she?’
‘Oh, they begin at eleven years old these days. They get away with it for a time, but they’re caught out in the end.’
‘But not necessarily murdered.’
‘Who’s talking about murder?’
‘I thought
‘Oh, yes, they’re going much too far. As I say, she met some bloke – probably that day she pinched my car and went off with Adrian to Stack Ferry – and they met again by arrangement, probably more than once—’
‘And bathed together on an outgoing tide? Then why wasn’t the man drowned as well as the girl?’
‘That’s quite an easy one. It may have been a mere matter of muscle.
‘No use at all. Well, if you don’t want any more tea, I’ll get you Adrian’s address and then perhaps you had better go.’
‘Thanks.’ He looked at her helplessly. ‘I – well, yes, I think I
Morag laughed. She had always been much tougher than he, he reflected, except when he had hardened his heart and broken their engagement.
PART TWO
CHAPTER 7
DISCREET ENQUIRIES
‘Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.’
« ^ »
‘Well, here is a thing and a very pretty thing,’ said Dame Beatrice to her son who was breakfasting with her. ‘A pity Laura is not here. An accomplished swimmer might be very useful in helping me to deal with this very pretty thing.’ She handed a letter across the table. Sir Ferdinand studied it.
‘A girl drowned by swimming on an outgoing tide?’ he said. ‘The writer thinks it unlikely that she would have done such a thing, but I note that he does not say it is impossible. Holidaymakers take these foolish risks, as he admits.’
‘You will be leaving after lunch and Laura will not be back here for another fortnight. I am at leisure and I feel inclined to look into this matter. The writer thinks the drowned girl was involved with a man.’
‘Girls always
‘It seems to me that, although he does not say it in so many words, he suspects that the girl was murdered.’
‘Well, girls on holiday are quite liable to pick up a wrong ’un, I suppose, but drowning fatalities are always a bit tricky. Very difficult to prove anything unless there is definite evidence of foul play.’
‘What are you proposing to do with yourself this morning?’
‘Oh, golf at Brockenhurst, I think. What time lunch?’
‘When you like.’
‘Let’s say one-thirty, then. I’m dining this evening with Radcliffe, so I have plenty of time. I shan’t need to hurry away from here this afternoon.’
When he had left her, Dame Beatrice read Adrian Kirby’s long letter again.
‘We hope it is not too presumptuous of us to ask your help,’ Adrian had written, ‘but our lawyer told us that you were probably the only person who could get to the bottom of this mystery, for mystery it most certainly is. We are convinced, my wife and I, from all that we know of Camilla Hoveton St John, that she had far too much sense of self-preservation and ordinary commonsense, too, to have done anything so foolish as to swim on an outgoing tide on this dangerous part of the coast. We feel that if only we could trace her movements after she and her suitcase left the cottage… ’ There followed several pages of explanation. Dame Beatrice perused them carefully for the third time. Then she went to the telephone, rang Adrian’s number and promised to meet him at his London flat on the following day.
There was no doubt whatever about the warmth of his reply. He was more than grateful, he said, that Dame Beatrice should be willing to interest herself in the matter and that his wife would be delighted to provide her (and anybody she chose to accompany her) with a bed for the night. Dame Beatrice assured him that that would not be necessary, since her chauffeur could easily make the double journey in a day. It was then arranged that Adrian and Miranda would be ready to receive her at any time after two in the afternoon.
‘Camilla was a very foolish girl,’ said Miranda sadly, when the visitor had been admitted to the flat and was settled in an armchair.
‘But her foolishness did not include being foolish enough to bathe on an outgoing tide,’ said Adrian. ‘Our friend Colin Palgrave tried it once and had great difficulty in getting back to the shore and Colin is a powerful swimmer. No, poor little Camilla died because somebody drowned her. According to the medical evidence given at the inquest, she was not a virgin. I think, therefore, that she was raped by one of the men she was in the habit of picking up, and then drowned by him so that she should not tell the tale. My main reason for wanting an enquiry, Dame Beatrice, is so that some other young girl shall not suffer the same fate at the hands of this monster. Such creatures don’t stop at a solitary victim. One has only to read the papers.’
‘As I understand the situation, proof of murder is going to be very difficult to come by,’ said Dame Beatrice, ‘unless, also as you say, the person tries again.’
‘The
‘Not necessarily. I admit that if murder has indeed been committed, a man is the more probable suspect, but I prefer to keep an open mind. Murder by a jealous wife or fiancee is by no means unknown. You see, if you are right and murder has been committed, the likeliest thing is that Miss Hoveton St John.was not drowned on an outgoing tide at all, but when the sea, as such, was perfectly safe for a swimmer. I am going on the assumption, at present, that you
‘But that,’ said Miranda, ‘could involve Colin Palgrave. There is no doubt he went swimming with Camilla on the night she failed to return to the cottage.’
‘But she
‘We don’t know that she did. I think it far more likely that she went back to the cottage while the rest of us were with Colin at the pub and took it away then.’
‘I can’t understand what he was doing to have to go upstairs and downstairs at all. If he came back to collect his things, well, they were all in the parlour, where he had always slept until Morag and Cupar turned up,’ said Adrian.
‘He may have wanted to change his clothes without disturbing Morag.’
‘Morag wasn’t there, and he wouldn’t have bothered about Cupar.’
