没有人说话。没有人动一下。
No one spoke. No one stirred.
“通常，” 马龙接着说，“找到一个男人或女人被谋杀的动机是朝着找到并证明凶手身份迈出的一大步。” 他继续说着，看起来不那么疲惫了。“奇怪的是，在这个案子里情况正好相反。一起犯罪发生了。不是发现了动机，而是发现了动机的缺失才指向了罪犯的身份。”
“Usually,” Malone went on, “the discovery of a motive for the murder of a man or woman is a great step in the direction of finding and proving the identity of the murderer.” He appeared to bee less tired as he continued. “Curiously, the reverse was true in this case. A crime was mitted. It was not the discovery of a motive, but the discovery of the absence of a motive that pointed to the identity of the criminal.”
杰克努力理解这句话。他想知道过去二十四小时的疲惫是不是对马龙来说有点过头了。
Jake wrestled with that statement. He wondered if the exhaustion of the past twenty-four hours had been just a little too much for Malone.
小个子律师继续说道：“因为犯罪动机如此明确地指向罪犯，所以罪犯在犯罪后的第一个行动就是销毁明显的动机。” 他停顿了一下，像是自言自语地重复道：“明显的动机！”
The little lawyer continued, “Because the motive for a crime points so clearly in the direction of the criminal, the first act of the criminal after mitting his crime is the destruction of the apparent motive.” He paused and repeated, as though to himself, “The apparent motive-!”
杰克费了很大的劲才把目光移到莫娜?麦克莱恩的脸上。她的脸色变得非常苍白；她的眼睛在黑暗中像狐狸的眼睛一样大，但她仍保持着足够的镇定，对他微笑着。
With a great effort Jake brought his eyes to Mona McClane’s face. It had bee very white; her eyes were as large as a fox’s in the dark, but she retained enough of her poise to smile at him.
“很奇怪的巧合是，” 马龙说，“当那个赌注被下的时候，在场的有很多人有充分的理由希望已故的约书亚?冈布里尔死掉。”
“By a curious coincidence,” Malone said, “when that bet was made, there were a number of people present who had excellent reasons for desiring the death of the late Joshua Gumbril.”
杰克确定他听到房间里某个地方传来一声微弱的、颤抖的叹息。
Jake was sure that he heard a faint, tremulous sigh from somewhere in the room.
“我希望你知道自己在说什么。” 威尔斯?奥格特里冷冷地说。
“I trust you know what you’re talking about,” Wells Ogletree said coldly.
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