The Doors Open Read Online Free PDF Page B

explanation.”
    “I agree. And from this line of reasoning you infer that, since you saw the light on, someone must have turned it on, and turned it on that night. Did your mother see it, by the way?”
    “No,” said Paddy. “But you wouldn’t from inside the house. It was only a chink of light, between the front curtains. I saw it because I looked for it – you see I was wondering at the time whether–”
    “Exactly. Then you go on to say that if Britten turned the light on himself, he must have reached home safely. Therefore he didn’t fall into the river by accident.”
    “Correct.”
    “And if he once reached home safely, it would be the highest degree unlikely that he would go out again before morning – in the condition he was in.”
    “Right again.”
    “Then,” said Mr Legate softly, “since your reasoning would seem to show that it was not Mr Britten who turned on the light in his living-room – who did?”
    “His murderer,” said Paddy boldly.
    Mr Legate accepted this outrageous statement without visible reactions. Nevertheless he sounded a little shaken as he said, “Have you got any reason for such an extraordinary assumption?”
    “Nothing that would stand up in a court of law,” said Paddy. “Except for this. When Mr Britten showed me those papers he took them out of his wallet. And when he’d finished with them he put them back. Now on both occasions I noticed how tight his jacket was, and how difficult he found it to get the wallet out of his inner pocket.”
    “I see. When the Inspector failed to find the wallet, did he actually suggest to you that it might have slipped out into the river? Was that what he thought?”
    “I’m not sure,” said Paddy. “He may have done. Or he may simply not have believed me.”
    “What?”
    “Well, you know, I’m not sure that he went for my story at all. I could see it sticking out a mile that he thought I might have pushed the old boy into the river myself.”
    “You didn’t – I take it,” said Mr Legate.
    It was hard to tell from his candid expression whether he was joking or not.
    “No,” said Paddy shortly.
    “But you suggest that someone else did. Someone who had a motive to conceal or destroy those two papers in the wallet. A motive strong enough to support a murder.”
    “I know – I know. It sounds horribly unlikely when you put it like that. But yes, that’s what I did think.”
    “And whom, may I ask, had you cast for the role of murderer?”
    “I hadn’t got quite so far as that,” said Paddy, “but one of the villains of the piece was to be your head cashier.”
    “Good God!” Mr Legate looked genuinely startled for the first time in the interview. “Brandison.”
    “Is that his name? I didn’t know. Mr Britten spoke of the head of his department.”
    “That’s Brandison. William Brandison. Our head cashier. A most respectable man; and, if I may say so, Mr Carter, a most unlikely murderer.”
    “He mightn’t have done it himself. He might have–”
    “Hired an assassin,” suggested Mr Legate.
    “Yes,” said Paddy. “It all sounds incredibly naïve when you fetch it out in the light of day. But such things have happened. By the way, was Brandison away from work about – let me see – about five or six weeks ago?”
    “Yes, he was. Neuritis, I understand. In fact, since we are on the point, it was during his absence that Britten’s shortcomings came to light.”
    “What had he done? I mean, don’t tell me if it’s a matter of confidence.”
    “No – I should hardly call it that. It’ll have to come out at the inquest anyway. You probably know that we underwrite a number of our policies. There’s a good deal of mutual reinsurance goes on between the big companies in that way. It’s one of my jobs to select any potentially hazardous or unsound policies and get them covered. Britten had to do the paperwork. One day he had a list of policies to copy and he made two mistakes – just copying