At the end of PMPT, it is said that Patsy claimed to have found the ransom note at the bottom of the staircase, laid out so that each of the 3 pages ran the length of a single step (leaving no room, or not much room, to get by without disturbing the note)
It is said that Patsy claimed to have "skipped" that step on her way down, so as not to disturb any of the sheets, and then turned around to read the first bit of the note, from the bottom of the stairwell.
This is consistent, it is said, with the fact that the note had not been stepped on, since there was no sign of any creases, nor footprints, shoeprints etc. - and the note was remarkably free from blemishes of any kind.
Apparently, had someone stepped on the note, even lightly, it would have left detectable traces of some kind - creasing, prints, etc.
So far so good... but it is said that when ST and the other Dets re-enacted Patsy's morning performance, they were unable to skip the step in question without falling over, or almost falling over.
The detectives apparently came to the conclusion that Patsy lied about stepping over the note, since to step over the note, i.e. skipping that step, would have been almost impossible.
Although not mentioned, I take it Smit disagrees with this conclusion.
Any thoughts on this? It seems like a fairly straightforward test to see whether or not Patsy was lying about where she "found" the note. Apologies if it has been debated and discussed before.
It is said that Patsy claimed to have "skipped" that step on her way down, so as not to disturb any of the sheets, and then turned around to read the first bit of the note, from the bottom of the stairwell.
This is consistent, it is said, with the fact that the note had not been stepped on, since there was no sign of any creases, nor footprints, shoeprints etc. - and the note was remarkably free from blemishes of any kind.
Apparently, had someone stepped on the note, even lightly, it would have left detectable traces of some kind - creasing, prints, etc.
So far so good... but it is said that when ST and the other Dets re-enacted Patsy's morning performance, they were unable to skip the step in question without falling over, or almost falling over.
The detectives apparently came to the conclusion that Patsy lied about stepping over the note, since to step over the note, i.e. skipping that step, would have been almost impossible.
Although not mentioned, I take it Smit disagrees with this conclusion.
Any thoughts on this? It seems like a fairly straightforward test to see whether or not Patsy was lying about where she "found" the note. Apologies if it has been debated and discussed before.