Death of a Burrowing Mole

‘Well, I suppose Veryan could have shown it to him at some time, and then, of course, when he went to the castle on that Monday morning and found Veryan’s body, he could have picked up the telescope in all innocence, as you say. But if that was all, why not have told us? Why wipe his prints off it? Wasn’t that the action of a guilty man?’

‘Not of a guilty man, but of a man with a guilty conscience, as I said.’

‘What’s the difference, ma’am?’

‘Don’t you think that Tynant has often wished that Veryan was dead?’

‘As to that, I couldn’t say, but I shall never get him convicted, that I do know.’

‘Then let us turn our attention to the other matter, the deaths of the two workmen.’

‘There, again, Tynant comes into it, ma’am. He knew of those woods. Mr Saltergate told me that he, Veryan and Tynant (who was with Veryan in the car) had all been up to the manor house and to get to the house you have to take the road through the woods. I’ve checked all that. One thing I’m left wondering about, though, is that, after we found Stour’s body, you insisted on the fact being kept quiet and you also made my fellows shovel back all the soil and stuff into the ditch. Are you going on that old saying that the murderer always returns to the scene of the crime?’

‘No, not in the sense which is meant by that unlikely theory. I think that, so long as we all maintain silence, there is every chance that the guilty parties will see a necessity for removing Stour’s body from where they buried it and taking it to a safer place. They have no guarantee that, at some time in the near future, work will not be resumed at the castle and, although there may be nothing to connect them with the corpse, I think they will be anxious to move it before it is discovered. Let us make it public that the castle project has been abandoned and then keep watch. The apple, with any luck, should fall not, like Newton’s, on to your head, but right into your waiting hand.’

‘My mind still runs on Tynant and Saltergate, ma’am. As I said, they both knew those woods.’

‘But there were those who knew the woods better than any stranger could do.’

‘Could bring us to that sleazy gamekeeper Goole, I suppose, but I don’t see him as a murderer. Of course, he could have been an accomplice. Even so, two – say him and Saltergate, or even him and Tynant – would have had a bit of a problem against two tough fellows like Stickle and Stour.’

‘Not if Stickle and Stour were partners with the murderers and then, having served their turn, were inconveniences which had to be got out of the way.’

‘Out of whose way? You give me the impression that you could name names, ma’am.’

‘Laura was wrong,’ said Dame Beatrice reminiscently. ‘She said that, when the public was warned off the site because scientific work was in progress, the general opinion would be either that the scientists were prospecting for oil or that something to do with nuclear fission was being planned. The plain truth is, as I repeat, that the local people saw Saltergate’s clearing-up operations and Veryan’s trenches as a search for the Royalist treasure which was rumoured to be buried somewhere in the castle precincts. What else were people to think when, knowing the legend, they saw stone and other debris being removed, three wells uncovered and partly cleared, and a great gash of a trench being dug and pegs put in to indicate that further excavation was planned?’

‘You made the point before, yes, ma’am. So you still believe some mastermind saw a way of getting a lot of the digging-up done for him and tried to cash in as soon as the caravan and the two cars had moved away to the village and he knew the coast was clear. But what could he expect to accomplish in one night?’

‘I will give you my theory for what it’s worth and then you may or may not act on it. I see it this way: there have always been rumours that treasure had been hidden somewhere in the castle or its grounds. Nobody seems to have attempted to confirm them until now. The present owner either had not heard them or did not believe them and the villagers dared not test them on what was, after all, his property.

‘Then, after he had gone away on holiday and installed his cousin as caretaker, along came the architects and archaeologists, and the rumours took a fresh lease of life and became current not only in Holdy village, but in the neighbourhood round about. I don’t think they spread to any extent until the work was well under way and it became clear that neither an oil-rig nor a nuclear reactor was under contemplation, but, as the site began to be cleared, wells uncovered and the digging taking its ordered course, Stickle and Stour saw, as they thought, a golden chance of a rich reward for their labours.

‘Like their murderers, they had to wait upon events. These were precipitated by the removal of the caravan and the cars and the disappearance of the young men from the keep.’

‘Somebody made a big mistake when they left that bike and sidecar in those woods, ma’am. If Stour had really murdered Stickle, as we were meant to think, he’d have made his getaway on it. Mind you, though, I suppose he could have pickaxed Stickle if they’d had a row, and then got scuppered himself, but I don’t think it’s very likely. I think Stour was struck down because he’d seen his uncle Stickle murdered.’

‘I agree. Somebody dared not leave Stour alive.’

‘Well, because of the woods being used as a hiding-place, I’m going to have another go at Goole and see what he comes up with, though he’ll go on swearing he knows nothing about the motorcycle or the body in the woods.’

As it happened, there was no need for Mowbray to lean any further on Goole. The wretched man turned up at the Holdy Bay police station and implored to be taken into custody.

‘And if Mr Sandgate wants to bail me out,’ he said, ‘him knowin’ I’m as innocent as the day, well, I don’t want none of it. You lock me up good an‘ proper. That way I’ll be safe, which is more’n I’ll be if you leaves me on the loose.’

Taken to the interview room and given a seat at a table opposite Detective-Sergeant Harrow, he demanded to see Mowbray.

‘You tell me what you’ve come about and I’ll decide who you see and don’t see,’ said Harrow.

‘I’ve come about murder, that’s what I’ve come about, and, if Mr Mowbray don’t listen to me and lock me away, there’ll be another murder done and another body buried in them woods, and it’ll be mine, and so I’m tellin’ you.’