‘Do Mr and Mrs Stubbs get their own supper?’ Pollard said presently.
‘That’s right, sir,’ Pike replied. ‘They only have a woman in mornings.’
‘What about the trivial telly programme he couldn’t stomach?’ asked Toye.
‘If he was trying to cover his tracks, he could easily have got it from the Radio Times. Still, we might as well have a look. Have you still got last week’s issue, Pike?’
After a search in the living room of the police house it was found, still intact. On August 20 the nine o’clock news had been followed by a sports programme.
‘I suppose Mr Stubbs has a mind above the purely recreational,’ Pollard said. ‘Well, just go on slogging away, Pike. Inspector Toye and I are going along to the school.’
As they drove up to the front door of St Julitta’s, a Morris 1000 was standing outside it with the boot open. The next moment Marcia Makepeace came out, and halted on seeing them.
‘Good morning,’ Pollard said, as he emerged and went towards her. ‘I hope this means you’re getting away at last? We needn’t hold you up at all. We just want to have a look at the rooms the Horner people used during the Fortnight. I’m sure the caretaker could show us.’
As he talked, it struck him that she looked younger, more confident — even gay. All this is slipping off her, he thought. I do believe she and Jay have definitely fixed it up…
Marcia was assuring him that she was in no hurry.
‘I’m not making for London until Sunday,’ she said, ‘and the people I’m staying with aren’t expecting me till lunchtime. Do come in, and I’ll take you on an escorted tour.’
She was as good as her word. Pollard quickly realized that basically St Julitta’s consisted of a central entrance hall with long wings running east and west. The main staircase led up from the hall to two upper floors, used for dormitories and staff accommodation on either side of central corridors. Each wing had a two-storey extension on its north side. That off the west wing had the kitchens on the ground floor, and the sick bay conveniently above, with a linking staircase. Pollard reflected that Geoff Boothby could have gone up to bed by that route, and might very well not have met anyone else. It was less public than the main staircase.
When they returned to the ground floor, a tour of the west wing cleared his mind at once about the movements of people after the film show on the evening of the murder. Almost everyone would have been concentrated there, the Fortnighters, Michael Jay, the Kings and Susan Crump in the common rooms, and the domestic staff still on duty in the kitchens and dealing with refreshments. There was no reason for anyone to be in the entrance hall, except the group going down to the pub, and a little behind them, Geoff Boothby. And, presumably, Andrew Medlicott, going home after contracting out from the common room party after the films.
Pollard suddenly stopped in his tracks. Had Andrew Medlicott gone home? If so, he had come out again, either to the school or to Uncharted Seas…
‘Is there anything you’d like to have another look at?’ Marcia Makepeace asked, who, like Toye, had also stopped.
‘No, thanks,’ Pollard replied, ‘I was just recapping.’
‘It’s quite a pleasant entrance hall, isn’t it?’ she said, as they came into it again. ‘I always wish they hadn’t enclosed that bit of it, though.’ She drew his attention to the area on the east of the front door, which had been walled off, and provided with a door with upper panels of glass leading into the east corridor. ‘It makes the rest look a bit lopsided.’
‘Why did they do it?’ Pollard asked.
‘Because of the need for more small rooms. Hotel ground floor rooms are so big as a rule. It’s the bursar’s office now. There used to be a bar there, I believe.’
With the conviction of being on the brink of something of major importance, Pollard followed her to the next door, and into the library. He gave a quick glance round, and exchanged another with Toye. After admiring the well-stocked shelves and ample table space, he strolled over to the window, and looked down on the space where the three staff cars had been parked.
The members of the Discovery Fortnight had used the library, but no other part of the east wing, beyond one classroom which had been Michael Jay’s office, and a small laboratory used by Paul King for film processing and editing. The two wings were identical, the projection on the north side of the east wing housing laboratories and a studio on the ground floor, and bathrooms above, with a similar linking staircase.
