Adders on the Heath

'Come now,' said Dame Beatrice persuasively, 'you cannot deny that both substances are to be found in the school laboratory in which you work.'

'Did work.'

'I accept that amendment. You knew that they were there, and I have it upon evidence that you have been known to boast that you could kill the whole school, if you wished to do so.'

'It was only a bit of a joke.' He was on the defensive at last.

'So I suppose, but it may help you to avoid being suspected of two dastardly murders if you will help me in my enquiries.'

''Ow?'

'By telling me who, besides yourself and the science master, could have known that the poisons were there.'

'Why, anybody could of knowed-anybody at the school, that is.'

'Yes, but who, in particular, comes into your mind? You realise that one of the two murdered men may have had one particular connection with the school?'

'I don't realise nothing.' She knew that he did not. It would have been surprising if he had.

'Look, Mr.-er-Borgia-' she said.

'That ain't my name!'

'No, I did not suppose it was. On the other hand, you appear to have been proud enough of calling yourself by it until now.'

'I ain't give nobody no poison!'

'It might suit me to believe that, if I had no other sources of information.'

Borgia raised his voice.

'You're out to frame me! I don't know nothing about it! My name's Robinson and you're tryin' to take it away! Leave me be, I tell you, else I'll do you, you old...!'

'Very well,' said Dame Beatrice.

Robinson stood up and leaned menacingly over her.

'You ain't 'eard the last of this,' he said. 'No, nor you ain't 'eard the last of me, neither.'

'I look forward to the oral reunion,' said Dame Beatrice. 'Nevertheless, should anything come to your mind which might clear you of active participation in this affair, it might be as well to let me know. This address will find me.' She put a visiting-card on the table. The young man snatched it up.

'Oh?' he said, studying it. 'Oh, I getcher, Dame. Well, I better think things over. Ta for the tip. Be seein' yer.'

It was a strange kind of retreat, Dame Beatrice thought. She had scared him. So much was obvious. But whether he had guilty knowledge of the murders, or whether there was something else on his conscious, or whether, like so many persons, ignorant or otherwise, he had a horror of anything to do with the police, it was neither just nor possible, at this stage, to determine.

'He sounds a gosh-awful little oik,' commented Laura, when she was accorded an account of the interview. 'Do you really think he did it?'

'We should need to establish a connection between him and the two dead men before we could begin to speculate upon his guilt or innocence, child, and I do not think that any such connection exists.'

'Meaning,' said Laura shrewdly, 'that, although he's a filthy little basket, you don't believe he'd commit murder.'

'Well, not these particular murders. No, frankly, I do not think he would use poison. It would require an even lower type of mentality than that with which heaven appears to have blessed him, to call himself Borgia, if he really did intend to poison people, don't you think?'

'I've stopped thinking about this case,' said Laura. 'I always come back to the same old starting- point.'

'And that, in your opinion, is...?'

'Who on earth except Denis could have known that Richardson was camping up there on the heath and that he'd had two rows with that man? Again, who would have risked changing over the bodies like that, knowing (I somehow feel), that Richardson had seen the first one?'

'Ah,' said Dame Beatrice, wagging her head. 'Think it out for yourself. There is only one answer to each of those questions and I fancy I know what it is. But we must have proof.'

CHAPTER TWELVE

WOMAN AND CHILD

'What a situation am I in! If what you say appears, I shall then find a guilty son.'

Oliver Goldsmith-She Stoops to Conquer

The boy was called Clive Maidston and appeared to be a spoilt child. Mr Maidston was at work when Dame Beatrice called, and his wife received her with a certain amount of reserve.

'Mr Richardson?' she said. 'Well, there, of course, there were difficulties.'

'I liked Mr Richardson,' said Clive. 'You needn't have sent him away.'