A Javelin for Jonah

“I wonder why the police are convinced that the staff had nothing to do with it?”

“Naturally their thoughts have turned first to the students, but no doubt the staff will come in for their share of questioning and scrutiny if the inspector convinces himself that the students were not the murderers, but that may take him some time.”

After lunch Dame Beatrice rested until the official College afternoon began, and then she went on to the field in search of Henry. She found him conducting a coaching of the shot-putters.

“I have been talking to Mr. Medlar about the death of his wife,” she said.

“Ah,” said Henry. (“Nuzzle it between the heel of your hand and the side of your jaw, Adrian. Keep that elbow down a bit. Get up to the stop-board, man! You don’t want to lose a couple of feet on your putt.) Sorry to interrupt you, Dame Beatrice, but this ridiculous fellow could reach fifty feet if he’d only manage to get one or two things right.”

“He would still be something short of Randy Matson’s 1967 record,” said Dame Beatrice surprisingly.

“You were saying?” said Henry blankly.

“Why did you give Gascoigne Medlar an alibi for his wife’s death?”

“I didn’t. I merely said, when they cross-examined me, that his wife was quite irresponsible and that her death could have been either accident or suicide.”

“What caused you to give up your work and take a post at Joynings, I wonder?”

“It’s not such very different work, and it’s better paid,” said Henry. “Maybe the people with whom I deal here are not so unfortunate as those with whom I dealt formerly, but the work, I find, is really more to my taste. Murderous young thugs are more interesting, I find, than maladjusted, difficult children. Besides, I needed a change of environment when my wife died.”

“Talking of murderous young thugs…”

“Yes, it wouldn’t hurt for you to take another look at one or two of them,” said Henry, smiling.

“Hamish’s Paul-Pierre, for example, and Hamish’s guardian angel, the pugnacious Richard?”

“Yes, and Barry’s Colin, except that he’s still in hospital.”

“What about Mr. Barry himself?”

“Yes, he had it in for Jones all right. You realize, I suppose, that the police have not lost interest in us? Will you be working in with them?”

“That depends to some extent upon the inspector’s attitude. By the way, I have been thinking about a fact which interested me not a little.”

“Oh? What was that?”

“Bertha’s father is the village blacksmith.”

“I know he is, but I don’t see…”

“I was thinking of the new steel point on one of the javelins.”

“Nobody who had murder in mind would risk having a toss-pot like him to do a job like that. Besides, there is nothing to show that the javelin which was tampered with had anything to do with Jonah’s death. If that could be proved. (Leverage, Carlotta, leverage, dear!) Right from the soles of the feet! You’re not throwing a stick for a dog! If that could be proved, Dame Beatrice, we could get a whole lot further.”

“How many students are in the javelin group, Mr. Henry?”

“How many? Let’s see now. (Keep the shot under control, Matthew, until you actually part with it. Look, like this, old man.) Sorry, Dame Beatrice. How many javelin throwers? Can’t say exactly. It’s apt to vary, because some of them like a change from their own event and tack on to another squad for a bit. Still, on average, I should say a couple of dozen or more turn out for coaching. It’s a spectacular event, you see, and therefore popular. Showing-off is prophylactic here. That’s why we get so little trouble.”

“And you muster only a dozen javelins.”

“Expensive items, you know, and Gassie will only buy the best. Says it’s false economy, if you want results, to fob people off with inferior materials. Our javelins cost up to twenty-five pounds apiece. That’s why it’s so annoying that somebody has mucked one of them up by putting a new head on it. Hang it all, the heads are made of best Swedish steel, anyway.”

“What about ‘practice javelins,’ so-called?” asked Laura. “They wouldn’t cost more than about five pounds each, would they? And do the girls use the standard eight-hundred grammes, eight-foot-six javelin as well as the men? And what about the boys?”

“Dear me!” said Henry, amused. “Well, to answer your knowledgeable questions, Mrs Gavin, Gassie will not buy ‘practice’ javelins. Probably mere snobbery on his part, but there it is. Out of the twelve javelins we have in stock, eight are of full length and weight, and four are six hundred grammes in weight and seven-foot-six in length. These are for women and juniors. As nobody here is under sixteen, the youngest ones rate as juniors, not as boys. What happens is that I take my coachings in groups of six, so that no more than half a dozen javelins are in use at one time.”

“So that the over-weighted javelin need never have been used since it was altered,” said Dame Beatrice. “That certainly clears up one doubtful point.”

“Mind you,” said Henry thoughtfully, “it can’t have been on the rack very long, or surely somebody would have drawn my attention to it.”

“This elusive somebody!” commented Laura. “Who picks out the javelins which are to be used?”