‘Yes?’
‘This Biancini certainly has no idea that it may be Carrie and not Norah who is dead.’
‘You mean he had no idea,’ said Dame Beatrice. Laura stared at her.
‘Could be,’ she said. ‘Oh, Lord! Talk about “the hounds of spring upon winter’s traces!” ’
‘Talk, rather, of “fills the shadows and windy places with lisp of leaves and rustle of rain.” That is what you may have contrived to do.’
‘It can’t be as bad as that!’
‘Why not?’
‘This Biancini isn’t capable of it, you know.’
‘Your meaning, obscure though it may seem, is not without interest.’
‘Well, honestly, now I’ve seen him I’m inclined to think it’s a case of Pass, Biancini, and all’s well.’
‘We are agreed.’
‘Really?’
‘I think so, child. I never did suspect poor Biancini of being anything but what he is.’
‘The child of God,’ said Laura, inconsequently, ‘and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. I suppose,’ she added, ‘that the address of that school is the right one?’
‘You can but go and find out.’
Laura studied her employer.
‘I thought you thought I shouldn’t interfere any more.’
‘Heaven forbid that I should stand between you and your desires.’
‘Hunches, not desires.’
‘Have you ever heard of Don Quixote?’
‘Ad nauseam. He tilted at windmills.’
‘That is what I mean. You will do no good by enquiring for Miss Palliser at that dreadful little school, but any harm you may do has probably been done already. What you propose cannot help us, but it will satisfy your curiosity without further prejudice to the enquiry.’
‘I don’t like you in this mood,’ said Laura. Next day she went to London and stayed the night in Dame Beatrice’s Kensington house. On the following morning she caught the fast train to Ipswich, had lunch and then hired a car and set out for the school. As she had expected, it was indeed a small one, but it was housed in a beautiful Georgian mansion with a fine, simply-designed doorway and the broad windows of the period. Laura studied the house appreciatively and then rang the bell. A girl in a dark-blue overall answered it.
‘Miss Palliser?’ she said. ‘I don’t think there’s anybody here of that name. Would you care to step inside?’
Laura stepped into a squarish hall from which rooms opened on either side. She was not kept waiting long. A tall, thin woman swam towards her.
‘You have a child?’ she asked.
‘Actually, yes,’ Laura replied. ‘But he is of masculine gender and tender years.’
‘But of course! We have special teachers for the nursery age.’
‘It was about a former member of staff that I came to enquire—a Miss Palliser.’
‘Palliser?’
‘Carrie—I’m sorry that I don’t know the full name— Carrie Palliser.’
‘Really?’
‘I’m afraid it’s rather important,’ said Laura. ‘The police…’
‘I am not in the least surprised. However, you can hardly expect me to jeopardise the good name of my school. I fear that I must decline to assist you, Mrs…’
‘Gavin. I may add that my husband is a Detective Chief-Inspector at Scotland Yard and that what we are investigating is a case of murder.’
‘I cannot help you.’
‘But Miss Palliser did teach here?’
‘Certainly, but that is hardly the point now.’
‘Why not?’ asked Laura. ‘The point is that somebody has done away with Miss Palliser. Surely you are interested in that fact?’
‘Why should I be? Miss Palliser was thoroughly unsatisfactory in every way. Her teaching was slovenly and incompetent and her character was undesirable. Do you wish me to say more?’
‘Lots more,’ said Laura crisply. ‘You seem just the person to be able to tell me why she should have got herself murdered.’
‘Murdered? But…’
‘Oh, yes, I know it looked like the younger sister, and that the mother identified the body as such, but there seems no doubt now that it was Miss Palliser and not Mrs Coles who was killed.’
‘But—we had better go in here, Mrs Gavin. This news comes as a great shock. You see — ” She opened a door on her right and led the way into a large, high-ceilinged room panelled in white. ‘You see, Miss Palliser left here under a cloud.’
‘Stealing?’
‘Please sit down. Embezzlement, I suppose one would term it. Money collected for a school journey, you know. I had to make it good, and there isn’t much margin when one runs a school of this type. I had to dismiss her. I could not keep her on.’
‘But you didn’t go to the police?’
‘For the sake of the school. I cared nothing about Miss Palliser. In fact, she had caused me so much worry and expense that I own I felt vengeful. But it would not have done to take her to court on such a charge—the parents, you know. There would be a lack of confidence in me if they thought my staff capable of stealing money paid in by the children. Of course, I could not give her a testimonial which would have helped her to secure another teaching post and she left here threatening suicide. It was quite dreadful. And now you say that she is dead.’
‘Murdered.’
‘But who would have wanted to do such a terrible thing?’
‘That is what we hope to find out.’
‘We?’
‘Yes,’ said Laura, resolved not to be more enlightening.
‘I did not know that the police took their wives into partnership.’
‘Oh, it happens.’
‘Dear me! I had no idea! But, then, of course, I know very little about police procedure. In any case, I don’t see why you have come to see me.’
‘We are leaving no stone unturned. We are trying to reconstruct Miss Palliser’s past life to see whether something will come to light which will give us a clue to her murderer.’
‘I see. Well, there is no way in which I can help you. It won’t be necessary, I hope, for you to make it public that a—that a murdered woman was once on my staff?’
‘That shouldn’t be at all necessary. I understand…’ Laura hesitated a little in order to choose a tactful wording for her next remark, ‘… that is, I believe you have a system here by which the staff do not receive an annual salary, but are employed from term to term, so to speak.’
‘That is so. It is often done in schools of this type. It is necessary. We have no government grant of any kind.’
‘No, I appreciate that. Then… for how many terms did you employ Miss Palliser?’
‘Five.’
‘Have you any idea what she did during school holidays? Where she worked? With whom she stayed?’
‘None at all. She was well aware of the terms of her employment. She had agreed to them. What she did when she was not teaching here was none of my business.’
‘I suppose,’ said Laura, ‘you would have no objection to my speaking to any member of the staff who was here with Miss Palliser?’
‘There is none.’
‘None?’
‘Staff changes are very frequent, Mrs Gavin. There is nobody, except myself, who was here in Miss Palliser’s time.’
‘Oh, I see. Well, thank you very much for giving up your own time like this. So far as you are concerned then, the dead woman is still Mrs Coles, not Miss Palliser.’
The thin woman smiled in frozen fashion and rose. A minute later Laura was standing outside the front door with it closed behind her. Suddenly it opened again.’
‘Mrs Gavin!’ The blue-overalled girl was standing on the step.
‘Yes?’ said Laura, filled with a sudden, wild hope.
‘Miss Cummings wants to speak to you again. Will you come in?’
Laura followed her and was shown into the white-panelled room. The proprietress of the school was standing at the window. She turned as Laura came in.