Page:The Big Four (Christie).pdf/136

 could, it would make a great difference. If the man was murdered, someone entered the room either through the door or the window—if through the door, it was an inside job; if through the window, it might have been anyone. First thing when they had broken the door down, they flung the window open, and the housemaid who did it thinks that it wasn’t fastened, but she’s a precious bad witness—will remember anything you ask her to!”

“What about the key?”

“There you are again. It was on the floor among the wreckage of the door. Might have fallen from the keyhole, might have been dropped there by one of the people who entered, might have been slipped underneath the door from the outside.”

“In fact everything is ‘might have been’?”

“You’ve hit it, Moosior Poirot. That’s just what it is.”

Poirot was looking round him, frowning unhappily.

“I cannot see light,” he murmured. “Just now—yes, I got a gleam, but now all is darkness once more. I have not the clue—the motive.”

“Young Gerald Paynter had a pretty good motive,” remarked Japp grimly. “He’s been wild enough in his time, I can tell you. And