‘Then I think I will wait to question them until after the inquest. Let us make first for the hostel at which they stayed previously. I should like a word with the warden.’
‘That’s at Long Cove Bay, ma’am, and only about half the distance to the Lostrigg place.’
‘Good. I have to get back in time to dress for dinner and welcome my guests.’
On the way to the Youth Hostel Ribble detailed a conversation he had had with his Chief Constable when they had known that Dame Beatrice was to visit her great-niece. It had run: ‘This is a very nasty business, Ribble.’
‘Yes, indeed, sir. Not what I’m used to on our manor.’
‘No, indeed. So what are you doing about those dancers?’
‘I’ve commandeered an empty forest cabin for a couple of days to house them. I’ve no evidence against any of them except that all the boys’ alibis for the first murder are suspect, but nothing points to one of them more than to the others. As for the girl, I want to get her right out of it, but I can’t. On the evidence of Mrs Ramsgill, the farmer’s wife, Miss Pippa Marton is in the clear so far as the death of Mrs Tyne is concerned, but there isn’t an alibi in sight for this business at the church hall. None of them can produce one.’
‘How’s that, then?’
‘Not one of them can swear to what any of the others were up to once the show was over. They were all lending a hand at clearing the platform and the body of the hall, removing their props, and so on and so forth, and some of the stuff was taken out of the hall and nobody can say who did what and who went where. Besides that, they’re all scared stiff and are most unwilling to commit themselves to any definite statements in case they might incriminate themselves or one another. I was a bit doubtful about leaving Miss Marton with them, but I’ve got to keep them all rounded up until Dame Beatrice can take a look at them, and I thought my best plan would be to get them along to her as soon as I could.’
‘Yes, I take your point about not leaving them on the loose. In any case, we couldn’t expect Dame Beatrice to chase them all up when they got to their homes. You might be justified in holding them in custody for a couple of days, I suppose, but I think we shall get far more out of them if we don’t frighten them further, or aggravate them too much. They are a pretty intelligent lot, I daresay, and probably know their rights and will exercise them, once they get over the shock.’
‘I believe Dame Beatrice is expecting her secretary to join her. What about the other young women, sir, those who found the first body? We don’t need them any more, do we?’
‘If Dame Beatrice wants to send them home and it doesn’t look as though they can help you any further, let them go.’
‘I see the Newcastle chaps have picked up our man, sir.’
‘Oh, yes, he’s out of it all right. He’d still got the rucksack he stole from the Youth Hostel and he was wearing the anorak. Both have been identified and the lorry-driver who gave him a lift outside Durham has come forward. Our man couldn’t have had anything to do with these last attacks and you never really considered him for the first one, did you?’
‘Not after we were told about the toadstool. The thing is called the death-cap and seems to be this joker’s trademark. We’re up against a psycho all right, sir. That’s why we can do with Dame Beatrice, as you say.’
‘What about the young fellow who swears he saw the girl’s car skid and hit a tree?’
‘The girls don’t know about that, sir, and I shan’t tell them. Swore he saw the skid when he was on his way back from the forest carpark last Thursday and very cleverly identified the tree for us. Seems to be a bit of a woodman, not to say more than a bit of a naturalist. Name of Trent. Had one of the cabins and got to know the girls.’
‘So you didn’t believe his story?’
‘No, sir, but we’d given up suspecting the girls before he told it. I reckon he’s sweet on one of them and told the lie about seeing the skid just to keep them out of trouble.’
‘As my old schoolmaster, who was mad on Chaucer, would have said, “he was a verray parfit gentil knight”.’
‘And could have been a damned nuisance, sir, but no harm done on this occasion, as I had already made up my mind that those girls were out of it.’
‘A bit of a naturalist, you say? Wonder what he knows about death-cap toadstools?’
‘I’d never thought of that, sir. Well, the forest warden will have his address, so I can keep the tabs on him. Lies, even in what the liar thinks is a good cause—’
‘Are not items to inspire confidence in the liar? I agree. Yes, keep your eye on him. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see what Dame Beatrice makes of this business.’
‘I shall give her some notes, sir, of visits I made in connection with the first murder and the outcome of same. I shall make my own enquiries with regard to the church hall affair and shall leave her to take her own course. We can compare our findings and discuss them later, if that is her wish. With her vast experience she may hit on something which I’ve missed. I hope she can. Unless one of those dancers is our man, or this young fellow who told me that unnecessary tarrididdle about Miss Lestrange’s skid in the woods when she went to park the car, I haven’t any line which looks like a useful follow-up.’
‘Have you thought about that caretaker at the church hall?’
‘In connection with the murder there, yes, sir, but I haven’t questioned him yet from that angle. I’ve only taken his statement about finding the injured lad and the dead girl. I can see he might be implicated there, but it’s difficult to see how he could have been involved in the death of that girl on the moor.’
‘I would press him, all the same. Keep strictly within the rules, of course, and be sure to tell him that he is entitled to have his solicitor present — that should scare him a bit! — and see what he will come up with. After all, the part of the moor where the first body was found isn’t all those many miles from Gledge End.’
Chapter 13: ELDER
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As they took the road to the hostel at Long Cove Bay, the car passed the spot where the first murder had taken place. Ribble pointed out the spot on the roadside verge where the damaged bicycle had lain.
‘Interesting,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘She was either cycling on the wrong side of the road or else she was returning to the rest of the party at Long Cove Bay, one would suppose.’
‘Unless the murderer shifted the bike across the road, ma’am, but that seems unlikely. Our guess is that she had thought better of scarpering and perhaps had realised she had nowhere to sleep. They were booked in at Long Cove Bay for the Thursday and Friday nights, but not at the Lostrigg hostel until last night.’
‘Do the Youth Hostels not take in benighted travellers?’
‘It would be chancing your luck. They would, if they had room, I suppose, but, as I understand it, booking beforehand and in writing is the general rule. Besides that, she would have had another forty miles to cycle, even after she reached Gledge End, and she may well have baulked at that, especially if the wind was against her.’
Dame Beatrice had been conscious of the wind as soon as the car had come out upon the open moor. She looked out of the window at the rising slopes covered in dying heather and the sinister dark gold of acres of dead bracken and, through the wind-screen, at the narrow serpentine road winding its way over the bleak autumn landscape. Further on there were patches of stonewalled pasture with here and there a shepherd’s hut and a sheep-fold, sometimes whole, sometimes in ruins. But soon even this primitive evidence of human occupation was left behind, and when the car came in sight of the hostel, that, too, was surrounded by a waste of moorland. As a private house it had had a large garden for which many tons of soil had been imported from more fertile localities, but there was nobody at the hostel to give it the care, attention and hard work necessary for its preservation and unkeep.