The Murder House Read Online Free PDF

before, and that I remembered about him, but he hadn’t retained about me. I didn’t mind. James was one of those people who went through life pretending to be interested, but the answers went in one ear and out the other. As he spoke, his eyes were constantly scanning the aisles, in the way people do when they’re looking for someone more interesting. We chatted for perhaps ten minutes, then he excused himself, telling me that he was supposed to be buying coffee from the buffet car for some colleagues. He went on his way, and I turned back to my file.
    The sun poured through the window, making the carriage stuffy. I knew I should move, but that would mean less privacy. I toasted gently in the heat, and gradually felt my eyes close – I’d had to get up at four a.m. that day to be at New Bridewell by six. Just a five-minute nap, I told myself, and then I’d be refreshed enough to spend the rest of the journey studying.
    I woke with a start when the guard announced that we were about to arrive in Cheltenham. I rubbed my eyes and stared out of the window, taking a deep breath to banish the floating sensation that waking from a deep sleep often brought. When I glanced at the table, my stomach clenched in horror. The Noble file was no longer there. With unsteady hands, I pawed through my bag, first systematically, then more wildly. It wasn’t there. It wasn’t on the floor, and it wasn’t on the seat. It had gone. I glanced at my watch and estimated that I had been asleep no more than twenty minutes at the most. It had disappeared during that time.
    Looking back, it should have been immediately obvious that James had taken it. I hadn’t seen him walk back from the buffet car, so it stood to reason that he’d done it while I slept. It had been obvious that it was a court file – at least, obvious to a criminal lawyer. But I wasn’t thinking rationally. With a voice that shook with panic, I asked the few people in the carriage whether they had seen anyone take anything from my table, but of course no one had. I’d been pleased with the location of my table precisely because it
wasn’t
overlooked by other passengers.
    I rummaged in my bag again, sick with worry and remorse. There was no excuse for what I’d done. I’d not only removed the file from the station, but I’d left it where it was vulnerable. For a few minutes I considered a plan where I denied that I’d even seen it, so they’d blame someone else for its loss, but Oakley had seen me with the damned thing. And there was Wright to consider. He’d be the first to put two and two together.
    I put my head in my hands, wondering whether I should get off at Cheltenham and go straight back to New Bridewell and confess – make a clean breast of the whole thing. I wish now that I had, even if it meant losing my job. But when the train rolled into Cheltenham, I sat frozen. I needed time to think.
    Gradually, I began to ask myself why anyone would make off with a grubby folder but leave my purse, which had been on the seat next to me. Then I understood – James couldn’t have failed to notice the name on the file, and he was Noble’s lawyer.
He
had taken it. I was half out of my seat to confront him when it occurred to me that he wouldn’t
need
to steal it – he’d have already received a copy as a matter of course. And there was unlikely to be anything else he could use – Oakley wasn’t the sort to leave incriminating ‘Post-it’ stickers all over the place.
    Yet James
must
have stolen it, because no one else would have been interested. I wondered why. And what should I do? Confront him, and risk making a fool of myself in front of his colleagues? Or wait for him to come to me?
    As it happened, I didn’t need to decide. James came to me – going towards the buffet car again, I noticed, which meant he
had
passed while I’d been asleep. With