Crooked House / Скрюченный домишко. Книга для чтения на английском языке

‘Oh, I say,’ he said. ‘Come in. Yes, do. I was going—but it doesn’t matter. Come into the sitting-room. I’ll get Clemency—oh, you’re there, darling. It’s Chief Inspector Taverner. He—are there any cigarettes? Just wait a minute. If you don’t mind.’ He collided with a screen, said ‘I beg your pardon’ to it in a flustered manner, and went out of the room.

It was rather like the exit of a bumble-bee[68] and left a noticeable silence behind it.

Mrs Roger Leonides was standing up by the window. I was intrigued at once by her personality and by the atmosphere of the room in which we stood.

The walls were painted white—really white, not an ivory or a pale cream which is what one usually means when one says ‘white’ in house decoration. They had no pictures on them except one over the mantelpiece, a geometrical fantasia in triangles of dark grey and battleship blue. There was hardly any furniture—only mere utilitarian necessities, three or four chairs, a glass-topped table, one small bookshelf. There were no ornaments. There was light and space and air. It was as different from the big brocaded and flowered drawing-room on the floor below as chalk from cheese. And Mrs Roger Leonides was as different from Mrs Philip Leonides as one woman could be from another. Whilst one felt that Magda Leonides could be, and often was, at least half a dozen different women, Clemency Leonides, I was sure, could never be anyone but herself. She was a woman of very sharp and definite personality.

She was about fifty, I suppose; her hair was grey, cut very short in what was almost an Eton crop[69] but which grew so beautifully on her small well-shaped head that it had none of the ugliness I have always associated with that particular cut. She had an intelligent, sensitive face, with light-grey eyes of a peculiar and searching intensity. She had on a simple dark-red woollen frock that fitted her slenderness perfectly.

She was, I felt at once, rather an alarming woman… I think, because I judged that the standards by which she lived might not be those of an ordinary woman. I understood at once why Sophia had used the word ruthlessness in connection with her. The room was cold and I shivered a little.

Clemency Leonides said in a quiet, well-bred voice:

‘Do sit down, Chief Inspector. Is there any further news?’

‘Death was due to eserine, Mrs Leonides.’

She said thoughtfully:

‘So that makes it murder. It couldn’t have been an accident of any kind, could it?’

‘No, Mrs Leonides.’

‘Please be very gentle with my husband, Chief Inspector. This will affect him very much. He worshipped his father and he feels things very acutely. He is an emotional person.’

‘You were on good terms with your father-in-law, Mrs Leonides?’

‘Yes, on quite good terms.’ She added quietly: ‘I did not like him very much.’

‘Why was that?’

‘I disliked his objectives in life—and his methods of attaining them.’

‘And Mrs Brenda Leonides?’

‘Brenda? I never saw very much of her.’

‘Do you think it possible that there was anything between her and Mr Laurence Brown?’

‘You mean—some kind of a love affair? I shouldn’t think so. But I really wouldn’t know anything about it.’

Her voice sounded completely uninterested.

Roger Leonides came back with a rush, and the same bumble-bee effect.

‘I got held up,’ he said. ‘Telephone. Well, Inspector? Well? Have you got news? What caused my father’s death?’

‘Death was due to eserine poisoning.’

‘It was? My God! Then it was that woman! She couldn’t wait! He took her more or less out of the gutter and this is his reward. She murdered him in cold blood! God, it makes my blood boil to think of it.’

‘Have you any particular reason for thinking that?’ Taverner asked.

Roger was pacing up and down[70], tugging at his hair with both hands.

‘Reason? Why, who else could it be? I’ve never trusted her—never liked her! We’ve none of us liked her. Philip and I were both appalled when Dad came home one day and told us what he had done! At his age! It was madness— madness. My father was an amazing man, Inspector. In intellect he was as young and fresh as a man of forty. Everything I have in the world I owe to him. He did everything for me—never failed me. It was I who failed him—when I think of it—’

He dropped heavily on to a chair. His wife came quietly to his side.

‘Now, Roger, that’s enough. Don’t work yourself up.’

‘I know, dearest—I know,’ he took her hand. ‘But how can I keep calm—how can I help feeling—’

‘But we must all keep calm, Roger. Chief Inspector Taverner wants our help.’

‘That is right, Mrs Leonides.’

Roger cried:

‘Do you know what I’d like to do? I’d like to strangle that woman with my own hands. Grudging that dear old man a few extra years of life. If I had her here—’ He sprang up[71]. He was shaking with rage. He held out convulsive hands. ‘Yes, I’d wring her neck, wring her neck…’

‘Roger!’ said Clemency sharply.

He looked at her, abashed.

‘Sorry, dearest.’ He turned to us. ‘I do apologize. My feelings get the better of me. I—excuse me—’

He went out of the room again. Clemency Leonides said with a very faint smile:

‘Really, you know, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.’

Taverner accepted her remark politely.

Then he started on his so-called routine questions.

Clemency Leonides replied concisely and accurately.

Roger Leonides had been in London on the day of his father’s death at Box House, the headquarters of the Associated Catering. He had returned early in the afternoon and had spent some time with his father as was his custom. She herself had been, as usual, at the Lambert Institute in Gower Street where she worked. She had returned to the house just before six o’clock.

‘Did you see your father-in-law?’

‘No. The last time I saw him was on the day before. We had coffee with him after dinner.’

‘But you did not see him on the day of his death?’

‘No. I actually went over to his part of the house because Roger thought he had left his pipe there—a very precious pipe, but as it happened he had left it on the hall table there, so I did not need to disturb the old man. He often dozed off[72] about six.’

‘When did you hear of his illness?’

‘Brenda came rushing over. That was just a mi nute or two after half-past six.’

