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The warden had the address of the women students’ hall of residence and Dame Beatrice obtained it from him before she left. He would be glad, he said, to have the mystery of Carbridge’s death cleared up before the new term began, if that were possible. He added that the police were making heavy weather of their investigations and that it was very hard on those students who had done such good work in Scotland during their summer vacation that they should be under harassment when they were all completely innocent.
Privately, I think, Dame Beatrice was keeping an open mind about their guilt or innocence, but she could hardly tell this to anybody in the warden’s position. I walked round to Hera’s flat when the goodnights had been said and found her, as I had expected, awaiting me and alone. Whether Todd had been quite as good as his word I did not know, but, at any rate, he was not in her flat when I arrived.
‘Well,’ she said, ‘how did things go? Did Dame Beatrice extort a confession of guilt from anybody?’
‘As you would expect, some useful information emerged. Perth was particularly enlightening.’
‘That man has eyes and ears everywhere. I suppose both were necessary in the job he had to do on the tour. It can’t have been easy with that little horror Patsy Carlow in the party.’
‘He made two interesting disclosures which may or may not have some bearing on Carbridge’s death and he also let a few other cats out of bags which, so far as I can see, have nothing to do with murder, but which highlight what I may call the love interest.’
‘Oh, Lord!’
‘Yes, indeed.’
‘Well, out with it, if you’ve come here to make a scene.’
‘Why should I do that?’
‘Oh, that’s all right, then. What happened? What was said?’
‘It’s getting late. Let’s leave it until tomorrow. It may turn out to be a long story.’
So we arranged that I should take her out to dinner the next evening and then that we should return to her flat for our talk. When the appointed time arrived, she came straight to the point which concerned the two of us most closely.
‘I suppose Perth told you about Todd and me,’ she said.
It staggered me that she should refer to Todd so openly and in so calm a manner. I was nonplussed by her frankness and said feebly, ‘Well, yes, sort of, yes, he did.’
‘The snooping old cub-leader! What did he tell you?’
‘That Todd slept at the Inverbeg hotel on the same night as we did.’
‘Yes, he did. He pushed on ahead of the others and, although you didn’t see him, he crossed on the ferry when we did, but if Perth told you I slept with him, it’s not true.’
‘No?’
‘No. I didn’t mean for this to come out just yet, Comrie, but I would have told you all about it later, when things were settled.’
‘What about Glasgow?’
‘Perth couldn’t have told you about Glasgow. He knew nothing about what happened at the airport hotel. Oh, dear! I wish he hadn’t taken the bull by the horns, the wretched man! Anyway, he did, so I must make the best of it. You had the impression, when I met Todd on the train and again at the airport hotel, that he was a stranger to me. I tried to give you a hint that this was not the case, but you were too thick to catch on.’
‘Oh, was I? But I have a trusting nature, you see.’
‘Don’t you remember that crack of mine about people with two left feet?’
‘Vividly. I have seldom felt more embarrassed.’
‘You surely didn’t think I would say a thing like that to somebody I had only just met?’
‘It seemed out of character, I admit, but I thought you were annoyed by his attempting to pick you up.’
‘You always have been a myopic old soul where I am concerned. Don’t you remember my calling him
‘Yes. I married him when I was — well, a whole lot younger than I am now. It didn’t work out very well, and we separated, but nothing legal was involved. It wasn’t even a judicial separation. We agreed to go our separate ways and then, when the legal period of irreparable breakdown of the marriage was over, to arrange for a divorce.’
‘What didn’t you like about him?’
‘He was a male chauvinist pig,’ she said lightly.
‘Expound, as Dame Beatrice would say.’ (Strange to say, the shock her disclosure had given me was already dying away.)
‘You know,’ said Hera, ‘you’re taking this very calmly. I thought you would rant and roar.’
‘That is only done by true British sailors and even then, according to the song, they need to be on the high seas.’ To be truthful, my calmness in the face of her confession surprised nobody more than myself. I touched the pocket in which I still had her engagement ring. The little circlet seemed to have turned into some sort of talisman. I found comfort in the realisation that it was in my possession and not on her finger.