Marcia Makepeace opened a door on to the level concreted area at the rear of the building, and pointed out the games field to the east. On the far side of the concrete the headland rose precipitously to the level of Uncharted Seas. Pollard glanced upwards. At this time, only a week ago, he thought, I’d never heard of the damned place…
‘Thank you so much for taking us round, Mrs Makepeace,’ he said, as they retraced their steps along the corridor to the front door. ‘I suppose,’ he went on, ‘we couldn’t possibly stay in the library for a spell, and get down to some paperwork? It’s pretty cramped quarters in Constable Pike’s place.’
‘Why, of course,’ she said. ‘I’ll just tell the caretakers that you’re here. When you go, just slam the front door. We keep it on the catch during the day. Would you like some elevenses?’
‘No thanks very much,’ he said. ‘We’ve had huge breakfasts at my aunt’s. I expect you know her — Miss Isabel Dennis.’
‘Indeed I do,’ Marcia replied warmly. ‘She’s a splendid person. I’ll never forget how kind she was to me when I first came.’
Ten minutes later she drove off, with a final wave of her hand to Pollard and Toye on the steps. They turned, and went into the hall.
‘The key’s on the outside of the door,’ Pollard said, as they reached the bursar’s office.
The next moment they were inside. It was meticulously orderly, with the unopened morning’s post on the blotting pad of the kneehole desk.
‘This is the hatch they shoved the drinks through to the people in the room that’s now the library, I take it?’ Toye asked.
Pollard pushed gently. A crack opened, giving a view of the window seat in the library.
‘Quite right,’ he said. ‘And it was from here, I think, that Medlicott, for some unknown reason, snooped on Boothby. Instead of going home after the films he seems to have lurked in here. And with any luck, he saw Boothby shifting the cars. My God, here he comes — we’ll have to play it by ear.’
The front door closed, and a quick, rather light step crossed the hall. There was a moment’s delay as the new arrival tried to turn the key of the unlocked door of the office. Then he opened the door, and stood on the threshold, a man of medium height, greying, and with anxiety lines about his eyes. He crumpled soundlessly into a surprisingly small heap on the floor.
11.
Presented with a universal blank.
Paradise Lost, Book Three
‘Try a nip,’ Pollard suggested, proffering brandy in the library. ‘I stand to be reduced to the ranks for startling a respectable citizen like this,’ he went on in a cheerful conversational tone, watching the colour creep back into Andrew Medlicott’s face. ‘Mrs Makepeace offered us houseroom in here for an hour or two, and it suddenly struck us that your office window overlooks something we’re interested in — where some of the Horner staff parked their cars.’
‘Sorry I was such a damn fool,’ Andrew Medlicott muttered self-consciously. ‘I, er, haven’t been too fit lately.’
‘Bad luck. Could you bear it if we did a bit of thinking aloud? It’s just remotely possible that you could help us.’
‘I’m perfectly all right now, thanks.’
‘I expect you saw something of the Horner staff during the Fortnight?’ Pollard asked. ‘Did you register young Boothby?’
‘Oh, yes. I met him socially up at Mr Horner’s at the beginning, and saw him around the place once or twice afterwards.’
‘He’s made a statement which we haven’t been ab
le to get fully confirmed up to now. Part of it is that he left here after the film show on the night of Wendy Shaw’s murder, but was held up a bit because he couldn’t get his car out. Another car had been badly parked outside this window, and it was blocking him. Inspector Toye and I were over at Crowncliff yesterday, where they’re running another Discovery Fortnight, and somebody — Mrs King, I think — happened to mention that you were at the final film show. We were wondering just now if by any chance you went to your office afterwards, and happened to see Boothby shunting about?’
He met Andrew Medlicott’s worried eyes, and smiled encouragingly.
‘I did go into my office, as a matter of fact. Mrs King had asked me to join a gathering in the common rooms, but I’m not a sociable type, I’m afraid, and managed to get out of it… Yes, Boothby’s car was making such a row that I looked out of the window. He tried backing, but couldn’t make it. Then he got out, and went to the car that was blocking him. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but he must have managed to get the brake off, and shift it. I suppose the owner hadn’t locked it. It’s staggering how careless people are.’
