“Hardly. The localized nature of . . .” Poole checked himself. “Anyhow, for the moment we are assuming that. Now, had he any business enemies?” “Heaps I should think. But I don’t know of any. What I actually mean is that he must have run up against people from time to time, but I’ve never heard of anyone bearing him any malice.” “You can’t suggest anything?” “I can’t.” “About his business papers—his personal ones; what’s become of them?” “So far as I know, they are all here. Mr. Hessel is his executor; he has the keys.” “Has he been through them at all, or taken any away?” “I don’t think so. He locked the study up and except for a short time, nobody’s been in there since. The housemaids are getting rather restive.” “And no one else could have got at them?” “No. He sent for me directly the body was carried upstairs—Sir Garth was brought into the morning-room first, you know, and as soon as the doctor had finished his examination, the body was carried upstairs. Hessel sent for me at once and said that he knew Sir Garth had appointed him sole executor and that it would be well to lock up all the papers and so on at once. I took him into the study—it’s next door to the morning-room, you know—between that and this. I took him into the study and showed him where everything was. We locked everything up—we got Sir Garth’s keys, by the way—the wall safe was locked already and so were some of the drawers in his desk. I was able to show Mr. Hessel pretty well what the different drawers contained—Sir Garth was a very methodical man. After that we locked all three doors of the room—the one into the hall, the one into the morning-room, and this one.” “So that after that, nobody could have got into the study without Mr. Hessel’s knowledge and consent. But before that, was the door leading from the study to the hall locked?” “Oh no.” “So that anyone could have got into the study from the hall?” “Yes.” “Or, of course, from this room?” Mangane smiled. “Or, of course, from this room.” “But as far as you know, no one did go in there between the time of Sir Garth’s being brought back and your going in with Mr. Hessel to lock up?” “No. Nobody went in through this room, because I was in here myself, and I certainly didn’t hear anyone go in from the hall.” “Thank you, sir,” said Poole. “I expect you think I’m being very fussy, but I want to examine those papers presently and I like to know first what chance there has been of their being disturbed.” “Oh they’ve been disturbed. I told you they had, once. The day after the will was read, Mr. Hessel came here with Menticle, the solicitor, and we went into the study and together ran through the papers in the table and in the ‘In’ and ‘Pending’ baskets—just in case anything wanted attending to at once. There was nothing of importance.” “You were all three together in the room all the time?”