Thirza observed unnecessarily, "You don't approve of the British public school."
"I don't approve of depersonalising children."
Thirza tried to draw her out. "Speaking generally, it can't be a bad system. Of course there are pockets of disaster -
the Grange is probably one of them. The fault is usually at the top – what's the head like?"
Jenny put her cup down untouched. "Caring."
Once spoken she considered it and believed it to be true. Within his personal limitations, Brannigan was caring.
Thirza pursued it. "Then -weak?"
Jenny thought, If you weren't batting on John's side our conversation would end now. As it was she considered the question for some while before answering. "It's a great deal easier to be tough and single-minded than it is to be open-minded and fair. The head before him, so I'm told, was brilliant. I think that means he was as thick as a board and doled out punishment like an army sergeant major."
She looked at Fleming to see how he had taken her defence of Brannigan.
"Strength and brutality," he pointed out, "are two different things. If you captain a ship, you give the orders and the crew obeys them. If there's unrest you look into it and act. You say Brannigan is caring. It takes a stronger quality than care alone to keep a ship on an even keel. He should have known the rot was setting in – he should have located it and stopped it. If he had, David might have been alive." He was aware himself that he had said 'might have been' rather than 'would have been'.
Jenny drank her coffee quickly. She had already overstayed the hour. Fleming went out to the car with her. "I'm glad you came. I wish you could have stayed."
"Mollie Robbins is standing in for me."
"You mean she's sitting in her room with her headphones on like a female Nero while the school burns." He opened the car door for her.
She got in and rolled down the window. "Have you ever thought what would happen to her if Brannigan ditched her?"
"No. But I'll think about it now. Frankly, I don't give a damn and neither should Brannigan – the lads should come first."
She said curtly, "You'd make a splendid headmaster."
He was surprised into laughter. She was being moody and cantankerous and he knew the reason why. He lifted her hand off the wheel and held it in both of his. "I'm sorry Thirza spoilt our meal. I'm sorry you ate hardly any of it. She's decorative, and pleasant, and kind. Ruth was fond of her and so am I. Tomorrow at the inquest she'll do all she can. Tonight we'll sleep in our separate beds." He kissed her fingers gently and replaced her hand on the wheel. It occurred to him that this would be their last meeting before the inquest, but didn't mention it. Her attitude to the school was ambivalent and that was to be expected.
Jenny drove back to the Grange in a state of growing depression. Her jealousy of Thirza was as difficult to throw off as would be an invasion of persistent leeches. He might not sleep with her tonight, but there would be other nights. Any sexual dance with Thirza would be a slow and graceful pavane followed by a cool and lengthy disrobing – not a mad sprawl of tears and anger followed by an exquisite orgasmic burst of pleasure that her body having once known couldn't forget. She kept wanting him. She wanted him now.
She went up to the treatment room where she had left Mollie and found her putting wads of blood-soaked cotton wool into the waste-bin.
"For God's sake – what happened?"
Mollie, sweating slightly, managed a smile. "Young Carson tripped and banged his nose on the edge of his bed. I coped. He's all right." She added unnecessarily, "There was a gory mess."
"So I see. Did you let him stay in the infirmary."
"No – he's back in the dormitory."
"It's as well to keep an eye on him – at least for a while. By the look of that it's recent."
"Not that recent – I just didn't get around to clearing up." Her fat cheeks broke into a sudden smile giving her face an unexpected look of genuine pleasure "Corley's home and dry."
Jenny's mood swung upwards. "When?"
"Some time this evening. Bridgewater via Birmingham He needs to swot up his geography – or perhaps he was just unlucky with his hitches. According to Hammond, Brannigan got the news through the police."
"Not through his father?"
"No… I'm just telling you what Hammond told me. According to Hammond, Corley senior is nursing a pretty big grievance. He won't communicate with the school until he gets a coherent story out of his son. There won't be any marching back of the penitent… at least not yet."
Jenny absently picked up a bottle of surgical spirit and dampened a piece of wool with it. There were blood stains on the table. "Is he all right?"
"Yes, as far as we know. The police didn't say he wasn't."
After Mollie had left the room, Jenny put a call through to Fleming. He was surprised and pleased to hear her voice again so soon.
"You're phoning to tell me you have the night off after all?"
"No. I'm phoning to tell you that Neville Corley is safely home."
"I see. I'm glad." She knew that he spoke out of a depth of feeling "I knew you would be. I couldn't let the night pass without letting you know."
"Why did he leave – do you know that now?"
"No. All I know is he's home."
And David, she thought, will never be home.
For the first time that evening her gentleness broke through the protective crust of aggression.
"John… I mind about you… very deeply."
Afraid of a silence that might grow – or an answer that might be forced and artificial – she put the phone down. He had already experienced the difficulty of contacting her, so didn't try to ring her back. He had a lot to say. Or perhaps not so much – just a word or two that mattered.
Mind. A deceptively mild word. He could think of others.
Nine
THE CORONER'S COURT was held in a room in the local police station. The police station, barely ten years old, had a reception hall that wouldn't have shamed a four-star hotel. The floor was terrazzo-tiled and decorated with potted plants. The enquiry desk, manned by the station sergeant, was of best quality teak.
Robert Breddon thought with some nostalgia of the room in the town hall where all the earlier inquests had been held. This place, the product of the affluent sixties, put him in mmd of a tarted-up pub. The floor was damn slippy too, he always felt he had to pick his way across it with extreme caution. He had been coroner now for over twenty years, but couldn't learn to like the job. An essential part of it was to view the dead bodies, and most of them turned his stomach. There were a lot of drownings along the coast and some of them had been in the sea a long time. Identification – another essential part of the job – wasn't always easy for the relatives. Road accidents were almost worse. He never ceased to be shocked by what a steering-wheel and shattered glass could do to human flesh This case, today, saddened him, as all cases involving children did The Fleming child had been almost unmarked His light had gone out with no visible brutality At the mortuary he had looked asleep As was his practice he kept away from the court until the last possible moment In a small town like Marristone Port everyone knew everyone else and it wasn't easy to draw the demarcation line between friendliness and formality He'd golfed and had drinks with some of the jury, but it would be impossible to whistle up a jury unknown to him Lessing, he believed, was sufficiently professional to act in a professional mariner, and so were the police, but he couldn't vouch for anyone else The courtroom at ten minutes to two was almost full The public tended as a rule to ignore this type of entertainment, but today's inquest was just sufficiently out of the ordinary to pull them in The major role would be played by Brannigan himself Lessing would carry him as best he could, but nerves did strange things to people The blindfold was a complicating factor Fleming's representative, apart from a brief courtesy call, was an unknown quantity, and Fleming he'd heard was out for blood Before the proceedings got under way he got Lessing to identify Fleming for him and then spoke a few words of sympathy to him Fleming inclined his head in acknowledgment He hadn't known what to expect – certainly not a room like this There were high windows from floor to ceiling overlooking a small yard The weather had suddenly become very warm and the too-bright sun was partially screened by long green curtains which cast a green glow over everyone Even the coroner's white thatch of hair looked green like a dye gone drastically wrong He sat up on a dais with his clerk at a table in front of him The jury were to his right and the witness stand to his left The green sunlight washed over all.