‘The next thing is to get the body identified, assuming (without prejudice, of course) that it’s this woman, Coralie St Malo.’
‘Because she’s disappeared it doesn’t follow that she’s dead. She may have skipped her digs just because she couldn’t pay the rent. It’s a chancy kind of life for these chorus and bit-part people, I believe.’
‘Yes, there’s that. Well, we’d better get hold of Lawrence and see whether he recognises her. There was that row in the pub, sir. It could be a pointer.’
‘I suggest, as she was found on their premises, we try the College authorities first. If she’s who you think she might be, nobody here will recognise her, so then we can get on to Lawrence, although it’s chancing our arm a bit.’
‘Not a very nice job for these College ladies. She’s not the prettiest of sights, sir.’
‘We’ll try the College porters, then. They won’t be quite so squeamish and they may have spotted some suspicious character about the place. I wonder how the fellow got in after dark?’
CHAPTER 8
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‘Hullo, what’s this?’ said Laura. She was sorting out the morning’s correspondence and the question was rhetorical. From a foolscap envelope she extracted a typed letter and, with it, a clipping from a newspaper. She was perusing the clipping when her employer came down to breakfast. She looked up from her reading.
‘The fun seems to be under way,’ she said. ‘I opened this envelope because it was typewritten, but it’s from the Chief Constable and I think the contents are for your personal information. The newspaper bit is all about that cloister garth at Abbesses College. They’ve found a body in it and the police are calling upon a man to assist them in their enquiries. I bet that means Lawrence!’
‘So you suppose him to have killed his redundant first wife, do you? I would not have associated him with physical violence, but perhaps you are right.’
‘But there’s an odd thing about it. The body has been identified as that of the
‘Interesting. Are there any details?’
‘Only that she’d been dead for some days before the body was buried. The police are still looking for the place where she actually died. I don’t suppose they’ll make an arrest until they find it. They haven’t found the weapon either.’
‘What of Coralie St Malo? Has
‘She’s been traced to Blackpool, where she’s with a pier-head concert-party. She’s been sharing a room with another chorus girl there.’
‘So the story of the public-house quarrel between Miss St Malo and Lawrence is entirely irrelevant, although their subsequent reconciliation (if both stories are true) may not be irrelevant at all.’
‘You mean Lawrence may have ditched the Dean’s secretary, in the most permanent manner known to man, in preparation for taking up again with Coralie?’
‘Nothing, on the face of it, seems less likely, unless there are wheels within wheels of which we know nothing.’
‘What kind of wheels would those be?’
‘Square ones, perhaps.’
‘Are you proposing to take a hand in the matter?’
‘Not unless I am called in officially when the police have made an arrest, so that I can report upon the state of mind of the accused.’
‘But you were the first person to see that there was something suspicious about that hole in the middle of the cloister garth.’
‘And you were the first person to hear about the prowler with the sack. Are
Laura looked down her nose, but had no need to reply to the facetious question, for at that moment the telephone rang and she went into the hall to answer it.
‘It was the High Mistress of Abbesses College,’ she said, coming back into the room. ‘She’s in no end of a taking. The police have given up questioning Lawrence, it seems, and have taken the two College porters into custody. Will you speak to her? I asked her to hold on.’
The High Mistress begged Dame Beatrice to come and see her.
The High Mistress may have been in a state of great disquiet, as Laura, in other words, had indicated, but if so she did not betray it when she received her visitors. She was a dumpling of a woman with intelligent eyes, a fighter’s nose and a good humoured mouth which, however, could betray rat-trap determination when occasion called for it.
She greeted Dame Beatrice and Laura with great cordiality and gave them tea. Her parlourmaid – a distinction must be made here: the dons and the students had scouts to attend on them, but the servants at the Lodging were always referred to as the maids – her parlourmaid cleared the table at the end of a meal during which the conversation had simply consisted of general chit-chat, and then the High Mistress got down to business.
