Original Sin by P. D. James Read Free Book Online Page B

wished he could see it. It would be a pity if Innocent House fell into the hands of philistines.
    He asked: “And what exactly has been going on at Peverell Press? What’s worrying Lord Stilgoe apart from his poison-pen letter?”
    “So you’ve heard the rumours. Difficult to tell. They’re being rather cagey about it and I don’t blame them. But one or two little incidents have become common knowledge. Not so little either. The most serious happened just before Easter when they lost the illustrations for Gregory Maybrick’s book on the Guy Fawkes conspiracy. Popular history, no doubt, but Maybrick knows his period. They expected to do rather well with it. He’d managed to lay his hands on some interesting contemporary plates, never before published, as well as other written records, and the whole lot were lost. They were on loan from the various owners and he’d more or less guaranteed their safety.”
    “Lost? Mislaid? Destroyed?”
    “The story is that he delivered them by hand to James de Witt who was editing the book. He’s their senior editor and normally responsible for fiction but old Peverell who edited their non-fiction had died about three months earlier and I suppose they either hadn’t had time to find a suitable replacement or wanted to save money. Like most houses they’re laying off rather than taking on. The rumour is that they can’t keep afloat much longer. Not surprising with that Venetian palace to maintain. Anyway, the illustrations were handed over to de Witt in his office and he locked them in his cupboard while Maybrick watched.”
    “Not in a safe?”
    “My dear boy, we’re talking about a publishing house not Cartier’s. Knowing Peverells, I’m only surprised that de Witt bothered to lock the cupboard.”
    “Was his the only key?”
    “Really Adam, you’re not detecting now. Actually it was. He kept it in a battered old tobacco tin in his left-hand drawer.”
    Where else? thought Dalgliesh. He said: “Where any member of the staff or any unaccompanied visitor could lay hands on it.”
    “Well, someone obviously did. James didn’t need to go to the cupboard for a couple of days. The illustrations were due to be delivered personally to the art department the following week. You know that Peverells have put out their artwork to an independent firm?”
    “No, I didn’t know.”
    “More economical, I suppose. It’s the same firm that’s been doing the jackets for the last five years. Rather well, actually. Peverells have never let their standards slip on book production and design. You can always tell a Peverell book just by handling it. Until now, of course. Gerard Etienne may change that too. Anyway, when de Witt looked for the envelope it had disappeared. Huge fuss, of course. Everyone questioned. Frantic searches. General panic. In the end they had to confess to Maybrick and the owners. You can imagine how they took the news.”
    “Did the stuff ever come to light?”
    “Not until too late. There were doubts whether Maybrick would want to publish at all but the book was in the catalogue and it was decided to go ahead with alternative illustrations and some necessary changes to the text. A week after they’d finished printing, the envelope and its contents mysteriously reappeared. De Witt found it in his cupboard exactly where he had placed it.”
    “Which suggests that the thief had some respect for scholarship and had never intended to destroy the papers.”
    “It suggests a number of possibilities, spite againstMaybrick, spite against the Press, spite against de Witt, or a somewhat warped sense of humour.”
    “Peverells didn’t report the theft to the police?”
    “No, Adam, they didn’t place their confidence in our wonderful boys in blue. I don’t want to be unkind but the police haven’t an impressive clear-up rate when it comes to domestic burglary. The partners took the view that they stood just as good a chance of success and would cause less upset to