牛津書蟲《誰謀殺了總統(tǒng)》02：第二天
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- 中文
The Second Day
The next morning Alex Dinon was forty kilometres south of the prison. He moved quickly and stayed away from towns and villages. It was winter and the weather was cold, so there were not many people in the fields. He looked behind him often, but nobody saw him and nobody followed him.At midday he found a quiet field and lay down under some small trees. He slept at once.
At about three o'clock Alex opened his eyes, and saw an old woman in front of him.
'What are you doing in my field, young man?' she said.
Alex sat up quickly. 'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I was tired, and needed some sleep. I'm going now.'
'You're very dirty,' the old woman said. 'Look at you! Where are you going?'
'North,' Alex said. He stood up and began to move away.
'Don't run away. I'm only an old woman.' She looked at him carefully. 'You're dirty, and hungry, and tired... and afraid. Am I right?'
Alex smiled slowly. 'Yes,' he said.
'Well, come back to my house and have some food. And you can have some of my husband's old clothes. He died last winter.'
Alex looked at her. It was true. He was hungry and tired and dirty. And afraid... but not of this old woman. 'Thank you very much,' he said.
The old woman's name was Marta. Her house was very small, but she put some wonderful hot food in front of Alex. He ate quickly, and Marta watched him.
'Oh, you were hungry,' she laughed.
Alex smiled, but did not stop eating.
Marta found some old clothes for him, and then made some coffee. She said nothing, but watched him with a smile. Alex finished eating and drank some coffee. He began to feel better.
'How did you escape from prison?' Marta asked suddenly.
Alex's face went white. He stared at Marta and said nothing.
Marta laughed. 'It's all right,' she said. 'I'm not afraid of the President's murderer. You can stay here tonight, Alex Dinon, and have a good sleep. I don't like the police, and I'm not going to tell them.'
* * *
Felix and Adam did not get much sleep. They stayed in the office and slept between telephone calls. The phones rang often, but in the morning there was no news of Alex Dinon. The day went slowly. The phones rang again and again—but there was no news.
'Where is he? What's he doing?' Felix said to Adam. 'He's hiding—perhaps with friends.'
'We questioned all his friends early this morning,' Adam said. 'They said nothing.' He looked at Felix. 'Can we bring some of them in here? With their wives. Then we can ask more... difficult questions. Somebody usually talks then.'
'No,' Felix said coldly. 'That's not right, and you know it. Dinon can't get out of the country now. But we need to find him today. The Chief isn't going to be very happy.'
Late in the afternoon the Chief of Police telephoned. 'Come to my office in half an hour,' she told Felix.
Felix felt tired and dirty. He quickly drank some black coffee, and changed his shirt. Twenty minutes later he stood in front of Eva Hine's desk.
She did not smile, but looked at Felix and waited.
'The police are looking for Dinon in every town and village,' Felix said quickly. 'We're watching the roads and the airports, and the houses of his family and friends...'
'Sit down, Inspector, and listen,' the Chief said. 'We need to find this man quickly. The President is not happy. You're a good policeman, Inspector, and this is an important job for you.'
'Chief,' Felix began. 'How did Dinon escape from prison?'
'That's not important now,' the Chief said.
'But perhaps he had friends in prison,' Felix said. 'Perhaps they know something. I need to talk to people at the prison.'
'Well, you can't,' the Chief said.
The telephone rang on the Chief's desk. She picked up the phone. 'Eva Hine here.' Then she smiled. 'Yes, Mr President,' she said. She listened for a minute or two. 'Yes, of course, Mr President. I understand. Yes. Goodbye.'
Eva Hine put the phone down and looked at Felix angrily. 'Forget Dinon's escape from prison. Get out there and find him. And bring him back dead or alive!'
At the door Felix turned and looked at her. 'Dead?' he asked slowly.
'Dead men can't talk. Now go!'
Felix walked slowly back to his office. There were a lot of questions in his head, and he did not know the answers. 'Why can't I talk to people at the prison?' he thought. 'What did the President say to the Chief on the phone? And why does she want Dinon dead? He went to prison because he murdered the old President. Everybody knows that. What can he talk about... now?'
