8
Negative Data 无效信息
1969
After finishing their morning's investigative work at the fire tower, Sheriff Ed Jackson and Deputy Joe Purdue escorted Chase's widow, Pearl, and his parents, Patti Love and Sam, to see him lying on a steel table under a sheet in a chilled lab at the clinic, which served as a morgue. To say good-bye. But it was too cold for any mother; unbearable for any wife. Both women had to be helped from the room.
结束了早上在防火瞭望塔的调查工作，治安官埃德·杰克逊和副手乔·珀杜陪着蔡斯的遗孀珀尔以及他的父母萨姆和帕蒂·洛夫去暂作停尸间的诊所看遗体。阴冷的实验室里，蔡斯躺在一张铁床上，身上盖着一块布。他们来告别。但这里对任何一个母亲来说都过于寒冷。任何一个妻子对此都难以忍受。两个女人都是被人从诊所里扶出来的。
Back at the sheriff's office, Joe said, “Well, that was as bad as it gets . . .”
回到治安官办公室，乔说：“好吧，这简直不能更糟了……”
“Yeah. Don't know how anybody gets through it.”
“是的。谁都没法熬过去。”
“Sam didn't say a word. He never was a talker, but this'll do him in.”
“萨姆什么都没说。他从来就不是个健谈的人。这件事肯定伤他很重。”
Saltwater marsh, some say, can eat a cement block for breakfast, and not even the sheriff's bunker-style office could keep it at bay. Watermarks, outlined with salt crystals, waved across the lower walls, and black mildew spread like blood vessels toward the ceiling. Tiny dark mushrooms hunkered in the corners.
有人说，盐水湿地能把一栋水泥建筑像早饭那样消化掉，甚至治安官地堡般的办公室都不能阻止。水迹在墙壁低处蔓延，留下了盐粒勾勒的轮廓，黑色霉菌像血管一样爬上天花板。小小的黑色蘑菇蹲踞在角落里。
The sheriff pulled a bottle from the bottom drawer of his desk and poured them both a double in coffee mugs. They sipped until the sun, as golden and syrupy as the bourbon, slipped into the sea.
治安官从桌子最下面的抽屉里拿出一个瓶子，在咖啡杯里给自己和副手分别倒了酒。他们啜饮着，直到金黄如糖浆的太阳——就像波本威士忌——沉入大海。
FOUR DAYS LATER, Joe, waving documents in the air, entered the sheriff's office. “I got the first of the lab reports.”
四天后，乔手里挥着一些文件走进治安官办公室。“我拿到了第一批化验报告。”
“Let's have a look.”
“让我们看看。”
They sat on opposite sides of the sheriff's desk, scanning. Joe, now and then, swatted at a single housefly.
他们面对面坐着浏览，乔不时猛地拍一下苍蝇。
Ed read out loud, “Time of death between midnight and two A.M., October 29 to 30, 1969. Just what we thought.”
埃德大声读道：“死亡时间为一九六九年十月二十九日至三十日午夜到凌晨两点之间。和我们想的一样。”
After a minute of reading, he continued. “What we have is negative data.”
又看了一分钟，他接着说：“我们得到的信息是无效的。”
“You got that right. There ain't a thing here, Sheriff.”
“你说得没错。报告里什么都没有。”
“Except for the two boys going up to the third switchback, there're no fresh fingerprints on the railing, the grates, nothing. None from Chase or anybody else.” Afternoon whiskers shadowed the sheriff's otherwise ruddy complexion.
“除了两个男孩走到第三个转弯处留下的脚印，扶手上、门上没有任何新鲜的指纹。没有蔡斯的，也没有别人的。”下午新冒出的胡楂掩盖了治安官原本红润的肤色。
“So somebody wiped 'em clean. Everything. If nothing else, why aren't his fingerprints on the railing, the grate?”
“所以有人擦干净了。所有的东西。不然为什么扶手和门上都没有他的指纹？”
“Exactly. First we had no footprints—now no fingerprints. There's no evidence at all that he walked across the mud to the steps, walked up the steps, or opened the two grates at the top—the one above the stairs and the one he fell through. Or that anybody else did either. But negative data's still data. Somebody cleaned up real good or killed him somewhere else and moved his body to the tower.”
“完全正确。一开始没有脚印，现在没有指纹。没有任何证据能证明他从泥地走到楼梯，爬上台阶，打开顶上的两个格栅——一个是楼梯上面的，一个是他掉下去的。也没有其他任何人这么做过的证据。不过无效信息也是信息。有人完美地清除了证据，或者在别的地方杀了他，之后把尸体搬到这里。”
“But if his body was hauled to the tower, there'd be tire tracks.”
“但如果他的尸体是被拖到塔附近的，应该有轮胎痕迹。”
“Right, we need to go back out there, look for tread marks besides ours and the ambulance. May have overlooked something.”
“没错，我们应该回那儿去，找找除我们的车和救护车以外的轮胎痕迹。或许我们忽略了些什么。”
After a minute more of reading, Ed said, “Anyway, I'm confident now, this was no accident.”
又读了一分钟，埃德说：“不管怎么说，我现在很确信，这不是一起意外。”
Joe said, “I agree, and not just anybody can wipe up tracks this good.”
