Death of a Burrowing Mole

‘I dislike wagging tongues, that is all, and I am afraid the wrong person may be blamed for the accident to Malpas.’

9

Retractions and Explanations

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Detective-Superintendent Mowbray turned up at the Seagull with the Chief Constable, so a party of four had mid-morning drinks in the cocktail bar and then Dame Beatrice and the Chief Constable, an old acquaintance, sat in deckchairs on the sands while Laura and Mowbray, in the hotel lounge, still empty on such a fine morning, discussed the visit of Mrs Veryan.

‘What did you make of her, Mrs Gavin?’

‘It wasn’t up to me to make anything of her. She was Dame B.’s pigeon. My impression is that she was in a bit of a flap.’

‘Perhaps she has cause to be, ma’am. She has asked for police protection.’

‘Good heavens, why?’

‘Says she fears for her life. Whoever pushed her husband off that tower – that is, if anybody did – might have it in for her, too, she thinks, and for the same reason.’

‘That being?’

‘It’s all right confiding in you, ma’am, what with Dame Beatrice and your husband’s position at Scotland Yard. The reason being, as usual, money. It seems that Professor Veryan was well heeled. I’ve been on to his lawyers and he leaves half his property in trust to his former wife to provide her with an income and the other half to archaeological research. In the event of her death, the lot goes to the archaeologists.’

‘Well, there’s safety in numbers. If he had left it to one particular archaeologist she might have a qualm or two, but under the circumstances—’

‘One particular archaeologist was named as being the leader of an expedition on which Professor Veryan seems to have set his heart and which was to follow this one at Holdy Castle.’

‘I suppose I had better not ask—’

‘Why not, Mrs Gavin? You, as much as Dame Beatrice, are one of us and discretion on your part is absolute as, over the years, the Force has come to know. Besides, it will come out sooner or later. The person named is, as you have guessed, I expect, Mr Tynant.’

‘Is there any chance that Tynant could convert the money to his own use instead of spending it on this expedition?’

‘I have no details, but I’m sure it is tied up tight enough. However, there is something which is making us think a bit. The Chief Constable will be talking it over with Dame Beatrice, so there is no reason why you should not hear it as well. Those precious alibis which everybody was only too ready to produce have all gone up in smoke.’

The Chief Constable was making the same statement, couched in different but no less expressive words, to Dame Beatrice. He had collected a selection of pebbles and he tossed them at intervals, one after another, as he talked.

‘We want you officially on this,’ he said, ‘in your capacity as psychiatric adviser to the Home Office. On the face of it, accidental death would seem the obvious conclusion for Mowbray to come to, but he had a very good reason for asking to have the inquest adjourned while he made further enquiries.’

‘It was clear there was something which did not satisfy him. May I hazard a guess? Could it have anything to do with Professor Veryan’s telescope?’

‘Do you choose a cigar or a nice milky coconut? Do go on.’

‘Fingerprints?’

‘Hotter and hotter. Well?’

‘I do not think anybody’s fingerprints have been taken by the Detective-Superintendent’s myrmidons, so my guess would be that there were no fingerprints on the telescope, neither Professor Veryan’s nor those of anybody else.’

‘How on earth do you do it?’

‘No mention has been made publicly of the telescope, so I deduced that it might be either of no importance whatever or the very reverse, and the latter was the more interesting speculation.’

‘Well, you are quite right, of course. Mowbray found the telescope at some distance from the body and his men automatically tested it for prints to check against those of the deceased whom they did fingerprint “just for practice”, the detective-sergeant who did the job told us, and, to Mowbray’s surprise and, I am bound to add, pleasure (for a case of wilful murder seldom comes his way) the telescope had been wiped quite clean. As this could not have been done by the dead man, unless, for some reason known only to himself, he did it before he died and then went to some trouble to keep the telescope untouched, it opened up an interesting avenue to explore.’

‘Yes, indeed. And there is something more, is there not?’

‘Yes, there is, and this is where we need your help. Nearly everybody who pleaded an alibi for the night of Professor Veryan’s death has retracted it. The exceptions are the two lads Monkswood and Hassocks, but exceptions is not a viable expression in their case, since they produced no convincing alibi in the first place.’

‘That is so. The rest of your statement is of the greatest interest. What do you suggest that I should do?’

‘Go through the lot of them with a small-tooth comb. Deal with the nits and, with any luck, you may find us a