They Thought I Was Out Cold, So I Let All Four Keep Going novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Read It Out Loud

The bank manager climbed the steps and stood beside me.

He was a thin, careful man, and he held his hat against his chest.

"Herr Seidl says my bank has called the lodge's loan," he said into the microphone. "I run the branch in this valley. I have looked after this valley's accounts for nineteen years."

Seidl smiled thinly.

"The loan on Haus Brandl is current to the day," the manager said. "I have never sent a notice. Two nights ago a letter went out over my name, from the regional office, on the instruction of a client. I did not see it until it was delivered."

The crowd went very quiet.

"I have withdrawn it this morning, in writing, and I have put my objection in writing to my superiors." He turned his hat in his hands. "I would like to ask Herr Seidl which of my colleagues he telephoned."

Seidl's smile did not move.

"A banker's memory," he said, "is a fragile thing."

"So is a client's."

Somebody laughed in the crowd.

Seidl took the microphone back.

"The insurer, then," he said smoothly. "There is no cover. That is not a matter for banks."

A man at the front lifted a hand.

He was heavy and sixty, in a brown coat, and I knew him from the village notice board.

"Insurance agent," he called. "Valley office. May I?"

Seidl's mouth tightened.

The man climbed the steps with a puff, and he did not take the microphone.

He only raised his voice.

"Two Novembers ago," he said, "Herr Seidl telephoned my office and asked how fast a policy can be dropped after an accident on a slope. I told him it was a stupid question. He said, 'Not so stupid in the spring.'"

A murmur spread across the square.

"I have the note in my diary," the agent said. "The same week the insurer in Innsbruck wrote to me that it would not renew the lodge. I thought nothing of it. I think a great deal of it now."

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