Mr. Black was a detective. He was visiting his accountant(会计) in a small, dirty office building when he heard noises coming from above. First there were angry voices. Then came a scream, followed by a heavy thud(砰的一声).
Mr. Black went quickly upstairs. On the next floor, he found an open door. Johnson, a lawyer, lay on the floor, a switchblade(弹簧刀) sticking out of his chest. Mr. Black began to solve the murder.
When his partner arrived, they examined the office. Near the dead man’s hand was a half-smoked cigarette. On the floor beside it were a turned-over wastebasket, a cheap lighter
(打火机), and a blank notepad. On the desk they noticed a phone, a pen, and an ashtray filled with cigarette ends and burned matches.
“Funny that none of his neighbors poked their heads out,” Mr. Black observed. “Let’s go to talk to them.”
The floor had three other offices. They knocked on the first door. Helen, a barber told them she was taking a break.
“I didn’t hear a thing,” she claimed, pointing to the headphones(耳机) she’d just removed. “You say Johnson was murdered!
I’m not surprised. He must have cheated
everyone he’d ever met.”
The second office belonged to Jackson, an artist. In one hand he held a paintbrush, in the other an unlit(未点燃的) cigar.
“Sure I heard the scream. But I was caught in a moment of inspiration(灵感). Be-
sides, you hear all sorts of things in this building.”
In the third office was Mary, a shop assistant, also taking a break. “I heard a scream. What happened?” Mr. Black told her, then asked her why she was holding an ice-pick. “Oh. I’m defrosting,” Mary said and returned to the old refrigerator in the corner.
“We have a suspect,” Mr. Black said. Whom did Mr. Black suspect and why?
Key:By examining John's ashtray, Mr. Black concluded that the lawyer was a smoker and that he lit his cigarettes with matches. The cheap lighter by the body had probably been left by John's killer.
Jackson smoked cigars but didn't seem to have a lighter or matches in his studio with him. That made him the best suspect.
