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

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‘But why telephone at all?’ demanded Melrose. ‘That is what I find so extraordinary. There seems no rhyme or reason in the thing.’

Poirot carefully straightened a china ornament on one of the bookcases.

‘Be sure there was a reason,’ he said over his shoulder.

‘But what reason could it be?’

‘When we know that, we shall know everything. This case is very curious and very interesting.’

There was something almost indescribable in the way he said those last words. I felt that he was looking at the case from some peculiar angle of his own, and what he saw I could not tell. he went to the window and stood there, looking out.

‘You say it was nine o’clock, dr Sheppard, when you met this stranger outside the gate?’

He asked the question without turning round.

‘Yes,’ I replied. ‘I heard the church clock chime the hour.’

‘How long would it take him to reach the house – to reach this window, for instance?’

‘Five minutes at the outside. Two or three minutes only if he took the path at the right of the drive and came straight here.’