The A B C Murders / Убийство по алфавиту. Книга для чтения на английском языке

’

�And there was nothing—how shall I put it—introduced into the shop? Nothing that was odd there—incongruous?’

�There was a railway guide,’ said the inspector.

�A railway guide?’

�Yes. It was open and turned face downward on the counter. Looked as though someone had been looking up the trains from Andover. Either the old woman or a customer.’

�Did she sell that type of thing?’

The inspector shook his head.

�She sold penny time-tables. This was a big one—kind of thing only Smith’s or a big stationer would keep.

’

A light came into Poirot’s eyes. He leant forward.

A light came into the inspector’s eye also.

�A railway guide, you say. A Bradshaw—or an ABC[64 - A Bradshaw – железнодорожный справочник Брэдшоу (серия расписаний и справочников, выпускалась с 1839 по 1961 гг.); an ABC – алфавитный справочник]?

�By the Lord[65 - By the Lord – Боже милостивый],’ he said.

�It was an A B C.’

Chapter 5

Mary Drower

I think that I can date my interest in the case from that first mention of the ABC railway guide. Up till then I had not been able to raise much enthusiasm. This sordid murder of an old woman in a back-street shop was so like the usual type of crime reported in the newspapers that it failed to strike a significant note[66 - to strike a (kind of) note – произвести определенное впечатление].

In my own mind I had put down the anonymous letter with its mention of the 21st as a mere coincidence. Mrs Ascher, I felt reasonably sure, had been the victim of her drunken brute of a husband. But now the mention of the railway guide (so familiarly known by its abbreviation of А В C, listing as it did all railway stations in their alphabetical order) sent a quiver of excitement through me. Surely—surely this could not be a second coincidence?

The sordid crime took on a new aspect.

Who was the mysterious individual who had killed Mrs Ascher and left an Рђ Р’ C railway guide behind him?

When we left the police station our first visit was to the mortuary to see the body of the dead woman. A strange feeling came over me as I gazed down on that wrinkled old face with the scanty grey hair drawn back tightly from the temples. It looked so peaceful, so incredibly remote from violence.