Kelsey interrupted. "There was no light then when you got there? Not a flashlight or any other light?"
"No. The place was in darkness. We switched on the light and there she was. She -"
"That's all right," said Inspector Kelsey kindly, "you needn't describe anything. I shall be going out there now and I shall see for myself. You didn't meet anyone on your way there?"
"No."
"Or hear anybody running away?"
"No. We didn't hear anything."
"Did anybody else hear the shot in the school building?" asked Kelsey, looking at Miss Bulstrode.
She shook her head. "No. Not that I know of. Nobody has said that they heard it. The Sports Pavilion is some distance away and I rather doubt if the shot would be noticeable."
"Perhaps from one of the rooms on the side of the house giving on the Sports Pavilion?"
"Hardly, I think, unless one were listening for such a thing. I'm sure it wouldn't be loud enough to wake anybody up."
"Well, thank you," said Inspector Kelsey. "I'll be going out to the Sports Pavilion now."
"I will come with you," said Miss Bulstrode.
"Do you want me to come too?" asked Miss Johnson. "I will if you like. I mean it's no good shirking things, is it? I always feel that one must face whatever comes and..."
"Thank you," said Inspector Kelsey, "there's no need, Miss Johnson. I wouldn't think of putting you to any further strain."
"So awful," said Miss Johnson, "it makes it worse to feel I didn't like her very much. In fact, we had a disagreement only last night in the Common Room. I stuck to it that too much P.T. was bad for some girls - the more delicate girls. Miss Springer said nonsense, that they were just the ones who needed it. Toned them up and made new women of them, she said. I said to her that really she didn't know everything though she might think she did. After all I have been professionally trained and I know a great deal more about delicacy and illness than Miss Springer does - did, though I've no doubt that Miss Springer knows everything about parallel bars and vaulting horses and coaching tennis. But, oh, dear, now I think of what's happened, I wish I hadn't said quite what I did. I suppose one always feels like that afterward when something dreadful has occurred. I really do blame myself."
"Now sit down there, dear," said Miss Bulstrode settling her on the sofa. "You just sit down and rest and pay no attention to any little disputes you may have had. Life would be very dull if we agreed with each other on every subject."
Miss Johnson sat down shaking her head, then yawned. Miss Bulstrode followed Kelsey into the hall.
"I gave her rather a lot of brandy," she said, apologetically. "It's made her a little voluble. But not confused, do you think?"
"No," said Kelsey. "She gave quite a clear account of what happened."
Miss Bulstrode led the way to the side door.
"Is this the way Miss Johnson and Miss Chadwick went out?"
"Yes. You see it leads straight onto the path through the rhododendrons there which comes out at the Sports Pavilion."
The inspector had a powerful flashlight and he and Miss Bulstrode soon reached the building where the lights were now glaring.
"Fine bit of building," said Kelsey, looking at it.
"It cost us a pretty penny," said Miss Bulstrode, "but we can afford it," she added serenely.
The open door led into a fair-sized room. There were lockers with the names of the various girls on them. At the end of the room there was a stand for tennis racquets and one for lacrosse sticks. The door at the side led off to showers and changing cubicles. Kelsey paused before going in. Two of his men had been busy. A photographer had just finished his job and another man who was busy testing for fingerprints looked up and said:
"You can walk straight across the floor, sir. You'll be all right. We haven't finished down this end yet."
Kelsey walked forward to where the police surgeon was kneeling by the body. The latter looked up as Kelsey approached.
"She was shot from about four feet away," he said. "Bullet penetrated the heart. Death must have been pretty well instantaneous."
"Shot from the front?"
"Yes."
"How long ago?"
"Say an hour or thereabouts."
Kelsey nodded. He strolled round to look at the tall figure of Miss Chadwick where she stood grimly, like a watchdog against one wall. About fifty-five, he judged, good forehead, obstinate mouth, untidy grey hair, no trace of hysteria. The kind of woman, he thought, who could be depended upon in a crisis though she might be overlooked in ordinary everyday life.
