Adders on the Heath

'I admit the possibility, Superintendent,' replied Dame Beatrice blandly. 'Schoolmasters do confiscate the dangerous, illegal or irritating property of boys. You would have to prove, however, that Mr Richardson knew that Clive had possession of these lethal substances. Besides, there is the evidence supplied by the boy himself.'

'A first-rate little liar I should class him as,' commented the Superintendent sourly. 'Anyway, ma'am, if I might involve you a little deeper in the affair, I'd like to suggest that you undertake another enquiry at the school. You are known to the Headmaster and would find him less difficult of approach, perhaps, than I should. Prompted by you, a question or two from him to the other boys who were in Clive's form at the time should establish whether Mr Richardson could have known that Clive had the poisons in his possession.'

'You regard me as impartial in this affair, Superintendent?'

'No, ma'am. I know you're all out to put Mr Richardson in the clear, but I also know that you won't tamper with the truth.'

'Hear, hear!' said Laura unnecessarily. Dame Beatrice nodded.

'Very well,' she said. 'The Scylla shall be my wash-pot and upon the Headmaster will I cast out my shoe. What is more, I will pay another visit to the Maidstons and will find out, if possible, whether Clive did take samples from the poisons cupboard in the chemistry laboratory and, if he did, what happened to them. I intend to promise the child diplomatic immunity if he betrays guilty knowledge of the exploit.'

The Superintendent looked a little doubtful.

'I don't want to put wind up the little so-and-so,' he said, 'but, of course, do as you like, ma'am. It all comes under the same heading, I suppose.'

'That angels can rush in where-er-the police fear to tread,' said Laura. 'May I come with you on these expeditions, Mrs Croc, dear? Only to be in the car, not to be present at the interviews.'

'Your presence will be a solace in the case of disappointment, an inspiration if I meet with success,' Dame Beatrice replied.

The Superintendent unlocked the door and bowed the ladies out.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

WAR ON FOUR FRONTS

'"Poison, poison!" she murmured, and threw the food in handfuls to the foxes, who were snuffing on the heath.'

Rosa Mulholland

The most logical sequence, Dame Beatrice decided, would be to visit the school first, then tackle the Maidstons; after that she could interview a selection of the club members and (an addition to the list and one which she had not mentioned to the Superintendent because she had not thought of it at the time) Richardson himself.

The Headmaster received her a little coolly and listened, with a worried pucker between his brows, while she outlined her case. When she had finished, he pulled open a drawer in his desk and took out a thick and handsomely bound tablet.

'My record book,' he explained. 'I find it very useful for references of this kind. Maidston? Maidston? Here we are. See under Topley. Yes, yes, I remember. A foster-child, although hardly one of silence or slow time.' He glanced up at Dame Beatrice to make sure that she appreciated the delicate jest.

'Hardly a Grecian urn, either,' she remarked. The Headmaster smiled, pleased to note that his witticism had not gone astray.

'No, no. Rather an ugly boy, I always thought,' he agreed. 'Nothing very classical about him. His Latin was deplorable. Now then. Came to us September '60, removed at end-no, he didn't even complete the term, and, as the required notice of removal was not given, no fees were repayable-removed May '62. Letters home mostly discontented in tone but not sufficiently so to be censored by masters on duty at letter-writing periods.' He looked up again. 'We try to be liberal-minded where the boys' personal correspondence is concerned. Well, now, you suspect that this boy abstracted a small but lethal quantity of matter from the poisons cupboard in the chemistry laboratory. May I ask you to particularise?'

'You are asking, I think, for evidence of a kind which I do not possess.'

'Then on what are your suspicions based?'

'On a number of inter-related facts which, I hasten to add, do not, of themselves, involve the boy. If I can show that he did abstract the poisons, it might help the police and it might (or might not) help Mr Richardson, who, at the moment, is under a considerable cloud. I firmly believe him to be an innocent man and I am anxious to lift this cloud of suspicion under which he lies.'

She gave the Headmaster a résumé of the case against Richardson. He let her finish without interruption. Then he said,

'I am a firm believer in justice and, although I was a little angry with Mr Richardson before he left here, I most certainly do not envisage him as a poisoner. I will do as you ask, provided that I myself do the questioning. If I do it inadequately, in your view, you will oblige me by jotting a note and not by voicing your opinion in front of the boys.'

'Very well. It is good of you to be so co-operative.'

The Headmaster nodded, got up and walked to the big time-table which occupied half of one entire wall of his study. He consulted it, then held the door open for Dame Beatrice, followed her out, adjusted the card, which had been marked Engaged, to the position in which it read Out, and led the way to a classroom. Fifteen boys stood up. The Headmaster waved them to their seats and turned to the master-in-charge.

'Excuse my interruption of your lesson, Mr Sprott,' he said. 'I wonder whether you will leave the boys to me for ten minutes or so? I will send to the Staff Common Room for you when I have finished with them.'

'Thank you, Headmaster,' said young Mr Sprott, going gaily off to the staff-room for an unexpected cigarette.

'Spence, a chair for Dame Beatrice. Where are your manners, boy?' said the Headmaster to a blameless child at the end of the front row. 'That's better. Now, boys (including Radcliffe, who seems chary of according me his undivided attention), I want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth...'

'So help me God,' added the form funny-man, sotto voce.

'...and it will be the worse for any boy who chooses to conceal from me anything he may know or suspect. Now!' One or two boys, conscious, no doubt, of recent sin, turned pale, and on the whole classroom there descended that breathless hush which is more often associated with major rows in schools than with school cricket matches. 'You, in this form, have all done two years of chemistry. You have all seen the outside (at any rate) of the poisons cupboard. Well?' There was respectful agreement from the form. 'Now I come to the point. Stand up, any boy who has ever noticed that the key of that cupboard has been inadvertently left in the lock.'

Not a boy moved. The Headmaster scanned in turn the fifteen faces in front of him. His gaze returned to the face of the form captain. He raised his eyebrows. The boy blushed and then slowly stood up.

'Please, sir,' he said.

'Well, Hawkins? Come along. Speak up. There is nothing to be afraid of.'

'Please, sir, I don't remember ever seeing the key left in the lock, but we-we were once shown inside the cupboard, sir.'

'Well, that's all right. Just part of Mr Joliffe's chemistry course, no doubt. And then the cupboard was locked up again. Is that it?'

'Not-not exactly, sir.'

'Oh?'

'It wasn't Mr Joliffe, sir.'

'Who, then?'

'The laboratory assistant, sir. He showed some of us the poisons. It was one wet dinner-time, sir, when we couldn't be out on the field. But he did lock up again and he didn't leave the key in the lock.'