a note of the exact time when calls e in; we’ve found it damned useful sometimes in faking alibis. It was nineteen minutes after four.”
“在四点十九分的时候，”海伦说，“我在我的房间换衣服。罗斯在他的房间，冷得像条鱼。洛特斯——告诉我，马龙，如果她真的杀了他呢？”
“At nineteen minutes after four,” Helene said, “I was in my room changing my dress. Ross was in his room, cold as a fish. Lotus—tell me Malone, what if she did murder him?”
“暂时性精神错乱，”马龙说，向酒保挥了挥手，好像他是陪审团，“或者是自卫。别担心，我会处理好的。”
“Temporary insanity,” Malone said, waving to the bartender as though he were the jury, “or self-defense. Don’t worry, I’ll fix it up.”
“她可能在他来芝加哥之前就认识他。毕竟，我们只是听别人说除了莫娜·麦克莱恩之外，他对每个人来说都是完全陌生的。洛特斯可能是想对罗斯·麦克劳林隐瞒她的出身，这样她就能促成婚礼的钟声响起，而这个人知道她的一切，还威胁要泄露秘密。所以她刺了他。”
“She might have known him before he came to Chicago. After all, we only have people’s word for it that he was a perfect stranger to everyone except Mona McClane. Lotus might have been trying to keep her origin from Ross McLaurin so she could bring about wedding bells, and this guy knew all about her and threatened to spill the soup. So she stabbed him.”
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