Kitty gave a shriek. ‘I just stood on something that crunched!’ she squealed. ‘Look at it, look, there are bones.’
My heart jumped automatically with excitement and horror before I even had time to remember that anyone murdered a few hours ago would not be a skeleton yet. I turned to Kitty and saw that she was pointing at something very small and clumped-together on the ground. Lavinia bent over it and gave it an appraising stare.
‘Owl pellet,’ she said briefly. ‘They eat mice and things and then spit their skin and bones back up. It’s normal.’
Beanie and Kitty wailed in unison and clung to each other, and I steadied myself against Daisy’s arm. There is far too much countryside in England, full of hundreds of tiny horrors.
‘It’s all right, Hazel,’ said Daisy soothingly. ‘Look, did you know that those mushrooms there will kill you? Plants are glorious: there are all sorts of dreadful ways to die in the natural world.’
‘DAISY!’ I said.
‘Oh, all right, come on, Watson,’ said Daisy, rolling her eyes. ‘We’ve got to keep climbing.’
We did climb, up and up for what seemed like miles. Daisy and Lavinia were annoyingly cheerful about it, but Kitty was making faces about the dirt on her clothes and Beanie was looking more and more peaky. I had to keep holding onto trees for support, so that my palms went the odd orange colour of the lichen that is everywhere in Oakeshott Woods.
At last we came out at the top of the ridge that Beanie had described. It was hot up here, the sun striking down between the green leaves of the trees. The wood around us was rustling with a thousand living things. We turned to look behind us, and saw House below, through the trees, our familiar dorm-room windows studded into its side. I could make out the curtains blowing in the breeze, someone’s school tie hanging out to dry. Beanie could have seen people up here from where she had been standing, but not the details of their faces.
Below House were the sports pitches, and then the school itself. I turned my head the other way and saw the roads and gardens of Deepdean town.
‘I wish we were at lunch,’ I said, folding my arms and trying not to pant.
‘No you don’t – remember it’s Friday lunch,’ said Daisy. ‘It’s only fish pie. All right, Beanie, is this where you saw them?’
Beanie looked about and then nodded. ‘I remember that tree was above them,’ she said. ‘It’s got a funny dead bit there.’
‘Excellent. This is the place – and look, we’ve already proved something. There is a line of sight between here and there, so Beanie could certainly have seen what she says she saw. Now we must hunt for clues. Can we prove the second part of her story?’
Lavinia immediately crouched down and began to shuffle her hands through the dirt.
‘Hold hard!’ said Daisy. ‘We must be scientific. Look about the area. What do you see, apart from the marks of our arrival?’
‘A footprint!’ said Kitty immediately, gasping. ‘There, look. And another one! Two people’s.’
‘Indeed, Detective Freebody,’ said Daisy. ‘They are only faint impressions, but they are there. What else?’
‘These ones are facing towards school, away from Deepdean town,’ I said. ‘Look where they’re pointing. And then I think …’
‘I think I can see a struggle,’ said Daisy, nodding. ‘Look at the way this print is dug in at the toes. Anything else?’
‘There’s a man’s footprint over there that’s facing back into town,’ I said quietly. ‘Several of them. And—’
Suddenly I found it hard to breathe.
‘And they’re going back alone,’ I finished.
At last, I believed.
4
‘But where’s the body?’ breathed Kitty. ‘Oh, Lord, what if it’s still HERE!’
Beanie shrieked and clutched at her, but Daisy rolled her eyes.
‘It’s quite clearly not here any more, is it, Detective Freebody?’ she said. ‘Otherwise we would be standing on it. But look – look at that print facing back towards town. What do you notice about it?’
‘It’s deeper,’ I said, feeling a shiver go right through me.
‘Yes!’ cried Daisy. ‘Much deeper. Don’t the rest of you see? Now, what does that suggest? That when he began to walk back the way he came, he was carrying something heavy. Something like … a body.’
Kitty shrieked this time.
‘But wouldn’t we have seen it when we looked out of the window?’ asked Lavinia sceptically.
‘No,’ said Beanie. ‘No, look. These bushes, they block the view a bit – I could only see the people from the waist up, I remember that now. When she fell, he must have knelt down over her, so they were both out of sight when we all looked!’
