‘You know,’ said Laura, ‘I think the police have something up their sleeves. Surely the motive ascribed to the porters is inadequate? Men don’t commit murder because they’re accused of purloining a parcel, do they? It’s not even as though a charge of theft has been proved.’
‘I agree that the police may have more to go on than we have been told, but your second contention is more doubtful. The question of motive is a difficult one. That is why the courts are far more interested in means and opportunity than in motive, for it has often been shown that a motive for murder which might appear perfectly adequate to one person would never lead to such drastic repercussions in someone else. The point is beautifully made by H.R.F. Keating, you will remember, in his fascinating story
‘Yes, but that involved the game of croquet and it’s well known that no other pastime, not even professional lawn tennis, arouses such bitter passions. There was no love lost between the English and American teenagers in
‘Yes, indeed. If I remember the passage correctly. “Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed. The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarrelling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs.” ’
‘Which were being used as croquet balls. Yes, and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion and went stamping about and shouting “Off with his head!” ’
‘It sounds very much like an acquaintance of mine. But, to return to our own particular sphere of interest, there is the important question of the parcel containing the watch. The most obvious point, it seems to me, is that there appears to be no real evidence that it was ever delivered to the College at all. If, however, it was despatched but did not arrive, it would be interesting to find out why that was and what has become of the watch.’
‘Another thing strikes me,’ said Laura. ‘It was such a peculiar gift to send to a woman. She couldn’t wear the watch; she couldn’t even display it to much advantage. A watch isn’t like a large, eye-taking clock, or a picture, or a piece of sculpture or furniture, is it?’
‘It may have been sent her merely as a keepsake.’
‘Perhaps Sir Anthony thought she would sell it. It may have been a way of providing her with money without actually writing a cheque. I wonder how the police came by such a detailed account of the watch?’
‘Oh, Mrs Lawrence would have been bound to describe it to them when she complained that she had not received it. Sir Anthony must have sent a covering letter which gave a complete description of the gift.’
‘I suppose so. What do we do next?’
‘We arrange to interview some of the various parties who have already been interrogated by the police. I have no doubt that the High Mistress has arranged for her porters to be represented by a reputable solicitor, but I will make sure that this has been done. If necessary, I will do it myself. I am sure that the police have not sufficient evidence to charge the men either with theft or with murder, but if they believe they
Dame Beatrice began her enquiries with a visit to Mrs Lawrence’s landlady, who proved co-operative and eager to help.
‘For to believe as poor Mr Oates or Tom Wagstaffe did anything so wicked as stealing and murder, I simply could not bring myself,’ she said. ‘I’ve known them both from boyhood up, and it isn’t in them to act so sinful.’
It transpired, during the course of the interview, that she had not cared overmuch for Mrs Lawrence.
‘You’d have thought she was one of the dons, the way she went on. Very high and mighty she was, and with none of their quiet, ladylike ways. Nose in air, that was her. Not that she tried it on with me. I knew her parents when they kept a little bread and bun shop on the Wisden road, and her husband not what I would call a don, neither, he being only a lecturer at a college somewhere up north. Of course I only met him the once and I can’t say he struck me as much of a gentleman, if you know what I mean.’
‘Oh, really? And when did you meet him?’
‘As I told the police when they asked me, it would have been just about this time two years ago, and I never saw him before or since.’
‘Did Mrs Lawrence live here during vacations?’
‘Easter and Christmas she did, and went into College most days. Sometimes it was to get on with some work and sometimes it was to develop her photographs. She had permission to photograph the university buildings and all that, you see, both inside and out. She was doing it for the Warden of Wayneflete College, she told me, because he was writing a book. That’s how she got permissions which would not have been given to an outsider.’
‘Apart from that one visit from her husband, did she have other callers?’
‘Not gentlemen callers, although I would have had no objection, seeing she was a married woman. There was her brother, of course, but I don’t count him, and she used to have three ladies come in one evening a week for a quiet game of bridge, that’s all.’
‘Apart from her College duties and the darkroom connected with her photography, did she go out very much?’
‘Once a week to the cinema and sometimes she’d go to one of her ladyfriends to watch television. I don’t allow it here, you see.’
‘Oh, really? Why is that?’
‘I had to ban it because some of my lodgers used to have it on so loud, and that made others complain. Those that felt they must have it had to go, but I never have empty rooms for long. I’ve got a reputation for cleanliness and good cooking and a fair rent and no extras, you see. Most of my lodgers are Third Year women students and they’ve got their work to do of an evening. I don’t take the rackety sort.’
‘This is all very interesting. What did Mrs Lawrence do during the Long Vacation?’
