‘In other words, Europa has run off with the bull; but I have always thought it was that way round, you know. As I read the story, there was no reason for her to climb on the bull’s back. Simply asking for trouble,’ said Isobel.
‘I expect the other girls dared Europa,’ said Tamsin. ‘Anyway, it’s a Cretan legend, so a bull would have to come into it. Besides, Zeus was good at impersonating animals.’
‘What a resourceful chap Zeus was,’ said Hermione. ‘Now a bull, now a shower of gold, fostered by a goat when he was a baby, turned into a ram to escape the monster Typhon — really, a human chameleon, you might say.’
‘Wonderfully gifted at swallowing his children, too,’ said Isobel. ‘Wish he could teach me how it’s done. A wonderful way to get rid of undesirable brats, and I could name a few, I can tell you!’
‘There speaks the wolf in sheep’s clothing which teachers have to be nowadays,’ said Erica. ‘More pie, anybody?’
It was just as the washing-up was finished that Ribble knocked on the cabin door.
‘Oh, no!’ said Isobel, opening the door in answer to Ribble’s knock. ‘Not you again, Inspector!’
‘I’m afraid so, miss. May I ask whether you’ve got a visitor?’
‘We’re giving supper, bed and breakfast to a girl who was in this afternoon’s folk-song and dance thing at Gledge End.’
‘May I come in, miss? All I want is a word with Miss Pippa Marton.’
Pippa, who had caught her name, got up from the settee as Ribble walked into the lounge.
‘Has one of them had an accident?’ she asked anxiously.
‘Why should you suppose that, miss?’
‘Oh, don’t be an ass!’ said Isobel. ‘One of them was killed only the other day. Can’t you see she has been scared stiff that something else would happen? It was a perfectly reasonable question.’
‘All I want to know,’ said Ribble smoothly, ignoring Isobel’s outburst and speaking to Pippa, ‘is where the rest of your party were making for when they left the church hall.’
‘We are booked in at the Youth Hostel at Lostrigg. Why? Do please tell me what has happened.’
‘There’s been an accident, I’m afraid, miss. I can’t tell you more than that until I know a bit more myself. I think you would be better with your friends, miss, when I break the news to them. I can run you over to the Lostrigg hostel straight away.’
‘I’ve got my bicycle here.’
‘I will arrange for it, miss.’
‘It’s got a punctured tyre.’
‘I daresay one of my men can cope with that.’
‘Did they have an accident with the tandem?’
‘No, miss.’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake tell the poor girl what has happened!’ cried Isobel. ‘You can’t leave it until you get her over to the hostel.’
‘Very good, miss. First, Miss Marton, your brother has been injured, but he’s going to be all right. We’ve got him to hospital and I’ve just been over there. He can’t have visitors just at present, but you shall see him as soon as the doctors allow it. Don’t worry on that score, miss. Lucky for him he was wearing a wig. It probably saved his life.’
‘You mean he was attacked, like poor Judy?’
‘That’s the size of it. Miss Raincliffe, I’m very sorry to say, was not so lucky.’
Pippa, who had remained standing, collapsed on to the settee. Isobel sat down beside her and looked with hostile eyes at the detective-inspector.
‘Dead, like the other one?’ she asked, her arm round Pippa’s shoulders. Ribble inclined his head.
‘Only too much like the other one,’ he said grimly, ‘except that she must have met her attacker face to face. We shall have to hold all your company for a bit, Miss Marton, but I’ll arrange everything.’
Pippa disengaged herself from Isobel. Her colour began to come back.
‘Didn’t they go off on the tandem, then?’ she asked. Ribble shook his head. ‘Were they — oh, so that’s why we couldn’t find them after the show! But why couldn’t we? Where were they?’
‘Still at the hall, miss.’
‘So, if Peggy had not gone rushing off to find out what was keeping Micky—’
‘One of your men might have stood a better chance than she did, yes, miss, but we can’t be certain of that. If you would get your coat on, I think we ought to be going. I want to get to your friends before they go to bed. My car is just outside.’
‘Can’t you leave her here for the night?’ asked the motherly Erica. ‘We’ll look after her.’
‘No, I’d rather go. I must go,’ said Pippa. ‘Thanks all the same,’ she added wanly.
‘I’ll tell you more about things on the way to Lostrigg,’ said Ribble.
When Pippa had gone into the vestibule to put on her coat, Isobel said to him, ‘Well, at least you can’t suspect us any more.’
‘Once the doctors were satisfied that what happened on the moor could not have been a hit-and-run accident, you were all in the clear, miss.’
‘Thanks for nothing! You ought never to have suspected us in the first place!’
‘We have to look at all sides of a question,’ said Ribble mildly.
‘It looks as though we could have saved my great-aunt a journey,’ said Hermione.
‘Your great-aunt, Miss Lestrange?’ Ribble looked at her in sudden comprehension. ‘Good gracious me! That couldn’t be Dame Beatrice, could it?’
‘Yes, of course it could,’ said Isobel. ‘She is coming here tomorrow to get us out of your clutches. At least, that was the idea, but it hardly seems necessary now.’
‘I will let the Super know and he will want to tell the Chief Constable. We all know Dame Beatrice by repute and it will be an honour to meet her,’ said Ribble.
‘All the same, it looks as though we could have saved her the journey,’ repeated Hermione, ‘since we are now in the clear without her help.’
‘Ah, but I may be very glad of it myself,’ said Ribble, ‘if she will be prepared to assist me. I reckon I can do with a psychiatrist on the job. I’ll call in at the station on my way to the hostel and mention that she is coming down. What time do you expect her, Miss Lestrange?’
‘In the middle of the afternoon, I think. She will have lunch on the way and then come straight here before she goes to her hotel.’
‘Then I’ll come along, too, if I may.’ He turned to Pippa, who had come back into the room. ‘Well, miss, we’ll be off. My car is outside.’
‘Who on earth can be doing these awful things?’ said Tamsin, when the inspector had taken Pippa away. ‘Is it one of the dancers, do you think?’
‘I don’t know who else,’ said Erica. ‘I shall be glad when Monday is over. I’ve got to go to the inquest, as I was the one who actually saw that girl’s body on the moor.’
Chapter 12: YELLOW ARCHANGEL
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‘So what is all the brouhaha?’ enquired Dame Beatrice, who had driven straight to the cabin on Sunday and had arrived at the time of siesta which followed the young women’s Sunday lunch. ‘Parlez lentement, doucement, en anglais and, if possible, one at a time.’
‘The floor is yours, Hermy One,’ said Isobel. Hermione told the story of their troubles and told it well.
‘But I think we’ve brought you here on a fool’s errand, great-aunt,’ she concluded. ‘Something else has happened — we don’t know all the details, but it’s pretty bad and it’s something the inspector knows we couldn’t have done. We’ve discussed it, and it seems another one in that folk-dance party has been badly injured and another killed. One of them — one of the girls — ran off to find one of the boys after the show. The other girl was supposed to be staying the night here with us and some of what happened seems to have happened to her brother. He was the boy, she told us, who was thought to have gone off with the girl. She knew all about that before she left the hall. What she didn’t understand, she said — she seems a simple, naive sort of bod — is why he went off in girl’s clothes, but the inspector came and told her what really happened.’