‘And he only got up again after the bell went and we had to go to lessons!’ said Daisy. ‘It makes sense, it all makes sense.’
She looked at me, and I could almost feel her vibrating with excitement – or perhaps it was just that every bone in my own body was finally humming with detective fever.
‘Now, before we go following that step and looking for the body, we must make a closer examination of this scene. Everyone stand here, backs together, facing outwards.’
We did. I saw Kitty squeezing Beanie’s hand encouragingly, and Beanie smiling wanly back at her.
‘Now, begin to walk outwards, very slowly, in a straight line,’ ordered Daisy. ‘Look about you as you go, and as soon as you see anything that may be a clue, shout. Do not touch anything unless I tell you to – this may be crucial evidence!’
‘Are you sure we should touch it at all?’ asked Kitty. ‘Won’t the police want to see it?’
‘The police are not here,’ said Daisy grandly. ‘But … you make a good point. No touching ANYTHING without using your handkerchiefs, and you have to put it back afterwards.’
She nodded to us all, and we began.
I found myself next to two of the footprints facing towards House, indentations in the grass and soft soil. One was a large man’s shoe, and one, slightly smaller, was a woman’s, with a pointed toe and slight heel. The woman was clearly not short or petite – this print was larger than my own foot, and she had pressed down the earth more than the slender Beanie would have done.
I sketched them quickly in my casebook and made a note of their sizes. The prints looked quite fresh, the grass inside them still pressed down. No one had been up here since then apart from us, I was sure.
Then I called all this information out to Daisy, who made a pleased noise.
‘I found something!’ called Lavinia. ‘It’s a matchbox. Ooh, it’s foreign!’
‘What sort of foreign?’ asked Daisy sharply.
‘French, I think,’ said Lavinia. ‘It’s got the Arc de Trump on it.’
Kitty giggled. ‘You never do listen in French lessons, do you?’ she asked.
‘Shut up, Kitty. At least I know what the Arc de whatever is!’ said Lavinia. ‘It’s in Paris, so there.’
‘All right, Lavinia, make a note of where you found it, wrap it carefully in your handkerchief and carry on,’ said Daisy.
We kept on walking. It was hotter than ever, and my hair was coming out of its plait and hanging around my face. I wiped my forehead with my handkerchief and breathed in deeply.
‘Ooh!’ squeaked Beanie. ‘I’ve found something! Come and see, come and see – I think this is important!’
‘WALK BACK IN YOUR OWN FOOTSTEPS!’ shouted Daisy. ‘But all right, Beanie, we’re coming.’
We met back up in the middle of the ridge. Lavinia held out the matchbox in her grubby handkerchief for us to see. It was indeed printed with a little image of the Arc de Triomphe and the words CAFé BAR, and was only about half full. Then Beanie held out what she had found, and we all gasped.
I was expecting a note, but this was more than that. A rectangle of rich creamy paper with a gold edge and gold lettering.
We all looked at each other. Daisy had been right, I thought, in a fresh rush of exciteme
nt.
‘They are parents!’ said Kitty excitedly.
‘Parents or Council members,’ I said, remembering the list. ‘Guests at the Anniversary, though, Daisy – you were right!’
‘Of course I was!’ cried Daisy, but I could sense her relief. ‘Proof at last! And now our next move is clear. We have the crime scene, and we have the guest list. We know who ought to be coming as a couple. So all we need to do is match the grown-ups who do arrive at the concert tonight with the ones who ought to – and work out who’s missing. Beanie, can you think of any other distinguishing features of the man you saw? Anything that might help us this evening?’
Beanie’s forehead wrinkled. ‘The man was in … oh, just a beige mac and a soft dark hat,’ she said. ‘You know, ordinary! The woman, though, she was wearing a lovely hat. It was such bright green that I could see it properly. Oh yes, I remember!’
‘Excellent,’ said Daisy warmly. ‘The beige mac is not entirely helpful, since tonight the men will have dress coats on, but the woman’s hat is a nice clue. Now come on, we must put back this invitation and then follow the tracks to town!’
