The Clock Strikes Twelve

Chapter 34

Elliot tipped back his head and laughed. The sound was not a pleasant one.

“You’re a brave woman! Have you any idea what sort of explosive you’re handling?”

Miss Silver coughed.

“I am giving you the result of what I have observed and deduced, Mr. Wray. I should be glad to continue.”

“I should be glad if you would.”

She went on knitting.

“If you will consider the facts quite impartially you will admit that Miss Paradine was the sole member of the family who had the opportunity of replacing your cylinder. Unless you prefer what you have yourself stigmatized as the absurd proposition that Mr. Pearson chose the moment when Lane was bringing in drinks, and the members of the family were exchanging goodnights, to rush into his employer’s presence and confess to a theft.”

Elliot shook his head.

“You can wash that out. Albert is the soul of caution.”

“So I imagine. We therefore return to Miss Paradine, who left the drawing-room at a few minutes after nine with the avowed object of bringing down the New Year’s gifts which she had prepared for her guests. She was away for a very short time, but it would not have taken her long to do what I believe she did do. I think she came along this passage and down the stair at the end of it, and so into the study. It would really hardly delay her at all. Having deposited the cylinder upon Mr. Paradine’s table, she had only to set the baize door ajar and listen, to make sure that there was no one in the hall before she crossed it and returned to the drawing-room with her gifts.”

Elliot gave a long, low whistle.

“Grace Paradine!” he said. “Why?”

Miss Silver’s needles clicked.

“Don’t you know why, Mr. Wray? I think you do. Forgive me if I speak plainly. She hates you-she is jealous of you. She has separated you from your wife. She has a very intense nature, and it is wholly set upon Mrs. Wray. It is quite impossible to be in the same room with the three of you without becoming aware of this. I have been very acutely aware of it. Mrs. Wray is aware of it too. It troubles her deeply. She is pulled in one direction by upbringing and by what she thinks of as loyalty and duty, and in another by all her natural instincts and feelings. Now consider Miss Paradine’s position. She has achieved what I think she set out to achieve-a separation between you and your wife. I do not know how she effected it, but she is a woman of considerable force of character and, I think, quite unscrupulous where her feeling for Mrs. Wray is concerned. She is very dominant, very possessive, very sure of her own claims. And then you come up here on a business visit. She is afraid of a meeting between you and Mrs. Wray-she is afraid of future visits. She casts about for something that will prevent them. It occurs to her that if valuable plans were lost the breach between you and the Paradines might be rendered complete. I do not know whether such a result would have followed, but she might have supposed that it would. You will remember that Mr. Richard Paradine had tea with her on Thursday. It seems from your statement of what Mr. Paradine told you that Mr. Richard was aware that his uncle was bringing home papers of such importance that he would not leave them in the office unguarded whilst he went to wash his hands, but desired Mr. Richard to remain there during his absence. Mr. Richard has struck me as an amiable and rather talkative young man. I think we shall find that he mentioned the papers to his aunt. I am persuaded that she then found some opportunity of abstracting them, and that Mr. Paradine was perfectly well aware that she had done so. He told you that he knew who had taken them, did he not?”

Elliot nodded.

Knitting rapidly, Miss Silver proceeded.

“I have been very specially struck by the fact that Mr. Paradine seems to have felt no uneasiness about the loss of these important blue-prints. You would agree on this point, would you not?”

Elliot’s look had sharpened.

“Yes.”

“You described him as being in very good spirits.”

He said grimly, “Oh, yes-he was enjoying himself.”

The needles clicked briskly.

“Don’t you see what that implies, Mr. Wray? A valuable secret was missing. If Mr. Paradine was able to enjoy the situation, it means he was perfectly persuaded that there was no military reason for the theft. He must, for instance, have been quite certain there was no danger that the blue-prints might be photographed. Think for a moment, and you will see it was incredible that he should temporize as he did if he had the slightest doubt on this point.”

In an expressionless voice Elliot said, “Yes.”

Over the revolving needles Miss Silver’s eyes were as bright as those of a bird-the proverbial early bird with the worm in view. The slight sideways tilt of her neat head was quite in keeping. She said crisply,

“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.”