The Light of Day Read Online Free Page A

it—something to do with a Swiss company named Tekelek, who made accounting machines—I did not pay much attention to them. There was also a wallet with money in it—Swiss francs, American dollars and West German marks—together with the yellow number slips of over two thousand dollars' worth of traveller's cheques. The number slips are for record purposes in case the cheques are lost and you want to stop payment on them. I left the money where it was and took the slips. The cheques themselves I found in the side pocket of a suitcase. There were thirty-five of them, each for fifty dollars. His first name was Walter, middle initial K.
    In my experience, most people are extraordinarily careless about the way they look after traveller's cheques. Just because their counter-signature is required before a cheque can be cashed they assume that only they can negotiate it. Yet anyone with eyes in his head can copy the original signature. No particular skill is required; haste, heat, a different pen, a counter of an awkward height, writing standing up instead of sitting—a dozen things can account for small variations in the second signature. It .is not going to be examined by a handwriting expert, not at the time that it is cashed anyway, and usually it is only at banks that the cashier asks to see a passport..
    Another thing: if you have ordinary money in your pocket, you usually know, at least approximately, how much you have. Every time you pay for something, you receive a reminder you can see and feel what you have. Not so with traveller's cheques. What you see, if and when you look, is a blue folder with cheques inside. How often do you count the cheques to make sure that they are all there? Supposing someone were to remove the bottom cheque in a folder. When would you find out that it had gone? A hundred to one it would not be until you had used up all the cheques which had been on top of it. Therefore, you would not know exactly when it had been taken and, if you had been doing any travelling, you probably would not even know where. If you did not know when or where, how could you possibly guess whol In any case you would be too late to stop its being cashed.
    People who leave traveller's cheques about deserve to lose them.
    I took just six cheques, the bottom ones from the folder. That made three hundred dollars, and left him fifteen hundred or so. It is a mistake, I always think, to be greedy, but unfortunately I hesitated. For a moment I wondered if he would miss them all that much sooner if I took two more.
    So I was standing there like a fool, with the cheques right in my hands, when Harper walked into the room.
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER TWO
    I was in the bedroom and he came through from the sitting-room. All the same he must have opened the outer door very quietly indeed or I would certainly have heard the latch. I think he expected to find me there. In that case, the whole thing was just a cunningly planned trap.
    I was standing at the foot of one of the beds, so I couldn't move away from him. For a moment he just stood there grinning at me, as if he were enjoying himself.
    ‘Well now, Arthur,' he said, 'you ought to have waited for me, oughtn't you?'
    'I was going back.' It was a stupid thing to say, I suppose; but almost anything I had said would have sounded stupid at that point.
    And then, suddenly, he hit me across the face with the back of his hand.
    It was like being kicked. My glasses fell off and I lurched back against the bed. As I raised my arms to protect myself he hit me again with the other hand. When I started to fall to my knees, he dragged me up and kept on hitting me. He was hice a savage.
    I fell down again and this time he let me be. My ears were singing, my head felt like bursting and I could not see properly. My nose began to bleed. I got my handkerchief out to stop the blood getting all over my clothes, and felt about among the cheques lying on the carpet for my glasses. I found them