‘Only one, sir, from near the hostel.’
‘Oh, you mean the turning as you go towards Long Cove Bay. We went right into the town and took the main Gledge End road from there. It’s a better surface and more direct. Where was Judy when — when it happened?’
‘Near a turning to the village of Wayland, which is on the border of the Forestry Commission’s property. At what time did you get to Gledge End, sir?’
‘I don’t know exactly. We didn’t rush things. When we got to the town we had a bite to eat and then we went to the church hall and arranged the chairs ready for our show. We don’t use a stage, you see. We make a hollow rectangle to dance in and put three rows of chairs round to enclose it, so there was a quite a bit of work for us to do and we were at it until about three o’clock. Then we cycled back along the road by which we had come and got in just before the others turned up.’
‘Did you expect that Judy would think better of her departure and turn up again that evening?’
‘We thought she might have done, because otherwise we couldn’t see where she was going to sleep. We’re not booked in anywhere else until tomorrow night, but of course we didn’t know that it was impossible for her to come back.’
‘Well, that’s all for the present. Will you send me the gentleman who went with you to Gledge End?’
‘I say, are you going to question us one by one?’
‘Such is my intention, sir. Why?’
‘Well, you see, we simply
‘I shall be as expeditious as I can, sir, but surely you rehearsed earlier today at Gledge End?’
Giles’s return to the hostel was greeted with a barrage of questions.
‘Did he grill you?’
‘Is it third-degree stuff?’
‘What sort of things does he ask?’
‘He wants to see Plum next,’ shouted Giles above the other voices. ‘And for goodness’ sake,’ he added, ‘don’t spin out the interviews, or we shall never get our rehearsal. He wants to see all of us in turn. It will take all night if you argue, so tell him what he wants to know and don’t embroider it.’
All that Ribble wanted from Plum was confirmation of what Giles had told him. He was careful to ask no leading questions, but Plum’s answers were all in agreement with the approximate times which Giles had given him, the route the two of them had taken to get to Gledge End and the way they had occupied themselves when they had arrived there. Ribble soon dismissed him and asked him to send over the girl who had quarrelled with Judy.
Peggy was very much on the defensive and began by blurting out the bald question: ‘You think somebody murdered Judy, don’t you?’
‘We have to keep all possibilities in mind, miss.’
‘Well, it certainly wasn’t one of us.’
‘If you would just answer one or two questions, miss, bearing in mind that nobody has been accused of murder or anything of the kind. My object is to eliminate, not to accuse. Now I would like to know exactly how you spent Thursday.’
‘I went to the hairdresser’s in Broadsands.’
‘You were hardly there all day, miss.’
‘It took me an hour and a half to cycle there and an hour and a half to cycle back, half an hour for a cafe lunch and an hour in the hairdresser’s.’
‘Can you give me the name of the hairdresser, miss?’
‘Yes. It is Antoine’s in Duke Street. I always go there. The assistant I always have is called Marcelle. Does that satisfy you?’
‘Thank you, miss.’
‘I suppose you’ve heard that I had a row with Judy on Wednesday. Well, we did have a few words and she took offence and went off in a temper on Thursday, but we all thought she would come back, although Giles put in a rehearsal on Thursday evening just in case.’
‘So you went nowhere near Gledge End on Thursday, miss?’
‘Of course not. I cycled into Long Cove Bay and then turned north for Broadsands. I didn’t go anywhere near Gledge End.’
‘May I ask why you quarrelled with Judy?’
‘It wasn’t so much a quarrel; just an argument. One thing led to another. It always does. It was about the music for the hornpipe at first and then it sort of hotted up and Mick got involved.’
‘You mean he joined in the argument?’
‘No. Judy and I both had a mother-complex about him. He’s only nineteen and really more like a girl than a boy. You feel protective towards him. We both did, but it didn’t bring us together. Quite the reverse, in fact.’
‘May I put a question which is not directly concerned with the matter at issue, miss? Do you and the rest depend upon your performances for earning a living?’
‘Good gracious, no! Some of us are teachers on half-term holiday, Mick is on strike from a factory office, and Judy was married and ran a play-school. Any money we make goes mostly in expenses and anything over goes to charity. Mostly we only put on a Saturday show, and that’s what we’re going to do in Gledge End. We’re really simply on holiday, cycling and walking and staying at the hostels.’
‘Would you know Judy’s home address? She was not wearing a wedding-ring when we found her. What was her married surname?’
‘She was Mrs Tyne, But I don’t know the address. I expect Giles does. He’s secretary as well as leader, so she was sure to be in his book. Running a play-school she would have to be on the telephone, too. He probably knows the number.’
‘Thank you for your help, miss. Would you kindly ask the youngest gentleman to come over here?’
Mick was nervous. Ribble tried to put him at ease.
‘Just a few questions, sir,’ he said. ‘Perhaps only one, in fact, will be necessary. Will you tell me exactly how you spent Thursday?’
‘Thursday? That’s the day it happened.’
‘The death? Yes, that’s right, sir.’
‘I feel responsible, you know.’
‘Why is that, sir?’
‘The row, the disagreement, you know.’
‘I wouldn’t worry about that, sir. Just tell me where you went and what you did on that day.’
‘Willie and I have a tandem.’ (Ribble had seen one among the bicycles in the shed.) ‘We went to Crosswell on it.’ i ‘Was it customary for your party to break up in that way, sir?’
‘How do you mean?’
‘It was not your custom to remain together on the days when you were not performing?’
‘Quite often we did stick together, but there was this row between the two girls, you see, and anyway Plum and Giles thought they ought to go over to Gledge End to make sure everything was all right for Saturday.’
‘But the rest of you saw no reason why you should go with them?’
‘They said they didn’t need any help. Of course, they hadn’t thought about having to rearrange all the seating. We usually perform on Saturday mornings in school halls, you see, and the school arranges the chairs the way we want them before the kids go home on Friday.’
‘So you and Willie cycled to Crosswell on your tandem. A good long stretch, wasn’t it?’
‘Not on a tandem. We left at soon after nine and got back at six or thereabouts, and, of course, we didn’t hitch on the trailer which carries the dance things.’
‘Did you know before you started that Mrs Judy Tyne had decided to leave the party?’
‘We knew she had threatened it, yes. She said so the night before while the row was on. It was the night we got here. We’re only allowed three nights at the same hostel, so it was to be Wednesday, Thursday and tonight here, then the afternoon show tomorrow at Gledge End and then the night at the next Youth Hostel and back to our
