‘Thank you very much indeed, Mr James,’ said Dame Beatrice, ‘for your co-operation. Perhaps …’ she looked at Gavin, who shook his head to indicate that he had no further questions to ask … ‘perhaps we should now take leave of the headmaster.’
James left them. Gavin looked at Phillips and raised his eyebrows. Phillips shrugged.
‘Not much gets past his guard, I’d say,’ he remarked.
‘What was all that about dates in history?’ asked Gavin.
‘A shot in the dark,’ Dame Beatrice replied.
‘That missed its mark?’
‘There are more artful dodgers than have found fame in literature, dear child.’
Phillips looked gratified.
‘Just what strikes me about that smooth alec,’ he said. ‘He can bear watching, I reckon.’
Dame Beatrice said,
‘His response to a question he could hardly have been expecting was prompt, and very much to the point.’
‘Well, I suspect him,’ said Phillips sturdily, ‘but I can’t get any further forward. He answers all questions smoothly and even promptly, as you say, otherwise he claims that he doesn’t know or can’t remember. He’s even got an alibi of sorts.’
‘Oh, yes. He claims that he spent the day in the school library. Can that be confirmed?’ asked Gavin.
‘No, sir. I tried the head caretaker, but he, the boilerman and all the women cleaners had the day off as well. As you probably know, sir, as soon as the school closes of an afternoon, the women cleaners come in, but, as the school was not in session that day, no cleaning took place and the boilers were stoked last thing on the prize-giving afternoon – the school uses coke – and then were let die down, according to the official orders applying on such occasions and on school holidays and at the week-ends. All the head caretaker knows is that Mr James went to him as soon as the day’s holiday was decided on and told him he would be working in the library that day, probably all day long, and so he would want it left unlocked, so that he could get in.’
‘How soon, I wonder, was the holiday decided on?’ asked Laura. ‘I thought the school governors and the Ministry’s Inspectors had to be given a fair amount of notice if the school was to be closed for any reason.’
‘It seems the teachers were able to take the half-day extra – the one asked for at the prize-giving – for granted. It was a long-established custom. So they were able to give due notice all right, because they had the other half-day coming to them anyway.’
‘Why should James have had to ask to have the library left unlocked? I should have thought all keys would be hung up on little marked pegs in the secretary’s room or in the Staff Common Room,’ said Laura, ‘so that they were handy.’
‘I wouldn’t know that, Mrs Gavin. I’ll make a note of it. It adds a further bit to my suspicions of James. It makes it look as though he wanted to bolster up his alibi by mentioning it to the caretaker. It’s an old trick and doesn’t always work. However, it may be that the caretaker himself keeps the school keys and locks up the staffroom and the secretary’s office.’
‘He’s bound to have a set of keys, of course,’ said Laura, ‘and if the secretary’s room, or wherever the staff’s set of keys is kept, was locked, as, of course, it might well be – yes, yes, it’s my nasty, suspicious mind running away with me.’
‘It’s a point, all the same, Mrs Gavin,’ said Phillips weightily. ‘What was to stop him just hanging on to the library key from the day before? That would have been the sensible thing to do. Then he need not have bothered the caretaker at all.’
‘I suppose you’ve had a word with the two girls who shared the flat with Miss Schumann?’ said Gavin.
‘I have, sir, but they weren’t much help. They took a busride into Bournemouth, had a slap-up lunch and went to the big cinema near the Lansdowne with a couple of fellows they know who teach at the art school. They have no idea what Miss Schumann was planning to do.’
‘It’s a bit odd she telephoned her mother to ask whether Mrs Schumann was going to be at home that day,’ said Laura. Phillips cocked an eye at her.
‘How do you mean, Mrs Gavin?’
‘Miss Schumann went home every week-end. She took an interest in her mother’s job. She must have known that her mother was due to go over to Ringwood with that champion clumber to give a service. It’s big money when you’ve got a good dog at stud. Her mother is bound to have told her about the contract, so why phone her to confirm the arrangements? To make sure the house was going to be empty, do you think?’
‘So that she and James could have the day to themselves there?’ asked the Superintendent. ‘It’s a thought. And, of course, she wasn’t killed where you found her. We’re certain of that. On the other hand, knowing the other two girls were going to be out, she could equally well have invited the boy-friend to the flat, couldn’t she?’
‘Ah, but there might have been prying eyes there – the other flat-dwellers, you know – whereas her mother’s place is a detached cottage with lots of garden all round it and no company but the dogs and puppies.’
‘And there he could have killed her, and nobody the wiser? Something in that. But then he’d have had to get the body to those woods, and the difficulty there is that there’s no access from the main road except for that small wicket-gate. The main gate the woodmen’s lorries use is on the woodland side, you’ll remember, not so very far from where she was found. He couldn’t have brought a car in
