The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie (e book free reading TXT) đ
- Author: Agatha Christie
Book online «The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie (e book free reading TXT) đ». Author Agatha Christie
âI never thought of that,â I said.
âWe know that a dictaphone was supplied to Mr. Ackroyd. But no dictaphone has been found amongst his effects. So, if something was taken from the tableâ âwhy should not that something be the dictaphone? But there were certain difficulties in the way. The attention of everyone was, of course, focused on the murdered man. I think anyone could have gone to the table unnoticed by the other people in the room. But a dictaphone has a certain bulkâ âit cannot be slipped casually into a pocket. There must have been a receptacle of some kind capable of holding it.
âYou see where I am arriving? The figure of the murderer is taking shape. A person who was on the scene straightaway, but who might not have been if the crime had been discovered the following morning. A person carrying a receptacle into which the dictaphone might be fittedâ ââ
I interrupted. âBut why remove the dictaphone? What was the point?â
âYou are like Mr. Raymond. You take it for granted that what was heard at nine-thirty was Mr. Ackroydâs voice speaking into a dictaphone. But consider this useful invention for a little minute. You dictate into it, do you not? And at some later time a secretary or a typist turns it on, and the voice speaks again.â
âYou meanâ â?â I gasped.
Poirot nodded. âYes, I meant that. At nine-thirty Mr. Ackroyd was already dead. It was the dictaphone speakingâ ânot the man.â
âAnd the murderer switched it on. Then he must have been in the room at that minute?â
âPossibly. But we must not exclude the likelihood of some mechanical device having been appliedâ âsomething after the nature of a time lock, or even of a simple alarm clock. But in that case we must add two qualifications to our imaginary portrait of the murderer. It must be someone who knew of Mr. Ackroydâs purchase of the dictaphone and also someone with the necessary mechanical knowledge.
âI had got thus far in my own mind when we came to the footprints on the window ledge. Here there were three conclusions open to me. (1) They might really have been made by Ralph Paton. He had been at Fernly that night, and might have climbed into the study and found his uncle dead there. That was one hypothesis. (2) There was the possibility that the footmarks might have been made by somebody else who happened to have the same kind of studs in his shoes. But the inmates of the house had shoes soled with crepe rubber, and I declined to believe in the coincidence of someone from outside having the same kind of shoes as Ralph Paton wore. Charles Kent, as we know from the barmaid of the Dog and Whistle, had on a pair of boots âclean dropping off him.â (3) Those prints were made by someone deliberately trying to throw suspicion on Ralph Paton. To test this last conclusion, it was necessary to ascertain certain facts. One pair of Ralphâs shoes had been obtained from the Three Boars by the police. Neither Ralph nor anyone else could have worn them that evening, since they were downstairs being cleaned. According to the police theory, Ralph was wearing another pair of the same kind, and I found out that it was true that he had two pairs. Now for my theory to be proved correct it was necessary for the murderer to have worn Ralphâs shoes that eveningâ âin which case Ralph must have been wearing yet a third pair of footwear of some kind. I could hardly suppose that he would bring three pairs of shoes all alikeâ âthe third pair of footwear were more likely to be boots. I got your sister to make inquiries on this pointâ âlaying some stress on the colour, in orderâ âI admit it franklyâ âto obscure the real reason for my asking.
âYou know the result of her investigations. Ralph Paton had had a pair of boots with him. The first question I asked him when he came to my house yesterday morning was what he was wearing on his feet on the fatal night. He replied at once that he had worn bootsâ âhe was still wearing them, in factâ âhaving nothing else to put on.
âSo we get a step further in our description of the murdererâ âa person who had the opportunity to take these shoes of Ralph Patonâs from the Three Boars that day.â
He paused, and then said, with a slightly raised voice:
âThere is one further point. The murderer must have been a person who had the opportunity to purloin that dagger from the silver table. You might argue that anyone in the house might have done so, but I will recall to you that Miss Ackroyd was very positive that the dagger was not there when she examined the silver table.â
He paused again.
âLet us recapitulateâ ânow that all is clear. A person who was at the Three Boars earlier that day, a person who knew Ackroyd well enough to know that he had purchased a dictaphone, a person who was of a mechanical turn of mind, who had the opportunity to take the dagger from the silver table before Miss Flora arrived, who had with him a receptacle suitable for hiding the dictaphoneâ âsuch as a black bag, and who had the study to himself for a few minutes after the crime was discovered while Parker was telephoning for the police. In factâ âDr. Sheppard!â
XXVI And Nothing but the TruthThere was a dead silence for a minute and a half.
Then I laughed.
âYouâre mad,â I said.
âNo,â said Poirot placidly. âI am not mad. It was the little discrepancy in time that first drew my attention to youâ âright at the beginning.â
âDiscrepancy in time?â I queried, puzzled.
âBut yes. You will remember that everyone agreedâ âyou yourself includedâ âthat it took five minutes to walk from the lodge to the houseâ âless if
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