by Anne Digby
‘You’d no business being there that night, mind,’ he said. ‘Not mixed up with that crowd any more are you?’
‘No, of course not!’ exclaimed Rebecca. Then she remembered to smile. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘Thanks for everything.’
She raced across to Parkinson House, her weekend case bobbing at her side. Pippa, Annie and Della were making cheese on toast in the kitchen. Pippa looked startled to see Rebecca in the Upper Sixth boarding house and shunted her outside, into the back garden.
‘What is it?’
Breathlessly, Rebecca told her everything. Annie appeared at the kitchen door, buttering a piece of toast. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Nothing!’ Pippa called.
She turned to Rebecca.
‘I’ll bring the car to Court House straight after tea, and drive you down there.’ She looked uneasy. ‘But – caution, Rebecca! Don’t tell anybody about this – not till we get a good look at this scarf –’
Rebecca raced away. ‘Thanks, Pippa!’ Not tell anyone? – she must be mad! Not tell the others? This was the big breakthrough! The mystery they thought could never be solved was about to be cracked!
In about one hour’s time they should be able to find out the identity of the hoaxer!
‘What’s going on?’ asked Annie again, coming out into the garden. Pippa was just standing there, watching Rebecca until she was out of sight, a strange expression on her face. Then she turned and looked at Annie and told her.
Annie said: ‘Crumbs! Rebecca Mason? The taxi driver thinks it was her?’
‘Yes,’ replied Pippa.
TWELVE
A Horrible Suspicion!
Even as Rebecca reached her room in Court House, the tea bell sounded. She flung her case on to the bed and linked arms with the other two.
‘Come on, let’s get over to the dining hall. I’ve got something to tell you!’
They couldn’t stop talking about it, all through tea. People at nearby tables noticed that there was something up at Tish Anderson’s table – a lot of whispering and flushed faces – and Rebecca Mason seemed to be the centre of attention.
‘I’m going to ring Syon and tell Curly!’ said Mara.
‘I think I’ll tell Robbie, too,’ said Tish. ‘He was asking me about the hoaxes only today – on the train.’
‘Ssssh!’ said Rebecca. ‘We don’t want people to hear! Once we’ve got hold of the scarf, we’ve got to track down the hoaxer and take her by surprise.’
She bolted her tea down and left the dining hall early, running all the way back to Court House. Pippa was already there waiting. She was sitting behind the wheel of her car, which was parked outside the deserted boarding house. Good old Pippa! She must be dying to know who the hoaxer was, too. It had certainly upset her a lot when Alison had accused Rebecca’s crowd.
‘Okay?’ said Pippa, starting up the engine.
They drove to the town, in silence. There was an almost electric tension in the air.
‘Pippa is wondering!’ thought Rebecca. ‘She wants to know, too!’
She jumped out of the car outside the taxi office and rushed in. One of the cab drivers was in there, taking a phone booking, and she pointed excitedly to the brown paper parcel on a shelf behind his head. It was now clearly marked with her name. He reached up a hand, took it down, and handed it to her while still speaking into the phone. ‘Grand Hotel, Exonford? Right.’
‘Thanks!’ said Rebecca and rushed out.
She looked round for the car and saw that Pippa had parked across the street, in a quiet place beneath some trees. She went over and got back in the front seat, next to Pippa. ‘I’ve got the scarf – it’s in here!’
‘Better open it then,’ said Pippa.
Fingers shaking slightly, Rebecca undid the string and opened up the wrapping. The material was very soft and blue. There seemed to be long white fringes on it –
‘It doesn’t look like a scarf, somehow,’ she began. A tingling sensation ran down her back. It looked familiar. ‘It –’ She began to open it out. ‘He said a scarf. But – but he meant a stole!’ She gasped. ‘Mine!’
Pippa glanced at the stole, looked at Rebecca strangely and then reached out to turn the ignition key.
‘What a let-down!’ she said, casually.
‘But –’ Rebecca was totally perplexed.
‘It’s obvious, isn’t it?’ Pippa said. ‘Silly man got confused. You left your stole in his taxi after you’d been to Exonford. Must have done. Then he had this other passenger the next night – he’s got the two of you mixed up in his mind.’
