Disordered Minds

'Certainly. The direct route to higher education was through the grammar schools and private schools, which made it so pernicious that a child's future was decided at eleven.' She paused, glancing doubtfully from one to the other. 'Is this really what you came to talk to me about? I can't believe the opinions of a doddery headmistress- long past her sell-by date-add anything useful to the current debate on education.'

George looked guilty. 'Well...'

'In a way it is,' said Jonathan, hunching forward to address her more directly. 'We're doing a case study of troubled children in the decades after the Second World War. There are two from Highdown that interest us. Howard Stamp, who was convicted of murdering his grandmother, and Priscilla Trevelyan, who disappeared in 1970. Howard was certainly before your time, but I believe Priscilla was one of your pupils?' He raised an inquiring eyebrow which she answered with a nod. 'Would you be willing to tell us what you remember of her?'

She sighed wearily as her disappointments were compounded. 'If you're detectives, then you're wasting your time. As I told your predecessors, I have no idea what happened to the poor child.'

Jonathan took a card and security pass from his inside pocket and passed them to her. 'That's my photograph, name and title ... and at the bottom of the card is my departmental telephone number. I am more than happy for you to call and verify that I am who and what I say I am. Councillor Gardener can be similarly verified through her office or by telephoning one of her colleagues at the Birches Nursing Home in Highwood.'

George promptly took one of her own cards from her case and offered it across. 'We aren't detectives,' she assured the woman, 'although I had the same response from Louise Burton's brother. I understand the Trevelyans have been trying to find their daughter for years.'

Miss Brett barely glanced at the cards before shifting herself forward, preparatory to standing up. 'I'm sorry but I can't help you. It was a devastating event ... if I'd known anything useful I would have told the police.'

It was a clear dismissal but Jonathan ignored it. 'Georgina and I are approaching this from a very different angle,' he told her. 'We're more interested in why Priscilla became a statistic rather than where she is now. If her parents are to be believed from the press coverage, most of her problems stemmed from the fact that she was brighter than her peers ... and that's not an unreasonable assumption. The links between truancy and delinquent behavior are well documented, and boredom is a trigger for both. Do you agree-indeed did you agree at the time-with Mr. and Mrs. Trevelyan's assessment of their daughter? Would Priscilla have been a less disturbed juvenile if she'd won a place at grammar school?'

It was a question that was pitched at the educationalist in her, and it worked. She remained sitting. 'Truancy is commonly a symptom of underachievement, Dr.-' she consulted Jonathan's card again-'Hughes, while disruptive behavior in class can be a symptom of an above-average IQ that is not being thoroughly tested. Priscilla certainly fell into the latter category ... so in that respect I did agree with Mr. and Mrs. Trevelyan. But although her brightness made her a difficult and unruly child, I don't believe it was the cause of her truancy ... or, more importantly, her disappearance.'

'What was?'

Miss Brett tapped her forefingers together. 'You must put that question to her father.'

Jonathan glanced at George, who stepped seamlessly into the conversation. 'William Burton told me she was knowledgeable about sex,' she said matter-of-factly. 'I know it was less understood in those days but-looking back-do you think she was sexually abused?'

'Yes.'

'By her father?'

'Yes.'

George reached for a notepad and pen. 'Is that something you told the police?'

There was a short silence. 'No,' said the old woman, then, 'it's a conclusion I've come to in the last ten years. For a long time I blamed myself-it's a devastating event in a teacher's career to feel responsible for a child's disappearance. I liked to think I was approachable-I should have been approachable...' She broke off abruptly.

George's inclination was to stretch out a sympathetic hand, but Jonathan spoke before she could do it. 'A student of mine was murdered in New York recently after I sponsored him to a scholarship out there,' he said evenly, 'and I'm left with 'if onlys': if only he hadn't been black ... if only America and the U.K. hadn't whipped up hysteria against world terrorism ... if only the man in the street could recognize that Muslim and terrorist are not synonymous.' He smiled. 'I'm guessing your 'if only' was to do with the rape? If only Priscilla had told you about it, you wouldn't have punished her for fighting with Louise, her father wouldn't have had an excuse to hit her ... or worse ... and she wouldn't have run away.'

Miss Brett nodded. 'That and more. She had a precocious, sexual vocabulary and didn't think twice about using it, particularly around the male teachers, but it never occurred to any of us that that might be a symptom of abuse.' She gave another sigh. 'I'm afraid it just made her unpopular in the staff room and her punishments were always more severe because of it. I regret that deeply. One wonders where the poor child found kindness if she wasn't getting it at home.'

'There was so much ignorance then,' said George. 'It seems incredible now, but it wasn't until the Maria Colwell inquiry in '74 that the issue of child abuse really surfaced.' She caught Jonathan's eye. 'It wasn't until poor little Maria was dumped at hospital by her stepfather that the authorities recognized they should have protected her. He was her murderer, for goodness sake ... he'd beaten a starving seven-year-old to death and he didn't think anyone would object.'

'Things haven't improved much,' said Jonathan, thinking of his own upbringing. 'The trouble is, there's a thin dividing line between child protection and eugenic experimentation. We object to children being forcibly removed from inadequate parents, but complain when the same children die of neglect and brutality. It's a catch-22 for the authorities.'

Miss Brett looked interested. 'First define inadequacy,' she said dryly. 'There were many other parents I came into contact with who would have fitted the description better than the Trevelyans. Who's to say which father is harming his child?'

'Or how?' said George thoughtfully. 'There's evidence that David Trevelyan hit Priscilla-even the mother seemed to admit it by talking about his strictness-but I'm less sure about the sexual abuse. William Burton's account of the rape suggests Cill was still a virgin. He said there was so much blood on her legs that Louise had to go home to find a pair of trousers to hide it. It may have been a period, of course, but I'm more inclined to think her hymen was broken ... and that would make the rape the first time she was penetrated.'