Deeper and deeper into the enclave of the wealthy Strike and Robin walked, until they arrived at the corner of Kentigern Gardens. Like Bellamy Road, it projected an aura of intimidating, self-contained prosperity. The houses here were high Victorian, red brick with stone dressings and heavy pedimented windows on four floors, with their own small 80stone balconies. White marble porticos framed each entrance, and three white steps led from the pavement to more glossy black front doors. Everything was expensively well maintained, clean and regimented. There were only a few cars parked here; a small sign declared that permits were needed for the privilege.
No longer set apart by police tape and massing journalists, number 18 had faded back into graceful conformity with its neighbors.
“The balcony she fell from was on the top floor,” said Strike, “about forty feet up, I’d say.”
He contemplated the handsome frontage. The balconies on the top three floors, Robin saw, were shallow, with barely standing room between the balustrade and the long windows.
“The thing is,” Strike told Robin, while he squinted at the balcony high above them, “pushing someone from that height wouldn’t guarantee death.”
(The Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith)
What do ‘[A] four floors’ and ‘[B] the top three floors’ mean?
I guess [A] means from first to fourth floors. But I can’t guess what ‘the top three floors’ is.