‘But why?’ exclaimed Rebecca. ‘Why on earth should he do that?’
‘Must have done!’ Pippa started the engine. ‘Better forget it.’
‘No!’
Pippa switched off the engine and looked at her.
‘I didn’t leave my stole in his taxi on the Saturday evening!’ protested Rebecca. ‘I know I didn’t. I was wearing it when I got back to Court House and I hung it up in the back of the cupboard, with the dress, I’m sure I did.’
‘But you couldn’t have done,’ said Pippa, nodding. ‘It’s here. Right here. It was found in the taxi! Look, Rebecca –’
‘Yes?’
Pippa was glancing at her very oddly now and suddenly Rebecca felt the tension again. It was hanging in the air, between them.
‘Look, you’d better not go around saying you had your stole when you got back on the Saturday night. I mean, it’s going to look bad for you if you go around saying that! People are going to think you were out again on the Sunday night – I mean, the taxi driver seems to think you were!’
‘Yes,’ said Rebecca. Her throat felt dry. It could look like that!
Pippa switched on the engine again and this time she drove the car away.
‘You’ve just got muddled, Rebecca! You’re as bad as him!’
Rebecca said nothing. There was something very peculiar going on. She couldn’t understand it. She simply couldn’t understand it!
As they drove up to the front of Court House, quite a crowd burst out – Tish and Sue and the other three – and Curly – and Robbie as well. ‘Rebecca!’ they all cried, starting to run towards the car.
‘You’ve told all your friends!’ Pippa said sharply. ‘Rebecca – I warned you! Put it back in the brown paper, quickly.’
Guiltily, Rebecca hid the stole inside the brown paper, rolling it up tightly. ‘What shall I say?’
‘Get them inside, or something. I’ll explain to them about the muddle –’
Robbie was opening the car door and pulling Rebecca out.
‘Tish told me; I came straight over! Let’s see this scarf –’
‘Just a minute, Robbie – I want to see something!’ she exclaimed.
While Pippa parked the car, Rebecca hurtled past Robbie and the others and raced into the boarding house, the brown paper parcel held tightly under her arm. She rushed through the hall, round into the little corridor and into her room. She opened the hanging cupboard and rummaged all through the clothes until she could feel her dress at the back. She jerked it out, still on its hanger. She let the brown paper parcel slip to the floor.
The stole should have been wrapped round the hanger, inside the dress. That was how she’d left it, surely? Four – five weeks ago.
It wasn’t there. Just the dress.
‘Where’s the stole?’ asked Tish, coming into the room quickly. Robbie was just behind her. He pointed to the floor.
‘That it?’
The wrappings had fallen apart and a mass of blue material with white fringes peeped out. Rebecca scooped the bundle up, guiltily, paper as well – furious with herself because she could feel herself blushing. The others were all pressing into the room now, Sue first, followed by Curly Watson with his arm round Mara’s shoulders.
‘What’s going on?’ asked Robbie, frowning. ‘I thought this girl was in the taxi. The one who’d been to The Lodge. But that’s your own scarf thing, you’ve
brought back –’
‘Stole,’ Tish corrected him, automatically.
There was quite a crowd in the corridor now, trying to see what was going on in the room. Pippa pushed her way through, came into the room and closed the door.
‘Look, this is embarrassing for Rebecca, so I’d better explain! I’m afraid she’s got you all excited about nothing. It’s just a mix-up! The cab driver found Rebecca’s stole in his cab from the day before and somehow he thought it was this other girl’s . . . that’s all. Look, break it up now. Boys aren’t supposed to come into the rooms –’
She opened the door, in a hurry to be gone.
‘Clear off, you lot! It’s nothing. Shoo!’ Everybody scattered as the prefect walked out into the corridor, waving her arms, and then left.
‘Phew,’ said Robbie. He stared at the stole in Rebecca’s hands, in relief. Outside, Rebecca could hear the faint sound of Pippa’s car engine starting up.
‘But, I don’t get it,’ murmured Tish, frowning.
‘Nor do I,’ said Sue.
It was Elf who blurted it out. She just couldn’t help herself.
