night the school broke up. Mrs Buxton’s story is that Pythias brought the journey money home with him and, when she refused to have it in the house for the weekend, he went off in a huff to stay with friends. Well, we can’t trace the friends and my hunch is that they don’t exist. We only have her word for it that he ever intended going away for Christmas at all. She may be lying about that, but it’s her story and she’s sticking to it.’
‘She also avers that a man and a woman called to take away Mr Pythias’s effects. That was almost certainly a lie.’
‘Oh, yes, we pinned that one down a bit, but only so far. I’m certain in my own mind that Buxton himself sold the things to dealers, but that doesn’t prove he murdered Pythias. What’s your version, ma’am, of what happened?’
‘The same, I fancy, as your own. When Laura visited the house on pretence of wishing to rent a room, she was well aware that Rattock was on the stairs listening to the conversation. I imagine he distrusted all visitors at that time. It seems quite likely that he overheard that altercation between Mrs Buxton and Mr Pythias on that Friday evening and realised that Pythias had in his charge a considerable sum of money.’
‘All clear and fits my own theories, ma’am. So the idea of murder came into Rattock’s mind. The thing about which I’m still in the dark is where the murder was committed. On the evidence of the golf-club, which we found in some long grass near the golf-course, it seems possible that the job was done there, but we’ve quartered the area without finding any other clue and we’ve been over the rooms at the house with a small-tooth comb. Mrs Buxton says Pythias left the house after their little set-to, but it doesn’t sound as though she actually saw him go.’
‘Because, of course, he did not leave the house that night. At least, that is my opinion. I think Mr Pythias went to his room that evening and Rattock tapped on the door and was admitted, although doubtless, from the point of view of Pythias, it was a surprise visit. I think they conversed and that Rattock took one of the golf-clubs out of the bag which was probably in a corner of the room, affected to demonstrate some stroke or other, but seized the opportunity to swing the club and kill the man.’
‘There’s no proof of it, ma’am. We got no prints off the handle of the club we found and the chap who bought the rest of the clubs can’t describe the man who sold them to him.’
‘Neither the prints of the murderer nor those of Pythias were on the club you found, of course,’
‘That’s right. Well, we’ve got a signed confession from Pybus, but there is no doubt that he didn’t see the murder committed. He only got suspicious when Pythias didn’t turn up at school. Even then, I’m not sure he suspected Rattock. It could have been anybody in the house who knew that the money was there. You pointed that out, and I agree.’
‘He probably asked some very searching questions the next time he visited Rattock, and the answers did not satisfy him.’
‘You’ve got something up your sleeve, ma’am. Would you care to come clean?’
‘Look at it this way: you and I have seen the pictures which we know were the work of Pythias. We have also (thanks to Pybus) seen the dreadful daub which was on exhibition in the art room. You yourself and Laura have identified the artist as the person who also painted the picture on the wall in Pythias’s lodging.’
‘And so?’
‘Oh, Mr Routh, can you really imagine that Mr Pythias, alive, would have allowed that daub to disfigure his apartment? He must have been dead when Rattock got in and painted that picture on the wall. It was done long before you locked and sealed the room. Although Pybus states that it was Pythias’s absence from school which gave him concern, I think he had seen the
‘Where’s my proof, though, unless Pybus was an eyewitness to the murder and I can make him come clean? I still haven’t a story I can take into court.’
‘Get an expert to remove those thick layers of paint on Pythias’s wall. Unless I am much mistaken, there are bloodstains underneath. Why else should Rattock have put up that hideous and (I am certain) sinister attempt at camouflage in a room which was not his own? Confront Pybus and Rattock with the result when the paint has been removed. They are not habitual criminals, so I think you will have little difficulty in breaking down even Rattock’s resistance, should he attempt to — what is the expression Laura uses?’
‘Bluff it out, ma’am?’
‘The person I am sorry for, ’ went on Dame Beatrice, ‘is Mr Ronsonby. To have a member of staff and one of the Old Boys taken to court for conspiracy, theft and murder is not the best of recommendations for the Sir George Etherege school. Another thing: do not let us forget that Pybus knew about the hole which was dug in the quad.’
‘My own fear
‘Unless he becomes a patient of mine at the instigation of the Home Office, I cannot undertake to say. However, let us leave the last comment with Sir George Etherege himself, who, some time between 1635 and 1691, wrote:
‘Were it not madness to deny
To live because we’re sure to die?’
I do not think you have a potential suicide on your hands. Pybus will still have something to look forward to, one hopes, when his sentence is completed.’
‘He’s an artist, ma’am. They’re apt to fly off the handle when things go wrong.’
‘An artist? Yes, I suppose, if one stretches a point, one may call him that.’
‘He’s better than young Rattock is, anyway, 1 reckon.’
‘He could hardly be worse, judging by the two examples of Rattock’s work which have come to our notice, but he has been both foolish and dishonest. The dishonesty may be excusable, but the foolishness is not. Imagine putting his mediocre paintings side by side with Mr Pythias’s work in that shop in Southampton and attempting to pass both off as his own! Is there no limit to human self-deception and vanity?’
