‘Well,’ said Mowbray, when Harrow reported the interview, ‘it’s the sort of story which, given that type of modern young woman, could very well be true. I’ll check it, because it will give me an excuse to do as Dame Beatrice has suggested, and ask some questions which may prove to be important if the answers are what I’m hoping they will be. If that gamekeeper is the chap I think he is, I’ll twist his tail until he comes clean. There was a nasty case of alleged rape against him a couple of years back – nothing could be proved and he produced what apppeared to be a foolproof alibi, but I knew the girl and I reckon she was telling the truth.’ Meanwhile, you had better have another go at that hostel in Pureford and find out whether they have any news of Stickle and Stour. They couldn’t help us when we first questioned them, but this scarpering without a word to anybody is beginning to look very suspicious.’
‘Yes, sir, I agree. These chaps with no obvious roots are often on the fringe of the criminal world and if they had seen any advantage in getting rid of Veryan—’
‘Yes, but that advantage hasn’t shown up yet, has it? Tynant tells me that when Veryan engaged them and two others – that was before he knew that young Monkswood and young Hassocks were prepared to work on the site – he took it for granted that they were all men from Holdy village. Two of them were; they were the ones Veryan put off. I begin to wonder whether perhaps he sacked the wrong couple.’
‘I can’t see what possible motive two itinerant labourers could have had for murdering him, sir. Surely Tynant would know if there had been a dispute of any sort.’
‘I wonder if they had found out about Veryan’s stargazing. In that case they might have climbed the tower to get him on his own and take him by surprise with a demand for better wages, and when he refused them—’
‘It doesn’t seem likely, does it, sir, on the face of it? What did you make of them when you had a word with them before the inquest?’
‘There was nothing special about them at all. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear they’d done porridge, but neither would it surprise me to hear that they had always kept just the right side of the law.’
‘Were they Irishmen, would you say, sir?’
‘No, Geordies come south to pick up what jobs they could.’
‘Well, we shall have to track down those two fellows. Find out the last time anybody saw them at work.’
‘I thought Mr Tynant said they had been missing for three days, sir.’
‘Check with the rest of the party. I’m not too keen to take Tynant’s word for anything at present. Find out whether there has been any kind of dispute. In these hard times men don’t pass up on a regular job just for the hell of it.’
Harrow’s report bore out Tynant’s assertion. It was three days since anything had been seen of the two workmen.
‘I don’t like it,’ said Mowbray. ‘Veryan is dead and, if these chaps have any knowledge, guilty or otherwise, of how he came to his death, either they’ve scarpered or somebody has laid for them and anything may have happened to them.’
There was a further bit of information to come Mowbray’s way and again he checked it for accuracy, this time taking the onus on himself. Tynant came to him and asked abruptly why ‘that detective-sergeant of yours has been pussyfooting around and harassing the girls and young Tom Hassocks’. Mowbray dealt with him sternly.
‘So many lies and half-lies have been told me and there has been so much wriggling and squirming since Professor Veryan’s death, sir, that I am very anxious to find out whether any of your party can lead me to the truth, or at any rate can give me a clue to the disappearance of these men, Stickle and Stour.’
‘Oh, I appreciate that, but nobody here can possibly account for their knocking off work. There is one other thing, though, and you can check this with the others if my word is not good enough for you. I had my suspicions the first day those fellows did not turn up. Yesterday, while your sergeant was busying himself with the young people, I made a more detailed inspection which fully confirmed what I have been thinking for some time.’
‘Oh, yes, sir?’
Tynant became impressive. He swept back the dark elf-lock from a noble forehead, raised an arm towards his trench and said,
‘On several nights since Professor Veryan’s death somebody has been here, dug deeper into my trench and then tried to make the soil look as though nothing had been disturbed.’
‘No damage, then, I take it, sir.’
‘Could easily come to damage if it goes on. If amateurs begin messing about on the site, they may do irreparable harm and bring my whole project to a point where it is useless for me to continue here.’
‘Looks to me,’ said Detective-Sergeant Harrow, when Tynant had gone, ‘as if those two chaps have given up daytime work in favour of doing a night-shift.’
‘But why on earth should they do that?’
‘All the neighbourhood thinks Tynant is digging for buried treasure, not prehistoric graves, sir.’
‘Oh, that poppycock! I thought Veryan had had a reporter from the
‘A newspaper article wouldn’t alter local opinion, sir.’
‘That’s obvious, I suppose, if some jokers have been sneaking along by night and having a go at Tynant’s trench for themselves.’
‘Stickle and Stour, don’t you think, sir?’
‘Oh, well, if so, it’s up to Tynant to catch them at it, although I don’t see what he could charge them with. They don’t seem to have done any damage, and it isn’t his property, anyway.’
13
Vandalism
