前景提要：夏洛克收到在銀行任職的大學(xué)同學(xué)的一封E-mail，偕同正手頭拮據(jù)的華生前往銀行。在頭天午夜有人闖入為紀(jì)念前銀行主席而保留的辦公室，在一分鐘之內(nèi)用黃色涂料涂下一個符號。調(diào)查開始了......
W：OK. So do you think we should sniff around?here for a bit longer? 好吧。我們還要在這里再逗留一會嗎？
S：Got everything I need to know already,?thanks. That graffiti was a message. Someone at the bank, working on the?trading floors. We find the intended recipient and... 該查的都已經(jīng)查清楚了，多謝。涂鴉是想傳達(dá)一條訊息。是留給在銀行交易大廳里工作的某人。一旦找到信息接收方...
W：They'll lead us to the person who sent it? 就能順藤摸瓜找到留信的人？
S：Obvious.很顯然。
W：Well, there's 300 people up there, who was?it meant for? 交易大廳里有300名工作人員，會是誰呢？
S：Pillars. 柱子。 ??W：What? 什么？
S：Pillars and the screens. Very few places you could see that graffiti from. That narrows the field considerably. And, of course, the message was left at 11:34 last night. That?tells us a lot. 有柱子和屏幕擋著。只有很少幾個地方能看到那信息。大大縮小了范圍。還有，信息于昨晚11點(diǎn)34分留下。這就說明了很多。
John:?Does it? 是嗎？
S：Traders come to work at all hours. Some?trade with Hong Kong in the middle of the night. That message was intended for?somebody who came in at midnight. Not many Van Coons in the phone book. 交易大廳每小時都有人輪班。跟香港方面的交易就得在午夜進(jìn)行。那信息就是專門留給午夜來上班的人。電話黃頁中姓Van Coon的可不多。
W：So what do we do now? Sit here and wait for?him to come back? 那現(xiàn)在怎么辦？坐等他回來嗎？
S：Just moved in.剛搬來的。 ??W： What?什么？
S：Floor above, new label.他樓上這家，標(biāo)簽還是新的。
W：Could have just replaced it.可能是剛換過。
S：No-one ever does that. 沒人換這個。
Woman A:?Hello? 你好哪位？
S：Hi, um, I live in the flat just below?you. I don't think we've met.你好，我就住你家樓下。但好像沒見過你。
Woman A:?No, well, er, I've just moved in. 是沒見過，我剛搬來。
S：Actually, I've just locked my keys in?my flat. 其實(shí)是這樣的，我鑰匙忘家里了。
Woman A:?Do you want me to buzz you in?要我放你進(jìn)來嗎？
S：Yeah. And can we use your balcony?對。能借用下你家陽臺嗎？
Woman A:?What?! 什么？！
W：Sherlock? Sherlock？Sherlock, are you OK? Yeah, any time?you feel like letting me in! Do you think he'd lost a lot of money? Suicide is?pretty common among City boys. Sherlock，你還好吧？好吧，差不多了就讓我進(jìn)去！你覺得他是因損失大筆錢而自殺嗎？城里年輕人自殺現(xiàn)象非常普遍。
S：We don’t know that it was suicide.還不能確定是自殺。
W：Come on. The door was locked from the?inside, you had to climb down the balcony.拜托。門從里面鎖著，你還得從樓上陽臺爬下來。
S：Been away three days judging by the?laundry. Look at the case, there was something tightly packed inside it.從待洗衣物來看出差過三天。看他的箱子，還有幾件衣服疊得好好的。
W：Thanks. I’ll take your word for it.take?your word for it:相信你的話，謝了。我聽你的判斷就行了。
S：Problem?有問題嗎？
W：Yeah, I'm not desperate to root around some?bloke's dirty underwear.我還沒絕望到要去翻找某人的臟內(nèi)衣褲。
S：Those symbols at the bank, the?graffiti, why were they put there?銀行里的那些符號，為什么要涂在那兒？
W：Some sort of code?是某種暗碼？
S：Obviously. Why were they painted? Want to communicate, why not use e-mail?顯然是。問題是為什么要涂上？想聯(lián)系干嘛不用電郵？
W：Well, maybe he wasn't answering.可能他不回郵件吧。
S：Oh, good, you follow.很好，你總算跟上思路了。 ??W：No.還沒。
S：What kind of a message would everyone?try to avoid? What about this morning? Those letters you were looking at?哪種信息會讓大家避之不及？像你今早看的那些如何？你今早看的那些信嗎？
W：Bills? 是賬單？
S：Yes. He was being threatened.對。他被威脅了。
W：Not by the Gas Board.肯定不是煤氣公司。
Officer A:?...see if we can get prints off thisglass.?看能否在杯子上提取到指紋。