‘Absolutely staggering,’ Pollard agreed. ‘It makes endless work for the police. How long would you say Boothby was held up over all this?’
‘I’d find it very difficult to say exactly.’ Andrew Medlicott became tense at being pinned down. ‘You see, I’ve no idea how long he’d been trying to get clear before I noticed him. But I do remember looking at my watch after he’d managed it and driven off, and it was just turned ten o’clock.’
There was a momentary pause.
‘You’ve helped us more than you can know at the moment,’ Pollard said. ‘Are we allowed to smoke in here, by the way?’ he added, taking out his cigarette case.
‘The Governors do… I keep some ashtrays in my office. Shall I —’
‘Inspector Toye can put his hand on them, I expect.’
Under cover of small talk he cast around for his next opening until Toye returned.
‘I suppose it’s too much to hope that you stayed on in your office for a bit?’ he hazarded.
‘I did, actually,’ Andrew Medlicott replied with noticeable unwillingness.
‘Obviously you’re observant. Could you cast your mind back and tell us anything, however trivial it seems, that you noticed going on inside or outside while you were still there? There’s no hurry — take your time.’
To his surprise Andrew Medlicott seemed to find it easier to embark on a continuous statement than to answer a series of questions. It appeared that a good deal of noise was coming from the direction of the common rooms. After a bit people had come away from the west wing, and gone upstairs. Just before half-past ten Mrs Makepeace and Mr Jay had come along, and stood talking at the foot of the stairs. Then they’d said goodnight, and she had gone upstairs too.
Pollard raised a quizzical eyebrow.
‘Rather a protracted goodnight?’ he suggested.
‘I’m afraid it was. I just can’t imagine what we should do if Mrs Makepeace left. It would be a catastrophe for the school … as a matter of fact I’ve been worrying about it ever since.’
‘Still, if her personal happiness is involved… I’m sure Inspector Toye would take this view. He’s a romantic, you know.’
Toye, seated with his notebook at one of the library tables, directed a look of reproach at his superior officer, and waited with pen ostentatiously poised.
‘I suppose Mr Jay and Mrs Makepeace were too absorbed to notice the light in your office,’ Pollard pursued. ‘There are glass panels in the door, aren’t there?’
‘Damn it, I hadn’t put the light on,’ Andrew Medlicott burst out violently. ‘All right, I’ll explain. I’m sure you’re thinking it’s fishy that I kept noticing the time. You’ll think I’m round the bend, I expect. Perhaps I am.’
‘I see no symptoms of it whatever. Did you perhaps feel that people might let their hair down as it was the last night, and that you’d better keep an unobtrusive eye on things?’
‘That’s exactly what I did feel,’ Andrew Medlicott replied with quick gratitude. ‘It’s a frightful responsibility, you know, being in charge of this great barrack of a place during the holidays. The Governors just don’t begin to understand what’s involved. One cigarette end dropped in the common rooms that night, and the whole building would have gone up… I decided to lie low until everybody had gone to bed, and then do a round.’
‘They’re very lucky to have a chap with your standards of responsibility on the job. Could you carry on with telling us anything else you heard or saw? It might be really important.’
‘Well, the next thing that happened was that Boothby came back.’
‘What time was that?’
‘Twenty-five to eleven. My watch has a luminous dial, and I kept looking at it, and wishing the time would go faster, so that I could get home. Boothby sat in his car for a few minutes. Then he came in, and behaved rather oddly, I thought. He came straight in here, actually, didn’t put the light on, and sat down in the window. I — er — shifted that hatch affair you can see over there just a crack, and could see him quite clearly, as the porch light shines in. Once he gave a sort of groan, and kept looking round. Then after about ten minutes he got up and went out into the hall. I looked out through my door, and saw him going upstairs — to bed — I suppose. He —’ Andrew Medlicott broke off abruptly and stared at Pollard, horror-struck. ‘He hadn’t — hadn’t just?’
‘No,’ Pollard replied emphatically. ‘You can put that idea right out of your head. Boothby is not Wendy Shaw’s murderer.’
