A Javelin for Jonah

“We agreed, I thought, that you are incorruptible.”

“Well, for what it’s worth—and this is the real reason I went to Gassie about Kirk—one of the shots is missing. Martin told us out on the field and asked whether we knew anything about it. I’m in his squad, you know, and, of course, the staff watch the stock like hawks since that javelin business.”

“One of the shots?”

“Yes, for shot-putting, you know. They each weigh seven point two five seven kilo, or, in plain English, very nearly sixteen pounds. Give you quite a bump on the head if anybody dropped one on you.”

chapter

13

A Shot in the Dark

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Martin was giving a coaching to his hammer-throwers. Noting the wide arc which some of the throws covered, Dame Beatrice advanced towards the instructor with caution. As soon as he spotted that she was heading in his direction, however, Martin ordered his squad to abandon practice and went over to meet her.

“I see that you use a standard protection cage,” she said.

“Yes. It’s necessary with tyros. Besides, it has been known for the head to fly off the wire, or the wire to part company with the handle. It’s a marvellous event, but could be lethal. It nearly did for the Lord Lieutenant one year, or so I’m told.”

“Indeed? I came not about the hammer, but about a shot which I’m told is missing. It seems to coincide with a missing student.”

“Yes. Richard told me.”

“So there is a shot missing?”

“Yes, indeed. I’ve questioned the rest of the staff, the only people who have keys to the stock-cupboard, but I can’t raise any answers that might help.”

“I imagine that a search will be instituted for the missing student. I only hope that Richard’s misgivings will not prove to be well-founded.”

“That somebody bounced the missing shot on the missing student’s head? I could believe anything after this Jonah business. And Kirk is a nasty little bit of work, you know. If he’s been doing any snooping and got on to something connected with Jonah’s death, well, I imagine murderers are not the most squeamish of people, otherwise they wouldn’t be murderers.”

“A just and logical summing up. Tell me, Mr. Martin, how did you come to seek a post here?”

“I was glad to get one anywhere,” said Martin frankly. “My mother is a widow and we were left very badly off when my father died. I got a very poor sort of degree, which wasn’t much of a return for the way she’d seen me through Cambridge, so when I came down I applied for anything which was going, and came up with this. The advertisement mentioned athletics as a useful side-line, so, as I’d got my Blue, I thought I might stand a chance.”

“And you did, it seems.”

“Matter of fact, old Gassie jumped at me. It was a very pleasant surprise, I can tell you, and the pay is much better than I ever expected.”

“Do you like it here?”

“Very much, especially since James came. I say, what’s going to be done about Kirk? Do they think he’s skipped? I hope that’s all it is.”

“Well, a search will be instituted before Mr. Medlar informs his parents that he is missing.”

“That means another film show, I suppose. Poor old Henry!”

“Mr. Henry thinks it will be unnecessary to stage a film show. As it is tea-time the students can be left to occupy themselves. Are you proposing to join the search-party?”

“Oh, yes, of course. As I say, I only hope the wretched kid has run home, though, because, if we find him here, I don’t think we’ll find him alive. He was all kinds of a little snooper and—well, murder often leads to murder, doesn’t it?”

Dame Beatrice returned to the house and encountered the searchers who were setting out in couples or threes. This was by Medlar’s instructions.

“It will be as well,” he had said, “for each of you to have at least one witness if you should come upon anything suspicious concerning this unfortunate lad. I have telephoned the police to let them know that he is missing. I dare not take chances after what happened to Davy.”

Laura was with Hamish and they were joined by Martin, who had dismissed his squad to go to their tea. It was Henry and Miss Yale who found the body, Laura who found the shot. There had been no attempt to hide either. The body was seated with its back against the only tree in a little clearing in the woods. The shot was lying in a ditch near by and had been caught up in some brambles.

Henry, who had brought a whistle, blew three blasts on it to call off the search and then he hurried back with the others to report to Gascoigne, who sent at once for Dame Beatrice.

“The police cannot be here just yet,” he said. “Nobody has touched the body. Do you wish to see it before the police arrive?”

“I think not. Matters had better be left entirely to them and their surgeon. I hope they will soon be here.”