S：Sergeant, we haven't met.?警官，初次見面。
D:?Yeah, I know who you are and I would?prefer it if you didn't tamper with any of the evidence.我可久仰你大名了，你最好沒亂動任何證據(jù)。
S：I phoned Lestrade. Is he on his way? ?我給Lestrade打過電話。他來了嗎？
D: He's busy. I'm in charge. And it's not Sergeant, it's Detective Inspector Dimmock. We're obviously looking at a suicide.他很忙。這里由我負(fù)責(zé)。我不是什么警官，而是Dimmock探長。顯然是自殺事件。
W：It does seem the only explanation of allthe facts.?這是現(xiàn)場所有證據(jù)的唯一解釋。
S：Wrong, it's one possible explanationof some of the facts. You've got a solution that you like, but you arechoosing to ignore anything you see that doesn't comply withit. 錯，這是現(xiàn)場某些證據(jù)的一個可能解釋。你得出自己喜歡的結(jié)論，然后就一葉障目，忽視所有對自己結(jié)論不利的證據(jù)。
D：Like?比如？
S：Wound’s on the right side of his head.?致命傷在頭部右側(cè)。
D：?And??然后呢？
S：Van Coon was left-handed.?Requires quite a bit of contortion.?身體得扭曲成啥樣才能自殺。
D：Left-handed? 他是左撇子嗎？
S：I’m amazed you didn’t notice. All you have to do is look around this flat. Coffee table on the left-hand side, coffee mug handle pointing to the left. Power sockets, habitually used the ones on the left. Pen and paper on the left of the phone. Because he picked up with his right, took messageswith his left. Do you want me to go on?你竟然沒注意。這屋里到處都是證據(jù)。咖啡桌在左手一側(cè)，咖啡杯柄朝向左側(cè)。電源插座，日常慣用左側(cè)那幾個。紙筆都放在電話左側(cè)。因?yàn)樗糜沂纸与娫挘笫謱懥粞浴Ｒ依^續(xù)說嗎？
D：No,I think you’ve covered it.?不用，夠了。
S：I might as well, I'm almost at thebottom of the list. There's a knife on the breadboard with butter on theright side of the blade because he used it with his left. It's highly unlikely that a left-handed man would shoot himself in theright of his head. Conclusion, someone broke in here and murdered him only explanation of all of the facts.我還是繼續(xù)吧，反正也快說完了。案板上有把餐刀黃油涂在刀口右側(cè)因?yàn)樗麘T用左手拿刀。實(shí)在不大可能一個左撇子會用右手開槍自殺。結(jié)論就是，有人闖入并謀殺了他，這才是現(xiàn)場所有證據(jù)的唯一解釋。
D：But the gun??但那槍呢？
S：He was waiting for the killer. He’d been threatened.他那是在等兇手。他被威脅了。
D：What??什么？
W：Today at the bank, sort of a warning.?今天銀行的涂鴉，就是種警告。
S：He fired a shot when his attacker camein.?兇手闖入的時候他開過一槍。
D：And the bullet? 子彈呢？
S：Went through the open window.從開著的窗戶飛出去了。
D：Oh, come on! What are the chances of that?!得了！?這幾率多小你知道嗎？！
S：Wait until you get the ballisticsreport. The bullet in his brain wasn't fired from his gun, Iguarantee it.那你就等著看彈道報告吧。我敢擔(dān)保，他頭部中的子彈不是自己槍里的。
D：But If his door was locked from theinside, how did the killer get in??但門從里面鎖住，兇手是怎么進(jìn)來的？
S：Good, you're finally asking the rightquestions.?很好，你總算問到點(diǎn)子上了。
Sebastian: He's left trying to sort of cut hishair with a fork, which of course can never be done.他留在那兒想用把叉子剪自己頭發(fā)，那當(dāng)然是不可能的。
S：It was a threat, that's what the?graffiti meant.那涂鴉是在威脅人。
Sebastian: I'm kind of in a meeting. Can you make an appointment with my secretary?我們在開會呢。你能跟我秘書另約時間嗎？
S：I don't think this can wait. Sorry,Sebastian. One of your traders, someone who worked in youroffice, was killed.這事可不能等。抱歉，Sebastian。你們辦公室里的一名交易員，被謀殺了。
Sebastian：What??什么？
W： Van Coon. The police are at his flat. 范孔，警方正在他公寓。
Sebastian：Killed?! 謀殺？！
