‘If she was on a solitary holiday and was a Youth Hosteller, sir, she may not be missed for days. Chances are she was a schoolteacher, don’t you think, sir?’
‘Why, Bob?’
‘Schools get a week’s half-term holiday round about now, sir. I’ve got three kids, so I know.’
‘Oh, yes, of course. Doesn’t help us until somebody misses her and comes forward. Even if she taught at a local school there would be nobody there except a caretaker and the chances are that she could have come from absolutely anywhere. We shall put out a description, of course, but I think it’s just going to be a question of wait and see. We shall try the Youth Hostel, of course.’
‘Even when we know who she is, sir, we shan’t be much further forward if this was one of those opportunist, unpremeditated jobs, and that’s what it looks like on the face of it, except those sort are usually sex motivated. You seem to have ruled out the chap who absconded a day or two ago. They haven’t picked him up yet and he was in for murder, wasn’t he?’
‘Wife-murder, yes, but he was one of these arsenic operators. This person or these persons who attacked the girl must have gone berserk. It wasn’t in keeping with anything that’s known about the chap from Hangwood.’
‘If a man’s desperate enough, sir, you can’t guarantee what he’ll do.’
‘It’s the bashing he gave her. That doesn’t fit our chap: All he had to do, if it was him, was to knock her unconscious and make off with any food or money she was carrying. If she was attacked from behind she wouldn’t be able to describe him.’
‘Perhaps she put up a fight, sir, and he lost his head.’
‘Against that is the theory that if he struck the first blow from behind her, that was the blow which killed her. Even if it didn’t, it wouldn’t have left her in any condition to put up a fight. I don’t think we can query the medical evidence, you know, and that includes one curious little fact.’
‘You mean we’ve got a clue, sir?’
‘No such luck, I’m afraid, but it’s an odd little circumstance, all the same. The doctors found a mushroom or some kind of toadstool — it hasn’t been identified yet — embedded in the head-wound. Wherever that kind grows, it doesn’t usually grow on the moors among the heather.’
‘Looks as though she was killed in the woods, sir.’
‘But who would have taken the body back to the moor to hide it when it would have been much safer and easier to put it in one of the thickets? It looks less and less like our man, to my mind.’
‘And those young women, sir?’
‘Damned if I know. They do have one of the forest cabins. I think we’ll have to keep tabs on them. Even if they are not guilty, they may know something which they haven’t told us. There must be some explanation of how that fungus came to be embedded in the wound. To go back to our man, though, he may have been fly enough to reason that a buckled bike could have been biffed by a car, and as he can prove he doesn’t possess a car…’
‘That raises a very interesting point, sir. She could have been knocked off her bike by a car and so badly hurt that the driver thought he had better put her out of her misery, as though she was a wounded bird. I agree we should not abandon the car aspect, sir. Those four young women might have the humanitarian urge I suggested and also a good big spanner in the boot.’
‘Far-fetched, Bob, surely! Young women don’t go in for that kind of strong-arm stuff.’
‘Women go in for wrestling and soccer and I believe some even play Rugby League football, sir. They do weight-lifting and run the marathon and put the shot. There’s only professional boxing and throwing the hammer still closed to them in this country. They drive racing-cars and ride horses on equal terms with men—’
‘You sound like a Women’s Libber, Bob.’
‘Not at all, sir. Just painting the picture, that’s all.’
‘I can’t imagine any of those four young women bludgeoning another young woman to death, not even for the reason you suggested. Besides, not many women could face finishing off a wounded bird.’
‘Just as you say, sir. Well, my first job, as I see it, is to do a round of the neighbourhood, including that Youth Hostel just outside Long Cove Bay, to see if anybody knows anything about the dead woman. All the same, sir, I would have thought it more typical of women than of men to have been panicked into trying to hide the body while quite forgetting to hide the bike, and then, in a fresh fit of panic, to rush off to the police and report the death. Don’t you think we ought just to keep those possibilities in mind?’
‘Keep in mind whatever you like, Bob. I suppose anything is possible. There is just one thing. A chap came in and reported the theft of an anorak and a rucksack from that Youth Hostel. I don’t suppose it has any bearing on this case, but it might lead us to this escaper of ours. I would like to clear him out of our way if we can. I don’t believe for a moment that he did this job. It’s quite untypical of his line of country. He’s a poisoner, and a cobbler always sticks to his last.’
‘There is that fungus which was pushed into the head-wound,’ said Ribble. ‘Some toadstools are very poisonous, sir; and he did poison his wife.’
Chapter 6: SELF-HEAL
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The warden of the Youth Hostel was not pleased at being disturbed before the recognised opening time of five pm, but when she opened her cottage door to Ribble and his detective-sergeant, although she did not recognise them immediately as plain-clothes police officers, she did realise that they were not prospective hostellers calling out of hours.
‘Yes?’ she said. She had been accompanied to the door by an impressive-looking Alsatian dog which reinforced her single-syllable greeting with one of its own, a short but menacing growl.
Ribble disclosed his official identity and asked for a word. He and his sergeant were invited in, the dog was ordered to retire, and the two men were given seats in what had been the cottage parlour when the building had been the lodge to a private house.
‘We are interested in two people who may have stayed at the hostel recently,’ said Ribble.
‘We get all sorts. What have these two been up to? If it’s anything about a missing anorak and a rucksack, I was not told about either. I merely heard the boy saying to his friend that they were gone. Nothing was complained about officially, if you understand me.’
‘Did that surprise you?’
‘Oh, no, because I knew, and I’m sure they knew, who had taken the things. Serve them right, I thought, for having such a friend.’
‘They reported the theft at Gledge End headquarters, but that is nothing to do with us, and I don’t think those are the two we’re making enquiries about. We might possibly be interested in the friend, though. Can you describe him? I suppose you’ve got his name and address.’
‘Oh, yes, we have to keep careful records, of course. Half a minute and I’ll get my book. Oh, you want a description. Well, as I said, we get all sorts and so long as they’ve booked in beforehand by letter and with the fee — we don’t accept telephone messages or any promises to pay —’ she laughed merrily, a very different personality from the stern-looking female accompanied by dog who had answered the door, ‘they’re in. I don’t ever refuse anybody who has kept the rules, especially anybody who looked as if he’d spent the night on the moors in all that rain.’