“Mr. Paradine knew that your blue-prints had not been taken because they were blue-prints, but for the purely personal and private reason that they were yours. After living with her for the last twenty years, we may suppose that he had a tolerable knowledge of Miss Paradine’s frame of mind and of the situation in the house. We don’t know how he knew that she had taken the cylinder, but he certainly did know. He may have been fond of his sister, but there is no doubt that he was very angry, and quite determined to punish and humiliate her. I think we may allow that she was punished. That speech of his at the dinner-table must have been a dreadful experience for Miss Paradine. The family has always regarded her with great affection and respect-one cannot help observing that at every turn. Even Miss Ambrose had no criticisms.”
“They put her on a pedestal,” said Elliot bitterly. “I’ve been up against that-Aunt Grace can do no wrong. It’s the great family myth. I’m the sole blasphemer.”
Miss Silver nodded.
“Few characters can support the weight of infallibility. But once you have grown accustomed to a pedestal it is very hard to step down-harder still to be pushed down, and perhaps in public. When Miss Paradine sat at the dinner-table on Thursday night and heard her brother say he knew who had committed that still unnamed offence she must have suffered very deeply indeed. She could not be sure that his next words might not inform the whole family that she was the offender. I think you may feel sure that she had her punishment then.”
Elliot’s face was colourless and set.
“She’d asked for it, hadn’t she? Do you expect me to be sorry for her? You know what she has done- to me-to Phyllida. Even if I beat her now-even if that damned pedestal of hers is smashed so that she never gets on to it again-it’s robbed us of a year.”
He got up, walked to the window, stood there a moment, and came back again, hard and controlled.
“Did she murder her brother?” Miss Silver’s clicking needles stopped. Her hands rested in her lap.
“I don’t know, Mr. Wray.”
Chapter 35
There was a silence which lasted until Elliot said with an effect of suddenness,
“How do you mean, you don’t know?”
She began to knit again.
“Just what I say, Mr. Wray. I am sure that Miss Paradine took the blue-prints and afterwards replaced them. I am not sure that she pushed Mr. Paradine over the parapet. She had the motive, and she might have made herself the opportunity, but there is at present no evidence that she did so.”
Elliot said,
“Look here, Miss Silver, you say she took those blue-prints. I’m not saying she didn’t. Then you say she put them back, and the only time it could have been done was somewhere between 9 and 9:15. All right, that goes with me. Now will you explain why Mr. Paradine should have gone on sitting there in his study waiting for someone to come and confess? On your showing the blue-prints were back and on his table. He knew who had taken them. What was he waiting for?”
Miss Silver smiled.
“I think you can answer your own question, Mr. Wray.”
“He wasn’t letting her off? He meant her to come and confess?”
“Exactly. It was, I think, a trial of wills between them. I am not prepared to say which of them won. They were two determined and obstinate people. She may have come down at the last, or she may have decided to her own satisfaction that, having recovered the papers, he would not proceed to extremities. She may have persuaded herself that he did not really know who had taken them.”
Elliot said, “Yes. All right, I’m with you.” He fell silent for a moment. Then he said, “I can’t remember just what I told you when we talked before. I’m going to say it again. There’s something-I don’t know whether it’s important or not-”
“Pray tell me what it is.”
“I told you Albert Pearson was with me in my room. We came down for a drink at half past eleven. We came down the stairs into the hall. Just at that moment the front door shut, and immediately after that I heard another door shut upstairs.”
“On which side of the house, Mr. Wray?”
He gave her a grim smile.
“There was no one on this side to shut doors. Albert and I had the only two bedrooms occupied before you came.”
“It was on the other side?”
“It was. And as you know, my wife and Miss Paradine occupy the only two bedrooms there.”
Miss Silver’s gaze dwelt upon his with intelligence.
“This was at half past eleven?”
“Just about. I don’t know whether it’s important or not. She may have been meaning to come down, and went back again when she heard the front door and our footsteps. I just thought I would tell you.”
“Thank you, Mr. Wray.”
He made a movement as if he were throwing the whole thing off and said,
“What happens next?”
Miss Silver coughed.
“I should very much like to have a conversation with Mrs. Wray. I should like you to be present. I suppose that Polly should be sent to ask her if she could spare a few minutes. We will adjourn to my room and wait for her there.”
They adjourned.
Polly was in the bathroom polishing taps. When she had been despatched on her errand and Miss Silver had arranged three chairs to her liking, she addressed a question to Elliot.
“When you went in to say goodnight, Mr. Wray, what did you say to Mr. Paradine, and what did he say to you? Can you remember?”
She thought he stiffened slightly.
“None of it was of the slightest importance.”
She had taken an upright chair and was knitting placidly with her back to the light. Elliot, and presently Phyllida, would have perforce to face both it and her. She smiled kindly.
“That is as may be, Mr. Wray. I should like very much to know what Mr. Paradine said when he saw you. Did he give you the impression that he was expecting anyone else?”
“It was too early for that-too much coming and going. If you want to know, he asked me if I’d come to confess, and then told me to get out because he hadn’t the time to tell me just what kind of a fool he thought I was. That was one of the times I thought he was enjoying himself.”
Miss Silver’s expression became brightly interested, but she said no more. Her needles clicked.
Eight or nine inches of dark grey legging now depended from them. She had presently to extract another ball from her knitting-bag and join the thread.
Phyllida’s knock elicited a cheerful “Come in!” She had shut the door behind her and was well into the room before she became aware of Elliot propping the mantelpiece. A murmur of words about Polly and her message tripped up and came to nothing. She flushed vividly and stood still. Miss Silver said in a reassuring voice,
“Come and sit down, Mrs. Wray. I won’t keep you for long.”
Phyllida sat down. She faced Miss Silver, but she could see Elliot too. He did not speak, and he took no notice of the chair which had obviously been provided for him. He just stood there and looked. Curiously enough, she found this reassuring.
Miss Silver addressed her in an indulgent tone.
“Mrs. Wray, why did you leave the study by way of the bedroom next door on Thursday night?”
Phyllida said “Oh-” and said no more.
Elliot laughed.
“It’s no good, Phyl-you’ll never make a criminal. You left fingerprints on both the doors.”
She looked from him to Miss Silver and said,
“I-I just went out that way.”
“It was because someone else was at the study door, was it not? Mr. Paradine sent you out through the bedroom?”
Phyllida said “Oh-” again.
Miss Silver leaned towards her.
“That is what I think. You can correct me if I am wrong. I also think that you know who this someone was. You went into a dark room-there is no switch by that door. You would not have moved at once. There would naturally have been a moment when you were close enough to the room you had just left either to hear the newcomer addressed by name or to recognize the voice which addressed Mr. Paradine. That was so, was it not?”