‘You didn’t leave it in the taxi: You were wearing it, Rebecca!’
‘Round your head,’ added Margot. ‘You looked lovely!’
Robbie stared at Rebecca. Mara rolled her eyes in dismay.
‘Were you?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ said Rebecca.
‘So you were in the taxi again, the following night?’ he exclaimed. ‘You went to that party? Who on earth took you to that?’
‘Don’t be silly, Robbie –’ began Sue.
‘Don’t act as if you own Rebecca!’ said Tish angrily.
‘Did you all go?’ Curly asked suddenly. He looked at Mara suspiciously. ‘When we weren’t allowed to have a bit of a party here! Did you all go down there?’
The house known as The Lodge was notorious at Garth College – and strictly out of bounds. There’d been too many bad parties there.
‘Oh, Curly!’ Mara was shocked. ‘Of course we didn’t.’
‘We all stayed here,’ said Tish. ‘Rebecca as well.’
‘How do you know she did?’ asked Robbie. Suddenly he stepped forward and took hold of Rebecca’s wrists.
‘Who took you to that place?’
‘Let me go!’ She pulled herself free. ‘Nobody!’
‘You did go somewhere, didn’t you? It is your stole, isn’t it?’
Curly steered Mara out of the room, and her room-mates followed.
‘Come on, Robbie!’ said Tish, jocularly grabbing his arm. ‘Time to go! Exams tomorrow. Leave Rebecca alone –’
‘Who took you there?’ said Robbie again, in a fury.
‘Go away!’ shouted Rebecca. ‘Please go away!’
The other two started pushing him out of the room. ‘Okay. Okay. I’m going,’ he said miserably. He glanced back at Rebecca, who’d sat down on her bed, still holding the stole. ‘I’m sorry, Rebeck . . .’
He just didn’t know what to think.
‘I’m not going to the Commem with you!’ she flung at him. ‘I’d rather not go at all!’
Tish and Sue saw him off at the front door. Court House was buzzing with rumour – Rebecca Mason was the hoaxer!
When they returned to the room, Rebecca was stretched full length on her bed, staring up at the ceiling.
‘He’s still wondering if you could have slipped off to that party with someone for a couple of hours,’ said Tish awkwardly. ‘After we were all asleep. Got a bit silly and played that hoax maybe –’
‘He’s only wondering,’ said Sue, pushing her glasses up. She couldn’t take her eyes off the stole, now draped across the foot of Rebecca’s bed.
‘He’s not the only one, is he?’ said Rebecca, in a flat voice. ‘Did I sound the fire alarm, too? Like Miss Welbeck said?’
‘Come on, Sue,’ said Tish. ‘You’ll be late for music practice.’
Rebecca knew that, right at this very moment, even her two best friends were shaken. But what could she say to reassure them? How could she explain it? It was all so very, very peculiar.
For Rebecca, it was a low point.
But as soon as he got back to Garth College, Robbie phoned her.
‘Rebecca, I’m sorry. I was stupid, thinking those things about you! The things you think in the heat of the moment!’ He sounded excited. ‘I’ve been racking my brains, all the way back. It’s come to me! Somebody must have borrowed your stole that night! Somebody from Parkinson House!’
‘Parkinson?’ said Rebecca, in amazement.
‘Look, as I cycled out of your grounds, I took a look at the geography. Court House is just about the farthest possible point away from Parkinson –’
‘Yes?’
‘Well, Miss Welbeck was in Parkinson when she took the call. Somebody sent her chasing off on a wild goose chase to Court! Why –?’
‘To draw her off, so they could get back into Parkinson!’ exclaimed Rebecca. ‘Of course! I’d got as far as thinking the hoax might have been intended to divert attention from one of the other Middle School houses, but –’
‘No! Parkinson!’ repeated Robbie.
‘I’m going over there right now!’ said Rebecca, suddenly as excited as he was.
‘Pippa will help me! I’ve got to convince her that the cab driver didn’t get in a muddle – and then she’ll help me find out who was really in his taxi that night!
‘Oh, Robbie!’ she added. ‘Thank goodness somebody believes me.’
