Innocent Graves

by Peter Robinson

  They walked along the narrow corridor, noting the gilt-framed paintings of past heads on the walls. Most of them were men. When they reached the door marked “Dr. J.S. Green: Principal,” Banks knocked sharply.

  Expecting to be asked into an anteroom and vetted by a secretary first, Banks was surprised when he and Susan found themselves in the head’s office. Like the rest of the building, it had a high ceiling with elaborate cornices, but there its ancient character ended.

  The wainscoting, if there had been any, had been removed and the walls were papered in an attractive Laura Ashley print. A shaded electric light hung from the old chandelier fixture, and several gunmetal filing cabinets stood against the wall. The bay window dominated the room, its window seat scattered with cushions that matched the wallpaper. The view through the trees to the river, Banks noticed, was magnificent, even on a drizzly November morning. Across the river was St. Mary’s Park, with its pond, trees, benches and children’s playground.

  “What do you think?” Dr. Green asked, after they had introduced themselves and shaken hands.

  “Pardon?” said Banks.

  She took their raincoats and hung them on a rack in the corner. “I couldn’t help but notice that you were ‘casing the joint’ as they say,” she said.

  “Hardly,” said Banks. “That’s what the bad guys do.”

  She blushed slightly. “Oh, dear. My gaffe. I suppose criminal parlance is not my forte.”

  Banks smiled. “Just as well. Anyway, it’s very nice.”

  The tall, elegant Dr. Julia Green looked every bit as Laura Ashley as her walls. The skirt and waistcoat she wore over her white blouse were made of heavy cloth; earth colors dominated, browns and greens, mixed with the odd flash of muted pink or yellow, like wildflowers poking their way through the undergrowth.

  Her ash-blonde hair lay neatly piled and curled on her head, with only one or two loose strands. She had a narrow face, high cheekbones and a small nose. There was also a remote, unattainable quality about her that intrigued Banks. She might be one of the pale and distant beauties, but there was no mistaking the sharp glint of intelligence in her apple-green eyes. Right now, they also looked red from crying.

  “This is a terrible business,” she said. “Though I suppose you have to deal with it all the time.”

  “Not often,” said Banks. “And you never get used to it.”

  “Please, sit down.”

  Banks and Susan sat in the two chairs opposite the small, solid desk. Susan took her notebook out.

  “I don’t know how I can help you,” Dr. Green went on, “but I’ll do my best.”

  “Maybe you could start by telling us what kind of a girl Deborah was.”

  She rested her hands on the desk, tapered fingers laced together. “I can’t tell you very much,” she said. “Deborah is…was…a day-girl. Do you know how the system works?”

  “I don’t know much about public schools at all.”

  “Independent school,” she corrected him. “Public school sounds so Victorian, don’t you think? Well, you see, we have a mix of day-girls and boarders. The actual balance changes slightly from year to year, but at the moment, we have 65 day-pupils and 286 boarding. When I say that Deborah was a day-girl I don’t describe her status in any way, just note the simple fact that she came and went each day, so one didn’t develop any special relationship with her.”

  “Relationship?”

  “Yes. Well, when you live in such close proximity to the pupils, you’re bound to get to know more about them, aren’t you?”

  “In what way?”

  “In any number of ways. Whether it be the crisis of Elizabeth ’s first period, Meredith’s parents’ divorce or Barbara’s estrangement from her mother. These things can’t help but come out from time to time with the boarding pupils.”

  “So you’d soon find out who’s a troublemaker, for example?”

  “Yes. Not that we have any troublemakers. Nothing serious, anyway. We did catch one girl smoking marijuana in the dorm last year, and some years ago one of our upper-sixth girls got pregnant. But these are extremes, you understand, quite rare.”

  “Have you ever had any inkling of widespread problems here?”

  “Such as what?”

  “Drugs, perhaps, or pornography.”

  “Chief Inspector, this isn’t a comprehensive, you know.”

