介绍:
Chapter One - A Wild Excited Young Man
【Murder of Well-known Builder】
Late last night, or early this morning, a terrible crime took place at Norwood in South London. Mr Jonas Oldacre has lived at Norwood and has worked there as a builder for many years. He is fifty-two years old, unmarried, and he lives in Deep Dene House on the Sydenham Road. The people of Norwood know Mr Oldacre as an unusual man. He does not often leave his house, but his business has made him very rich.
There is a small timber yard behind his house and last night, at about midnight, a man who was out walking saw that some of the wood there was on fire. He immediately called the fire brigade, who arrived soon after. The wood was very dry and burned quickly, so it was impossible to put out the fire.
The fire brigade were surprised when Mr Oldacre did not come out of the house, and two of their officers went inside to look for him. But Mr Oldacre was not in the house. In the bedroom the two men found an open safe, which was empty. There were papers on the floor and bloodstains on the walls.
The men also found a bloodstained walking stick in the room. This stick belongs to Mr John McFarlane, who visited Mr Oldacre at his home yesterday evening. The police are sure that they know the motive for the crime and are looking for Mr McFarlane. They will arrest him when they find him.
At Norwood, police now say that Mr Oldacre’s bedroom windows on the ground floor of the house were open. They have found some burnt remains, possibly of a body, in the fire in the timber yard. The police think that there has been a murder. They say that the criminal killed the builder in his bedroom, then pulled his dead body into the garden and burned it in the timber yard.
Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard is the policeman who is investigating this most terrible crime.
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