‘Oh, well, except for Bannister. He never comes to dances. Says he hates them. Everybody else turned up either for the whole or part of the time, and on the evening in question Mrs Moles stayed on to help in checking the needlework accounts. But what’s all this in aid of? There’s something behind it. I’ve an instinct in these matters.’
‘Quite so. I’ll come clean on two conditions.’
‘This sounds interesting.’
‘It is. I’m not really a teacher, as you’ve probably guessed by now, although I was properly trained, but, before I say more, you’ve got to promise that not one word of this goes a step further… Miss Golightly knows it already, so
‘Heavens alive! It sounds like a spy story!’
‘That’s just what it may be. I’m not, as I say, quite what I seem.’
‘Well, of course, I won’t breathe a word, and, as for the witnesses, well, Batt, Fennison, and I were running the thing, so we could all swear to one another. Then Welling, as cookery teacher, was in charge of all the refreshments, so she, and her helper, Franks, would have been on the premises all the time, too, if that’s any good to you. And now, do relieve my curiosity or I shall burst! It’s about Faintley, isn’t it? Are you a female sleuth? I don’t believe it!’
‘I am and I’m not.’ Laura gave a full account of how she and Mrs Bradley had first become involved in Miss Faintley’s affairs, and she had only just finished when it was time to go to her classroom. She was delighted, however, with the information she had received. It seemed that most people on the staff could be written off so far as the telephone call was concerned. Of the others, it was in the highest degree unlikely that the plump and shrill- voiced Miss Ellersby, the rather unsuitable music specialist, could have impersonated a man, so Laura decided that she also could be passed over. There remained, as possible, collaborators with Miss Faintley over the affair of the parcels, Messrs Taylor, Roberts, Bannister, Trench, and Tomalin. Therefore it had been a real man, and not a masquerading woman, who had walked away from the telephone on the night when Mandsell had taken the call intended for somebody else… not that Laura had ever thought otherwise. One thing only nagged at her. She felt that if Miss Faintley had expected to hear the voice of a colleague, she must have been surprised when Mandsell answered, particularly as he had made several attempts to explain that he was not the person who had arranged to take the call.
The surprise of the day was to come. Just after the mid-morning break a girl came in with a note. Laura opened it and read:
Laura recognized these initials as those of Mr Tomalin. Full of zeal for her task, she decided at once that he had something to contribute about Miss Faintley, so she scribbled at the bottom of the note:
She felt contrite. Obviously she had misjudged Mr Tomalin. He must be much more intelligent and perceptive than she had supposed. He had tumbled to the reason for her presence at the school and was prepared to offer important information. It was in the friendliest spirit that she greeted him after morning school.
‘Oh, yes,’ said Tomalin, shortly, ‘but it isn’t me, of course. It’s Bannister. I said I’d ask you on his behalf. He wouldn’t ask you himself in case you refused.’
Laura laughed, and said she never refused an invitation to eat. Three minutes later the misanthropic Mr Bannister was blurting out that he thought they had better go to Hagford. ‘If you don’t mind using your car,’ he concluded. ‘That would give us nice time.’
‘
‘Oh, yes. I can’t, anyway. It’s like this,’ he went on, when they were in the car and Laura was on the straight road for Hagford, ‘I’ve been thinking about that woman Faintley and I want to give you a bit of advice, if you wouldn’t think it cheek. Anyway, I felt I ought to warn you that she wasn’t everything she seemed, not by a long chalk, either. Don’t you go getting mixed up in her affairs. If the school stock has to be called for at Hagford station, you let somebody else call for it. I don’t like to see a young girl taking risks, if you don’t think it impudent to say so.’
‘To begin with,’ said Laura, ‘I’m not my own idea of a young girl. But, be that as it may, I’m glad you’ve mentioned Miss Faintley and the parcels, because I had an idea that Miss Golightly was a bit diffident about my going and getting them. Actually it was rather nice, because of getting the time off from school. But what do you mean about taking risks? It was nothing to do with the school stock that Miss Faintley got killed.’
‘Not to do with the school stock, no. But that wasn’t the only thing she used to collect from Hagford Junction, you know. Turn left here. We’ll go to the Crown. It’s quite the best pub for lunch. I do hope you don’t mind my inviting you out? I know you usually go with some of the women, which would naturally be more fun for you than this, but I didn’t see any chance of talking to you at school. Well, here we are. It’s all right to park outside.’
He took her into the saloon bar, and asked what she would drink.
‘Mustn’t be long,’ said Laura, accepting sherry and glancing at her watch.
‘It’s all right. I booked a table on the off-chance that you would come, and Williams knows me. He’ll see we get served nice and quickly. Now, look, this woman Faintley. I happen to know that she used the school parcels to cover another activity. I found it out by accident one day last term. A boy, fooling about while I was out of the room, got a jab with the point of a compass. It was so near the eye that Miss Golightly thought I’d better take him over to the hospital. On the way back by myself I saw Miss Faintley get out of her car and go with a parcel into a small shop. She didn’t see me because I was behind her. I glanced into the shop as I passed it, and there was rather an unsavoury specimen behind the counter who was shelling her out some pound notes. Just as I glanced in he leaned across and gave her a ringing slap in the face. I didn’t like that much, so I charged in and bellowed at him. But Faintley wasn’t grateful. She said, “Don’t interfere in family disagreements,” but I said I didn’t like to see women knocked about, even by their fathers. The chap turned suddenly very civil and said he did not often lose his temper with his niece, and he asked me whether I was a master at the school, and Miss Faintley told him I was, and invited me to go back with her in her car. As we were driving back she begged me not to mention that she had called to see her uncle, as she was out on school business and had had no business to have gone into the shop at all. I promised, of course, but I wasn’t satisfied. I couldn’t believe that he