  “Perhaps not. But girls will be girls.”

  “I don’t know what you mean by that, but to answer your question, no, there’s been nothing of that nature at St. Mary’s.”

  “Do you live on the school grounds?”

  Dr. Green nodded. “There’s a small block of flats for members of staff-for some of us, anyway-and I live there.”

  “Alone?”

  “Yes. Alone.”

  “So what can you tell me about Deborah Harrison?”

  Dr. Green shrugged. “Just superficial things, really. She was a bright girl. Very intelligent. I don’t think there’s much doubt she would have ended up at Oxford or Cambridge, had she lived.”

  “Where did her strengths lie?”

  “She was something of an all-rounder, but she excelled in the sciences-maths and physics, in particular. She was also good at modern languages. She had just entered the lower sixth this year. The school offers twenty-three subjects at A-level. Deborah was taking four: mathematics, French, German and physics.”

  “What about her personality?”

  Dr. Green leaned back and put her hands on the arms of her chair. “Again, I can only be fairly superficial.”

  “That’s all right.”

  “She always seemed cheerful and lively. You know, some girls can get very moody and withdrawn in the lower sixth-they go through a very difficult period in their lives-but Deborah seemed to be outgoing. She was an outstanding athlete. Swimming, tennis, running, field events. She was a good equestrian, too.”

  “I understand she belonged to the chess club?”

  “Yes. She was a fine player. A superb strategist.”

  “You sound as if you play, yourself.”

  She smiled. “Moderately well.”

  “I’d appreciate it if you could provide me with a list of the other members.”

  “Of course.” Dr. Green searched through one of the filing cabinets and handed Banks a sheet of paper with ten names on it. Then she paused, scratched her cheek, and said, “I must admit, Chief Inspector, the questions you’re asking surprise me.”

  “They do? Why?”

  “Well, I know nothing of police work, of course, but I fail to understand why you should require my impressions of Deborah in order to apprehend the criminal who attacked and murdered her.”

  “What kind of questions do you think I should be asking?”

  She frowned. “I don’t know. About strangers in the area, that sort of thing.”

  “Have you noticed any suspicious strangers hanging around the area lately?”

  “No.”

  Banks blew his nose. “Sorry. Well, that covers that one, doesn’t it? Now, what about Deborah’s faults?”

  “Faults?”

  “Yes, was she mischievous, disobedient, dishonest, willful?”

  “No more than any other child of her age. Less than most, actually.” She thought for a moment. “No, I’d say if Deborah did have a fault it was that she tended to show off her abilities to some extent. She could sometimes make the other girls feel small, or awkward and clumsy. She had a tendency to belittle people.”

  “Was she boastful?”

  “Not at all. No, that’s not what I mean. She never boasted about her abilities, she just used them to the full. She wasn’t the kind to hide her light under a bushel. Half the time it was as if she didn’t even realize she was so much brighter and more fortunate than many. She liked the way her quickness with figures impressed people, for example, so she would add up or multiply things in her head quicker than some of the other girls could do it with a calculator.”

  “
That’s one good way to make enemies.” Banks remembered his own school math reports: Could do better than this; Harder work needed; Watch that arithmetic!

  “It was hardly serious,” Dr. Green went on, shrugging. “Simply a matter of girlish exuberance, a young woman taking full joy in her talents.” Her eyes sparkled for a moment. “Have you forgotten what it was like to be young, to be popular, gifted?”

  “I don’t know that I was ever gifted or popular,” Banks said, with a sidelong glance at Susan, who was smiling down into her notebook. “But I do remember what it was like to be young. I thought I would live forever.”

  After the awkward silence that followed, Banks asked, “Was Deborah popular with the other girls?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She sounds like a right little madam to me, a proper pain in the neck. I was wondering how she got on with her classmates?”

  “Really, Chief Inspector,” Dr. Green said through tight lips. “These were very minor faults I’m talking about. Mostly, Deborah was friendly, cheerful and helpful.”

