Death of a Burrowing Mole

Veryan dead? How did it happen? I mean, how did he come to fall off the tower?’

‘That is the object of our investigation, sir, to find out how it happened. All we know at present is that Professor Veryan’s body was found at the foot of the castle tower by Mr Nicholas Tynant and it is presumed that he had fallen from the top on to a heap of broken stone below. So the two folding camp-beds and other items which we found inside the tower are the property of you and Mr Monkswood, are they?’

‘Yes. We’ve been sleeping there, but we only took sleeping-bags for this weekend’s camping.’

‘For how long, sir, have you been sleeping in the castle tower?’

‘Ever since Professor Veryan and Mr Saltergate began work in the castle grounds. We’d got the gear, you see, for sleeping out and it saved hotel bills. Using the keep saved us the trouble of putting up a tent.’

‘Were you aware that Professor Veryan was in the habit of taking a telescope up to the top of the tower at night to study the stars?’

‘He couldn’t have done that. We should have heard him, unless he sneaked up while we were at the pub. Even so, you know, we should have heard him when he came down, and we never did. I don’t suppose he stayed there all night, did he?’

‘He was wearing tennis shoes when he was found and young gentlemen like yourselves are sound sleepers. He had a key to the hotel front door and the staff had instructions not to shoot the bolts. He secured them after he had let himself in each night.’

‘So the hotel staff knew about him and his telescope,’ said Tom.

‘The receptionist and the porter knew. The manager did not know. It was left to the discretion of the desk clerk to give the key to any guest who expected to be out after eleven-thirty at night because the hotel does not employ a night-porter, so it was quite in order for the girl to let Professor Veryan have the key, although it was unusual for the same person to have it night after night.

‘What would have happened if somebody else had wanted the key?’

‘I have no information, sir. Apparently the question did not arise. There are no evening entertainments in the village and after dinner it would be too late for people to get to the pictures, or whatever, at Holdy Bay. I understand that in the evenings you two gentlemen left the hotel after dinner and did not join Professor Veryan and Mr Tynant again until breakfast on the following day.’

‘We’d been with them all the morning and at dinner, so for their sakes as well as ours we found this snug little pub in Stint Magna and we used to have our lunchtime snack and our evening drinks there.’

‘Can you give me any proof that you spent last night in a tent in Dame Beatrice’s paddock? I don’t doubt whatever that you did spend the night in the vicinity of the Stone House, but we have to ask these routine questions when there is anything suspicious about a death.’

‘Suspicious? You mean Professor Veryan’s death wasn’t an accident?’

‘We have to bear all possibilities in mind, sir, and we think it highly suspicious that he met his death when the tower was empty, with you two gentlemen away, so that nobody would have heard him cry out when he fell.’

‘What about the girls in the caravan? Didn’t they hear anything?’

‘If you mean Dr Lochlure and her two students, they say they were not there. They also say that they would have taken no action even if they had heard anything. They would have supposed it would only have been a drunken villager or some other tipsy person. In any case, the tower is some way off from where the caravan was parked, and ladies have good reason, unfortunately, in these days, to stay safely within four walls after dark, especially in lonely neighbourhoods. Well, that’s all for the present, gentlemen.’

‘Except for deciding where we’re going to sleep tonight,’ said Tom to Bonamy, as they went back to Bonamy’s car. This point was settled by Tynant at dinner that evening.

‘Veryan’s room is locked up for the time being,’ he said, ‘and anyway I don’t suppose you would care, either of you, to occupy it. The hotel can give you a two-bed room in a cottage which they use as an annexe when the hotel is full. I think you had better accept. As what has happened is no fault of yours, I am prepared to pay for your lodging.’

‘No need, sir,’ said Tom. ‘We have a tent and we’ve got our sleeping-bags.’

‘They won’t allow you at the foot of the castle mound. There isn’t anywhere else where you could pitch a tent and they certainly won’t allow you to sleep in the keep, even if you wanted to do so.’

‘Look here, sir,’ said Bonamy, ‘they don’t really suspect foul play, do they?’

‘They are treating the circumstances with reservations, let us say.’

‘But why? I’ve climbed that newel stair and it would be easy enough to fall from the top in the dark if you weren’t careful. At one place there is less than a foot of the parapet left standing.’

‘I have not been up there myself, but Edward Saltergate made that very observation. All the same, poor Veryan had been up there almost every evening since we’ve been here. He should not have been in any danger on territory he must have known so well. Mind you, anybody can overbalance. The police think he was sitting on the wall and tipped over backwards.’

‘I suppose there will have to be an inquest, sir? Shall we all be asked to attend it?’

‘Well, Saltergate and I have been told to see that none of our party leaves until it is over.’

‘What do you think happened, sir? That policeman—’

‘The Detective-Superintendent.’

‘Oh, is he? He let it out that they thought it very peculiar that the accident happened while everybody was away. What was everyone else doing?’

‘Well, the rest of us spent the weekend in various ways. In other words, we all thought your idea was a good one and that it wouldn’t hurt if the rest of us relaxed a little. I’m afraid the work was beginning to pall. It’s all hard slog and, up to the present, nothing much to show for it.’