is still as it was,’ said Jonathan in surprise.
‘Yes. Is this exactly how it was when you saw it?’
He looked around carefully.
‘Well, I didn’t actually enter the study, you know. I came up to the doorway here, and just glanced in. I saw that fellow Mason bending over the body, which was mostly hidden behind the desk. But as far as I can remember, it was just like this.’
‘Did you actually see the gun? Could you show me its exact position?’
‘I did see it. I remember it shining. Let me see. It must have been right about here; just a yard or so inside the door, I should guess.’
‘Well, we had better not move anything in here ourselves,’ I said, carefully taking note of the position he indicated. ‘Nobody touch anything. Now, let us see. When you first entered the library and saw this door, was it open?’
‘Of course. Mason and Chapman had already gone in. I don’t know whether they found it open or closed.’
‘We’ll try both ways. Let’s leave it open now, to reduce the time necessary for the murderer to flee. Amy and Emily, you will be Mason and Chapman. I’ll be Jonathan, and Jonathan will be the mur—let us say, the elderly Jew. We shall try to see whether there is any possibility that he might have been the murderer, and if not, how someone else could have been.’
I felt a little as though I had temporarily become the director of a theatre play. ‘Emily and Amy, go and station yourselves under the window of this study here, at the back of the house. Jonathan, stay here, and when they are ready, make a noise for the shot; call out or something.The moment you hear it, girls, dash around the house and in at the front door. I will stay at the front gate, and start walking up the path towards the house as soon as Jonathan passes me there.’
We took up our stations; I went out to Adelphi Street and waited. The quiet moments that preceded our action were dense with their secret content; the dark blanket of the night and the pale, louring cloudbank overhead seemed so heavy as to stifle sound. The street was empty, but glancing up the path, I could make out the shapes of the large windows set into the black mass of the house, by the dim glow of the few candles we had lit within. The iron grille surrounding the grounds was thickly covered with ivy, so that if I stepped back onto the pavement, I could no longer see anything at all of what transpired inside. In order to lose no time, I moved back in and stood on the path itself. I heard nothing at all, until the front door of the library opened, and a black silhouette appeared outlined there for the briefest moment. The door closed behind him and I could no longer make out a thing, but I could easily hear Jonathan’s footsteps as he came pelting towards me, his feet making a muffled scraping noise on the gravel. He winged past me onto the pavement, and I instantly began walking towards the house, but I had no sooner taken my first step than I heard Amy and Emily’s running steps, and was able to make them out as they pulled open the door from which he had just emerged and piled inside, treading on each other’s feet and laughing.
Jonathan and I returned to the library together.
‘Where
exactly
did you and the man pass each other?’ I said.
‘Exactly at the gate, I told you. I turned in as he stepped out. I hadn’t seen him before and didn’t realise he was there till we nearly bumped into each other.’
‘Did you pass left or right of him?’
‘On the left. He passed right of me and turned right behind me down the street.’
‘We’ll do it more carefully next time,’ I said.
‘But it isn’t just a matter of that,’ he insisted, as we stepped into the library and joined the others. ‘The man I saw simply wasn’t running. I don’t think he had been running before – he wasn’t even breathing fast. At any rate, he certainly wasn’t when he reached the gate. What I mean to say is: he was
old
, Vanessa. He was hale
‘Yes. Is this exactly how it was when you saw it?’
He looked around carefully.
‘Well, I didn’t actually enter the study, you know. I came up to the doorway here, and just glanced in. I saw that fellow Mason bending over the body, which was mostly hidden behind the desk. But as far as I can remember, it was just like this.’
‘Did you actually see the gun? Could you show me its exact position?’
‘I did see it. I remember it shining. Let me see. It must have been right about here; just a yard or so inside the door, I should guess.’
‘Well, we had better not move anything in here ourselves,’ I said, carefully taking note of the position he indicated. ‘Nobody touch anything. Now, let us see. When you first entered the library and saw this door, was it open?’
‘Of course. Mason and Chapman had already gone in. I don’t know whether they found it open or closed.’
‘We’ll try both ways. Let’s leave it open now, to reduce the time necessary for the murderer to flee. Amy and Emily, you will be Mason and Chapman. I’ll be Jonathan, and Jonathan will be the mur—let us say, the elderly Jew. We shall try to see whether there is any possibility that he might have been the murderer, and if not, how someone else could have been.’
I felt a little as though I had temporarily become the director of a theatre play. ‘Emily and Amy, go and station yourselves under the window of this study here, at the back of the house. Jonathan, stay here, and when they are ready, make a noise for the shot; call out or something.The moment you hear it, girls, dash around the house and in at the front door. I will stay at the front gate, and start walking up the path towards the house as soon as Jonathan passes me there.’
We took up our stations; I went out to Adelphi Street and waited. The quiet moments that preceded our action were dense with their secret content; the dark blanket of the night and the pale, louring cloudbank overhead seemed so heavy as to stifle sound. The street was empty, but glancing up the path, I could make out the shapes of the large windows set into the black mass of the house, by the dim glow of the few candles we had lit within. The iron grille surrounding the grounds was thickly covered with ivy, so that if I stepped back onto the pavement, I could no longer see anything at all of what transpired inside. In order to lose no time, I moved back in and stood on the path itself. I heard nothing at all, until the front door of the library opened, and a black silhouette appeared outlined there for the briefest moment. The door closed behind him and I could no longer make out a thing, but I could easily hear Jonathan’s footsteps as he came pelting towards me, his feet making a muffled scraping noise on the gravel. He winged past me onto the pavement, and I instantly began walking towards the house, but I had no sooner taken my first step than I heard Amy and Emily’s running steps, and was able to make them out as they pulled open the door from which he had just emerged and piled inside, treading on each other’s feet and laughing.
Jonathan and I returned to the library together.
‘Where
exactly
did you and the man pass each other?’ I said.
‘Exactly at the gate, I told you. I turned in as he stepped out. I hadn’t seen him before and didn’t realise he was there till we nearly bumped into each other.’
‘Did you pass left or right of him?’
‘On the left. He passed right of me and turned right behind me down the street.’
‘We’ll do it more carefully next time,’ I said.
‘But it isn’t just a matter of that,’ he insisted, as we stepped into the library and joined the others. ‘The man I saw simply wasn’t running. I don’t think he had been running before – he wasn’t even breathing fast. At any rate, he certainly wasn’t when he reached the gate. What I mean to say is: he was
old
, Vanessa. He was hale
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