He writes that himself. Afterwards. Standing in his own hall, with the shopping on the floor, before he can forget whether he did.
Bertie Mahon has known for about a year that his memory is going, and the way he has dealt with it is to leave notes for himself about what has already happened.
Here is the thing about the first one, which is the one I took into that courtroom.
It is dated the first of March. He paid that day. There is a receipt in the tin for it.
Which means that eleven days before he ever walked out of Rossiter’s without paying, that man was already standing in his own hall writing PAID in capitals on a piece of paper, because he could not be sure.
That is what the paper proves. Not that he had or had not paid on any given day.
That a man was keeping written records against his own memory before the first item on that charge sheet existed.
