Laura gave both and Margaret wrote them down and then looked up at her. ‘Wandles Parva?’ she said. ‘But that isn’t in this county.’
‘Oh, the boy doesn’t live with me. I am not his mother. I am merely making enquiries. The address would be Padginton. That is not very far from here, is it?’
‘Padginton?’ said Margaret Wirrell. ‘Well, I know our catchment area has widened quite a bit now the new buildings are finished, but I think Padginton will still be outside our range. I’ll ask the headmaster whether he can see you. Even if he can, you may have to wait for a bit. We’ve been kept very busy lately. I expect you’ve heard about it. I think the police are with him now.’
‘Oh, yes, I read about it. It happened a long time ago, though, didn’t it? I’m surprised the police haven’t worked something out by now.’
‘It’s been some weeks, yes.’ Margaret picked up the newly installed intercom. ‘A Mrs Gavin is here, Mr Ronsonby. Is it any good asking her to wait?’
‘What does she want?’
‘To enter a boy from Padginton village.’
‘We can’t take him. Padginton is still out of our catchment area.’
‘Even if she insists upon a single-sex school for the boy? That’s still her right, isn’t it? She seems a very nice type of woman.’
‘All right. There won’t be much chance that we can take the boy, but Routh is just going. The local police may be handing over to the Yard.’
Margaret turned to Laura. ‘He’ll see you in a minute,’ she said, ‘but I don’t think you’ll have much luck.’
‘My husband is a policeman. He is at New Scotland Yard,’ said Laura.
Margaret exclaimed, ‘Not really? Is there any chance he would be sent down here?’
‘I hardly think so.’
‘I must tell Mr Ronsonby, all the same. He will be very interested, as it happens.’
Receiving the news, Ronsonby relayed it to Routh.
‘This Mrs Gavin who wants to park a boy on me next term has a husband at New Scotland Yard. How’s that for coincidence?’
‘Gavin?’ said Routh., ‘I saw a Gavin and his missus once at a special police do. There’s no coincidence about this, sir, if you ask me. He’s the Assistant Commissioner for Crime and his good lady devils for Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley and Dame Beatrice is the psychiatric consultant to the Home Office.’
‘Good gracious! We must be mixed up in something bigger than we know. I wonder whether the Greek embassy comes into it somewhere,’ said Mr Ronsonby.
‘Could well be, sir. I’ll pass the time of day with the lady on my way out. Not that she’ll remember me.’
‘Ah,’ said Margaret, as the headmaster’s door opened, ‘here comes the inspector. Mr Ronsonby will see you now, I expect.’ But Routh, as he had indicated, did not take his departure from the school until he had looked in at the secretary’s little window which opened on to the vestibule. Margaret came to the opening. ‘Is he ready to see Mrs Gavin?’ she asked. Laura got up from the chair Margaret had given her and went to the secretary’s door to meet Routh.
‘Detective-Inspector Routh, ma’am,’ said he.
‘Just the man,’ said Laura. They looked at one another. ‘Haven’t I seen you before?’
Routh recalled the occasion to her.
‘It was one of those times, ma’am,’ he said, ‘when, as they say at the Olympic Games, the important thing is not to succeed, but to take part. I was in our section of the police choir. Unfortunately we didn’t win.’
‘As Robert Louis Stevenson said,’ remarked Laura, ‘to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.’
‘I expect, all the same, ma’am, most people would prefer to arrive. I suppose you know the Yard will probably be called in on this case of ours?’
‘I don’t see why. It sounds to me a very local affair.’
‘Political undercurrents, the Chief Constable thinks.’
‘And what do the rest of you think?’
‘Not ours to think, ma’am. As soon as a thing looks like being political, to some extent it’s out of our hands.’
‘But there’s no real evidence that it
‘Pythias was a Greek, ma’am.’
‘And was prepared to conduct a school party to Greece. He would hardly do that if he was in trouble with the Greek government. Come with me to the headmaster,’ said Laura. ‘I want to get all the low-down on this murder that I can. It doesn’t sound like politics to me. I might tell you, as I shall now tell the headmaster, that this boy of mine from Padginton is a myth. It was an excuse to get into the school, but I never expected to have the luck to run into
‘I’m afraid that, so far as the Chief Constable and my Detective Chief Superintendent are concerned, Mrs Gavin, the die is cast. As soon as we were sure it was a case of murder, the Super and the Chief Constable took over. As it is, I’m only the dogsbody now.’
‘That seems hard luck after all the work I’m sure you have put in,’ said Laura sympathetically.
