Laurels Are Poison

‘Because I should wake the other students if I had a bath upstairs.’

‘Didn’t you wake the servants, miss?’

‘They didn’t seem to mind. They’d soon have complained if they had minded, I should think.’

‘Very good, miss. Now, did you see or speak to Mrs Castle, the last time you had one of these late baths?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did you usually see her on these occasions, miss?’

‘No.’

‘Were you surprised to see her?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

‘Well, without meaning any — anything, I’m bound to say she was a miserable old blighter — luckily as deaf as a post, or she’d have heard me before.’

‘Oh, she was deaf, miss, was she?’

‘Good Lord, yes. Everyone knew that.’

The inspector picked up the house telephone and asked for Mrs Bradley.

‘Did you know Mrs Castle was deaf, madam?’

‘Yes. Everybody knew that.’

‘Thank you, madam… You were saying, miss, that you saw Mrs Castle?’

‘Yes. She — she kind of popped out on me, and said she’d draw the bath while I got warm by the kitchen fire. She felt my hands and said I was cold and that it wasn’t a good thing to get into a boiling hot bath if you were cold. Then she shoved me into the kitchen, where there was still quite a bit of fire — burning out, you know, but the room was warm — and shut the door. Then I heard the bath water rushing in, so I toasted myself until she came and lugged me out and told me the bath was ready. All very odd. She was a crotchety old thing as a rule. Bella was my pal down there.’

‘And did you see any unauthorized person on the premises while you were down there, miss?’

‘Did Mrs Bradley tip you off about that?’

‘If you would kindly answer the question, miss.’

‘I didn’t see anybody, but I heard someone. At least, I don’t know about unauthorized. I thought it was another student, and later on I was sure it was, only it seems it really couldn’t have been.’

‘Explain that statement, please, miss.’

‘Oh, didn’t they tell you we had a ghost in the place that night? Yes, I’d just got out of the water, and it was making the — making a noise running out, so that you couldn’t hear much else, you know, when I heard a most frightful sort of screeching, wailing whistle — most weird. So I shoved the plug in the bath and listened again, and really it was most grisly. And then I heard this person whispering, and decided it must be a rag. So I shoved my wet feet into tennis shoes, wrapped my bath sheet round me, and floated upstairs, because I thought if there was a rag in progress, I’d better be among those present in case they counted heads. They did, too. Roll-call in the Common Room. But I was there with them, answering up with the best.’

‘Can you add anything more to that statement, miss? We should find it very helpful, I may tell you, if you could.’

‘No, I don’t think I can tell you any more. How awful, though. Do they really think Cook was — ’

‘Now, miss,’ said the inspector, cutting her short. ‘I’ve not used that word, and you mustn’t, not until after the inquest. And then perhaps we shan’t need to.’

He asked to see Mrs Bradley again before he left.

‘Of course,’ he said, ‘we’ve got nothing really to go on, nothing at all. But it’s suggestive about this visitor in the kitchen regions while the young lady was having her bath. But what would be the object of anybody alarming the house by whistling like that in the dead of the night, do you think, madam?’

Mrs Bradley shrugged.

‘There is a school of thought which is determined to get me out of Athelstan,’ she said. ‘This is not surprising, considering the reason for my presence. I seem to be endangering somebody’s peace of mind. So far, the incidents have been slight, silly and spiteful. The death of Mrs Castle marks a more ambitious stage.’

To what extent the inspector accepted this interpretation of the facts she could not tell. He asked for details, and she gave them. If he thought them negligible he did not say so, and he and Mrs Bradley parted with great cordiality, Mrs Bradley asking only one question.

‘Have you finished down by the river? Is the road open now?’ she inquired.

‘Oh, yes. The young ladies can get along that way this afternoon, if they want to,’ said he.

‘Ah,’ said Mrs Bradley.

‘Are you prepared to come along and identify the body, madam? The only letters on her were addressed to the College. It would be easier than trying to find her relations.’

‘Oh, I can give you the address she left with me for holidays, but I’ll come along, by all means.’

She was, in fact, particularly anxious to see the body, although not for the sole purpose of identifying it.