‘Thank God for that anyway. It would have been the end from the school’s point of view, seeing that he was based here. Think of the publicity… Well, not long after Boothby cleared off, the racket down in the common rooms stopped, and people started drifting along to the entrance hall, and going upstairs. By about ten past the party which had been to the King William had come back, and everything was quiet. I could hear Jay doing a round himself. Now he’s an awfully decent responsible chap. If he hadn’t been in charge, I should have been much more worried about the Fortnight.’
‘And then?’ Pollard prompted.
‘As soon as Jay had gone past, and down the corridor to the classroom he used as an office, and I’d heard him shut the door, I — er — took off my shoes and went around myself. You know, cigarette ends, TV plugs left in, and whatever. Everything was all right, actually. Then I pushed off home. It was a vile night, raining cats and dogs, and blowing half a gale, so any noise I made when I went out was drowned by it all.’
‘Did you meet anybody on the way home?’
‘Not a soul. Wait a bit, though. A car was coming from the Biddle Bay direction as I came out of the drive. It was just on the half-hour when I got in, as my wife would tell you. As a matter of fact I think I can hear her arriving with the car to pick me up. We’re going into Winnage. Er — I don’t want her to know what I’ve just told you. She thought I’d stayed on for the party, you see.’
‘Quite,’ Pollard replied reassuringly. ‘There’s no need to mention it.’
Daphne Medlicott, ushered into the library by Toye, impressed Pollard favourably. Sympathetic but sensible, he thought, and pleasant to look at, if not a beauty. IQ nothing out of the way, but gives you a feeling of security. Just the type for Medlicott, poor chap.
‘We liked the Horner staff so much,’ she was saying. ‘The Kings, especially, because of the birdwatching. Andrew’s got quite keen since we moved down here. They invited us to join an expedition to a marvellous colony of ravens, in a most ungetatable place beyond Starbury, and to see the Fortnight Film, too. I was furious at missing it, but I’d developed a streaming cold, and it really didn’t seem fair to go.’
‘I don’t suppose you saw or heard anything unusual on the road outside your house while you were alone that evening?’ Pollard asked.
Daphne Medlicott shook her head. ‘Nothing at all. I went to bed early,
and read until Andrew came in about half-past eleven, and remember thinking how little traffic there was.’
‘Even the Fortnight Film wouldn’t have got me out on a night like that,’ her husband commented. ‘It was one of King’s bird films which they put on first that lured me down here.’
‘This terrible business,’ Daphne said, turning to Pollard. ‘Do you think it is likely to do the school permanent harm? I shouldn’t have expected it to, myself, but my husband is very anxious about it.’
‘Have there been any withdrawals by parents?’ Pollard asked.
‘Only one, actually,’ Andrew Medlicott admitted, ‘but it’s early days yet.’
‘I don’t think you’re likely to get many more, then. People who panic and rush into action usually do it at once.’
Daphne beamed at him. ‘That’s so reassuring. How would you have felt if your daughter had been at school here?’
Pollard conjured up a mental picture of Rose in a diminutive school uniform, complete with hat and badge. ‘I’d know, alas, that you can’t guarantee freedom from violent crime anywhere these days,’ he told her.
Shortly after this the Medlicotts went off.
‘Well,’ Pollard said, subsiding on to the library window seat, ‘bang goes Medlicott, taking Boothby with him. Thanks to Aunt Is, we know very well that Stubbs must be counted out, even if we haven’t finally checked up on him yet. We’re left with Don Glover, and the soul-searing prospect of starting from scratch.’
He stared out of the window at people disporting themselves happily on the crowded beach below.
‘You handled Mr Medlicott a treat,’ Toye remarked after a pause.
‘Poor blighter! Temperamentally doomed to become a rat race casualty. Well, let’s be thankful we’ve got jobs, even if we don’t seem to be making much of them at the moment. We’d better hoist ourselves up, and call at Uncharted Seas before lunch. You know, I’ve got a hunch that Glover was heading there when Stubbs saw him pass the King William that Friday night.’
No Vacation From Murder Page 14