Chapter 7

ChAPTER SEVEN The pair sat on Kate's bed, newspaper clippings strewn all over the quilt. "This proves it! "Fraud", "Grievous Misconduct"... She was a chef who tricked her way to the top and was found out. She had her Golden Whisk taken away!"

第七章 两个人坐在凯特的床上，剪下来的报纸碎片散得满被子都是。 “这就实锤了！ ‘欺诈’、‘严重渎职’…… 她本来是个厨师，靠作弊爬到了高位，最后被人揭穿了。 她的金搅拌棒都被收走了！”

"What's all this about oysters?" asked Rupert. Kate scanned the paper nearest her. "So apparently she lied to the judging panel about what type of oysters she was using for a top-secret dish. What a cheat!" "Why would she want to keep all these though?" Rupert gestured at the incriminating articles surrounding them. "I'm not sure... Maybe she's plotting revenge, or wants to remind herself not to make the same mistakes, or-" "Hang on," interrupted Rupert, who was sifting through the papers with his tiny paws, "there's something else in here!" Unlike the rest, this piece of paper was crisp and white. It had big red letters at the top.

“这些关于牡蛎的内容是怎么回事呀？”鲁珀特问。 凯特扫了一眼离她最近的那张报纸。 “哦，好像是她跟评审团撒谎，说她做绝密菜式用的是另一种牡蛎。 也太会骗人了吧！” “可是她为什么要把这些东西都留着呢？” 鲁珀特指着他们周围这些能定罪的报道问。 “我也不太清楚…… 说不定她在谋划报仇，或者是想提醒自己别再犯同样的错，再不然——”“等等，”鲁珀特正用小爪子翻着报纸，突然打断了她，“这里面还有别的东西！” 和其他纸不一样，这张纸又挺括又白净。 顶部还印着大大的红色字体。

FINAL NOTICE DEAR MADAME MAUDE, AFTER OBLIGING YOUR REQUEST TO LOOK HARDER" WE REGRET TO INFORM YOU THERE IS UNDOUBTEDLY NO MONEY LEFT IN YOUR ACCOUNT. UNLESS YOU CAN REPAY YOUR DEBTS, WE WILL BE TERMINATING YOUR CONTRACT WITH US. WE, HOWEVER, WILL REMAIN-CORDIALLY- THE BANK Sie The Bank PS: WE ARE ALSO REPOSSESSING YOUR HOUSE. For one second Kate felt sorry for Madame Maude. Then she remembered how suspicious and pointy and angry she was, and everything fell into place.

最后通知 亲爱的莫德夫人：在应您要求仔细核查后 我们非常遗憾地通知您，您的账户里 毫无疑问已经没有余额了。 除非您能偿还债务，否则我们将终止与您的合同。 我们仍将致以诚挚的问候 银行敬上 银行附言：我们同时将收回您的房产。 有那么一秒，凯特还挺同情莫德夫人的。 但她一想到那人有多可疑、长相有多尖酸、脾气有多差，一切就都讲得通了。

"Do you think this is why she's been stealing from everyone on board? Because she's run out of money?" "Gymnastics trophies are probably worth millions!" agreed Rupert. "And what about Simon's Extremely Flavoursome Ginger-Nut Biscuits?" mused Kate. "She probably got hungry- being a thief must be tiring work!" It was all coming together. Kate could practically see the proud look on Catherine Rodríguez's face. Perhaps her findings could make their way into a newspaper themselves! But before Kate could get too carried away, there was a murmur on the other side of the

“你觉得她是不是因为这个才偷船上所有人的东西呀？ 就因为她钱花光了？” “体操奖杯说不定能值好多钱呢！”鲁珀特附和道。 “那西蒙的超香姜味坚果饼干又是怎么回事呢？” 凯特琢磨着。 “她可能是饿了吧——当小偷肯定特别累人！” 所有事情都串起来了。 凯特几乎都能想到凯瑟琳·罗德里格兹脸上骄傲的神情了。 说不定她发现的这些事自己都能登报呢！ 可凯特还没来得及高兴太久，车厢门的另一边传来了一阵小声的嘀咕。

compartment door. It grew to a scuffle, which grew to a mass of voices, which grew to- "A commotion!" exclaimed Kate, rushing to the door. "I bet something else has gone missing!" They slipped out of their compartment - and were nearly knocked over by a stampede of people. People with looks of total fear on their faces.

车厢门的另一边。 嘀咕声变成了扭打声，接着又变成了乱糟糟的人声，最后变成了——“出事了！”凯特大叫着冲到了门口。 “我打赌又有东西被偷了！” 他们溜出车厢——差点被一群狂奔的人撞翻。 那些人脸上都满是恐惧的神情。