right off by saying that he didn’t consider that she was “sufficiently engaging the children’s emotions” as she taught them, and that she “didn’t even know if they were happy in the classroom!”
‘Stella replied along the lines that she hadn’t “the first idea of whether they were happy,” but that if it was within her gift to make them so then it was “through giving them the bedrock of knowledge that would advantage them their whole lives through!”
Miss Oven chuckled, ‘I’ll give her that, she could stand her ground even when she was losing the fight.’
‘You consider that a losing argument?’
‘Inspector, you can’t ignore a child’s emotional needs and then hope and pray they turn out fine.’
‘And what she said, about knowledge giving them a better life?’
‘Without the confidence to use it?’
‘In my experience, self-esteem comes from knowing you’re good at something, from having been taught properly, from earning a job you know you can do.’
‘That’s the most Dickensian thing I’ve heard in years, Inspector. Is sink-or-swim still your credo? I’m only glad for you that you swam.’
He threw himself back in his chair in exasperation, leaving the talking again to Cori.
Miss Oven reminisced, ‘I remember Stella in the staff room once, declaring, “These are the methods that made the minds that ran an empire!” and you can imagine how that went down with the modern thinkers.’
‘And so the new Head asked her to leave?’
‘It was decided it was best.’
‘And how did they work out, the new methods?’
‘Oh, I dare say had she stayed that she’d be happier here now than then. Once the state system completely broke down — you’ll remember the Southney School failed its Ofsted report three years in a row? — then traditionalism became a school like ours’ best selling point.’
‘You don’t sound sympathetic?’
‘I think it was a backwards step; though not as far back as we’d come: I for one won’t take the Juniors back to sitting in rows and intoning from the blackboard. Children like their desks in clusters, it helps them make friends. Stella would say, when we were walking down a corridor and heard a class reciting in unison, oh I don’t know, French verbs or times tables, “Listen to that beautiful sound, the sound of knowledge being imparted; it’s like Gregorian chanting, like Carols at Kings!” I thought it sounded like a chain gang.’
‘You were taught rote yourself?’ asked Grey, unable to leave it be.
‘Of course I was.’
‘Do you wish you hadn’t been?’
‘It’s not as simple as that — there are new methods now.’
‘That don’t work.’
Cori cut in, ‘But the parting was amenable? There were no issues of pay, no need for a tribunal?’
‘As I say, once the matter had been raised it was settled quickly.’
‘And you were sad to see her go?’
‘Of course I was, we didn’t fall out at all, it was the Head she argued with. I was just another teacher and not even in her department.’
‘Did she say what she’d do next, ever talk of other jobs?’
‘She spoke of this being the end for her, that no school could match this one.’
‘But she’d be losing her salary.’
‘I got the feeling she had money, at least after her aunt died.’
‘Big spending?’
‘Nothing ostentatious, just a new coat, good shoes; things a woman notices.’
‘And I wonder, was there a leaving gift?’
‘Oh yes, you mean the silver watch?’
‘We found it at her flat.’
‘I am glad. I knew she was a collector, you see. I was in town once and called on her, after she’d moved there. I think I disturbed her, but she was very civil: invited me in, made me tea, shown me her pieces. I don’t think she had many visitors. I always hoped the watch would make its way into the collection. That would mean I got it right, you see, when I chose it.’
Cori smiled her most sincere smile.
‘And did you keep in touch?’
‘No; but you can drift away from even your very best friends, can’t you?’
‘Thank you, Miss Oven,’ said Cori and held her hand.
‘And thank you for the tea,’ added the Inspector as he got up to leave.
‘You know we should have bought Brough,’ mused Cori as they walked back across the almost empty carpark.
‘No doubt there’ll be open days.’
‘And what a lovely woman.’
‘Were we talking to the same person?’
‘I might send the children here after all, if Miss Oven’s going to be their teacher. Give them some self- belief.’
‘I’m sure if they’ve enough of Brough’s genes then they’ll never want for that.’
‘Oh, Mr Grumpy. What’s got into you?’
‘All this talk of “child-centred learning”.’
‘And what’s wrong with that?’
‘I’m only saying, let’s worry about their feelings once they can read and write and add up and find Britain on a map.’
‘I’m surprised you don’t ask them to bring back the cane.’ But Cori knew that this bickering would get them nowhere,
‘You didn’t say much in there,’ she whispered as they walked back to the car.
‘I couldn’t think of much to say. She sounds like a tough woman to work with.’
‘Who, Stella?’
‘No, Miss Oven — all smiles, until you cross her. Did you notice how she stood back out of Stella’s arguments with the new Head?’
‘But she didn’t agree with her.’
‘Do you think that’s why Stella buried that silver watch beneath her teaching notes?’
‘Yes, that seems quite cold now. I couldn’t have told Miss Oven the truth. We might have to place it in the display case though, if she visits for the funeral.’
It was after seven as they pulled away.
‘You’ve missed their teatime,’ stated Grey, ever conscious of his colleague’s family ties, as Cori drove them back to town.
‘It’s okay, we’ve found a good new Polish girl — I think it’s in her training not to say anything that makes me feel like a bad mother.’
‘Why don’t you go part time?’
‘Because what’s good enough for the rest of you is good enough for me.’
‘Oh hell, this isn’t a competition of who has the least to go home to.’
‘It’s because there’s too much temptation to that I can’t give in to it — once I’m on that slippery slope then leaving an hour earlier a day becomes two hours and then three; and before you know it I’m coming in for desk duty one morning a week.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said after a pause between them in the dark car.
‘Don’t be.’
‘Long day.’
‘Yep. Home?’
‘Home; though drop me in the High Street, will you? I want to see if someone’s lights are still on.’
Each knew that even the most serious case required time away from it, that working around the clock brought diminishing results, that batteries needed to be recharged and evidence stepped back from — that there
