Part 44 (1/2)

Carrington dismissed his car at Mr. Rattar's office. When he was shown into the lawyer's room, he exhibited a greater air of keenness than usual.

”Well, Mr. Rattar,” said he, ”you'll be interested to hear that I've got rather a new point of view with regard to this case.”

”Indeed?” said Simon, and his lips twitched a little as he spoke. There was no doubt that he was not looking so well as usual. His face had seemed drawn and worried last time Carrington had seen him; now it might almost be termed haggard.

”I find,” continued Carrington, ”that Sir Reginald displayed a curious and unaccountable irritability before his death. I hear, for instance, that a letter from you had upset him quite unduly.”

Carrington paused for an instant, and his monocle was full on Simon all the time, and yet he did not seem to notice the very slight but distinct start which the lawyer gave, for he continued with exactly the same confidential air.

”These seem to me very suggestive symptoms, Mr. Rattar, and I am wondering very seriously whether the true solution of his mysterious death is not--” he paused for an instant and then in a low and earnest voice said, ”suicide!”

There was no mistake about the lawyer's start this time, or about the curious fact that the strain seemed suddenly to relax, and a look of relief to take its place. And yet Carrington seemed quite oblivious to anything beyond his own striking new theory.

”That's rather a suggestive idea, isn't it?” said he.

”Very!” replied Simon with the air of one listening to a revelation.

”How he managed to inflict precisely those injuries on himself is at present a little obscure,” continued Carrington, ”but no doubt a really expert medical opinion will be able to suggest an explanation. The theory fits all the other facts remarkably, doesn't it?”

”Remarkably,” agreed Simon.

”This letter of yours, for instance, was a very ordinary business communication, I understand.”

”Very ordinary,” said Simon.

”Of course, you have a copy of it in your letter book--and also Sir Reginald's reply?”

There was a moment's pause and then Simon's grunt seemed to be forced out of himself. But he followed the grunt with a more a.s.sured, ”Certainly.”

”May I see them?”

”You--you think they are important?”

”As bearing on Sir Reginald's state of mind only.”

Simon rang his bell and ordered the letter book to be brought in. While Carrington was examining it, his eyes never left his visitor's face, but they would have had to be singularly penetrating to discover a trace of any emotion there. Throughout his inspection, Carrington's air remained as imperturbable as though he were reading the morning paper.

”According to these letters,” he observed, ”there seems to have been a trifling but rather curious misunderstanding. In accordance with written instructions of a fortnight previously, you had arranged to let a certain farm to a certain man, and Sir Reginald then complained that you had overlooked a conversation between those dates in which he had cancelled these instructions. He writes with a warmth that clearly indicates his own impression that this conversation had been perfectly explicit and that your forgetfulness or neglect of it was unaccountable, and he proposes to go into this and one or two other matters in the course of a conversation with you which should have taken place that afternoon. You then reply that you are too busy to come out so soon, but will call on the following morning. In the meantime Sir Reginald is murdered, and so the conversation never takes place and no explanation pa.s.ses between you. Those are the facts, aren't they?”

He looked up from the letter book as he spoke and there was no doubt he noticed something now. Indeed, the haggard look on Simon's face and a bead of perspiration on his forehead were so striking, and so singular in the case of such a tough customer, that the least observant--or the most circ.u.mspect--must have stared. Carrington's stare lasted only for the fraction of a second, and then he was polis.h.i.+ng his eyegla.s.s with his handkerchief in the most indifferent way.

A second or two pa.s.sed before Simon answered, and then he said abruptly:

”Sir Reginald was mistaken. No such conversation.”

”Do you mean to tell me literally that _no_ such conversation took place? Was it a mere delusion?”

”Er--practically. Yes, a delusion.”