The Headmaster stared at him incredulously. ‘Not me, you fool! It was him!’
Chapter Twelve
They were in the Assistant Commissioner’s office, discussing the completion of the case.
‘It was unfortunate that Armitage took matters into his own hands,’ said Felix. ‘He freely admits that he panicked. He just wanted his daughter back and I can hardly blame him for that. Arriving at the inn, he was reluctantly persuaded by Emily to go upstairs, where he found Noble in a pretty febrile state: wild-eyed and shouting and waving a gun about, eventually firing it into the ceiling. After their meal in the restaurant they’d gone to their room for romantic purposes only to have him spoil the mood somewhat by confiding to her that he’d murdered Willoughby. She, frightened and horrified, had eventually telephoned to her father for help. They attempted to quieten him but it quickly became clear that he scarcely knew any longer what he was doing. Emily’s unwelcome reaction to his revelation had, it seemed, finally tipped him over the edge. When I knocked on the door he went more or less berserk and Armitage, fearing for their lives, made a lunge for the gun. It went off and it was Noble that took the bullet. He died a few hours later, still raving.’
‘Saved the poor fellow from the indignities of the madhouse anyway,’ said Colonel Longhurst, the A/C. ‘So it was the disguise that fooled you all?’
Felix nodded. ‘Yes, it was, sir. It wouldn’t have worked if anyone had got a good look at him but he was only in the staffroom for a second or two. They were so familiar with Willoughby’s working clothes, especially his disreputable old jersey, that they naturally assumed it was him inside them.’
The A/C chuckled. ‘Rather like the dummy, in fact.’
‘Yes, sir. I admit I didn’t make that connection soon enough. Not consciously anyway.’
‘Heck of a risk though,’ said Chief Superintendent Polly, coming to the rescue of his subordinate.
‘Very much so,’ agreed Felix. ‘He was, of course, a man obsessed, if not already insane. We presume he arranged to meet Willoughby at the boatshed, which apart from being relatively secluded from the school made an ideal cremation pyre. How he lured him there we don’t know. Perhaps he told him he knew something damning about him – there was plenty of choice, after all – and wanted to have it out with him. He could be pretty sure that Willoughby wouldn’t mention that to the other masters and he knew it was unlikely that anyone would see or hear them together, most people being at church. As for Willoughby, he no doubt felt he had little to fear from Noble, at least physically. He was extremely fit and powerful and could probably have taken the slighter man easily in a fight. He could hardly have expected to be murdered in cold blood.
‘Spending the Saturday night at Stodley, Noble left early, apologising for the flying visit, and returned, not to Miss Armitage at her sister’s home, as arranged, but to Thirkettle, arriving at eleven or so. This would coincide with the sighting of Willoughby by the couple aboard the Thames launch. They were the only witnesses to his being there at that time and unfortunately departed almost immediately afterwards. Slipping into the woods, Noble retrieved the crossbow he’d hidden there, crept to the boatshed and shot the waiting Willoughby behind the knee. That would have brought him down and he was probably able to put the second shot through his heart at point-blank range, following up with a third for good measure. All he had to do then was to drag his victim into the boatshed, pull the crossbow bolts from his body and plant the incendiary chemical about the place. Probably it took only ten or fifteen minutes to do all that. He knew no-one was likely to come there on a Sunday, and if they did, they’d find the shed locked. Late that night the chemical would dry out and self-ignite, destroying the shed and its inflammable contents and, he no doubt hoped, the evidence of his crime. He even left the capsized Tilley lamp to make it look like an unfortunate accident, or at worst, murder and arson by persons unknown. The only thing he couldn’t closely control was the timing of the fire, and that was to prove his undoing.