"Miss Chadwick?" he said.
"Yes."
"You came out with Miss Johnson and discovered the body?"
"Yes. She was just as she is now. She was dead."
"And the time?"
"I looked at my watch when Miss Johnson roused me. It was ten minutes to one."
Kelsey nodded. That agreed with the time that Miss Johnson had given him. He looked down thoughtfully at the dead woman. Her bright red hair was cut short. She had a freckled face, with a chin which jutted out strongly, and a spare, athletic figure. She was wearing a tweed skirt and a heavy, dark pullover. She had brogues on her feet with no stockings.
"Any sign of the weapon?" asked Kelsey.
One of his men shook his head. "No sign at all, sir."
"What about the light?"
"There's a flashlight there in the corner."
"Any prints on it?"
"Yes. The dead woman's."
"So she's the one who had the light," said Kelsey thoughtfully. "She came out here with a flashlight - why?" He asked it partly of himself, partly of his men, partly of Miss Bulstrode and Miss Chadwick. Finally he seemed to concentrate on the latter. "Any ideas?"
Miss Chadwick shook her head. "No idea at all. I suppose she might have left something here - forgotten it this afternoon or evening - and come out to fetch it. But it seems rather unlikely in the middle of the night."
"It must have been something very important if she did," said Kelsey.
He looked round him. Nothing seemed disturbed except the stand of racquets at the end. That seemed to have been pulled violently forward. Several of the racquets were lying about on the floor.
"Of course," said Miss Chadwick, "she could have seen a light here, like Miss Johnson did later, and have come out to investigate. That seems the most likely thing to me."
"I think you're right," said Kelsey. "There's just one small matter. Would she have come out alone?"
"Yes." Miss Chadwick answered without hesitation.
"Miss Johnson," Kelsey reminded her, "came and woke you up."
"I know," said Miss Chadwick, "and that's what I should have done if I'd seen the light. I would have woken up Miss Bulstrode or Miss Vansittart or somebody. But Miss Springer wouldn't. She would have been quite confident - indeed would have preferred to tackle an intruder on her own."
"Another point," said the Inspector. "You came out through the side door with Miss Johnson. Was the side door unlocked?"
"Yes, it was."
"Presumably left unlocked by Miss Springer?"
"That seems the natural conclusion," said Miss Chadwick.
"So we assume," said Kelsey, "that Miss Springer saw a light out here in the gymnasium - Sports Pavilion - whatever you call it - that she came out to investigate and that whoever was here shot her." He wheeled round on Miss Bulstrode as she stood motionless in the doorway. "Does that seem right to you?" he asked.
"It doesn't seem right at all," said Miss Bulstrode. "I grant you the first part. We'll say Miss Springer saw a light out here and that she went out to investigate by herself. That's perfectly probable. But that the person she disturbed here should shoot her - that seems to me all wrong. If anyone was here who had no business to be here they would be more likely to run away, or to try to run away. Why should someone come to this place at this hour of night with a pistol? It's ridiculous, that's what it is. Ridiculous! There's nothing here worth stealing, certainly nothing for which it would be worthwhile doing murder."
"You think it more likely that Miss Springer disturbed a rendezvous of some kind?"
"That's the natural and most probable explanation," said Miss Bulstrode. "But it doesn't explain the fact of murder, does it? Girls in my school don't carry pistols about with them and any young man they might be meeting seems very unlikely to have a pistol either."
Kelsey agreed. "He'd have had a flick knife at most," he said. "There's an alternative," he went on. "Say Miss Springer came out here to meet a man -"
Miss Chadwick giggled suddenly. "Oh, no," she said. "not Miss Springer."
"I do not mean necessarily an amorous assignment," said the inspector drily. "I'm suggesting that the murder was deliberate, that someone intended to murder Miss Springer, that they arranged to meet her here and shot her."
