Cold, Lone and Still

the time, and, in any case, you were bespoke. Both of them knew that.’

‘Well, they didn’t behave at Crianlarich as though they knew it,’ she said, looking at me.

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake!’ I said. ‘Can’t we forget Crianlarich?’

‘No more than Mary Tudor could forget Calais,’ Hera answered.

‘I think Hera has made her point,’ said Sandy. ‘Neither of the men was really serious about Patsy.’

‘Those Turkish trousers and the two-piece gilded bra!’ said Hera. ‘Nobody could be serious about those or what was inside them. Sorry! I’m being cheap and vulgar!’

‘Yes, you are, rather,’ I said, ‘but, passing lightly on, suppose we let Sandy pursue his theme. Men quarrel about things other than girls.’

‘I don’t think I have any more to say, but I do think we ought to keep Todd in mind. Didn’t you say he was a former member of the poly hall of residence? That means he was no stranger to that passage.’

‘He’s also tall enough to have removed that lightbulb without using a ladder,’ I said. ‘He could have known that the students’ entrance was always kept unlocked until dark, so it was available to anybody who knew the ropes. What is more, there is a back staircase up from the students’ entrance to the passage where I found Carbridge’s body.’

‘So Todd could have taken Carbridge into the house that way, led him into the passage and murdered him —’ said Sandy.

‘And then removed the lightbulb, leaving the body in a dark passage all ready for Comrie to fall over it,’ said Hera.

‘It sounds the perfect solution. Oh, Sandy, do go on!’

‘I think not,’ said Sandy. ‘Let’s get the inquest over and then I’ll make my point. Once we are told exactly when Carbridge died, we shall know where everybody stands.’

The inquest did not take long. As no relatives of the dead man had shown up, the body was formally identified by Todd and nothing else was taken except the medical evidence. Here the police surgeon was backed up by the pathologist who had made a more detailed examination of the body. Their conclusions did not help very much. Death could have occurred four hours or even more before the police surgeon saw the body and the time factor was complicated by the fact that — as we discovered for the first time — the murderer had attempted to strangulate Carbridge before finishing him off with a fatal stabbing. All the same, it still looked as though the attack must have been made before the party had begun and I said as much to Sandy. He agreed.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘Carbridge must have got there early and, if he did, so did somebody else, of course. The question is — why?’

‘I don’t suppose we shall ever know why.’

The verdict at the inquest was murder by person or persons unknown. Three days later I read in the paper that Bingley had arrested Bull, the caretaker.

‘Bingley must be crazy,’ I said, ‘or else his superiors have been leaning on him and he felt he had to make a quick arrest. It’s true that a foolish chap such as Carbridge seems an unlikely victim, but murdered he was, so somebody must have done it. All the same, Bull seems even more unlikely as a murderer. I could understand Bingley’s action if Bull had mistaken Carbridge for an unlawful intruder and coshed him. I expect these caretaker chaps keep a bludgeon of some sort handy in these lawless times. Cold steel between the shoulders doesn’t fit the picture, somehow, and as for a chap of Bull’s age trying (and pretty near succeeding) to throttle a younger man —’

‘The police must have something to go on. They don’t arrest people on no grounds whatever. What was Bull doing, did you say, when you first spoke to him?’ asked Sandy.

‘Sitting at a little table eating fish and chips and reading a newspaper.’

‘I should think the magistrates would dismiss the charge when he’s brought before them.’

‘I doubt that very much. Murder is such a dreadful matter that they will be bound to treat it seriously. Besides, the defence will reserve their evidence and when that happens the thing is sure to go to trial. I feel as though I’m partly responsible for the poor fellow’s arrest. I wish anybody but I had found the body.’

‘Yes, that was your bad luck, as we’ve said before, but it doesn’t matter who found it. Bull would still have been arrested. Surely nobody else would have been on the premises four hours, or more, before the party was due to kick off.’

‘Oh, wouldn’t they, though!’ I said. ‘We have been told that students had access all day if they wanted to get on with some work.’

‘It was a Saturday, remember.’

‘Even so, I doubt whether that would count for anything if a student had a job to finish — mounting and labelling specimens or photographs, something pleasant and interesting of that sort, perhaps. Don’t forget, either, that lots of shops close at one o’clock on Saturdays, so there could have been students coming in with provisions and drinks for the party. I don’t think Bull was the only pebble on the beach that Saturday afternoon.’

‘But if there was all that coming and going, how would the murderer not have been spotted?’

‘Because — I’ve been thinking about that while we’ve been talking — because of where the throttling was actually carried out. Remember where the dark passage led? I think the first attack was made in the Gents. Then the murderer removed the body to the passage with the intention of leaving it there for somebody else to find when he had removed the electric light-bulb. He must have had a bit of a facer when he discovered that Carbridge was not quite dead. He knew that he dared not let him recover, hence the stabbing.’

‘With a knife already in his possession?’

‘Lots of fellows carry knives quite legitimately. We don’t know what kind of knife the murder weapon was. I suppose the police have kept that a secret until it’s produced at the trial.’

‘I didn’t see a knife sticking out of the body, but I didn’t look very closely. His face was enough for me.