  “Was there any friend in particular?”

  “Yes. Megan Preece. Her name’s on the list I gave you.”

  “I understand from Daniel Charters,” Banks went on, “that there was some trouble with Ive Jelačić, the sexton.”

  “Yes.” Julia Green rubbed her cheek. “He’d been bothering the girls. Saying things, making lewd gestures, that sort of thing.”

  “Had Deborah, in particular, complained about him?”

  “I believe she had.”

  “Did she continue going to the church after Mr. Jelačić made his accusations against Daniel Charters? It was my impression that her father seemed more upset about what Charters had been accused of, rather than what Jelačić did.”

  Julia Green paused for a moment, then said, “Yes, yes he was. I don’t understand it myself. The school stands one hundred per cent behind Father Charters, but Sir Geoffrey forbade Deborah from singing with the choir or attending any services.”

  “Why do you think he did that?”

  “I don’t know. Some people are just…well, very funny about any hint of homosexuality in the ministry.”

  “Did Deborah obey him?”

  “As far as I know she did. I never saw her there, anyway.”

  “Did Deborah keep any of her belongings here at school?”

  “All the girls have desks.”

  “No lockers or anything?”

  She shook her head. “Not the day-girls. They bring what they need from day to day, mostly.”

  “Might we have a look?”

  “Of course. We’ve canceled classes for the day, so the room should be empty.”

  She led them through a maze of high corridors to a small room. It wasn’t like any classroom Banks had ever seen before, with its well-polished woodwork and nicely spaced desks.

  “This one,” said Dr. Green, pointing to a desk.

  Banks lifted the hinged flap. He hadn’t expected much-school desks are hardly the most private of places-but he was disappointed by how little there was: a couple of school exercise books, a computer magazine, textbooks, pens and pencils. There was also a tattered paperback Jeffrey Archer. Deborah’s intelligence obviously hadn’t stretched as far as her literary taste.

  Under the flap, Deborah had taped a photograph of a scruffy pop star Banks didn’t recognize.

  Dr. Green saw it and said, with a smile, “We discourage such things, but what can you do?”

  Banks nodded. Then he examined the desk surface to see if Deborah had carved any initials, the way he had at school. Again, nothing. Strongly discouraged, no doubt.

  “Thanks,” he said to Dr. Green. “Can we have a word with Megan Preece now? Is she here?”

  Dr. Green nodded. After stopping back at her office for their raincoats and her umbrella, she led them outside.

  “Where are we going?” Banks asked.

  “The school infirmary. That’s where Megan is. I’m afraid she had rather a nasty turn when I broke the news in assembly this morning.”

  II

  The brick shattered the vicarage window at nine-thirty that morning, waking Rebecca from the uneasy doze she had slipped into after taking three aspirin and a glass of water.

  At first she lay there terrified, fearing that someone had broken in. Then, slowly, so as not to make the bedsprings creak, she sat up, ears pricked for any sounds. But nothing came.

  She put on her dressing-gown and looked out of the bedroom window. Nothing but the drizzle on the trees and graves, and policemen in capes searching the grounds. She tiptoed downstairs, and when she got to the front room she saw the damage.

  Shards of glass lay all over the floor, and some had even got as far as the sofa and coffee-table. The brick had clearly been thrown from the river path, beyond the small garden, an area that was unguarded because it didn’t provide access to the graveyard.

  The brick had bounced off the coffee-table and ended up in the far corner by the sideboard. It had a piece of paper wrapped around it, fixed by a rubber band. Slowly, Rebecca bent, picked up the brick and unfolded the paper:

  Once you let the devil into your heart he will corrupt every cell in your body and this is what has happened it is clear. You must confess your sins. It is the only way. Or else we must take things into our own hands.

  Someone knocked at the back door. Crumpling the note in her pocket, Rebecca gathered her dressing-gown around her and went to see who it was.

