Matthew had a guilty conscience about what happened. Nobody knows for sure if he went right up to the shutters or just listened momentarily as he passed. Maybe he missed the shutters being open in the gloom??
I think he may have had a guilty conscience because he didn't actually make sure Madeleine was in her bed at his 9.30 check - but then why would he think to do that? He'd established that all was quiet and so assumed the children were all asleep, so all was well and he left.
His previous check - the one carried out just before 9.00p.m. was not pre- planned or requested by anyone. He had gone to hurry up the Paynes, but when he met them he was half way to the apartments and so decided to carry on and check his own children. On the way back, also because he was in the vicinity - he decided to check outside the window of 5A - which he did and so could confirm that the shutters were down.
His normal route back did not take him past 5A. At no time did he pass the window.
When returning - he would normally leave the path at the access point which was in the centre of the apartment block in order to cross the carpark - instead of doing that he had to carry on along that path to get to 5A. So why would he take the trouble to make that diversion and then not listen properly when he got there?
After checking he then had to turn round and retrace his footsteps along that path back to the centre of the block where he had access to the carpark which he would then cross to leave by the carpark entrance.
Lovely Heri has a great arial piccie showing the route to and from the Tapas/ apartments which everyone but the McCanns would take via the carpark entrance - and which clearly shows that it did not involve passing by the front of apartment 5A. Hopefully if he reads this he might post it. It explains everything far better than I can.