‘You didn’t mean what you said about Commem?’
‘Yes!’ Rebecca paused, then smiled. ‘But I’ve changed my mind.’
THIRTEEN
Unravelling The Mystery
‘Pippa will help me!’ Rebecca thought again. ‘As soon as I tell her that the others – all of them – remember me wearing the stole when I got back from Exonford, she’ll have to accept that I didn’t leave it in the taxi that Saturday!’
Somebody else wore it on the Sunday! Who?
Rebecca had fetched the stole and put it around her shoulders. The evening was cool now.
She made her way through the grounds.
Parkinson House was a pleasant Victorian house, rather like a vicarage, set in its own garden. As it came in sight, it occurred to Rebecca that there was one fatal weakness in Robbie’s theory. Was it really likely that a mighty member of the Upper Sixth would have ransacked her room and borrowed her stole for a night out?
Wasn’t that rather an extraordinary idea? Would Pippa – even Pippa – believe it? If Tish and Sue, her closest friends, were a little bit shaken by the whole thing – wouldn’t Pippa be, too?
As she turned in through the side gate, Rebecca’s courage almost failed her. She walked up to the side door and hovered there, then suddenly came to a decision.
She had absolute faith in Pippa. She was the only person left she could turn to!
She opened the door.
She’d never been to Pippa’s rooms before, but she knew that they were on the first floor, at the front. She’d seen her at the windows sometimes, gazing out. She’d go straight up there!
She tiptoed along the hall and scuttled past the Common Room, glancing towards the wide staircase. She didn’t particularly want her presence to be noticed. It gave her a creepy feeling to think that somebody, here in this building, must be the guilty person. That they had worn this stole she was wearing now – and left it in the taxi that night! She passed by the telephone at the bottom of the stairs. That was where the call had come through, the call taken by Miss Welbeck.
She took the stairs lightly, two at a time, reached the first floor landing and turned right. The boards creaked as she walked along the landing – which was the door – that one there?
She tiptoed up and saw the name-card: P. Fellowes-Walker & A. Lorrimer.
She could hear a stereo playing inside; it was classical music and on loud.
Rebecca knocked.
No reply.
&nbs
p; ‘Pippa?’ she called in a low voice.
Still no response.
Pippa must be in there, perhaps in the farthest room! She wouldn’t hear someone knocking, because of the stereo. Rebecca stood there helplessly, wondering what to do. She was so keyed up. She couldn’t bear to turn round and go away again, having got this far.
Shyly, she edged the door open and peered inside. This must be Annie’s room. It was empty. The stereo was in here and sheet music was strewn around; a violin case lay on a divan. But at the far end of the room, another room led off – that would be Pippa’s. Its door was half-open.
Pippa must be in here.
Rebecca walked through Annie’s room and called:
‘Pippa!’
‘Annie?’ asked Pippa, from somewhere within.
Then, in a rush came the words, ‘Don’t worry, I’m going to send it home. I wish I’d sent it home on the very first day of term! If only I had! If only you hadn’t stopped me! How do I look –?’
‘It’s me!’ began Rebecca, stepping into the room.
She froze.
Pippa twirled towards her, eyes closed and arms outstretched, wearing a beautiful dress and matching stole, a shimmer of blue swirling skirt and whirling white fringes –
‘My dress!’ said Rebecca, hoarsely.
‘Rebecca!’ Pippa’s eyes opened wide.
They stood staring at one another. Rebecca held up her arm and looked at the fringes of the stole she was wearing – then she looked at the one Pippa was wearing. It was like seeing a mirror image.
‘What are you doing here?’ said Pippa in a surprised voice.
A chill ran through Rebecca. ‘I – I –’ She took a step back.
‘You never said you had a dress like mine!’ she burst out.
‘No.’
Rebecca began to shiver, as though with cold. Words started to echo in her brain, Pippa’s sharp words earlier. You’ve told all your friends! That hadn’t seemed quite right at the time. Why shouldn’t she have told all her friends? And – Rebecca, I warned you! What was there for Pippa to warn her about?
Unless Pippa had known all along exactly what was going to be inside that brown paper parcel at the taxi office.