乔说：“我同意。而且不是所有人都能这么利落地清除痕迹。”
“I'm hungry. Let's go by the diner on the way out there.”
“我饿了。走的时候顺便去趟小饭馆吧。”
“Well, get ready for an ambush. Everybody in town's pretty riled up. Chase Andrews's murder's the biggest thing's happened 'round here, maybe ever. Gossip's goin' up like smoke signals.”
“准备好遭遇伏击吧。镇上每个人都对这件事很热心。蔡斯·安德鲁斯的谋杀案可能是这里发生过的最大的事了，也可能永远都是最大的事。流言蜚语传得跟烟幕信号一样快。”
“Well, keep an ear out. We might pick up a tidbit or two. Most ne'er-do-wells can't keep their mouths shut.”
“好吧，咱们听着点，也许能得到一些有用的信息。大部分坏人嘴巴都不严实。”
A full bank of windows, framed by hurricane shutters, covered the front of the Barkley Cove Diner, which overlooked the harbor. Only the narrow street stood between the building, constructed in 1889, and the soggy steps of the village pier. Discarded shrimp baskets and wadded-up fishing nets lined the wall under the windows, and here and there, mollusk shells littered the sidewalk. Everywhere: seabird cries, seabird dung. The aroma of sausage and biscuits, boiled turnip greens, and fried chicken thankfully overtook the high smell of fish barrels lining the dock.
巴克利小湾饭馆前面装了一整排带防风隔板的窗户，透过窗户能看见海湾。这家建于一八八九年的饭馆和镇码头湿漉漉的台阶之间就隔了一条窄窄的街。窗底下的墙边堆满了丢弃的虾篮和团成一团的渔网。人行道上东一处西一处扔着些贝壳。到处都能看见海鸟在叫唤或排泄。好在香肠饼干、煮熟的芜菁叶和炸鸡的香味盖过了码头上一字排开的鱼桶的强烈味道。
A mild bustle spilled out when the sheriff opened the door. Every booth—high-backed with red padded upholstery—was taken, as were most of the tables. Joe pointed to two empty stools at the soda fountain counter, and the two walked toward them.
治安官推开门时，屋里溢出一阵小小的喧哗。有高高的红色软垫靠背的卡座都坐满了，大部分桌子也满了。乔指了指冷饮柜台前的两个空座，两人走了过去。
On the way they heard Mr. Lane from the Sing Oil saying to his diesel mechanic, “I reckon it was Lamar Sands. Ya r'member, he caught his wife doin' a number wif Chase right on the deck of his fancy ski boat. There's motive, and Lamar's had other run-ins wif tha law.”
途中，他们听到汽油店的莱恩跟他的柴油机械师说：“我猜是拉马尔·桑兹。你记得吧，他好几次抓到他老婆和蔡斯鬼混，就在蔡斯那艘高级游艇的甲板上。这是动机，拉马尔还有一些其他犯法的地方。”
“What run-ins?”
“什么？”
“He was wif that bunch that slit the sheriff's tars.”
“弄裂治安官的柏油路面的人里有他。”
“They were just kids back then.”
“那会儿他们都还只是孩子。”
“Thar was sump'm else too, I just cain’t r'member.”
“还有些别的，我一时想不起来了。”
Behind the counter, owner-cook Jim Bo Sweeny darted from flipping crab cakes on the griddle to stirring a pot of creamed corn on the burner to poking chicken thighs in the deep fryer, then back again. Putting piled-high plates in front of customers in between. People said he could mix biscuit dough with one hand while filleting a catfish with the other. He offered up his famous specialty—grilled flounder stuffed with shrimp served on pimento-cheese grits—only a few times a year. No advertising needed; word got out.
柜台后面，厨师兼老板吉姆·博·斯威尼放下煎锅里的蟹饼，去翻炒灶台上的奶油玉米，又把鸡腿放进大炸锅里，再回来弄蟹饼，并不停地把盛得满满当当的盘子放在客人面前。人们说他可以一手揉面团一手片鲇鱼。他一年中只有几次会做那道出名的拿手菜——烤比目鱼包虾，配上辣椒、干酪和玉米粉。这菜都不需要打广告，早已声名在外了。
As the sheriff and deputy wove among the tables toward the counter, they heard Miss Pansy Price of Kress's Five and Dime say to a friend, “It coulda been that woman lives out in the marsh. Crazy 'nough for the loony bin. I jus' bet she'd be up to this kinda thing . . .”
治安官和乔在桌子间绕来绕去，听到五分一角店的潘茜·普赖斯小姐跟一个朋友说：“可能是那个住在湿地里的女人。她疯得都能住精神病院了。我打赌她能干出这种事来。”
“What d'ya mean? What'd she have to do with anything?”
“什么意思？她和这事有什么关系？”
“Well, for a while thar, she was got herself involved wif . . .”
“有那么一段时间，她和他搞上了……”
As the sheriff and deputy stepped up to the counter, Ed said, “Let's just order take-out po'boys and get out of here. We can't get dragged into all this.”
到了柜台前，埃德说：“我们打包带走吧，不能陷在这些流言蜚语中。”