Adders on the Heath

'How did you get on?' Laura enquired. 'Any luck?'

'That remains to be seen, child. I think I have established a connection between the people at that house on the heath and those to whose son-foster-son, as it turns out-Mr Richardson was tutor.'

'I suppose Richardson isn't going back there when his holiday is over?-that is, if the police don't pinch him for the murders.'

'There seems no doubt that, whether he wishes it or not, his post in that particular household may be filled later on, but not by him.'

'They don't want him there any more? He was a menace?'

'He was, indeed.' She gave Laura an account of her interview with Clive's foster-mother, and added the various hints provided by the boy.

'Precocious little horror!' commented Laura. Dame Beatrice said that she felt very sorry for Clive, but that there seemed nothing which an outsider, however sympathetic, could do for him, at any rate not for a time.

'Still,' she added, 'he is an observant child, and I shall be interested to hear how Mr Richardson reacts to my description of my visit.'

This reaction was provided almost immediately. The two young men returned from their golf and soon joined the two women. They were quietly boastful about their prowess on the links, but not insufferably so.

'Well,' said Laura, when the flow of reminiscence had died down, 'while you've been playing about, Mrs Croc, has been doing her best for Tom. She's been to see Mrs X.'

'Been to see...?' asked Richardson, looking anguished.

'You heard,' said Laura sternly. 'She's been to see your last employers, and I'm bound to say, young Richardson, that you don't come out of it very well. What's all this about Potiphar's wife?'

'Oh, that,' said Richardson, blushing warmly. 'Yes, well, of course, that's exactly what it was. I mustn't bandy a woman's name, though.'

'Why not?'

'Eh? How do you mean?'

'Come, now,' said Dame Beatrice, intervening in what promised to be a useless and sterile discussion. 'We gather that you were faced with a choice.'

'I was.'

'And that you chose to impersonate Joseph.'

'I did.'

'And the harvest was anonymous letter-writing by the woman to her husband. I see all that.'

'But why did you get the sack from the school?' asked Laura.

'I'd better tell you about that,' said Richardson. 'It does sound a bit odd to be sacked twice running.' He addressed himself to Dame Beatrice. 'You see, it all began when I had a difference of opinion with the Headmaster. He wanted me to cane a boy who wasn't the culprit. We had a bit of a toss-up and I came out on my ear. I couldn't give in, because I knew perfectly well that the kid he'd fixed on hadn't done it. Unfortunately, one of the junior masters had, so, you see, my lips were sealed. One can't rat on one's fellow-slaves.'

'So you left the school under a cloud and were dismissed your post as a tutor under another but a dissimilar cloud,' said Dame Beatrice. She cackled harshly, and Laura, who liked Richardson, felt vastly relieved. 'Further explanation is unnecessary,' Dame Beatrice continued. 'You seem to make a hobby of saving small boys from being caned. However, the little that I have learned from my visits may have had some bearing on the deaths of Mr Colnbrook and Mr Bunt. How much longer are you and Denis going to stay at this hotel?'

'On and off, for days and days,' Denis quoted facetiously. 'Actually, we haven't the least idea in the world. I've no more concerts until November.'

'It depends on the police, I suppose,' said Richardson. 'Anyway, I like it here and I don't want another job (even if anybody would have me) while this business is going on.'

'Why did you not tell us that the child Clive had been in your form at school?' Dame Beatrice enquired.

'I didn't think it important. Is it?'

'Of course it is! It may prove to be the missing link in my chain of evidence.'

'Oh, Lord! I'm sorry I didn't mention it, if it helps.'

Dame Beatrice leered at him.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

FAINT GLEAMS OF UNEXPECTED LIGHT

'...and on each side were two rows of burning lights, of all sizes, the greatest as large as the highest and biggest tower in the world, and the least no larger than a small rush-light.'

The Brothers Grimm

'So the school may not be such a dead end, you think,' said Laura, with her usual shrewdness, 'and we're sure the kid was right about Mrs Potiphar. Well, where do we go from here?'

'I have suggested two moves to the Superintendent. I don't want him to arrest Mr Richardson just yet, although, unless I can divert him from his present line of enquiry, I am afraid he will do it before long. If merely Mr Colnbrook, and not also Mr Bunt, had been murdered, he would have arrested the young man by now. It is only because, so far, he cannot find the slightest connection between Mr Richardson and Mr Bunt, that he has held his hand, I feel sure.'

'I'm still bothered about that change-over of the bodies. Have you any theories about that?'

'Well, the most obvious, although not necessarily the correct one, is that somebody who knew that Mr Richardson and Mr Colnbrook had taken a dislike to one another and had quarrelled, must have attempted to prove a connection, which did not, in fact, exist, between Mr Richardson and Mr Bunt.'

'That means that somebody was hiding up on the heath near Richardson's tent and nipped in and changed the bodies while Richardson was trying to phone.'

'Yes, it does mean that, but it does not mean that my theory is the right one. Another thought might be that Mr Richardson himself moved the first body and was astounded when he saw the second one.'

'But the objection to that is obvious, apart from the fact that it would have been difficult for one person, on his own, to have taken Colnbrook's body to that enclosure. I mean to say, if Richardson moved Colnbrook's body and hid it, why should he phone the police? You'd have thought he'd play Tar Baby for all he was worth.'

'That is another hurdle which, so far, the Superintendent has not surmounted. All the same, you know, that woodland walk which the two young men took with the dog...'

'Still sticks in his gizzard? Yes, well, one can see that, I suppose. But you haven't told me what you've suggested he should do.'

'I told him that I think the Campden-Townes could well be required to answer a few more questions. I have also told him that I think a description of the couple who stayed at that London hotel might prove very interesting, and I have given him a description of Mrs Maidston.'

'So you don't believe it was the Campden-Townes who went to London?'

'They went out of the house, of course, and led the servants to believe they had gone to London.'

'Where do you think they went, then?'

'It is not possible at present to be precise, but I have an impression that it was not far from here.'

'It ought to be easy enough for him to check up on them then. They'd have had to sign the register if they slept at an hotel.'

'There was nothing to prevent them from putting down a false name, child. It would seem the obvious course.'

'But, if it was a local place, wouldn't they be known by sight there? They might run into acquaintances or friends, or be recognised by the waiter or the chambermaid.'

'Time will show. I deduce that, if they went to an hotel, they must have used a false name because their own name had to be in that hotel register in Kensington and under the required date. Of course, I may be entirely wrong about them, but the Superintendent is most co-operative and certainly does not dismiss my ideas as so much moonshine, so he has consented to see them again. He is also going to talk to Mrs Maidston.'