Konkurs: Zagadka kryminalna portalu MM Kraków

Tym razem konkurs będzie bardziej skomplikowany. Wszyscy, którzy chcą w nim wziąć udział, muszą zapoznać się z fragmentem powieści umieszczonym poniżej, a następnie rozwikłać zagadkę kryminalną i udzielić właściwiej odpowiedzi na zadane pytanie.

Właściwie odpowiedzi prosimy umieszczać w komentarzach pod tekstem. Nagrodami jest książeczka Three Adventures of Sherlock Holmes oraz seria readersów "Angielski z Detektywem" dla osób uczących się języka angielskiego na poziomie średnio zaawansowanym.

Książka opowiada o przygodach detektywa Harry’ego Dicksona. Publikacja jest przeznaczona w szczególności dla osób, które - niezależnie od wieku - pragną rozwijać swój zasób angielskiego słownictwa, a nie mają czasu na wyszukiwanie znaczeń poszczególnych wyrazów w słowniku. Na marginesie każdej ze stron książki można znaleźć tłumaczenia wyrazów i wyrażeń trudnych, nowych lub ważnych w codziennej komunikacji. Co więcej, opowiadanie jest skonstruowane w taki sposób, że słownictwo to pojawia się w tekście kilkakrotnie, co daje czytelnikowi możliwość powtórzenia, a w końcu zapamiętania nowych słówek. Ponadto zeszyt zawiera zestaw ćwiczeń sprawdzających zrozumienie treści opowiadania, rozwijających znajomość gramatyki i ugruntowujących przyswojone słownictwo.

Morning Coffee
Tłum. Natica Schmeder

"The blood stains indicate that she was stabbed inside, carried out and thrown here onto the lawn," said the police sergeant, bent over the corpse of a woman with a knife protruding from her back.
The woman was 30-year-old Tamara Mol. Her body had lain in the yard for over a quarter of an hour.

"Do we have any leads yet?" asked the sergeant’s superior, Lieutenant Olech, who was getting up from examining the body.
"Yes, three main suspects," answered the sergeant.

"Isn’t it strange that they always come in threes," reflected Olech.
'I don’t know," smiled the sergeant and opened his notebook. "The first suspect is Tamara’s sister, Marta. She also lives in this house. She and the victim worked together in a restaurant. Number two on the list of suspects is the second sister of the murdered woman, Alicia, who also works at the restaurant. She lives in another part of town. And number three is Mariusz Kelner, their next door neighbor. He was the chef at Tamara’s restaurant. A few days ago Tamara fired him. And now . . . she’s lying her with a kitchen cleaver in her back."
"Can we question the suspects?" asked the lieutenant.
"Keler and Marta are at home. I’ve sent a uniformed officer to get the other sister," answered the sergeant.

* * *

Lieutenant Olech had been listening to Keler and Marta’s accounts for some time.
"I was sitting with my back to the house on the terrace, drinking my morning coffee and looking through the classified ads," said Keler. "I happened to look over here and I saw Tamara as she fell over. I immediately ran through the backyard to help her."
"Is that what you did, is it!?" asked Marta in disbelief.
"You think otherwise?" Olech turned to Marta with this question.
"I doubt that he came to help," she responded. "I was getting dressed upstairs when I heard Tamara cry out. I called and asked what had happened and when there was no reply, I ran downstairs. The back door was open and he," she pointed at Keler, "was kneeling over my sister and smiling."
"I wasn’t smiling . . .," Keler began to explain himself.
"Yes, you were!" yelled Marta. Her voice shaking with emotion or perhaps cold. After a moment she pulled her bathrobe more tightly around herself.

Keler turned to Marta:
"You look as if you haven’t finished getting dressed yet."
"I ran down here, as I said. Then I called the police and I haven’t had a chance to go back upstairs," this time Marta was the one to explain herself.
“Did you call anyone else, ma’am?” asked the lieutenant.
Keler answered for Marta:
"She called their other sister, Alicia. But no one answered the phone."
Marta took out a handkerchief, wiped away a tear and turned to Olech, changing the subject:
"Tamara gave him the boot," she pointed at Keler again. "Did the sergeant tell you about that?"
"Yes."
"She had no reason to fire me," said Keler.
"Are you joking!?" snorted Marta. “In just a few weeks you messed up so many dinners that we’ve lost half our customers."
"You and Alicia mixed up the orders, that’s what it was. Tamara would have figured out in the end whose fault everything was. I didn’t feel like being a scapegoat and walked out myself."
The lieutenant went to the doors leading out to the terrace and turned to Keler:
"Where is the terrace you were sitting on?"
"Over there. Across from those two trees, behind that hedge."
"Ah yes. Please wait here a moment," said Olech and crossed the yard.

The lieutenant jumped over the low hedge and went onto the terrace of Keler’s house. One of the chairs on the terrace was turned in such a way that the terrace of the murder victim was visible from it. The lieutenant sat down in it and looked at the empty table. “Perhaps Keler is telling the truth,” he thought.

* * *

After a moment Lieutenant Olech returned to the murder victim’s terrace. The sergeant reported stiffly:
"Lieutenant, Alicia Mol is here. She is waiting in the living room."
"Excellent," responded Olech and went inside.
Alicia Mol was sitting on the couch. She held her hands on her knees. A bandage was visible on her left hand. Without any word of greeting, she turned to the lieutenant.
"She killed her, lieutenant."
"Who?" asked Olech.
"Marta."
"And how do you know that?"
Alicia began to explain:
"Marta was jealous. Tamara owned a house and the majority interest in the restaurant. And now that she’s dead . . . Marta will have an easier time of it.”
"As will you," noted the lieutenant.
"Me?" exclaimed Alicia. "My career plans do not involve the restaurant."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. I plan to become a mod