‘Really?’
‘I’m afraid it’s rather important,’ said Laura. ‘The police…’
‘I am not in the least surprised. However, you can hardly expect me to jeopardise the good name of my school. I fear that I must decline to assist you, Mrs…’
‘Gavin. I may add that my husband is a Detective Chief-Inspector at Scotland Yard and that what we are investigating is a case of murder.’
‘I cannot help you.’
‘But Miss Palliser
‘Certainly, but that is hardly the point now.’
‘Why not?’ asked Laura. ‘The point is that somebody has done away with Miss Palliser. Surely you are interested in that fact?’
‘Why should I be? Miss Palliser was thoroughly unsatisfactory in every way. Her teaching was slovenly and incompetent and her character was undesirable. Do you wish me to say more?’
‘Lots more,’ said Laura crisply. ‘You seem just the person to be able to tell me why she should have got herself murdered.’
‘Murdered? But…’
‘Oh, yes, I know it looked like the younger sister, and that the mother identified the body as such, but there seems no doubt now that it was Miss Palliser and not Mrs Coles who was killed.’
‘But—we had better go in here, Mrs Gavin. This news comes as a great shock. You see — ” She opened a door on her right and led the way into a large, high-ceilinged room panelled in white. ‘You see, Miss Palliser left here under a cloud.’
‘Stealing?’
‘Please sit down. Embezzlement, I suppose one would term it. Money collected for a school journey, you know. I had to make it good, and there isn’t much margin when one runs a school of this type. I had to dismiss her. I could not keep her on.’
‘But you didn’t go to the police?’
‘For the sake of the school. I cared nothing about Miss Palliser. In fact, she had caused me so much worry and expense that I own I felt vengeful. But it would not have done to take her to court on such a charge—the parents, you know. There would be a lack of confidence in me if they thought my staff capable of stealing money paid in by the children. Of course, I could not give her a testimonial which would have helped her to secure another teaching post and she left here threatening suicide. It was quite dreadful. And now you say that she is dead.’
‘Murdered.’
‘But who would have wanted to do such a terrible thing?’
‘That is what we hope to find out.’
‘We?’
‘Yes,’ said Laura, resolved not to be more enlightening.
‘I did not know that the police took their wives into partnership.’
‘Oh, it happens.’
‘Dear me! I had no idea! But, then, of course, I know very little about police procedure. In any case, I don’t see why you have come to see me.’
‘We are leaving no stone unturned. We are trying to reconstruct Miss Palliser’s past life to see whether something will come to light which will give us a clue to her murderer.’
‘I see. Well, there is no way in which I can help you. It won’t be necessary, I hope, for you to make it public that a—that a murdered woman was once on my staff?’
‘That shouldn’t be at all necessary. I understand…’ Laura hesitated a little in order to choose a tactful wording for her next remark, ‘… that is, I believe you have a system here by which the staff do not receive an annual salary, but are employed from term to term, so to speak.’
‘That is so. It is often done in schools of this type. It is necessary. We have no government grant of any kind.’
‘No, I appreciate that. Then… for how many terms did you employ Miss Palliser?’
‘Five.’
‘Have you any idea what she did during school holidays? Where she worked? With whom she stayed?’
‘None at all. She was well aware of the terms of her employment. She had agreed to them. What she did when she was not teaching here was none of my business.’
‘I suppose,’ said Laura, ‘you would have no objection to my speaking to any member of the staff who was here with Miss Palliser?’
‘There is none.’
‘None?’
‘Staff changes are very frequent, Mrs Gavin. There is nobody, except myself, who was here in Miss Palliser’s time.’
‘Oh, I see. Well, thank you very much for giving up your own time like this. So far as you are concerned then, the dead woman is still Mrs Coles, not Miss Palliser.’