Chapter 9
CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS
Letter from Jennifer Sutcliffe to her mother:
Dear Mummy,
We had a murder last night. Miss Springer, the gym mistress. It happened in the middle of the night and the police came and this morning they're asking everybody questions.
Miss Chadwick told us not to talk to anybody about it but I thought you'd like to know.
With love,
Jennifer
II
Meadowbank was an establishment of sufficient importance to merit the personal attention of the chief constable. While routine investigation was going on Miss Bulstrode had not been inactive. She rang up a press magnate and the Home Secretary, both personal friends of hers. As a result of these maneuvers, very little had appeared about the event in the papers. A games mistress had been found dead in the school gymnasium. She had been shot, whether by accident or not was as yet not determined. Most of the notices of the event had an almost apologetic note in them, as though it were thoroughly tactless of any games mistress to get herself shot in such circumstances.
Ann Shapland had a busy day taking down letters to parents. Miss Bulstrode did not waste time in telling her pupils to keep quiet about the event. She knew that it would be a waste of time. More or less lurid reports would be sure to be penned to anxious parents and guardians. She intended her own balanced and reasonable account of the tragedy to reach them at the same time.
Later that afternoon she sat in conclave with Mr. Stone, the chief constable, and Inspector Kelsey. The police were perfectly amenable to having the press play the thing down as much as possible. It enabled them to pursue their inquiries quietly and without interference.
"I'm very sorry about this, Miss Bulstrode, very sorry indeed," said the chief constable. "I suppose it's - well - a bad thing for you."
"Murder's a bad thing for any school, yes," said Miss Bulstrode. "It's no good dwelling on that now, though. We shall weather it, no doubt, as we have weathered other storms. All I do hope is that the matter will be cleared up quickly."
"Don't see why it shouldn't, eh?" said Stone. He looked at Kelsey.
Kelsey said, "It may help when we get her background."
"D'you really think so?" asked Miss Bulstrode drily.
"Somebody may have had it in for her," Kelsey suggested.
Miss Bulstrode did not reply.
"You think it's tied up with this place?" asked the chief constable.
"Inspector Kelsey does really," said Miss Bulstrode. "He's only trying to save my feelings, I think."
"I think it does tie up with Meadowbank," said the inspector slowly. "After all, Miss Springer had her times off like all the other members of the staff. She could have arranged a meeting with anyone if she had wanted to do so at any spot she chose. Why choose the gymnasium here in the middle of the night?"
"You have no objection to a search being made of the school premises, Miss Bulstrode?" asked the chief constable.
"None at all. You're looking for the pistol or revolver or whatever it is, I suppose?"
"Yes. It was a small pistol of foreign make."
"Foreign," said Miss Bulstrode thoughtfully.
"To your knowledge, do any of your staff or any of the pupils have such a thing as a pistol in their possession?"
"Certainly not to my knowledge," said Miss Bulstrode. "I am fairly certain that none of the pupils have. Their possessions are unpacked for them when they arrive and such a thing would have been seen and noted, and would, I may say, have aroused considerable comment. But please, Inspector Kelsey, do exactly as you like in that respect. I see your men have been searching the grounds today."
The inspector nodded. "Yes."
He went on: "I should also like interviews with the other members of your staff. One or other of them may have heard some remark made by Miss Springer that will give us a clue. Or may have observed some oddity of behaviour on her part." He paused, then went on, "The same thing might apply to the pupils."
Miss Bulstrode said: "I had formed the plan of making a short address to the girls this evening after prayers. I would ask that if any of them has any knowledge that might possibly bear upon Miss Springer's death that they should come and tell me of it."
"Very sound idea," said the Chief Constable.
"But you must remember this," said Miss Bulstrode, "one or other of the girls may wish to make herself important by exaggerating some incident or even by inventing one. Girls do very odd things; but I expect you are used to dealing with that form of exhibitionism."
"I've come across it," said Inspector Kelsey. "Now," he added, "please give me a list of your staff, also the servants."
