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

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‘Good evening, gentlemen,’ said the inspector. ‘I’m terribly sorry for this! A good kind gentleman like Mr Ackroyd. The butler says it’s murder. No possibility of accident or suicide, doctor?’

‘None whatever,’ I said.

‘Ah! A bad business.’

He came and stood over the body.

‘Been moved at all?’ he asked sharply.

‘Beyond making certain that life was extinct – an easy matter – I have not disturbed the body in any way.’

‘Ah! And everything points to the murderer having got clear away – for the moment, that is. Now then, let me hear all about it. Who found the body?’

I explained the circumstances carefully.

‘A telephone message, you say? from the butler?’

‘A message that I never sent,’ declared Parker earnestly. ‘I’ve not been near the telephone the whole evening. The others can bear me out that I haven’t.’

‘Very odd, that. did it sound like Parker’s voice, doctor?’

‘Well – I can’t say I noticed. I took it for granted, you see.’

‘Naturally. Well, you got up here, broke in the door, and found poor Mr Ackroyd like this. how long should you say he had been dead, doctor?’