‘I am going beyond my brief with my next question,’ she said, ‘but it is one the police may put.’
•Go ahead.’
‘Do you know whether your wife had insured her life?’
He looked startled.
‘Insured her life? I’m sure she hadn’t. I don’t see how she could have afforded to pay the premiums. She had no money except what her own father had left her, and that wasn’t much.’
‘Did her stepfather help to keep her?’
‘I don’t really know about him. I know her own father left a little bit and that her college fees were paid out of it. And she had quite a fair amount of money to spend.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Well, she always paid for her own holidays when we went away together, and often stood treat in restaurants. I used to do the actual paying, but she often handed me the money beforehand.’
‘But she never referred to any life insurance policy?’
‘Definitely not. Look here, can you think of anything else the police might ask me? I’ve had a pretty bad knock, and I’d like to be prepared. Are they—I know it sounds a bit odd, but, naturally, one’s read about these cases—are they likely to suspect me? Had I better get my alibi quite clear?’
‘You have an alibi, then?’
‘Good Lord! I hope so!’
‘Then you had better be prepared with it. The husband or wife is usually first on the list of suspects.’
He shrugged, laughed, then bit his lip, as though recollecting what had happened to cause her to make the statement. He got up, then.
‘Well, thank you for your help,’ he said. ‘I’d better say good-bye to Miss McKay and get back to Garchester. We shall meet again at the inquest, perhaps?’
‘I shall be there.’
‘Well, what do you make of him?’ asked Miss McKay, when Coles had taken his leave and gone. Dame Beatrice waved a yellow claw.
‘I must have notice of that question,’ she said. ‘I want to look over Mrs Coles’ wardrobe.’
Miss McKay asked no questions. She touched the buzzer for her secretary, who delivered Dame Beatrice into the charge of the head student. There was little wardrobe accommodation in the study bedrooms, and, beyond a suit obviously retained for best wear, a dance frock, a stuff frock for ordinary college wear, and some sweaters, blouses and changes of stockings and underclothes, there was nothing very much in the missing student’s room and certainly nothing to excite remark. It was not what was there, but what was not there, which interested Dame Beatrice.
‘Are there any clothes in a trunk in the boxroom or the basement?’ she enquired.
‘Yes. Most people keep clothes in their trunks, and then, of course, we are allotted lockers for such things as dungarees, Wellingtons and dairy dresses,’ the head student replied.
‘Yes, I see. I should like to look into her trunk.’
She was shown this and, for form’s sake, she also inspected the dead girl’s locker in the basement. She shook her head.
‘Did the student not possess a dressing-gown?’ she asked. ‘And I have seen only one pair of pyjamas.’
‘One pair would be in the wash, but there ought to be a third,’ said the head student. ‘And a dressing-gown—I don’t know for certain. She may have used her overcoat.’
‘But that also is missing, and she was not wearing it when she was found. Will you please keep this little expedition of ours strictly secret from the rest of the college?’
‘Yes, of course, if you wish, but would you not like me to try to find out about the dressing-gown?’
‘The overcoat seems far more important. Considering the time of year, one can deduce that it does exist somewhere. No doubt your reactions to that supposition are the same as my own.’
‘I take it you mean that if it’s not in college, it must be somewhere else. The question, I suppose, is— where?’
‘Exactly.’ She beamed upon the student and returned to acquaint Miss McKay with the negative result of her researches.
‘We didn’t fathom her,’ said Miss McKay. ‘But, of course, a girl who will contract a secret marriage in the middle of her training may be a darker horse than I had suspected. I wonder how far on the police are in their investigation? So far, they haven’t troubled the college. I suppose that is because she was found twenty-five miles away. All the same, I shall be surprised if we are not overrun as soon as the inquest is over. What, if anything, will come out at the inquest, I wonder?’
‘Probably nothing but the cause of death.’
‘You actually named spotted hemlock as the vehicle. How was that?’
‘That was simply guess-work. I had noticed the spotted hemlock about the neighbourhood. Of course, the murderer has had bad luck. It was by the merest chance in the world that your students took up the piece of material that hid the body from view. Who could have supposed that they would want to use the stage-coach?’
‘Ah, yes. I have asked no questions in case I might hamper the police or your own enquiry, but I should be interested to know what caused them to explore the interior of the coach. I realised at the time, of course, that
