Загадочные события во Франчесе / The Franchise Affair

”

When he hung up Robert thought that if it was a bad break for both sides, it was at least an even break. The police would without doubt redouble their efforts to find corroborative evidence; on the other hand the publication of the girl’s photograph meant for the Sharpes a faint hope that somebody, somewhere, would recognise it and say: “This girl could not have been in The Franchise on the date in question because she was at such-and-such a place.”

“A shocking story, Mr. Robert,” Mr. Heseltine said.

“And if I may say so a quite shocking publication. Most offensive.”

“That house,” Robert said, “is The Franchise, where old Mrs. Sharpe and her daughter live; and where I went the other day, if you remember, to give them some legal advice.”

“You mean that these people are our clients?”

“Yes.”

“But, Mr. Robert, that is not at all in our line.” Robert winced at the dismay in his voice. “That is quite outside our usual – indeed quite beyond our normal – we are not competent—”

“We are competent, I hope, to defend any client against a publication like the Ack-Emma,” Robert said, coldly.

Mr. Heseltine eyed the screaming rag on the table. He was obviously facing the difficult choice between a criminal clientГЁle and a disgraceful journal.

“Did you believe the girl’s story when you read it?” Robert asked.

“I don’t see how she could have made it up,” Mr. Heseltine said simply. “It is such a very circumstantial story, isn’t it?”

“It is, indeed.

But I saw the girl when she was brought to The Franchise to identify it last week – that was the day I went out so hurriedly just after tea – and I don’t believe a word she says. Not a word,” he added, glad to be able to say it loudly and distinctly to himself and to be sure at last that he believed it.

“But how could she have thought of The Franchise at all, or known all those things, if she wasn’t there?”

“I don’t know.

I haven’t the least idea.”

“It is a most unlikely place to pick on, surely; a remote, invisible house like that, on a lonely road, in country that people don’t visit very much.”

“I know. I don’t know how the job was worked, but that it is a job I am certain. It is a choice not between stories, but between human beings. I am quite certain that the two Sharpes are incapable of insane conduct like that.