‘This is an unexpected honour,’ he said. ‘I concluded that you had finished with me. Has Susannah been ruining my reputation?’
‘Far from it. She has dismissed you without a stain on your character.’
‘I hope you didn’t believe her. If she had been right, you would see me in a very poor light. I have already indicated that I slept with her. I hope you are not expecting details.’
‘Of another kind and on another matter. In your first statement you said that, soon after leaving Holdy Bay after dinner on the Sunday night, your car broke down and you were obliged to escort Dr Lochlure back to the hotel. If the breakdown was of such a nature that you could not cope with it yourself, how were the repairs done so quickly? Your car, I understand, was back at the Barbican on the Monday when Professor Veryan’s body was found.’
‘Oh, after I left Susannah at the hotel I went to the all-night garage in Holdy Bay and told them where to pick up the car and where to deliver it when they had put right whatever was wrong. They knew me because I’ve had dealings with them before, and I made a special point that I needed the car urgently.’
‘I see. And the rest of your story, the long walk back to the Barbican, the waiting for the outdoor domestic staff to turn up—’
‘Perfectly true.’
‘Thank you, Mr Tynant. Is it also true that you have come to an agreement with Mr Saltergate and that the argument about the trench is settled?’
‘Oh, yes. Malpas was very stiff-necked about the completion of our trench, but, as Saltergate points out, any secondary burial under his walls would most likely have been destroyed when the walls and towers were built. All the bad blood has now been drained away.’
‘Perhaps an unfortunate choice of words, considering all the circumstances.’
‘Well, Beatrice, can you give Mowbray a lead?’ asked the Chief Constable.
‘I can advise him to find the two girl students who shared bed and board in the caravan with my godson and young Tom Hassocks.’
‘Aha. Who are they and how can they help?’
‘I don’t know that they can, but there is just the chance that they may be able to confirm the approximate time of Professor Veryan’s death. The medical evidence was not conclusive on that point. They can also give the young men an alibi if they were with them in the caravan when Malpas Veryan was killed. Personally I am not at all sure that they were – not so far as the Sunday night was concerned, at any rate.’
11
Private and Other Conversations
« ^ »
What makes you think the girls whom the two men students picked up can help with establishing the time of death, ma’am?’ asked Mowbray.
‘Well, most of the adults have taken it for granted that the caravan was empty at the time of Professor Veryan’s death. It now appears that the young people may have slept in it on all three nights of that weekend. The young men heard nothing, so I think they were in my paddock, as they claimed, but there is just the chance that one of the girls may have heard Veryan cry out as he fell, particularly if the fall was involuntary.’
‘Even if one of the girls did hear something, ma’am, it won’t help unless she looked at her watch at the time, but it’s worth a try.’
‘You said you had finished that sonnet of yours,’ remarked Fiona.
‘Oh, yes. I don’t think it will do for my collected works, but I still think it’s too good for the college magazine. Do you want to read it?’
‘No. You read it aloud to me.’
‘Very few poets do justice to their own work when they read it aloud.’
‘Betjeman does.’
‘My father says de la Mare didn’t. He once heard him and Edith Evans read his work alternately.’
‘Never mind that. Have a bash.’ Fiona stretched herself on the sands. The poet gave a preliminary cough. ‘Here goes, then,’ she said. ‘No rude comments.’
‘Of course not; nothing but admiration. Has it got a title?’
‘No. I simply call it
‘
