The Blind Side by Patricia Wentworth Page A

Mavis was still crying, but quite softly now. He came back to Lee.
    â€œSorry, darling. You were saying something had happened in Ross’s flat. What makes you think so?” He had her hands again, and he felt them tremble.
    â€œPeter, you know, after the accident—when my father and mother were killed—I used to walk in my sleep. They said it was because of the shock. They said I would stop doing it—and after a time I did. I was about fifteen.”
    Peter began to be afraid again. He held her hands very tight. She went on, breathing quickly and trying to control her voice.
    â€œI’d had a long journey. The Merville man really was a damned dago, and I had to come away in a hurry. I just caught Cousin Lucy, and she gave me her key. She said I could have the flat whilst she was away. Well, I was all in. I went to bed and read a thriller. Then I went to sleep. It had all been rather beastly—and what with that, and being so tired—I—well, I suppose I must have walked in my sleep again.”
    â€œHow do you know?”
    She turned very pale indeed.
    â€œBecause when I woke up—”
    â€œGo on.”
    â€œIt was my foot,” she said in a whisper—“my right foot—as if I had stepped—in blood—all stained—and the hem of my nightgown too. And the mark of my foot all across the hall. And when I opened the front door it was all across the landing—all the way from Ross’s flat.”
    Peter threw back his head and laughed.
    â€œMy poor child! Did you think you’d done murder? Look here, it’s all right—quite all right. Listen. There’s a perfectly simple explanation. The idiot Mavis allowed herself to be lured into Ross’s flat last night. She said she didn’t know Lucy was going to be away—meant to spend the night there, and walked into Ross’s parlour to discuss alternatives. Ross got fresh. She hit him over the head with one of the ancestral decanters and staggered out on to the landing. The crash having waked me, I was there. She cast herself upon me, and I had to take her in after a few kind words with Ross, who came out of his door in a stoshed condition, bleeding like a pig—cut over the eye. So you see where the gore came from. No need to worry and all that. But I don’t like your wandering around in the night. You want someone to look after you, you do.”
    The blessed, the overwhelming relief brought up a thick mist before Lee’s eyes. The room seemed to tilt a little. Peter’s voice came through the mist.
    â€œHere, hold up. I can’t kiss you if you’re going to faint.”

CHAPTER X
    The relief didn’t last. It ought to have lasted, but it didn’t. She was here in Peter’s arms. She was safe. And everything was quite all right. But a cold, deadly fear was seeping back into her mind. She drew away, and Peter came down to earth.
    â€œLook here, we’d better get rid of those footprints before anyone comes.”
    The fear was in Lee’s eyes as she looked at him.
    â€œI did it—I washed everything—at once.”
    â€œPractical child! Sure you made a good job of it?”
    She was seeing the landing in a horrid sharp picture, with herself on her knees and the wet swab in her hand. But there had only been footprints, nothing but her own footprints. There hadn’t been any pool she could have stepped in—not out there, not on the landing. She began to shake again.
    â€œWhat is it?” said Peter quickly.
    â€œThere wasn’t any pool, Peter—there wasn’t. I washed the landing. There was only the mark of my foot. The first one was close to the door. Don’t you see what that means? I must have been inside the flat—and something’s happened there—something—”
    Peter spoke sharply.
    â€œStop it! Pull yourself together! Think—was the door open—Ross’s door?”
    â€œNo, it