‘Have you thought, though,’ said Lavinia, ‘how horrible this is, really? After all, if we’re right, someone’s mother is dead, and she doesn’t know it yet.’
We all fell silent, and all we could hear was birdsong.
5
After that, the mood changed. I was suddenly certain that we would come upon a hastily covered corpse at any moment, and certain that I could not bear it if we did.
We stepped nervously down the hill towards Deepdean town, tracking the man’s heavy progress through the undergrowth in snapped twigs and fallen leaves.
‘There!’ cried Daisy suddenly, pointing ahead, where something was shining bright green with a slash of red against the softer green of a cluster of brambles. ‘It must be the woman’s hat Beanie saw!’
‘Oh no,’ I whispered. This was proof of the most horrid kind. Kitty and Beanie clung together, and even Lavinia looked rather pale.
‘Heavens!’ said Daisy. ‘You’re all no help.’ And she went marching up to the hat and poked at it with a stick.
My vision blurred.
‘She’s not here!’ called Daisy, with a note of regret in her voice. ‘It’s all right, you idiots, it’s just the hat. It must have fallen off her head. Oh, do look, it’s divine! Hmm, let’s see … ordinary size, some long, dark hairs caught in its band – and a milliner’s mark, MARCELLE ROZE, PARIS. Paris!’
I crouched down beside her. ‘Another clue leading back to Paris,’ I said quietly. ‘The victim was there – and perhaps the murderer too, if they were married.’
‘Wouldn’t it be lovely if it were Clementine’s family?’ asked Daisy.
‘Daisy!’ I said. ‘It’d be awful. Poor Clementine! And, thank goodness, it doesn’t fit the list. I remember only her father RSVP’d. It’s just as you said – this evening we need to look for a woman who RSVP’d that she would attend, but who never appears. What shall we do now?’
‘Keep on looking, of course!’ said Daisy. ‘And take one of those hairs. There are lots, and the police won’t need all of them.’
‘So you do want us to go to the police?’
‘Humph!’ said Daisy. ‘Absolutely not.’
‘But … look at the evidence’ I said. ‘A crime’s been committed here, Daisy. And we’re running out of time to find the body before we have to turn round and go back to House. Don’t we need to tell someone?’
‘No!’ said Daisy. ‘We’ll find it!’
But although we continued to track the prints back towards Deepdean town, we found nothing else. No clothes, no handbag, and certainly no body.
‘Bother it!’ said Daisy at last, after Beanie had fallen down into what Lavinia told us was a badger sett and burst into overexcited tears. We were almost out of the woods by then, and it was clear that we had missed something.
Lavinia kicked a tree stump.
‘Beanie, do stop crying,’ said Daisy. ‘And, Lavinia, stop trying to hurt that tree. Now, we must not be daunted. We must go back to House, tidy up as quickly as possible before the bell goes, and behave in an entirely normal fashion until we have a chance to come back and look more carefully.’
‘When?’ asked Kitty critically. ‘I’m not coming back at night, and neither is Beanie. The parents are all descending later today for the concert and then there are things all weekend – we can’t just miss the Anniversary, and if we tried we’d be stopped!’
‘I would absolutely miss the Anniversary,’ said Lavinia.
‘I don’t think we need to miss anything,’ I said, struck by an idea. ‘I know what we have to do.’
Daisy argued with me all the way back down to House, but I was certain her complaints were mostly for show. We managed to creep up the main stairs and back to our dorm without attracting the attention of Matron or the prefects, and we cleaned ourselves as best we could in our basin of water.
Our legs were still rather scratched, and our socks were absolutely ruined, but most of the mud brushed off our pinafores, and our shoes were all right as long as you didn’t look directly at them.
I took a deep breath, and then Daisy and I went back downstairs and knocked at Matron’s office door.
‘What do you want, Wells, Wong?’ she asked.
‘Hazel needs to make a very urgent telephone call,’ said Daisy.
‘You girls rely on the telephone entirely too much,’ said Matron. ‘It’s not healthy. Why can’t you write a letter?’
‘It’s an important family matter concerning this weekend,’ Daisy said, and behind her I looked as tragic as I could.
Matron sighed and narrowed her eyes and said, ‘Oh, go on, then. But only to the first pips.’
