"… save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun," said James Hibbs in those English upper middle class tones considered suitable for readings in church which would have greatly surprised both Caleb and Joshua, son of Nun, had they heard them.
That had been how a man was known in those far off days, of course. It mattered very much whose son you were, which tribe you belonged to… One day, perhaps, she, Henrietta, would be able once again to look into a mirror without wondering who it was she saw there, but not yet… definitely not yet.
A fragment of an almost forgotten newspaper article came back to her while she was sitting quietly in the pew. Somewhere she had read once that to undermine the resistance of prisoners in a concentration camp their captors first took away every single thing the poor unfortunates could call their own—papers, watches, rings, glasses, false teeth even. It was the first step towards the deliberate destruction of personality. After that the prisoners, utterly demoralised, began to doubt their very identity. Lacking reassurance in the matter, then surely existence itself would seem pointless, resistance became more meaningless still.
"… Here endeth the First Lesson," declared James Hibbs, leaving the lectern and going back to his wife in the pew which, abolition of pew rents or not, inalienably belonged to The Hall. He still walked like a soldier.
It didn't seem possible that last Sunday Henrietta had been at college in Camford, finals the biggest landmark in her immediate future, Bill Thorpe more nebulously beyond… her mother always in the background. Only she wasn't her mother.
And the background had changed as suddenly as a theatre backdrop. The man in the photograph on the mantlepiece had come briefly alive—and mysteriously was now dead again.
Uncomforted by the Rector's blessing at the end of the service, she waited in her seat until the church emptied. That, at least, saved her from all but the most bare-faced of the curious. Mrs. Meyton insisted upon her lunching at the Rectory. Henrietta demurred.
"When, my dear child, have you had time to buy food?" Mrs. Meyton asked.
Henrietta spoke vaguely of some cheese but was overruled by an indignant Mrs. Meyton.
"Certainly not," said that lady roundly.
It wasn't the happiest of meals. Henrietta ate her way through roast beef and Yorkshire pudding without appetite, one thing uppermost in her mind.
"They don't say very much in the newspapers," she murmured. "And the Inspector didn't tell me anything. Just that he was found dead…"
This was only partly true. The Sunday newspapers not available at the Rectory had covered the death of Cyril Jenkins fairly graphically (WIDOWER DIES… GUNSHOT DEATH… BLOOD-STAINED ROOM) but neither the Meytons nor Henrietta knew this.
The Rector nodded. "I fear there is little doubt that his death is significant."
"What I want to know," demanded Henrietta almost angrily, "is if he was my father or not."
She didn't know yet if the little red bottle borne away last night by the pathologist—after a few mild, stock jokes about vampires—was going to tell her that or not.
Mr. Meyton nodded again. "Quite so."
And in an anguished whisper: "And who killed him."
"My dear," began Mrs. Meyton, "should you concern yourself with…"
"Yes," intervened the Rector firmly, "she should."
"I must know," said Henrietta firmly, a tremulous note coming into her voice in spite of all her efforts to suppress it, "whether I am misbegotten or not."
Dr. Dabbe could have told her something.
He telephoned the Berebury Police Station. "That you, Sloan? I've done a grouping."
"Yes, doctor?"
"The girl's Group O."
Sloan wrote it down. "Jenkins was AB, wasn't he?"
"That's right."
"That means, Doctor, that…"
"That he is not the girl's father," said Dr. Dabbe dogmatically. "And that's conclusive and irrespective of the mother's blood group. A man with an AB Group blood cannot have a child with O Group blood."
"Thank you, Doctor. Thank you very much. That's a great help…"
"It's an indisputable fact," said Dr. Dabbe tartly, "which is more to the point."
Inspector Sloan and Constable Crosby reached the university town of Camford just before noon on the Sunday morning and drove straight to the centre of that many tower'd Camelot. A friendly colleague directed them to Boleyn College.
"Funny person to call a ladies' college after," muttered Constable Crosby, putting the car into gear again. "Wasn't she one of Henry the Eighth's…"
"Yes," said Sloan shortly, "she was."
They found the decorous brick building on the outskirts of the town and waited while the porter set about finding the Bursar, Miss Wotherspoon. She did not keep them long. A petite bird-like figure came tripping down the corridor. Sloan explained that he had come about Henrietta Jenkins.
"Jenkins?" said Miss Wotherspoon. "Nice girl."
"Yes."
"Not a First…"
"Oh?" said Sloan, who hadn't the faintest idea what she was talking about but wasn't prepared to say so.
"Perhaps a Second but I shouldn't count on it."
"No…"
"And," Miss Wotherspoon sighed, "there'll be some young man waiting to marry her who doesn't care either way."
"There is."
Miss Wotherspoon shook her head. "No use trying to stop them," she said briskly. "Take my advice about that. They hold it against you for ever afterwards."
On that point Sloan was agreed with the Bursar, but before he could say anything further she went on.
"But I've just remembered, Henrietta Jenkins hasn't got a father."
"That's right," agreed Sloan.
"Then you must be…" began Miss Wotherspoon—and stopped.
"Who?" prompted Sloan gently. But he wasn't catching the Bursar out that way.
"No," she said. "I think you must tell me."
"The police," admitted Sloan regretfully.
"You had better come to my study."
She listened to Sloan's tale without interruption, waited until he was quite finished and then announced that she would have to take him to the Principal. He and Crosby tramped off after her and soon found themselves in a very gracious room indeed.
The Principal was an impressive woman by any standard save that of fashion. She had a calm, still authority, responsive yet unsurprised. Sloan and Crosby were invited to settle into chintz armchairs and to repeat their story.
"I see," said the Principal when he had done—and not before. Both women exhibited a rare facility for listening. If this was the result of the education of women, then Sloan— for one—was all in favour.
"You will be able to see our difficulty, too," said Sloan. "You have this girl whom we have reason to believe is being maintained here beyond such scholarships and grants as she may have been awarded."
"True," said the Bursar, "but we were given funds on the condition that she never knew the source."
"I don't think she need," replied Sloan seriously. "I can't give you any sort of undertaking because this is a criminal case but unless such facts came out in open court I see no reason myself why she should be told."
"In that case," pronounced the Principal, "I see no reason why Miss Wotherspoon should not divulge the—er—donor's name to you."
"Thank you, madam."
Miss Wotherspoon disappeared in the direction of ber study and returned waving a piece of paper.
"It wasn't a lot," she said. "Just a small cheque each term to make things more… what is the word I'm looking for?"
The word Sloan was looking for—and that very badly-— was on the paper the Bursar was holding. He retained his self-control with difficulty.
"Tolerable," decided Miss Wotherspoon brightly. "Grants and scholarships are all very well but a girl needs a bit more than that if she's going to get the most out of Camford."