p by the will he had to e all the way back here to deal with the trtees rald ca with hi i stayed sgapore it was a flyg trip—not half a dozen people knew about it then i got a cable sayg ichael was returng jt that, no ore ter there was another cable, askg to et hi tokyo i went there and when his boat docked—it was rald tuesday who ca down the gangpnk he told ichael was dead”
海倫倒吸了一口氣，想說什麼又沉默了。傑克輕輕地捏了捏她的胳膊。
helene gasped, started to speak, and was silent jake seezed her ar ntly
“傑拉爾德說——那是他們到達的那天發生的一場意外。那是夏天——他們去了位於楓樹公園的文寧莊園。那裡只有管理員，沒有別人。上樓梯的時候邁克爾絆了一下，摔了下去——摔斷了脖子。傑拉爾德秘密地把他埋在了那裡。然後他拿走了邁克爾的護照——他們長得足夠像，所以他能矇混過關——練習模仿邁克爾的簽名，然後開始返回東方。”
“rald said—it had been an aident—the day of their arrival it was sur—they went out to the venng estate aple park no one was there but the caretaker gog up the stairs ichael tripped, fell—and broke his neck rald buried hi out there, secretly then he took ichael’s passport—they looked jt enough alike he uld t away with it—practiced writg ichael’s signature, and started back to the orient”
，！
原名安傑洛的洛特斯·艾倫倒吸了一口氣。“你是說——他決定變成邁克爾·文寧？”
lot allen, nee anlo, gasped “you an—he decided to bee ichael venng?”
是馬龍回答了她。“我說過他是個偉大的機會主義者。如果那真的是一場意外，而不是謀殺，可能就在那天在那所房子裡，文寧躺在樓梯下死了，他把這一切都想了一遍。文寧一死，他投入那十萬美元到他生意裡的機會就沒了，這是真的。但這也是一個天賜良機，讓他餘生都能成為百萬富翁。除了極少數無關緊要的人，沒有人知道文寧來過這個國家。他可以秘密地埋葬文寧，冒充他，毫無困難地從遺產受託人那裡每月領取支票。他所要做的就是遠離認識他或認識文寧的人。”
it was alone who answered “i said he was a great opportunist if it really was an a