‘Yes, Matron!’ we gasped. I dialled the operator as quickly as I could and whispered the number I wanted. Daisy crowded next to me to listen in.
There was an agonizing pause, and then Inspector Priestley’s voice said, ‘Hello?’
‘It’s Hazel Wong!’ I gabbled in a whisper. ‘I can’t talk for long, but Daisy and I need your help – we think there’s been a murder in Oakeshott Woods but we can’t find the body.’
‘WHAT?’ said Inspector Priestley.
‘It happened this morning. Beanie saw it, and we went to look at the crime scene and found clues. We think the victim and the murderer are both parents coming to the Anniversary, but we can’t keep investigating in the woods because of all the Anniversary events this weekend,’ I said – and then the pips went and I slammed down the telephone, breathing as though I had just won a race.
I did not know if it would work. But, I thought, it has to.
6
We came out of the office just as the school bell went. Kitty, Beanie and Lavinia were waiting for us by House’s front door.
‘Hurry up!’ called Kitty, waving her hand. We rushed over to them, Daisy knocking into the first-form shrimp Emily Dow, who squeaked and sat down on the floor with a bump, her mouth open. There were dark circles under her eyes, and I thought she looked rather thin.
‘Oh, poor Emily!’ cried Beanie, rushing over to help her up, but before she could get there Emily jumped to her feet and ran away.
‘Never mind her,’ said Daisy as we stepped outside into the summer air. ‘Now, hurry down to school! Once you’re past Old Wing entrance, meet by the Founder’s statue so we can have a Detective Society meeting before French. Mamzelle won’t mind if we’re late.’
The sun was on our hats and the sound of other girls’ laughter and footsteps was all around us. It was hard not to feel excited, buoyed up by being on a case. And it was the most brilliant fun to dodge through the Deepdean corridors on our way to a secret Detective Society meeting once again.
We all gathered around the Founder’s statue, and I took out my casebook.
‘Present: Daisy Wells, Hazel Wong, Kitty Freebody, Rebecca Martineau and Lavinia Temple,’ I whispered. ‘The case is—’
‘The Case of the Disappearing Body!’ said Daisy. ‘No, wait, the Mysterious Murder in Oakeshott Woods! So, we may not have a body, but we have enough evidence to prove that the crime really did take place. A man – most likely the father of a Deepdean girl – strangled a woman in Oakeshott Woods this morning, and then he carried her body away, back to Deepdean town. We found a hat and a matchbox, both from Paris, proving that the victim – and possibly the killer as well – has been there.’
‘And recently!’ said Kitty. ‘That hat is this season, I’m sure of it.’
‘Very good, Detective Freebody. And the fact that it was abandoned in the woods – why, a woman would have to be dead to leave a hat from a Paris atelier behind! Now, at Vice-President Wong’s suggestion, we have contacted the police in the person of Inspector Priestley. But we cannot rely entirely on his help. So our next steps must be to use the list. The first event of the Anniversary weekend is tonight, of course – the concert. Our theory – made stronger by the discovery of that invitation in the woods – is that our killer is a man coming to the Anniversary who ought to arrive as part of a couple, but instead will arrive alone. Now, how many couples on the list, Hazel?’
‘Thirty-eight sets of parents,’ I said. ‘And of the ten Council members, there are two married couples. Forty couples in total!’
‘Forty men! Well, that divides nicely,’ said Daisy, pleased. ‘Five of us, eight potential suspects each.’
‘What do you mean, eight each?’ asked Lavinia suspiciously. ‘You don’t want us to tail eight people at once?’
‘Of course not!’ said Daisy. ‘This evening I want each of us to take note of eight men each – watch them as they come in, and then cross them off our suspect list as soon as we see that they’re here innocently with their wives. Hazel, you’re in charge of writing out smaller lists for each of us this afternoon. Put down the grown-ups’ names, and then the names of their daughters, so we know who they are. Once we have our lists, we must learn them thoroughly so as to be ready for this evening. I want each of us to arrive at the concert ready to sniff out even a hint of suspicious activity – suspicious activity being, in this case, any missing female guests.’
8 Top Marks for Murder Page 4