take a post as staff nurse. But that is hardly likely. She’s engaged to our local vicar and they want to marry next Easter.”
She glanced across at Dalgliesh a little maliciously.
“He is considered a most eligible young man. You seem surprised. Superintendent”
Dalgliesh laughed: “After over twenty years as a policeman I should have learnt not to make superficial judgments. I think I had better see Nurse Goodale first I understand the room you’re making available isn’t ready yet I suppose we could go on using the demonstration room. Or are you likely to be needing it?”
“I would prefer you to see the girls somewhere else if yon would. That room has very unhappy and dramatic memories for them. We’re not even using it yet for teaching demonstrations. Until the small visitors’ room on the first floor is ready I’d be happy for you to interview the students here.”
Dalgliesh thanked her. He replaced his coffee cup on the table. She hesitated, then said:
“Mr. Dalgliesh, there’s one thing I want to say. I feel-I am-
“Please forgive me if I’m being offensive. One has so little experience in these matters. It’s just that I shouldn’t like them…”
To be trapped?“
To be rushed into saying things which might quite wrongly incriminate them or other members of the staff.“
Dalgliesh found himself unreasonably irritated.
“There are rules laid down, you know,” he said.
“Oh, rules! I know there are rules. But I’m sure you are both too experienced and too intelligent to let them hinder you over much. I’m just reminding you that these girls are less intelligent and in such matters not experienced at all.”
Fighting his irritation, Dalgliesh said formally:
“I can only tell you that the rules are there and that it’s in our interests to keep them. Can’t you imagine what a gift to the defending counsel any infringement would be? A young unprotected girl, a student nurse, bullied by a senior police officer with years of experience in trapping the unwary. Enough difficulties are placed in the path of the police in this country; we don’t voluntarily add to them.”
She flushed and he was interested to see the wave of color sweep from her neck over the pale honey glowing skin making her look momentarily as if the veins ran with fire. Then, instantaneously, it passed. The change was so sudden that he couldn’t be sure that he had actually seen that tell-tale metamorphosis. She said composedly:
“We both have our responsibilities. We must hope that they don’t conflict In the meantime you must expect me to be as concerned with mine as you are with yours. And that brings me to some information which I have to give you. It concerns Christine Dakers, the student who discovered Nurse Fallon’s body.”
She described briefly and succinctly what had happened during her visit to the private ward. Dalgliesh noted with interest that she made no comment, offered no opinion, and attempted no justification of the girl. He didn’t ask her whether she believed the story. She was a highly intelligent woman. She must know that what she had handed him was the first motive. He asked when he would be able to interview Nurse Dakers.
“She’s sleeping now. Dr. Snelling, who is in charge of the nurses’ health, is to see her later this morning. He will then report to me. If he agrees, it should be possible for you to see her this afternoon. And now I’ll send for Nurse Goodale. That is, if there is nothing more I can tell you?”
“I shall need a great deal of information about people’s ages, backgrounds and the time they’ve been at the hospital. Won’t that be on their personal records? It would be helpful if I could have those.”
The Matron thought. Dalgliesh noticed that when she did so her face fell into absolute repose. After a moment she said “All the staff here have personal dossiers, of course. Legally these are the property of the Hospital Management Committee. The Chairman won’t be back from Israel until tomorrow evening but in consult the Vice- Chairman. I imagine that he win ask me to look through the records, and if they contain nothing private which is irrelevant to your inquiry, to pass them over.”
Dalgliesh decided that it would be prudent not to press for the moment the question of who should decide what was irrelevant to his inquiry.
He said: “There are personal questions I shall have to ask, of course. But it would be a great deal more convenient and would save time if I could get the routine information from the records.”
It was strange that her voice could be so agreeable and yet so obstinate.
“I can see that it would be a great deal more convenient; it would also be a check on the truth of what you are told. But the records can only be handed over under the conditions I have just stated.”
So she was confident that the Vice-Chairman would accept and endorse her view of what was right And undoubtedly he would. Here was a formidable woman. Faced with a tricky problem she had given the matter thought, come to a decision and had stated it firmly without apology or wavering. An admirable woman. She would be easy to deal with as long, of course, as all her decisions were as acceptable as this.
He asked if he might use the telephone; recalled Sergeant Masterson from his supervision of the preparation of the small visitor’s room to serve as an office; and prepared himself for the long tedium of the individual interviews.
II
Nurse Goodale was summoned by telephone.and arrived within two minutes looking unhurried and composed. Miss Taylor seemed to think that neither explanation nor reassurance was necessary to this self-possessed young woman but simply said:
“Sit down, Nurse. Superintendent Dalgliesh wants to talk to you.”
Then she took up her cloak from the chair, swung it over her shoulders, and went out without another glance at either of them. Sergeant Masterson opened his notebook. Nurse Goodale seated herself in an upright chair at the table but when Dalgliesh motioned her to an armchair before the fire, moved without demur. She sat stiffly on the very edge of the chair, her back straight, her surprisingly shapely and elegant legs planted modestly side by side. But the hands lying in her lap were perfectly relaxed and Dalgliesh, seated opposite, found himself confronting a pair of disconcertingly intelligent eyes. He said:
“You were probably closer to Miss Fallon than anyone else in the hospital. Tell me about her.”
She showed no surprise at the form of his first question, but paused for a few seconds before replying as if marshalling her thoughts. Then she said:
“I liked her. She tolerated me better than she did most of the other students but I don’t think her feeling for me was much stronger than that. She was thirty-one after all, and we must all have seemed rather immature to her. She had a rather sarcastic tongue which didn’t help, and I think some of the girls were rather afraid of her.
“She seldom spoke to me about her past but she did tell me that both her parents were killed in 1944 in a bombing raid on London. She was brought up by an elderly aunt and educated at one of those boarding-schools where they take children from an early age and keep them until they’re ready to leave. Provided the fees are paid of course, but I got the impression that there wasn’t any difficulty about that She always wanted to be a nurse but she got tuberculosis after she left school and had to spend two years in a sanatorium. I don’t know where. After that, two hospitals turned her down on grounds of health, so she took a number of temporary jobs. She told me soon after we began our training that she had once been engaged but that it didn’t work out”
“You never asked her why?”
“I never asked her anything. If she had Wanted to tell me she would have done so.”
“Did she tell you that she was pregnant?”
“Yes. She told me two days before she went sick. She must have suspected before then but the confirming report came that morning. I asked her what she intended doing about it and she said that she would get rid of the baby.”
“Did you point out that this was probably illegal?”