  “Is everything all right, ma’am?” asked one of the uniformed constables who had been searching the graveyard. “I thought I heard breaking glass.”

  “You did,” Rebecca said. “But everything’s fine. Just a little domestic accident.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.” Rebecca started closing the door on him. “Thank you, everything’s fine.” When she had shut the door she leaned her back against it and listened. In a few seconds, she heard his footsteps going along the path.

  She took out a dustpan and broom and busied herself sweeping up the glass, wondering what she could use to cover the broken window before she caught a chill and died. Maybe that would be best for everyone, she thought. It would be very fitting, too. Hadn’t Emily Brontë died after catching a chill at her brother’s funeral? But no. She wasn’t going to give the miserable, mean-spirited bastards the satisfaction.

  Just as she was trying to tape up a piece of cardboard over the window, the phone rang.

  “Can you talk?” the familiar voice asked.

  “Patrick. Yes. Yes, I can.”

  “We’ve been given the day off, pupils and staff. That terrible business with the girl. It must have been especially awful for you. How are you bearing up?”

  “Oh, not bad, I suppose.”

  “Is Daniel…?”

  “He’s out. Meeting in York. Said he couldn’t get out of it.”

  “Could we see one another? I could come over.”

  “I don’t know,” Rebecca said, feeling herself flush with desire like a silly schoolgirl as she spoke. “No, I don’t think we should. Not the way things are around here.”

  “But I want you.”

  Rebecca put her hand over the mouthpiece and took a deep breath.

  “Don’t you want me?” he went on.

  “Of course I want you, Patrick. You know I do. It’s just…there’s police all over the place.”

  “We could go for a drive.”

  Rebecca paused and looked around her. She couldn’t stay here, not with this mess, not after the threatening note; she would go insane. And she couldn’t deal with the police, either. On the other hand, the very thought of Patrick made her tingle. God, how she hated herself, hated the way her body could so easily betray her morality and her good intentions, how her defective conscience found ways of rationalizing it all.

  “All right,” she said. “But you mustn’t come here. I mean it about the police. We shouldn’t be seen together.”

  “I’
ll pick you up at the-”

  “No. Let’s meet at the hotel.” She looked at her watch. “There’s a bus at ten-fifteen.”

  “All right. I’ll be waiting for you.”

  III

  “These are the dormitories for the boarding pupils,” Dr. Green pointed out as they walked through the school grounds. The two large buildings ahead were of far more recent construction than the main school building, redbrick for the most part, with some stone at their bases, functional rather than aesthetically pleasing. “As I said earlier, we have 286 boarders. They have showers, central heating, all the comforts the modern child requires. You’ll also notice we have installed a number of lamps along all the major pathways. They’re kept on until ten o’clock every night, by which time all the girls are expected to be in bed. This isn’t Lowood or Dotheboys, you realize. Parents spend a lot of money to send their children here.”

  “Television?”

  She smiled. “Yes, that too.”

  “What’s that building over there?” Banks pointed through the trees to a three-storey rectangular building that seemed to be made of some sort of prefabricated concrete the color of porridge.

  “That’s the staff residence, I’m afraid,” said Dr. Green. “Ugly isn’t it? Actually, it’s quite nice inside. The flats are quite spacious: living-room, bedroom, storage heaters. Luxury.”

  “Who lives there, apart from you?”

  “At the moment, six of the flats are occupied. It all depends. We have thirty members of staff, a very good ratio, and some of our teachers live in or near town. The flats are essentially for single members of staff who have recently moved into the area, or, as in my case, single teachers who want to maintain close contact with the school.” She tilted her umbrella and gave Banks a challenging glance from under the rim. “You asked me rather impertinently not so long ago whether I lived alone. The school is my life, Chief Inspector. I have neither the inclination nor the time for anyone or anything else.”

  Banks nodded. Then he sneezed. Susan blessed him.