A Javelin for Jonah

“Each student, under my supervision—we never let anybody loose in the stock-room—chooses his or her own. They pick up a javelin, weight it by the grip, shake it a bit and then decide upon it or select another. Naturally a wrongly-balanced javelin would be returned at once to the rack.”

“So that’s the way the cat jumps,” said Dame Beatrice. “And no student is unsupervised when he selects his javelin, but you don’t dictate his choice.”

She nodded, leered kindly at him and went off to find Miss Yale. She discovered the head of the women’s side closeted with two students to whom she was giving tea. Dame Beatrice accepted a cup and very soon after her arrival the students, who seemed to find her presence alarming, took their leave.

“I take it you’ve come about something important,” said Miss Yale. “The police were here again, I saw. Don’t know what they’re bothering about. Who cares what happened to blasted Jonah? The man was an absolute menace. But I don’t suppose you came to me for a character sketch of him. Anyway, I’m glad he’s dead—and that goes for most of us here. If I’d thought of it soon enough, I’d have murdered him myself, so if you’re giving a hard look at the possible starters, you had better count me as one of them. But I’m wasting your time.”

“Not at all. I did come, however, on a particular errand. I have been talking to Mr. Henry and he confirms something which I had already gathered.”

“Oh, yes?”

“I understand that no man-student is ever allowed to go unsupervised to the cupboard where the javelins are kept. Does that apply equally to the women students?”

“Yes, of course it does. It’s Gassie’s unvarying rule. The girls haven’t the record for violence that comes with some of the men, but Gassie spends the earth on buying the very best sports apparatus obtainable and we’re sworn to cherish it.”

“Does that key of yours unlock that particular cupboard?”

“You can try it, if you like, but it certainly does not. The lock on that cupboard is a special one. There are far too many clever apes in this college for Gassie to risk them picking locks and collecting, for instance, Jerry’s starting-guns.”

“I see. So if the murder weapon was that javelin with the lethal point, only a member of the staff could have returned it to the rack.”

“Well, you didn’t think the students killed Jonah, did you?”

“Have you heard the result of the inquest?” Dame Beatrice enquired. She felt it unnecessary to reply to the last question.

“Yes. Gassie attended and so did the poor kid who first saw Celia’s dogs digging up the body. Open verdict,” stated Miss Yale.

“As a matter of fact, the inquest has been adjourned so that the police can continue their investigations.”

“That’s the story, of course. Means they know it was murder and now they’ve got to pin it on somebody.”

“What made you offer me your own name as, let us say, one of the possibles?”

“Oh, I hated the poisonous reptile. I wasn’t the only one, of course, but I had a key to that stock-cupboard, so I could have got hold of the doctored javelin…”

“But most of the staff had a similar key, had they not?”

“Yes, but they weren’t all interested in the javelins, were they? I say, though, I do wish you’d stop involving yourself in our affairs. I mean nothing personal, but I don’t want bloody Jonah’s murderer brought to book, that’s all. Whoever stuck a spear into that inebriated swine did a public service. That’s the way I look at it.”

“Yes, I see. However, with regard to murder, I cannot really approve of it. I will suggest a thought to you in order to cause our conversation to steer a slightly different course, though. You mentioned just now that the staff are not, all of them, interested in the javelins.”

“Well, they’re not, are they?”

“I rather fancy, you know, that we can eliminate Mr. Henry, yourself and Mr. Martin. It seems to me that the last weapon the murderer would have chosen is one which would be connected with him and therefore would seem to point to him as the guilty party. If I thought that the murder was unpremeditated and was done on the spur of the moment, I might think differently, but the lethal point which, to make assurance doubly sure, the murderer had put on to one of the javelins disposes of any such idea. Granted that the students played into the murderer’s hands, there remains the fact that the means of committing the murder must have been provided before the students planned their unkind prank.”

“The killer might have known in advance what their plans were, though.”

“I think not. Their plans could not have been made until they knew that Mr. Henry was going to stage his film show, and that seems to have been proposed very much on the spur of the moment.”

“Yes, I suppose it was. I don’t know whether to ask this, but are you getting anywhere with your investigation?”

“I am relying upon help from the staff.”

“But if any of us knew anything we’d have come across with it, wouldn’t we? I mean, surely everybody wants the wretched business cleared up as soon as maybe?”

“That is not what you indicated a few moments ago. However, I have studied Mr. Medlar’s notes on the reputations and personalities of the students, and they have given me no help. Since Mr. Medlar shows no sign of wanting me to leave I have begun a different line of enquiry.”

“Oh, I guessed from the very beginning that you weren’t here just to vet the students. You were hobnobbing with that police inspector and I happen to know that James is your godson and that his father is an Assistant Commissioner of Police. Anyway, in spite of what I said, I think Gassie is wise to have you here, provided he didn’t do the job himself.”