These questions, as I knew, were unimportant, but I was aware how keen was Inspector Taverner’s scrutiny of the woman who answered them. He asked her a few questions about the nature of her work in London. She said that it had to do with the radiation effects of atomic disintegration.

‘You work on the atom bomb, in fact?’

‘The work has nothing destructive about it. The Institute is carrying out experiments on the therapeutic effects.’

When Taverner got up, he expressed a wish to look round their part of the house. She seemed a little surprised, but showed him its extent readily enough. The bedroom with its twin beds and white coverlets and its simplified toilet appliances reminded me again of a hospital or some monastic cell. The bathroom, too, was severely plain with no special luxury fitting and no array of cosmetics. The kitchen was bare, spotlessly clean, and well equipped with labour-saving devices of a practical kind. Then we came to a door which Clemency opened, saying: ‘This is my husband’s special room.’

‘Come in,’ said Roger. ‘Come in.’

I drew a faint breath of relief. Something in the spotless austerity elsewhere had been getting me down. This was an intensely personal room. There was a large roll-top desk untidily covered with papers, old pipes, and tobacco ash. There were big shabby easy-chairs. Persian rugs covered the floor. On the walls were groups, their photography somewhat faded. School groups, cricket groups, military groups. Water-colour sketches of deserts and minarets, and of sailing-boats and sea effects and sunsets. It was, somehow, a pleasant room, the room of a lovable, friendly, companionable man.

Roger, clumsily, was pouring out[73] drinks from a tantalus[74], sweeping books and papers off one of the chairs.

‘Place is in a mess. I was turning out. Clearing up old papers. Say when.’ The inspector declined a drink. I accepted. ‘You must forgive me just now,’ went on Roger. He brought my drink over to me, turning his head to speak to Taverner as he did so. ‘My feelings ran away with me.’

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Примечания

1

in an official capacity – в занимаемой должности

2

dry sense of humour – сдержанное чувство юмора

3

without batting an eyelash – не моргнув и глазом

4

to size up – оценить

5

soak-the-rich (разг.) – «выкачай из богачей» (система, при которой бремя основных тягот налогообложения несут состоятельные классы общества)

6

deal with (зд.) – делится (идеями)

7

to be concerned – быть не безразличным к к.-л.

8

the Times – «Таймс», ежедневная газета в Великобритании, выходит в печать с 1785 года.

9

swing doors – вращающиеся двери

10

to tide over – помочь преодолеть

11

swing into focus (зд.) – встать на свои места

12

to draw breath – выдохнуть

13

to be willing to – быть добровольно готовым (сделать ч.-л.)

14

in one's shirt – в одной рубахе

15

post mortem (лат.) – вскрытие

16

Assistant Commissioner = AC– помощник комиссара

17

how does one put it? – как это называют?

18

to play a lone hand (зд.) – действовать в одиночку

19

GP – семейный врач

20

to be fond of – быть привязанным к к.-л.

21

Say when – скажи, когда хватит

22

to lean back – откинуться

23

from the stable – из первых рук

24

let's have it (разг.) – говори же

25

to stay put – никуда не отлучаться

26

of resource – находчивый

27

pin-stripe suit – костюм в узкую полоску

28

ramifications (зд.) – родственные связи

29

Greater London – Большой Лондон. Аминистративно-территориальная единица; состоит из Лондона и частей графств Мидлсекс, Эссекс, Кент, Суррей, Хартфордшир; делится на 32 района и Сити

30

to clean up – сорвать куш

31

funnily enough – как ни странно

32

MFH – Master of Foxhounds; хозяин гончих (титул главы охотничьего общества и владельца своры гончих)

33

thick as thieves – закадычные друзья

34

to suffer from – страдать от

35

hypodermic needle – игла для подкожных инъекций

36

to get on well with – ладить с

37

bona fide (зд.) – правильный (флакон)

38

why on earth – почему же

39

to tamper with – подменить

40

inside dope – неофициальная информация

41

marriage settlement – приданое

42

to be in cahoots with – быть в сговоре

43

DPP = Director of Public Prosecutions – генеральный прокурор

44

worm one's way in – втереться в доверие к к.-л.

45

to swell out – раздуться

46

to fit up – оборудовать

47

to have the guts – осмелиться

48

to be capable of – быть способным (на ч.-л.)

49

to hark back to – мысленно вернуться к

50

worth while – стоящее, ценное

51

Bother – Тьфу ты!

52

death duties – налог на наследство

53

to drop in – заскочить к к.-л.

54

Titian – золотисто-каштановый (о цвете волос)

55

to cast out (зд.) – резко махнуть (рукой)

56

to make over – передать (во владение)

57

testamentary dispositions – завещательные распоряжения

58

free of duty – не облагаемый налогом

59

income tax – налог на прибыль

60

to shift one's ground – изменить точку зрения в дискуссии

61

infantile paralysis – детский эпидемический паралич

62

West End – Вест-Энд; часть центра Лондона, к западу от стены Сити, в которой сосредоточена театральная и концертная жизнь, музеи, правительственные учреждения, университеты и колледжи, а также элитная недвижимость и фешенебельные магазины.

63

repertory – театр с постоянной труппой и подготовленным к сезону репертуаром

64

to foment rows – сеять смуту

65

Athene Seyler – Афина Сейлер; более известна как актриса театра; в кино прославилась в качестве исполнительницы ролей растерянных старушек

66

to take it – переносить несчастье, не падая духом

67

love affair – интрижка

68

Bumble-bee – шмель

69

Eton crop – дамская стрижка «под мальчика»

70

to pace up and down – расхаживать взад-вперед

71

to spring up – вскочить

72

to doze off – вздремнуть

73

to pour out – разливать (напитки)

74

tantalus – подставка для графинов с вином, из которой нельзя вынуть содержимое без ключа