‘Having arranged everything to his satisfaction he hid the crossbow and remaining bolts, presumably intending to destroy them at his leisure, and continued to the school. There he let himself into Willoughby’s room, putting on his work clothes and a borrowed wig. Willoughby had brown hair and his was black, so the wig was essential. Even so, it wasn’t ideal as a disguise. Noble was a little too short and lightly built for the part and Willoughby was unlikely to be wearing those clothes at a weekend. He needed, however, to be instantly identified as the games master so they had to do. Showing himself in the staffroom for the shortest possible time he returned upstairs and changed back into his own togs, leaving Willoughby’s scattered on the bed. Possibly he might have wanted to give the impression that at some time during the day Willoughby might have worn them, or he might simply have heard someone coming and cleared off. It certainly caused a lot of futile speculation on our part.
‘Slipping back through the woods, he retrieved his car and returned at speed to continue his weekend with Miss Armitage, the murderous detour having taken less than two hours of the morning, including the additional travelling. Miss Armitage was not expecting him back from Stodley at any particular time and admits that after he’d proposed to her, she was too excited to have noticed when he’d arrived anyway.
‘So many things could have gone wrong, of course, quite apart from someone spotting his disguise. He could have been seen entering or leaving the school, his car could have been noticed in the village or he could have broken down or taken a puncture, ruining his precisely timed plan. Any of those things would have been enough, perhaps, to discourage a normal person from trying it. However, it worked, and he’d firmly established his alibi for the Sunday afternoon and evening; which was, of course, when we thought the murder had been committed. This rather disqualified him as a suspect from our point of view, notwithstanding his owning up to the letters and the dummy and, later, to having handled the crossbow.
‘He must have thought he was home and dry, but crossing the bridge he saw the boatshed prematurely ablaze, and that’s when things began to go wrong. He could hardly ignore it with Miss Armitage there beside him, so was obliged to stop and at least appear to do something. Sending her on foot to the school, he continued, no doubt as slowly as he could, to the lock-keeper’s cottage, only to find the keeper, Jackman, awake and dressed and already on his way. Forcing open the boatshed doors they found Willoughby’s still recognisable body. Jackman dashed in to try and save him and Noble had no choice but to help. No doubt he thought afterwards that his apparent heroism could only add to his credentials, though given the letters and dummy it wasn’t on its own enough to allay our suspicions. It was his apparently solid alibi that did that. Unfortunately he hadn’t bargained for Mornix, though they mightn’t have been so keen if they’d known they were helping to nail their favourite schoolmaster. They both want to be detectives now, of course.’
‘I shall watch their careers with interest,’ smiled the A/C. ‘And talking of heroes, Dr Armitage seems to have been one himself.’
‘Yes, I suppose so. Though I’m sure any man would have behaved as he did to save his daughter. Small wonder he stole my car, for his own was badly in need of a service and, as he told me, he felt there was no time to explain. He was lucky to escape with his life.
‘As it happened we briefly suspected Armitage himself. Having eliminated the other suspects, including Noble, our deductions led inevitably to him. There was no-one else without an alibi for the Sunday morning and, for aught we knew, it could have been Armitage that Willoughby was blackmailing, thereby providing a motive. Only when we arrived at the Maiden Inn could we be sure of what we’d find.’
‘And what lesson do you take from this, Felix, if I may ask?’ twinkled the A/C, ‘apart from a new vigilance for disguises, of course.’
‘Perhaps not what you’d expect, sir,’ said Felix, ‘And that is never to ignore one’s instin
cts, even in the face of a solid-seeming alibi. Part of me knew it was Noble from the moment I interviewed him but for too long I refused to let myself believe it, not least because I really liked the fellow.’
‘Oh but I would expect it, Chief Inspector,’ smiled the A/C, sitting back in his chair. ‘That’s what we pay you for.’
‘Did Noble really intend to marry Emily Armitage, do you think?’ said Polly as they stood up to go.
‘Oh yes, I’m sure he did,’ said Felix. ‘He’d already bought the engagement ring and hadn’t counted the cost. In different circumstances it would have been the perfect match.’
‘Rather an unlucky young woman, one way and another,’ observed the A/C.
‘Perhaps, sir, but it ended happily enough. She went back to the history teacher, Ernie Crockford, a good, solid chap and obviously very fond of her. They were married last week.’
The End
An Education in Death (The Inspector Felix Mysteries Book 9) Page 11