第二天
第二天早上，亞歷克斯·迪農(nóng)已經(jīng)在監(jiān)獄南面40公里的地方了。他避開城鎮(zhèn)和村莊，走得很快。時(shí)值冬日，天氣寒冷，所以田地里人不多。他不時(shí)地回頭看看，但是沒有人看到他，也沒有人跟著他。中午時(shí)分，他找到了一塊安靜的田地，在一片小樹叢下躺下了。他很快就睡著了。
大約3點(diǎn)鐘時(shí)，亞歷克斯睜開了眼睛，看到一個(gè)老太太站在他面前。
“你在我的地里干什么，年輕人？”她問。
亞歷克斯立刻坐了起來。“對(duì)不起，”他說，“我很累，需要睡一會(huì)兒，我馬上就走。”
“看看你，渾身上下臟兮兮的。”老太太說，“你要去哪兒？”
“去北邊。”亞歷克斯說。他站了起來，要走。
“別走，我只不過是一個(gè)老太太。”她仔細(xì)地打量他，“你渾身臟兮兮的，又餓又累，……還很恐懼。我說得對(duì)嗎？”
亞歷克斯慢慢地笑了。“不錯(cuò)。”他說。
“那好吧，來我家吃點(diǎn)東西。你可以換上我丈夫的舊衣服，他去年冬天過世了。”
亞歷克斯看著她。她說得不假。自己又餓又累，渾身臟兮兮的。還很恐懼……但并不是害怕這個(gè)老太太。“太謝謝您了。”他說。
老太太名叫瑪爾塔。她家的房子不大，但她卻弄了些香噴噴、熱騰騰的飯菜，放在亞歷克斯的面前。他狼吞虎咽地吃著，瑪爾塔看著他。
“噢，你真是餓壞了。”她笑了。
亞歷克斯也笑了，但是嘴沒停。
瑪爾塔給他找來幾件舊衣服，又端來了咖啡。她默默地看著他，臉上掛著微笑。亞歷克斯吃完飯后，又喝了些咖啡。他開始感覺好一點(diǎn)了。
“你是怎樣從監(jiān)獄里逃出來的？”瑪爾塔突然問。
亞歷克斯的臉“唰”地白了。他看著瑪爾塔，一言不發(fā)。
瑪爾塔笑了。“沒事的，”她說，“我不害怕什么謀殺總統(tǒng)的兇手。今晚你就住在這兒吧，亞歷克斯·迪農(nóng)，睡個(gè)好覺。我討厭警察，也不會(huì)去報(bào)案的。”
* * *
費(fèi)利克斯和亞當(dāng)幾乎沒怎么合眼。他們待在辦公室里，沒電話時(shí)就打一會(huì)兒瞌睡。電話鈴老是響個(gè)不停，到早上的時(shí)候，還是沒有亞歷克斯·迪農(nóng)的消息。一個(gè)白天慢慢地過去了。電話鈴響了又響——但仍舊沒有消息。
“他在哪兒？他在干什么？”費(fèi)利克斯問亞當(dāng)，“他藏起來了——也許和朋友們?cè)谝黄稹?rdquo;
“我們今天上午早些時(shí)候問過了他所有的朋友，”亞當(dāng)說，“他們什么也不說。”他看看費(fèi)利克斯，“我們把他的幾個(gè)朋友帶到這兒來行嗎？還有他們的妻子。然后我們可以問一些更……難的問題。那時(shí)，就會(huì)有人說話了。”
“不，”費(fèi)利克斯冷靜地說，“那不行，你是知道的，迪農(nóng)現(xiàn)在還逃不出這個(gè)國家，今天我們要找到他。否則，警長(zhǎng)會(huì)不高興的。”
下午晚些時(shí)候，警長(zhǎng)打電話過來。“半個(gè)小時(shí)后來我的辦公室。”她對(duì)費(fèi)利克斯說。
費(fèi)利克斯覺得很累，而且身上很臟。他很快地喝了些黑咖啡，換了件襯衣。20分鐘后，他已經(jīng)站在伊娃·海因的辦公桌前了。
她板著臉，看著費(fèi)利克斯，等他說話。
“警方正在城鎮(zhèn)和村莊里到處搜捕迪農(nóng)。”費(fèi)利克斯語速很快，“我們正在監(jiān)視道路、機(jī)場(chǎng)、他的家以及他的朋友……”
“坐下吧，警員，聽著，”警長(zhǎng)說，“我們要很快地抓住這個(gè)人?？偨y(tǒng)不高興了。你是個(gè)好警察，警員。這項(xiàng)工作對(duì)你來說很重要。”
“警長(zhǎng)，”費(fèi)利克斯開始問，“迪農(nóng)是怎樣從監(jiān)獄里逃走的？”
“現(xiàn)在這個(gè)并不重要。”警長(zhǎng)說。
“但是，也許他在監(jiān)獄里有朋友，”費(fèi)利克斯說，“他們可能會(huì)知道一些情況。我要和監(jiān)獄里的人談一談。”
“嗯，這不行。”警長(zhǎng)說。
警長(zhǎng)辦公桌上的電話響了。她拿起電話。“我是伊娃·海因。”接著她笑了，“是的，總統(tǒng)先生。”她說。她又聽了一兩分鐘，“是的，當(dāng)然，總統(tǒng)先生。我明白。好的，再見。”
伊娃·海因把電話放下，怒氣沖沖地看著費(fèi)利克斯。“別管迪農(nóng)是怎么從監(jiān)獄里逃跑的吧?？斐鋈フ宜?。不管是死的還是活的，都要把他抓回來！”
走到門口的時(shí)候，費(fèi)利克斯回過頭來，看著她。“死的？”他小心地問。
“死人不會(huì)講話?，F(xiàn)在就去！”
費(fèi)利克斯慢騰騰地走回他的辦公室。他的頭腦里充斥著很多問題，卻找不到答案。“我為什么不能和監(jiān)獄里的人談?wù)劊?rdquo;他想，“而總統(tǒng)在電話里又對(duì)警長(zhǎng)說了些什么呢？她為什么要迪農(nóng)死呢？他入獄是因?yàn)樗\殺了前總統(tǒng)，這是人人皆知的，他又能說出些什么呢……現(xiàn)在？”
