College provides and they are hardly likely to be impressed by the presence of so many murder squad detectives. That blue caravan is most off-putting.’
‘In any case with the late Mrs Wilt structured into the foundations…’ began Dr Board.
‘I am doing my best to get the police to remove her from…’
‘The syllabus?’ asked Dr Board.
‘The premises,’ said Dr Mayfield. ‘Unfortunately they seem to have hit a snag.’
‘A snag?’
They have hit bedrock at eleven feet.’
Dr Board smiled. ‘One wonders why there was any need for thirty-foot piles in the first instance if there is bedrock at eleven,’ he murmured.
‘I can only tell you what the police have told me,’ said Dr Mayfield. ‘However they have promised to do all they can to be off the site by Friday. Now I would just like to run over the arrangements again with you. The Visitation will start at eleven with an inspection of the library. We will then break up into groups to discuss Faculty libraries and teaching facilities with particular reference to our ability to provide individual tuition…’
‘I shouldn’t have thought that was a point that needed emphasising,’ said Dr Board. ‘With the few students we’re likely to get we’re almost certain to have the highest teacher to student ratio in the country.’
‘If we adopt that approach the Committee will gain the impression that we are not committed to the degree. We must provide a united front,’ said Dr Mayfield ‘we can’t afford at this stage to have divisions among ourselves. This degree could mean our getting Polytechnic status.’
There were divisions too among the men boring down on the building site. The foreman was still at home under sedation suffering nervous exhaustion brought on by his part in the cementation of a murdered woman and it was left to Barney to superintend operations. ‘There was this hand, see…’ he told the Sergeant in charge.
‘On which side?’
‘On the right,’ said Barney.
Then we’ll go down on the left. That way if the hand is sticking out we won’t cut it off.’
They went down on the left and cut off the main electricity cable to the canteen.
‘Forget that bleeding hand,’ said the Sergeant, ‘we go down on the right and trust to luck. Just so long as we don’t cut the bitch in half.’
They went down on the right and hit bedrock at eleven feet.
This is going to slow us up no end,’ said Barney. ‘Who would have thought there’d be rock down there.’
‘Who would have thought some nut would incorporate his misses in the foundation of a college of further education where he worked,’ said the Sergeant.
‘Gruesome,’ said Barney.
In the meantime the staff had as usual divided into factions.
Peter Braintree led those who thought Wilt was innocent and was joined by the New Left on the grounds that anyone in conflict with the fuzz must be in the right. Major Millfield reacted accordingly and led the Right against Wilt on the automatic assumption that anyone who incurred the support of the left must be in the wrong and that anyway the police knew what they were doing. The issue was raised at the meeting of the Union called to discuss the annual pay demand. Major Millfield proposed a motion calling on the union to support the campaign for the reintroduction of capital punishment. Bill Trent countered with a motion expressing solidarity with Brother Wilt. Peter Braintree
