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The trouble is,’ said Laura, when she and Dame Beatrice were at home again, ‘we still don’t know whether those two boys have run away because of that young fathead’s anonymous letter, or whether the murderers have got hold of them, because I suppose that is still a possibility.’
‘All that we can do has been done. We have given the police this new theory and directed their attention to Southampton. They must do the rest. A description of the lads has been circulated and their photographs displayed outside police stations and in the press. The police will have found out from their parents what they would have been wearing and what they are likely to have taken with them. There is nothing we ourselves can do now but wait.’
‘Except that there is still Mr Pythias to think about — not that thinking gets me personally much further.’
‘To go back to your first remark, one thing strikes me. It seems that the boys went camping without parental permission and did not leave home until the last weekend of the holiday, yet other boys in their form knew, before the term ended, that the plan to go camping had been made. I think I would like to talk to Mrs (not Mr) Travis. It looks as though holiday plans had been made by the parents for one, if not both, of the boys, so that they were not free to please themselves what they did until that last weekend. We shall obtain a more detailed account from Travis’s mother than from his father, I think, and Mrs Maycock may be able to add her quota. In any case, the two may be glad to have one another’s support at our interview with them. I suppose we shall have to talk with them at the school. Ring Mr Ronsonby tomorrow morning and see what he has to say.’
Mr Ronsonby’s reply was that he would be delighted to arrange anything which might help in tracing the boys and that Margaret would ring back when she had contacted the mothers and arranged the meeting. The next telephone call came from the school secretary. Mrs Travis and Mrs Maycock were willing and anxious to co-operate in any way they could and, if the notice was not too short for Dame Beatrice, they would present themselves at the school at half-past two on the following afternoon.
‘I do hope something will come of it,’ said Margaret. ‘I’m quite worried about poor Mr Ronsonby. What with these two naughty boys and the official opening, he’s nearly badgered to death. There are the parents, the staff, the police and the governors all on his neck over one thing and another. I just hope he doesn’t end up with a breakdown.’
‘Well, it’s women who go mad in white satin. Men only cut their own throats,’ said Laura, reporting to Dame Beatrice. ‘Half-past two means that we had better stop off for lunch on our way to the school.’
Mr Ronsonby met them in the vestibule and told them that the two mothers had arrived.
‘Burke has put his sixth in the library,’ he said, ‘and he and I will be busy making what I hope will be the final arrangements for the opening. His form room, therefore, is at your disposal and Margaret has put the mothers in there. She will show you the way.’ Margaret did this and made the necessary introductions before she left the four women together. What came out at the interview was that the Travis family, father, mother and only son, had booked a caravan at a place called Carvel Bay and that Mr Travis could only stay over the Easter weekend, but that Mrs Travis and Donald, with young Bob Maycock as their guest, were to stay for another ten days to finish out the fortnight’s booking. This accounted for the weekend the boys had fixed to go camping. Neither could have gone earlier.
‘I suppose, come to think of it — only, of course, you don’t think of these things at the time,’ said Mrs Travis, ‘Donald did throw out one or two hints, but they meant nothing to me. I don’t believe, all the same, that he would have gone off like that without saying anything, except to leave a note, unless something had happened which we don’t know about. Besides, he didn’t take his bike.’
‘Bob didn’t take his, either,’ said Mrs Maycock.
‘Did he receive a letter after you had come home from your caravan holiday?’ asked Dame Beatrice.
‘Yes, a note had been pushed through our letterbox. I thought it was only from one of the boys at school asking him to go fishing or something, so we thought no more of it.’
‘Did he appear disturbed in any way when he had read the note? We know, you see, Mrs Travis, that it was an anonymous letter written by a mischievous boy in his class and it may have alarmed him.’
‘I wasn’t with him when he read it. He took it up to his bedroom when he put away his holiday gear.’
‘Did he tell you it was an invitation from a schoolfellow?’
‘No. Both boys seemed a bit quiet at supper that evening and next morning, of course, they had gone; the next thing was that his father found Donald’s note which said they had gone camping and would spend the Sunday night at his aunt’s and go back to school from there.’
‘How did your husband react when he read the note?’
‘He called Donald a young monkey and said he supposed the child knew he wouldn’t have been given permission at that time of year to go camping unless it was with the Scouts or something else properly organised, and that he supposed it was natural for a boy of Donald’s age to kick over the traces now and again. It wasn’t until Donald didn’t come home from school on the Monday that anybody began to worry.’
‘You will have told the police what Donald was wearing, of course.’
‘Yes, his jeans and a sweater and his school blazer and a dark blue waterproof and his school cap.’
‘The boys did not take a tent with them, I imagine.’
‘In the note Donald said they had got permission to sleep in a barn. I think just at first his father was rather pleased he should show his independence. It was a pity Donald had to tell such lies, though.’
‘I understand that your husband searched that part of the moor where he supposed the boys had made camp, but found no trace of them.’
‘Yes, that was after Donald didn’t come home from school on the Monday. We thought he was playing truant and my husband was angry about that.’
The questions and answers continued for a while longer, but no new information was forthcoming except that Travis must have taken his post-office savings book with him, as his parents had been unable to find it in his room.
