No Winding-Sheet

‘This is Mr Scaife,’ said the headmaster. ‘Scaife, this is Mr Travis.’

Mr Travis, full of bluster, as nervous parents often are when they come to a school with a complaint, burst out, ‘Why wasn’t I told my boy was not at school? He’s playing hooky, I suppose.’

‘I have no idea,’ said Mr Scaife. ‘I do my job, which is to mark a boy absent and wait for a note from his parents. Travis was not present on Monday and has failed to turn up again this morning. I was about to report to Mr Ronsonby that I had received no note from you when I was asked to come down to his room.’

‘You must have guessed Donald was truanting. Why wasn’t I notified?’

‘My dear Mr Travis,’ said Mr Ronsonby, ‘it is no part of Mr Scaife’s duties to report absentees to their parents unless the circumstances are special or suspicious. Your son is not a troublesome boy. There was no reason for us to assume that you were not aware of his absence from school’

‘Young monkey left me a note to say he was going camping for a few days and spending Sunday night at his aunt’s place, and that he would come straight to school from there on Monday morning.’

‘He probably did stay with his aunt,’ said Mr Scaife. ‘Why don’t you ask her?’

‘Of course I’ve asked her. Well, I’ll tell you one thing. You had better know that I’ve been to the police, that’s what I’ve done. His mother’s nearly off her head with worry and I’ve lost a morning’s work coming here.’

‘Been to the police?’ said Mr Ronsonby, who hoped he had seen the last of them at least until the adjourned inquest on Mr Pythias had taken place.

‘When Donald didn’t come home from school last night I came up here at seven, but I couldn’t get in, so I rang, but there was no answer.’

‘The caretaker’s cottage really ought to be on the telephone,’ said Mr Ronsonby, ‘but the charges are extremely high and the education committee were not satisfied that a caretaker’s telephone would be used solely for school business. There is nobody at the school office after about five o’clock on a Monday.’

‘How do I know what’s happened to my boy if nobody notifies me he isn’t at school? It’s disgraceful, that’s what it is! In school time my boy is your responsibility.’

‘Look, Mr Travis,’ said Scaife, ‘I’m very sorry you’re so worried, but I really don’t think you can blame us if Donald is playing truant.’

‘Had a murder here already, haven’t you? How do I know my boy is still safe?’

‘Well, for one thing — ’ Mr Scaife hesitated, not at all sure that he was on safe ground.

‘Go on, Scaife,’ said the headmaster. ‘Tell us anything which may help.’

‘Well, Headmaster, I think Travis is safe enough so long as he had a companion with him. Young Maycock —’

‘Of course he did! We know all that, and Mrs Maycock is with my wife now. Mrs Maycock is a one-parent family. She and my wife are both out of their minds with worry. I have been in touch with Donald’s aunt. She knows nothing, either, as I told you.’

‘Well, if the matter is in the hands of the police there will soon be some news,’ said Mr Ronsonby.

‘Has anybody been to the place where the boys were thought to be camping?’ asked Mr Scaife.

‘Of course they have. I took the police there first thing this morning. Nothing to be seen, not even the ashes of a camp fire. Nothing! If I find my boy has been lying to me and they camped somewhere else, I’ll kill him when I get hold of him. He never asked me for permission to go camping. Just left a note. Look here, I want to question the other boys in Donald’s class. Some of them must be in the know and can tell me what he’s been up to.’

‘Any questioning will be done by myself, Mr Scaife and the police. I cannot possibly allow you to go into a form room during school hours and question the boys,’ said Mr Ronsonby. ‘It is against all school rules.’

‘We’ll see about that!’

‘What I am prepared to do,’ continued Mr Ronsonby, ‘is to send for the form captain and let you speak to him down here.’ He spoke to Margaret Wirrell and in a few moments there was a tap on the headmaster’s door. ‘Well, Spens,’ said Mr Ronsonby, ‘don’t look alarmed, boy. There is nothing to be afraid of. I expect that in Mr Scaife’s temporary absence from the form room, information, speculation and a good deal of ribaldry have been flying around. What have you to tell us about the absence of Travis and Maycock? This is Travis’s father. Apparently Travis did not return home after his camping holiday with Maycock and naturally we are all wondering where the two boys can be.’

The boy turned to Scaife. ‘That was all rot about the union, sir. Everybody expected Travis and Maycock back yesterday with the rest of us, sir. Potter was only having his bit of fun with you when he mentioned the union, sir.’

‘I’ll have my bit of fun with him later on,’ said Mr Scaife grimly. ‘Where were Travis and Maycock camping? Do you know?’

‘Stemlees Bottom on the moor, sir — or so we thought. But some of the chaps — the other boys, sir — went along there on Saturday and there wasn’t any sign of them or any other of our form.’

‘So Donald was lying!’ said Mr Travis. ‘I’ll skin him alive!’

The boy appeared to be about to say something more, but Margaret Wirrell tapped and came in at this point to state that Detective-Inspector Routh had arrived.

‘Ask him to come in,’ said Mr Ronsonby.

Routh was shown in and, kindly but ruthlessly, made short work of Mr Travis. ‘Now just you go home and take it easy,’ he said. ‘We’ve got everything in hand. You go home and tell your wife not to worry. We’ll soon have your boy back with you. He and his mate are only playing hooky, you’ll find.’

‘There’s been murder done here already,’ said Travis, looking suddenly strained instead of angry. ‘How do I know my boy is safe? He’s never truanted in his life and, so far as I know, he has never lied to me before, no, nor has he ever gone off without permission. It isn’t like him.’