Wilfrid Photographs Vole in Prison, Explained：on the chance that

What's really going on

The photograph is the film's quiet engine: to save Vole, the defence needs a memory that does not come from his wife. "A disinterested witness may be of more value," Wilfrid explains, and the picture is bait for exactly that stranger. Vole's mind is elsewhere. "Won't they let her see me? I mean, it's been two weeks now," he says, and his unease is the first crack in the picture of a happy marriage. When Wilfrid reads the housekeeper's claim that Vole helped Mrs French write her will, the calm prisoner turns sharp — "If Janet said that she's lying" — and Wilfrid answers with a dry joke about an eggbeater in the wheels of a Victorian household. The scene ends where the whole mystery begins: Vole tells how he met Christine, and the story starts with a ceiling falling on him.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• A mugshot is a quiet way to hunt for a witness.
• Disinterested means impartial, not bored.
• Anxious questions reveal what Vole fears most.
• The ceiling falling turns a meeting into a love story.

発音のポイント

• going to — In fast speech going to reduces to gonna; catch it as one word.
• on the chance that — Run on the chance that together without pausing between words.
• pick up the — The p in pick is soft; link up the as one smooth unit.