Читать книгу The Murder of Roger Ackroyd / Убийство Роджера Экройда онлайн

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‘I wish you’d tell me something of your methods,’ I said hastily, to cover my confusion. ‘The point about the fire, for instance?’

‘Oh! That was very simple. You leave Mr Ackroyd at – ten minutes to nine, was it not?’

‘Yes, exactly, I should say.’

‘The window is then closed and bolted and the door unlocked. At a quarter past ten when the body is discovered, the door is locked and the window is open. Who opened it? Clearly only Mr Ackroyd himself could have done so, and for one of two reasons. Either because the room became unbearably hot, but since the fire was nearly out and there was a sharp drop in temperature last night, that cannot be the reason, or because he admitted someone that way. And if he admitted someone that way, it must have been someone well known to him, since he had previously shown himself uneasy on the subject of that same window.’

‘It sounds very simple,’ I said.

‘Everything is simple, if you arrange the facts methodically. We are concerned now with the personality of the person who was with him at nine-thirty last night. everything goes to show that that was the individual admitted by the window, and though Mr Ackroyd was seen alive later by Miss Flora, we cannot approach a solution of the mystery until we know who that visitor was. The window may have been left open after his departure and so afforded entrance to the murderer, or the same person may have returned a second time. Ah! here is the colonel who returns.’