“文宁在东方卷入了一些麻烦事。”律师快速地说，“是这样吧，文宁夫人？是的，我想是这样。你知道的，冯·弗拉纳根。热带地区对一些人的影响。图伊兹兄弟发现了这件事，然后就勒索他。”
“Venning got into some shenanigans in the Orient,” the lawyer said rapidly. “That’s right, isn’t it, Mrs. Venning? Yes, I thought so. You know, von Flanagan. The effect the tropics have on some people. The Tuesday brothers got onto it, and were blackmailing him.”
海伦偷偷看了一眼伊迪莎·文宁。她脸色苍白，但非常镇定。她眼睛里闪烁的光芒消失了。
Helene stole a glance at Editha Venning. She was pale, but perfectly posed. The glittering light had gone from her eyes.
“在新年前夜，”马龙继续说，“文宁在谢尔曼酒店的圆顶餐厅看到了两兄弟中的弟弟。他觉得新年的时候，反正每个人都有点晕乎乎的，会是个杀人的好时机。所以他离开了派对一小会儿——我说得对吗，麦克莱恩夫人？”
“On New Year’s Eve,” Malone went on, “Venning spotted the younger of the two in the Dome at the Sherman Hotel. He figured that New Year’s, with everybody a little hazy anyway, would be a swell time for a homicide. So he left the party for a short time—am I correct about that, Mrs. McClane?”
莫娜·麦克莱恩点点头说：“是的。大概有半个小时左右。当然，在那样的派对上，你不会太留意——人们随意地离开又回来。但他确实离开了那么久。他在十二点的哨声响起的时候刚好回来。”
Mona McClane nodded and said, “Yes. For half an hour or so. Of course, in a party like that, you don’t pay much attention—people wander away and e back pretty much as they want to. But he was gone about that long. He got back just as the twelve o’clock whistles blew.”
“那就对了。”马龙说。“文宁在十一点半左右在圆顶餐厅看到了这个人。那可不是个安静地杀人的好地方，所以他跟踪他去了两三个其他的酒吧，最后在某个小巷里追上了他——我们永远也不会确切知道是在哪里——用刀刺了他，擦掉刀上的血，把刀插回他的牛仔裤里，然后像没事人一样回到了黑豹厅。他没想到这个人这么顽强，背上有个洞还能走一两个街区。”
“That would make it,” Malone said. “Venning spotted this guy in the Dome about eleven-thirty. That was no place for a nice quiet stabbing, so he trailed him to two or three other bars and finally caught up with him in an alley somewhere—we’ll never know exactly where it was—ran a knife into him, wiped off the knife, stuck it back in his jeans, and returned to the Panther Room as good as new. He couldn’t have figured the guy would be tough enough to walk a block or two with a hole in his back.”
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