Death of a Burrowing Mole

‘You are, perhaps, not the only person who has been looking at maps.’

‘That’s what I thought. Tell you what, then, to solve two problems, yours and mine, suppose I get young Tom Hassocks to come with me? I can stay the night at the other end because there are spare beds in the cottage and in the morning the boys can bring me back in Bonamy’s car.’

‘Does the walk need to be taken at night?’

‘Yes, I think so. The time factor is all-important and progress by night is likely to be slower than in daylight.’

‘I concede that. Show me the route you propose to take.’

Laura unfolded the Ordnance map and, when she had indicated the path by which she proposed to travel, she drove over to the cottage in which Tom and Bonamy were still staying and, having given Bonamy his instructions, she drove back to Holdy Bay with Tom beside her.

At the hotel they gave Tom dinner and at half-past eleven he and Laura drove a short distance out of the town, halted for five minutes and then went to the all-night garage. Here she arranged to have the car checked and to pick it up in the morning at about lunchtime, then she and Tom set out.

The first stage of their journey took them to a railway bridge. The branch line was out of use and had been so for many years. They climbed a fence and scrambled down the bank. Alongside the rails it was comparatively easy walking. The line followed a valley between hills. After about forty minutes they climbed the bank at a point where Laura thought that the railway would no longer serve them, and came on to moorland. Soon they found the footpath she expected. It crossed the heath in more or less a straight line for about two miles and was undulating but nowhere was it overgrown. The luminous summer night made it easy enough to follow the way and, in single file, they made good progress.

Then glimmering silver birches appeared like tall ghosts among the heather, the path began to climb and then it passed through an eerie pinewood full of whisperings.

‘I’m quite glad I didn’t come alone,’ said Laura; but the pines soon thinned out and after a time the path ended at a stile. The two walkers climbed this and found themselves in the main street of Holdy village. ‘Better step it out now,’ said Laura, as they heard the sound of the little waterfall, ‘because we shall have to slow up to pick our way through all that mess the vandals have made between the gatehouse and the keep, and that may make a difference to the time we take.’

‘I’ll climb that newel stair, not you,’ said Tom. ‘How long do I stay at the top?’

‘I have something to tell you,’ said Nicholas, looking, chiefly because of the elf-lock, much like Richard Coaker in The Farmer’s Wife, and also like a more handsome Lewis Dodd.

‘And time, too,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘It is more than time, in fact, that that unfortunate business was cleared out of the way. Then, perhaps, we can get down to the other murders.’

‘You know what I have to tell you?’

‘I imagine so, but pray ease your bosom of the perilous stuff which troubles you.’

‘It was I who wiped the fingerprints off Veryan’s telescope.’

‘Well, it had to be either you or the murderer, unless you and he are the same person.’

‘You did suspect me, then?’

‘Oh, yes, of course, especially when it came to my notice that Professor Veryan was attracted to Dr Lochlure.’

‘I did not worry about that, I assure you, and of course I knew that Susannah had been on the tower with him to look at the stars. How did you know that it was I who wiped the telescope?’

‘Because you were the person who found the body. I was told that when Professor Veryan was not at breakfast on that Monday morning and that he had not been to bed all night, you went straight to the castle. Nobody else seems to have been there until the police arrived.’

‘I always thought that the broken parapet was dangerous, especially in the dark, so I feared he had met with an accident.’

‘I should be interested to know why you wiped the telescope. Did you think you were protecting Dr Lochlure?’

‘Not in the way you mean. For one thing, I knew she couldn’t have been on the tower with Veryan on that particular night. She was tucked up in bed in the hotel at Holdy Bay. My idea, when I cleaned up the telescope, was to make sure her prints were no longer on it after the last time she was on the tower. I didn’t want tongues wagging about her being up there at night alone with Veryan. It was nothing to do with his death.’

‘But if he had not been killed, you would never have thought about fingerprints.’

‘Of course I shouldn’t, but once the police had been told of the death and there had been the questioning and the inquest and its adjournment—’

‘But you wiped the telescope before the police were called. You must have done.’

‘Yes, but it was I who called them and I knew there would have to be an inquiry. There always is in such cases. The death was quite unexpected and had to be accounted for, and I wasn’t going to have Susannah’s name mentioned, even though she couldn’t possibly be connected with it.’

‘Why have you decided, after all this time, to confide in me?’

‘You yourself have answered that question. Now that these other murders have taken place, it was time Veryan’s death was – well, not forgotten, but cleared out of the way.’

‘You thought very quickly about fingerprints when you found the body.’

‘I thought quickly about Susannah.’