Death of a Burrowing Mole

‘None of that matters very much, miss. I now come to a leading question and you, being educated ladies, will recognise it as such and will not be tempted into making any false statements concerning it.’

‘Oh, Lord! I know what’s coming. That drunken bellowing,’ said Sarah. ‘Very unpleasant.’

‘What time was this, and which night?’

‘The Sunday night, at about half-past eleven.’

‘Bellowing? Not a single shout?’

‘No. There was quite a bit of it. It sounded like a first-class row, and it was too close to be pleasant. I got up and locked the door of the caravan and closed the windows. It made the place horribly stuffy, but if there is one thing I bar it’s people who are fighting drunk.’

‘Are you sure of the time, miss?’

‘Yes, I’ve got a luminous watch.’

‘What made you look at it?’

‘I said to Virginia that surely the pubs had closed long before, and that made me look at my watch.’

‘Of course we were there,’ said Tom. ‘Do you impugn our virility?’

‘No, only your veracity, sir,’ said Mowbray. ‘Sergeant Harrow is convinced that the young ladies were telling him the truth. He sums them up as the last types who would have denied sleeping around, if sleep around they did. He asserts that they were humiliated and distressed by what they saw as your unchivalrous behaviour.’

‘The world has turned itself upside down,’ said Tom, ‘so what’s the use? We never dreamed you’d be swine enough to question the girls.’

‘Pigs is the word for us, not swine, sir,’ said Mowbray, with an avuncular smile.

‘So our alibi has gone up in smoke.’

‘According to Dame Beatrice, you are not the only liars in your party, sir. She is far from satisfied with the interviews she had, although, strangely enough, she was inclined to accept your own story. Just as a matter of interest, may I ask why you let the young ladies down?’

‘In winter-time a young man’s fancy

From his love will not be sundered,

But there’s no fun in bed with Nancy

When the temperature’s a hundred,’

said Tom and he added, ‘The July nights were much too hot for fornication. We preferred to sleep under the stars.’

‘In other words,’ said Bonamy, ‘we did spend Sunday night in my godmother’s paddock and on the other two nights we were equally far from the madding crowd.’

‘That may turn out very awkward from your point of view, gentlemen. My advice is to stick to your assignments, however inconvenient, insanitary or uncomfortable they may be.’

‘So there it is, ma’am,’ said Mowbray later to Dame Beatrice. ‘One helpful pointer has emerged, though. There seems no reason to doubt those girls. Harrow, who is my barometer where the young of the female sex are concerned, is convinced that they were vexed and chagrined when the young fellows dodged the column.’

‘Was their excuse for so doing a genuine one? Did it ring true?’

‘Oh, indeed, ma’am. I myself slept in the porch those nights. I thought we were going to end up with violent thunderstorms, it was so hot and humid down here.’

‘It is never too hot for me. Old bones are sensitive only to the cold. I wonder if the quarrel the girls mentioned was between Saltergate and Veryan. The time Sarah quoted was eleven-thirty and that fits.’

‘And doesn’t help, ma’am.’

‘Well, now, have you Miss Broadmayne’s home address?’

‘With all the others, yes, ma’am. We had it in mind that all work at the castle would cease, at any rate for a time, after Professor Veryan’s death, and that the parties would disperse to their homes.’

‘Yes, one would have thought so. It might be interesting to take a look at Miss Broadmayne’s home and check whether one of the bedrooms, or any other part of the house, has been, re-decorated recently. Then I think you might find it equally interesting to ask Mr and Mrs Saltergate to reconsider the story they told me, or, at any rate, to add to it.’

‘They made the damaging admission, you tell me, ma’am, that they were both at the ruins on the Sunday night and that Mrs Saltergate was actually on the tower with the professor and was engaged in diverting his attention from Mr Saltergate, who was busy snooping around down below.’

‘I don’t think that is the whole story.’

‘I have checked at the Horse and Cart. They were seen to come in at the time they told you.’

‘And were not seen to got out again, but, of course, there is that fire escape.’

‘Are you suggesting—?’

‘No, no. I do not know for certain whether they were responsible for the death. I think they did see someone on the tower, but that was not necessarily Professor Veryan.’

‘I suppose it wouldn’t help if I could find out how Professor Veryan spent the daylight hours of Sunday, would it, ma’am?’