‘I wouldn’t worry about that,’ said Gavin. ‘Whoever killed your daughter would have done so, sooner or later, anyway. It was no unpremeditated action, you know. The message left on the body proves that. It was a deliberately planned murder. You can’t explain the message, I suppose?’
‘The very kind policeman, Superintendent Phillips, asked me that. It means nothing to me, nothing, nothing at all.’
(9)
‘So there’s a fiancé,’ said Gavin, ‘and he’s at the same school as the dead girl, and they had a holiday on the day she was killed, and they’d had quarrels. Well, he’d be the man for my money, if I were in charge of the case. I think I could bear to take a look at him. I’m going to find out from Phillips when it will be convenient for us to have another little chat, and at the same time I’ll get him to introduce me to the school. I wish you’d come with us, Dame B., so that we can compare notes afterwards.’
The headmaster received them in a reserved although courteous manner, but, understandably, was not at all happy about the unwelcome publicity given to his school by the murder of one of his staff.
‘Of course you must see Mr James if you wish,’ he said stiffly, when Gavin had produced his credentials and had introduced Dame Beatrice (quite truthfully) as a psychiatrist attached to the Home Office, ‘but I feel sure that he has already given all the help he can, and he is in a sad state about the whole dreadful business, as you may imagine.’
‘I quite realise that, but I’d be glad of a word with him,’ said Gavin. The headmaster rang through to his secretary and a few minutes later there was a tap on the door and a tall, middle-aged man wearing pince-nez and a sober, dark grey suit came in and inclined his head with rather affected courtesy towards his headmaster. He then stared in hostile fashion at the visitors. When the headmaster, having performed the introductions, had gone out, Edward James said coldly,
‘I presume I may sit down.’ He took a chair. Gavin looked him over.
‘I expect you’re tired of being questioned,’ he said, with a sympathetic smile, ‘but I’ve talked to Superintendent Phillips here, and there are just one or two points which Dame Beatrice and I would like to touch on.’
‘I don’t know anything more than I’ve already told the police,’ said James, even more coldly than before.
‘I am not sure that what we would like you to tell us has any bearing on what you have told the police,’ said Dame Beatrice.
‘For instance?’ He raised supercilious eyebrows.
‘For instance, why did you once call your fiancée a misguided little Aryan?’
‘I have no recollection of having called her any such thing.’
‘No, it was some time ago, I believe. However, according to her mother, Miss Schumann took exception to the phrase.’
‘Did she? I don’t remember anything about it.’
‘Why did you refuse her present of an Irish wolfhound?’
‘The obvious reason. I didn’t want the dog.’
‘She must have thought you did, surely?’
‘I suppose that, knowing she and her mother bred the things, I felt it incumbent upon me to show interest. Her mother, I ought to warn you, has never approved of me as her daughter’s prospective husband, so I think you would be well-advised to treat any statements she makes about me – derogatory statements are what I mean, of course – with very great caution.’
‘We are accustomed to treat all statements made to us with very great caution, Mr James, until we are able to get them checked and confirmed,’ said Gavin.
‘Oh, yes, of course. I beg your pardon. You will realise that I have been through a difficult time.’
‘Quite so. Can you ride a horse?’ asked Dame Beatrice.
‘A horse? No. I have never taken riding lessons.’
‘A bicycle, of course?’
‘I imagine most people can ride a bicycle. I sold mine years ago.’
‘You teach history, I believe, and something which is called R.K., and is connected with the Scriptures.’
‘Quite so. I am hoping to take a degree in theology. As to history, well, I have to follow the school syllabus, of course, but my special interests lie in the events and trends of the sixteenth century.’
‘Ah, yes, the Reformation and the emergence of the Puritans. So a date in the fourth century, for instance, would mean little to you?’ suggested Dame Beatrice.
‘355 to 363 would suggest the reign of the Emperor Julian the Apostate, would it not?’ replied James.
‘Ah, yes. He, I suppose, would occur to you, as would the sixteenth century you mention, in connection with your theological studies, as well as with history. But you may feel that we are wandering from the point. Now I am sure that you have given Superintendent Phillips a fully satisfactory account of yourself for the time in question. What I did not ascertain from him is whether you know how Miss Schumann spent that day.’
‘Oh, he asked me that, and I told him I did not know. On the previous afternoon we had had an Open Day followed by the prize-giving, and the principal speaker asked, as we had anticipated, that there should be a half-holiday on the following day. As it happened, we were also due for a half-day in honour of a pupil who had saved a child from drowning, but that came in the middle of G.C.E. so the headmaster had put it off and we asked to have it added to the
