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“Did she seem sad at all, these past few weeks?” the younger officer asks.
“在过去的几个星期里，她看上去伤心吗?”年轻的军官问。
“Did she ever give any sign she might want to hurt herself? Or—”
“她有没有表现出任何想要伤害自己的迹象?”或者——“
Marilyn doesn’t even wait for him to finish.
玛丽琳甚至不等他说完。
“Lydia was very happy. She loved school. She could have done anything. She’d never go out in that boat by herself.”
“莉迪亚非常高兴。她喜欢学校。她可以做任何事。她决不会一个人坐那只船出去的。”
Her hands start to shake, and she clutches the teacup again, trying to keep them steady—
她的手开始颤抖，她又一次抓住茶杯，试图让它们保持稳定
so tightly Hannah thinks she might squeeze it to pieces.
汉娜觉得她可能会把它捏成碎片。
“Why aren’t you looking for whoever took her out there?”
“你为什么不去找带她出去的人?”
“There’s no evidence of anyone else in the boat with her,” says Officer Fiske. “Or on the dock.”
“没有证据表明船上还有其他人和她在一起，”菲斯克警官说。“或者在码头上。”
“How can you tell?” Marilyn insists. “My Lydia would never have gone out in a boat alone.”
“你怎么知道?”“玛丽琳坚持。“我的莉迪亚决不会一个人坐船出去的。”
Tea sloshes onto the counter. “You just never know, these days, who’s waiting around the corner for you.”
茶洒在柜台上。“你永远不知道，这些天，谁在角落里等着你。”
“Marilyn,” James says.
“玛丽琳,”詹姆斯说。
“Read the paper. There are psychos everywhere these days, kidnapping people, shooting them.
“看报纸。现在到处都是疯子，绑架人，射杀人。
Raping them. What does it take for the police to start tracking them?down?”
还有强奸。警察要怎样才能开始追捕他们呢?”
“Marilyn,” James says again, louder this time.
“玛丽琳，”詹姆斯又说了一遍，这次声音更大了。
“We’re looking into all possibilities,” Officer Fiske says gently.
“我们正在调查所有的可能性，”菲斯克警官温和地说。
“We know you are,” says James.
“我们知道，”詹姆斯说。
“You’re doing all you can. Thank you.” He glances at Marilyn.
“你在尽你所能。谢谢你！”他瞥了一眼玛丽琳。
“We can’t ask for more than that.” Marilyn opens her mouth again, then closes it without a word.
“我们不能要求更多了。”玛丽琳又张开嘴，然后一言不发地闭上了。
The policemen glance at each other.
警察们面面相觑。
Then the younger one says, “We’d like to ask Nathan a few more questions, if that’s okay. Alone.”
然后年轻的那个说:“如果可以的话，我们想再问纳森几个问题。单独。”
Five faces swivel toward Nath, and his cheeks go hot. “Me?”
五张脸转向纳，他的脸颊开始发热。“我?”
“Just a couple of follow-ups,” says Officer Fiske.
菲斯克警官说:“只是跟进了几件事。”
He puts his hand on Nath’s shoulder. “Maybe we can just step out onto the front porch.”
他把手放在纳的肩上。“也许我们可以直接走到前廊去。”
When Officer Fiske has shut the front door behind them, Nath props himself against the railing.
菲斯克警官关上了他们身后的前门，纳靠在栏杆上。
Under his palms, a few shreds of paint work loose and flutter to the porch floor.
在他的手掌下，一些油漆碎片散落在门廊的地板上。
He has been wrestling with the idea of calling the police himself, of telling them about Jack and how he must be responsible.
他一直在考虑自己报警，告诉他们杰克的事，以及他应该如何负责。
In another town, or another time, they might have shared Nath’s suspicions already.
在另一个城镇，或者另一个时间，他们可能已经和纳一样怀疑了。
Or if Lydia herself had been different: a Shelley Brierley, a Pam Saunders, a Karen Adler, a normal teenage girl, a girl they understood.
或者莉迪亚自己有什么不同:雪莱·布里利，帕姆·桑德斯，卡伦·阿德勒，一个正常的少女，一个他们能理解的少女。
The police might have looked at Jack more closely, pieced together a history of small complaints:
警方本可以更仔细地调查杰克，拼凑出一段小投诉的历史:
teachers protesting graffitied desks and insolent remarks, other brothers taking umbrage at his liberties with their sisters.
老师们抗议乱画的课桌和无礼的言论，其他兄弟对他随意对待他们的姐妹感到愤怒。
They might have listened to Nath’s complaints—after school all spring every day—and come to similar conclusions.
他们可能听了纳的抱怨——每天春天放学后——得出了类似的结论。
A girl and a boy, so much time together, alone—it would not be so hard to understand, after all, why Nath eyed Jack so closely and bitterly.
一个女孩和一个男孩，这么长时间单独在一起，这并不难理解，毕竟，为什么纳如此密切和痛苦地盯着杰克。
They, like Nath, might have found suspicious signs in everything Jack has ever said or done.
他们和纳一样，可能在杰克说过或做过的每件事上都发现了可疑的迹象。
