Although in shadow, they saw the shape of Nancy Linnet's prostrate body lying near the centre of the rough-bricked room. The light switch was just inside the entrance and Magda quickly pressed it on. As in the well cellar, the overhead light was dull and covered in dust, so that a dirty greyness prevailed with dark shadows at its edges.
Miss Linnet was still trying to drag herself on her belly but, too weakened, she was making no more progress. The fingers of her good hand scrabbled uselessly against the litter-strewn floor and one foot scuffed away at the dirt behind her without catching. Her once glorious hair was matted with silky blood, and because she lay with her cheek against the ground they could see that her lips were moving, although no sounds, no moans, no murmurs, came from them.
Magda raised a hand to her throat and her mouth dropped open. Maurice saw there was alarm rather than compassion in those black eyes of hers.
'What shall we do?' she said tonelessly, the question inwards, not meant for Maurice who stood by her side. 'She'll tell. She'll destroy us.'
It was the first time Maurice had seen weakness in the woman who had bizarrely become his mentor and mistress, and it distressed him.
'It was an accident, miss, like you said.' Anger began to override any fear that he felt. But it was excitement that continued to make him tremble.
'She'll say otherwise.'
'No, she can't! I'll tell everyone it was her own fault. I saw it happen.'
'She'll say I deliberately pushed her because I didn't want her going to the authorities. She'll tell lies and half-truths about Augustus and me. She'll make terrible trouble for us. They won't understand our methods, she'll tell them we're unkind to the children, and if they believe her they'll close the home. Our reputations…' Magda's mouth clamped shut: what would happen to their reputations seemed too horrible to contemplate.
'No!' shouted Maurice. He didn't want to leave Crickley Hall. He liked the things he did with Augustus and Magda. He liked lording it over the other orphans. 'I won't let her!' His words came out as a screech. He rushed forward and kicked the broken bundle on the floor. 'I won't let her!'
Taken aback by the suddenness of his anger, Magda could only watch as he ran to the pile of logs heaped against the back wall next to a hill of coke. Maurice picked up a short but stout log with both hands and a faint smile touched her thin mouth as she realized his intention. A cruel gleam of satisfaction shone from her narrowed eyes.
Lifting the heavy log high over his head, Maurice tottered back to the recumbent body, which was now twitching rather than moving. Magda made no attempt to stop him—she didn't want to stop him—as he stretched his arms, then brought the bludgeon down with all his might on Nancy Linnet's blood-soaked skull.
The sound of wood smashing against thin bone was hideous, a kind of popping-crunching that made Magda flinch despite herself. The teacher's injured leg jerked, the fingers of her outstretched left hand quivered.
Maurice raised and brought down the thick log again, perhaps even harder this time, and the teacher's exposed temple caved inwards. Maurice fell to his knees, but still he raised the log again and smashed it against the head that had already become a mess of pulpy gore. Nancy Linnet lay perfectly still beneath him, yet still he struggled to lift the deadly weapon. Only when Magda stepped forward and gripped his wrist did he stop.
'Enough,' she said quietly but firmly. 'She's dead, Maurice, the girl is quite dead.'
He froze and looked down at the blood that had spattered his knees and the front of his sleeveless jumper. He threw the log to the side as if afraid to be caught with it. His lower lip trembled and his eyes were wide in shock. But although fearful, he was glad, glad that the teacher was gone, glad that she couldn't interfere any more. His excitement had not abated. He even felt mildly proud of what he'd done—until he began to think of the consequences.
Would the police come and take him away? Would they lock him up in jail for the rest of his life? He looked pleadingly at Magda and saw she wore the faintest of smiles.
'She deserved it, Maurice,' she soothed him. 'She would have betrayed us, she would have undone all the good work Augustus and I have achieved. Now quickly, we must dispose of the body.'
'Miss…?'
'Have trust in me, Maurice.'
To him, it was the kindest she'd ever sounded.
'Come now, help me lift her.' Magda reached down for the teacher's legs. 'You're a strong boy—take her beneath the shoulders.'
First, they rolled the body over so that Nancy Linnet's half-open glazed eyes looked up at the ceiling.
'What are we going to do with her?' He felt no remorse and his fear was rapidly diminishing. Even the prospect of going to prison did not worry him. Magda had said to trust her, and he did, implicitly. He had no doubts at all that she would make things all right.
'We're taking her next door,' replied Magda, grunting softly with the effort of lifting the corpse's lower body.
Maurice's hands slid under the teacher's shoulders and he heaved her up. When alive, Nancy Linnet had looked as light as a feather but, although he certainly was a strong boy, he discovered a dead body was a dead weight. He and Magda struggled to carry it through the opening into the well room.
'Where will we hide her, miss?' Maurice managed to ask between gasps for breath.
'Where she'll never be seen again,' came the calm response.
'But what if the police find out?'
'They won't.'
Magda had not only thought of a place to put the corpse, but had already worked out a reason for Nancy Linnet's absence. Without prior notice, the young teacher had announced she was returning to London that very day. Magda would go down to the village in the afternoon and tell Miss Linnet's landlady that the teacher wanted her clothes and few small possessions sent on to her. A sudden crisis in the family, Magda would explain to the landlady and anybody else who might be interested (it was just as well that Nancy's sweetheart, young Percy Judd, had recently been called up for military service and had left to help fight the nonsensical war or he might have caused a fuss).
She brought Maurice and the body to a stop by the well's low wall, but did not lay down her burden. The rushing of the river below seemed to satisfy her.
Maurice realized the intention immediately. His eyes widened, both excitement and trepidation still burning in them.
'You know what we're going to do?' Magda regarded him levelly.
The boy nodded twice.
'The currents are strong in the Channel,' she continued, Miss Linnet's ankles tucked beneath Magda's arms, her hands holding the teacher under the knees. 'Her body will be swept out to the ocean and, with luck, it will never be found. Now, over the wall with her.'
They rested the body on top of the stone wall for a moment, then tipped it over the side. It was a deep drop, but the turbulent sound of water below almost covered the resulting splash.
Magda leaned over the circular wall and peered into the black pit as if to check that the corpse had been flushed away. Maurice copied her, but could see nothing, not even the bottom of the well. Finally, she straightened and regarded him with a cold—colder than usual—countenance.
'If you ever tell anyone of this,' she warned Maurice grimly, 'then you will follow suit. Remember, it was you who bludgeoned her with the log. It was you who killed her.'
He replied earnestly, 'I won't tell anyone, miss, honest'
'Good boy.' She gave him a wintry smile. 'Come to my room tonight. You deserve a reward.'
The reward would be as much hers as his, he was already cynical enough to know. Suddenly, Magda no longer looked old to him—she looked ancient.