‘And they went to London?’
‘They went towards it. The roads were very crowded and by lunch-time they had reached Guildford, where, after having to wait for some time, they secured a table for lunch. They did not finish this meal until a quarter past two, and, because of this, they gave up any idea of going on. Instead, they visited Guildford Cathedral, which was thronged with sightseers. They then drove to Dorking, where they had tea at about four o’clock, and then came back to the house, which they reached at half-past eight. Some of this is confirmed. They signed the visitors’ book in the Cathedral and are remembered at the Dorking hotel.’
‘And there is nothing in Mrs Castle’s past life which would indicate that she had an enemy or enemies capable of killing her?’
‘No. Her past is an open book. She came of an ordinary lower middle class family, went to be trained as a teacher, specialising in French, went to live in France and got caught up in the Resistance, came home, taught over here for three years, married, moved with her husband to Hampshire, continued to teach for another couple of years, then, his salary and prospects improving, she gave up her job for five years, but his death made it imperative that she should earn her living again. She has no children.’
‘Anything unsatisfactory known about her husband’s death?’ asked Laura.
‘Nothing at all, Mrs Gavin, in the way that I know you mean. He was foolish enough, in spite of warnings, to bathe on an outgoing tide at a noted danger-spot on the North Devon coast and got swept out to sea. We’ve checked on that. It was a sheer accident caused by his own obstinacy and his disregard of the danger signals which were being flown from the beach.’
‘And at the school? Was she popular?’
‘She had been there a very short time, as you know, but seems to have been quite an acceptable member of staff, and was kind to this young French girl you have staying with you.’
‘And what of Edward James?’ asked Dame Beatrice.
‘Ah, yes, James. Here the story is not at all satisfactory and we are still trying to check on it. He tells us that on Saturday he went to Oxford to consult a friend on some points in connection with his theological studies. He does not seem to have warned this friend – a certain Mr Hailing – to expect him and, not surprisingly on a Saturday afternoon, found that he was out. He says that he then went to Iffley to look at the church, returned to Oxford and had tea at a crowded restaurant near Carfax and then returned to his lodgings where his landlady had left him some cold meat and salad, she herself having gone to Salisbury.
‘On Sunday he says that he wrote up some notes for a thesis, went to lunch with another member of the school staff, a certain Mr Such, who confirms this – says they had a snack and a beer in the local – and then that he went in a hired car, driven by himself, to visit Mrs Schumann.’
‘Aha!’ said Laura. ‘The plot thickens!’
‘Not so much as you might think, Mrs Gavin. She was out when he got there. We’ve got her story, and it seems that she’d gone to visit her husband’s grave and put some flowers on it.’
‘Really?’
‘Well, we’ve found the place where she bought the flowers.’
‘On a Sunday?’
‘Yes, Mrs Gavin. There’s a stall where they sell flowers to the people who are visiting relatives and friends in the cottage hospital. She went to this stall before she visited the grave.’
‘And do they remember Mrs Schumann at the cemetery?’
‘Who ever remembers anybody?’ demanded the Superintendent, with resignation but without bitterness. ‘There were certainly flowers on the grave.’
‘It doesn’t seem as though she was expecting a visitor if she was not at home when James called.’
‘When he says he called, Mrs Gavin.’
‘You suspect him of murdering this Mrs Castle, then?’
‘Oh, no, we don’t suspect anybody in particular, but Mrs Castle was a teacher at the school, so the school, once again, makes a starting-point, that’s all.’
‘It’s rather peculiar that both Karen Schumann and this Mrs Castle were sharing digs with Miss Tompkins and Miss O’Reilly when they were murdered,’ said Laura thoughtfully. ‘Added to which, those two girls would have known that Mrs Clancy had an Italian maid. She said she must have mentioned Lucia in the staff Common Room.’
Phillips did not comment on this directly. He said,
‘We’re up a gum tree. Like the first and third murder, this seems motiveless.’
‘I don’t think the murder of Karen Schumann was motiveless,’ said Laura. ‘If only we could get at the reason for her death, I believe the others would fall into line. One thing, again Otto Schumann can’t be involved, can he?’
‘No, he can’t. He’s at sea again. There were quite valid reasons for connecting him with the death of Machrado, but with three others deaths under review, deaths in which he can’t possibly have had any part, we must consider him at present in the clear.’
‘Oh, well, that’s something.’ The Superintendent took his leave, and Laura added, to Dame Beatrice, ‘I wish I could find some way of sticking my neck out in the direction of this madman. I don’t think he’d find me all that easy to throttle. Could I pretend to be Swedish, or Russian or something? What do you think about James now? Surely he wouldn’t have gone over there on the off-chance of finding Mrs Schumann at home?’
‘We could ask her whether he was in the habit of paying these informal visits, of course. If he went for the
