‘You did not think of meeting her with your car?’
‘No. I do not care to drive at night in case there may be ponies on the roads. Not all the Forest is fenced. This she understood. She shrugged her shoulders and said that she would be brought back after the dance and that I need not worry and must leave the front door unbolted. She had, of course, a key, in case I should be out at any time during Saturdays, so that she would be free to come in and go out as she pleased. That was an arrangement from the beginning.’
‘And you agreed to leave the front door unbolted?’
‘I was not very happy to do it. Karen’s death has made me very nervous. However, I agreed, and asked Maria please to come in very quietly, as I am a light sleeper and would not wish to be awakened. Well, if she is to be escorted home, I tell myself that there is nothing for me to worry about, but I ask her how late she expects to be. She says she does not know. It is her first term at the University and she has no idea how long are the College functions.
‘Well, she returns, as usual, to College on the Sunday, and I continue to tell myself that there is nothing to worry about, but I find myself worrying, all the same, so on the following Thursday I telephone the number I have been given in case Maria is taken ill at week-end and will not attend lectures, and I ask about the function on Saturday and at what time it will be over. They reply that I am making a muddle. There is no function on the Saturday because all the students went down already on the Tuesday.’
‘Dear, dear!’ said Dame Beatrice, feeling that some comment was expected. ‘How very disconcerting for you!’
‘What to do, I ask myself. I am in loco parentis to this naughty, deceitful girl. How shall I act for the best?’
‘Ring up her College landlady and ask what is going on, I imagine.’
‘Exactly so. That is what I do.’ There was a pause. Dame Beatrice ended it.
‘And?’ she asked. Mrs Schumann clasped her hands together and groaned histrionically.
‘The landlady says that on Tuesday a ship’s officer calls for Maria and says he is my son and that he will take her home, as he has shore leave for Christmas.’
‘So that is how Otto comes into the picture! But how did he know where to find her?’
‘Ah, that! When he finds out about Karen he is given leave of compassion to come and see me. It was after the inquest and after the funeral, of course, but he has heard nothing until the ship docked at Poole. I will say for him that, for once, he comes straight home, not even waiting to get drunk, and is very sympathetic and kind. That is on the Friday, when Maria comes to me the same evening also.’
‘I see. That is how they met.’
‘Well, as my duty to her, I take Maria aside and warn her, because I see that she likes him. “Otto,” I say to her, “is not good with women.”’
‘To women,’ said Dame Beatrice, in automatic correction.
‘Please?’
Dame Beatrice apologised and then explained.
‘How did Miss Machrado take your warning?’ she added.
‘Maria shrugged it away and said she was well able to manage her men.’
‘Dear me! How very advanced and adult that sounds, does it not?’
‘So. I say to her, “You are a very silly little girl, and do not know what you are saying”. But will she listen to me? No. All of two Saturdays and Sundays they go out together, where I do not know, but Otto takes my car – without permission, of course – and on the Sunday evenings he takes her back to her lodgings in it. I say to him, “You will not get back until the little hours of the morning, and I shall not leave the door without bolts”. He says to me, “Then I sleep with Maria at her digs”. I think perhaps he will do so, because I know him to be a wicked naughty boy, so I pretend I make a joke and I say that of course I do not bolt the door, and I give him my key so that he can let himself in, but I do not sleep until I hear him come back, and that is at half-past three.’
‘How long was he able to stay with you?’
‘Two weeks, as I tell you, so he sees Maria two week-ends, and then comes Monday, when he says he must go back to his ship. But, of course, he does not go back to his ship. He goes to Southampton, but not to any ship, not there, not at Poole. He sleeps all the time with Maria at her lodgings, so I find out now, and makes trouble for her so she is with child. Then I think she makes trouble for him also, to marry her, but, instead, I think he kills her, for she is dead of being choked, just like my Karen. So what am I to do? I am a mother. I cannot go to the police and tell them that my son is a murderer.’
‘Of course you cannot. Have they questioned Otto?’
‘Yes, oh, yes. Me also. Both of us. Otto denies, and I – how am I to say to them that he is lying?’
‘It will not be necessary. They will conduct the inquiry along their own lines and find out the truth.
