by Carola Dunn
‘Certainly not! I would have gone straight to the maze to comfort her.’
‘Well, there you are. What was needed was the gardener to get her out. A fat lot of good it would’ve done if you’d got lost in there, too, while I was running off to the police station. Tell us about it.’
While Daisy devoured a leg of cold chicken, a hard-boiled egg, a buttered roll and an orange, peeled for her by Belinda, Mel talked.
‘I’ve never been in a police station before, let alone reported a dead body! It’s quite an impressive building for a small town, brick, with inlaid patterns, and bigger than you’d expect.’
‘It could have living quarters for an officer or two,’ Daisy said.
‘Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. I – I was a bit nervous, so I had Kesin come in with me.’
The Indian chauffeur smiled and nodded.
‘The man I talked to was a sergeant in uniform, Sergeant Weaver. You didn’t say, Daisy, whether I ought to ask for a detective.’
Her mouth full of a rather chewy roll, Daisy shook her head.
Sakari laughed. ‘No, you did not say, or no, Melanie did not need to ask for a detective?’
Daisy, still chewing, nodded agreement to both alternatives, then shook her head to indicate that Mel had not needed to speak to a detective at that point, then seeing the others look confused, nodded again.
‘Well, it’s too late to change,’ said Melanie with a touch of asperity. ‘Sergeant Weaver was very polite, but I decided not to tell him it was a child who found the body.’
Nodding vigorously, Daisy managed to swallow at last. ‘Quite right. The police are sceptical by nature. It wouldn’t have done at all to tell them no adult had actually seen him.’
‘I hope you didn’t expect me to claim I’d seen it myself.’
‘Of course not, Mel. It’s much better to tell the police the truth – though not always all of the truth.’
‘I said I thought he was dead but I wasn’t absolutely sure. He rang up the hospital at once and asked the matron to send along any doctor she happened to have about the place, or to dig one up elsewhere. That’s exactly how he put it. I must have looked surprised, because he explained that she’s his cousin.’
‘Here he comes now,’ said Deva.
A short, tubby man carrying a black bag was approaching them across the lawn at a near trot. Suddenly he altered course. The constable and the gardener had just come out of the Walled Garden and he hurried to join them. All three disappeared through the gate to the maze.
‘Would you like some cherries, Mummy?’ Belinda delved into the hamper.
‘Yes, please, darling. I’m afraid it’s much too late for a doctor to help Harriman. I hope he realises he has to be careful not to disturb things before the detectives arrive.’
‘Was Mr Harriman murdered, Mummy?’ Bel asked, wide-eyed. Lizzie’s face lost the colour it had regained.
Daisy wished her words unuttered. ‘That’s not what I said. When someone dies unexpectedly, the police always have to find out how it happened, even if they died of illness or an accident. That’s what detectives do, find out what happened. You know that, darling. Daddy doesn’t spend all his time hunting murderers.’
‘Mr Harriman didn’t come to breakfast, remember?’ said Deva. ‘Perhaps he felt ill and thought some fresh air would make him feel better. He was always going on about fresh air.’
‘Apparently there aren’t any detectives in Saffron Walden,’ said Melanie. ‘Sergeant Weaver was going to telephone the county headquarters, so that they’d be ready to send a detective if necessary, depending on the constable’s and the doctor’s reports. I offered to bring the constable back here in your car, Sakari.’
‘Very proper, Melanie. The quicker the better.’
‘The sergeant was grateful. So was the constable.’
‘Look, they’re coming back already.’ Deva seemed to have appointed herself as look-out. ‘The gardener’s closed the gate to the maze. I think he locked it.’
They all looked that way. The gardener stumped off back into the Walled Garden, to resume his dinner-break, presumably. The policeman and the doctor exchanged a few words, then the doctor departed towards the entrance gates and the bobby came towards the picnickers.
‘Here goes!’ said Daisy. She swallowed a last gulp of lemonade and went to meet him. ‘I’m the one who saw the body, Constable.’ An accurate statement if slightly misleading. She hoped the taciturn gardener hadn’t already reported that she had seen it only after he had led her to Lizzie and Belinda.
‘But it wasn’t you as reported it, madam.’
‘No. I was rather upset.’
‘Very understandable,’ he said soothingly. ‘It’s a nasty shock finding a dead body.’
‘Especially when it’s someone you know.’
She could almost see his ears prick up. The notebook came out.
‘Friend of yours, was he, madam?’
‘Heavens no! He’s – he was a teacher at the Friends’ School. The girls are all boarders there, and we three adults are their mothers.’
‘His name, madam?’
‘Harriman. I’ve no idea what his given name was. He was the games master, so the girls didn’t have much to do with him.’
‘But you knew him?’
‘I don’t believe I’ve ever actually spoken to him. I’ve seen him about, particularly yesterday, which was sports day, and I’ve heard him addressed as Harriman.’
‘Ah, that would explain it. You ladies are visiting for the school sports day.’
‘That’s right.’ Daisy gave him an encouraging smile. ‘We’ve come down from London. We’re staying at the Rose and Crown.’
‘You won’t know much about the deceased, then. I don’t suppose either of the other ladies has a son at the school?’
‘No, or he’d be picnicking with us.’
‘The young ladies’d likely know more than you do, though.’
She put as much doubt into her voice as she could. ‘A little bit more, I dare say, but I’m afraid it would upset them frightfully to be questioned by the police. Once young girls start crying, it’s awfully difficult to turn them off. Besides, you’d find out much more by talking to the other teachers at the school, and even the boys he taught.’
‘To be sure. That won’t be up to me to decide. The doctor’s going to ring up the station, and Sergeant Weaver’s sure to call in the detectives from county headquarters.’
‘Detectives from headquarters? Oh dear, does that mean you think Mr Harriman was murdered?’
‘That’s for the coroner’s jury to decide. All I know is, we agree, me and the doctor, that it looks very fishy! No doubt about it, there’ll be a detective inspector coming over from Chelmsford.’
‘From Chelmsford!’
The constable gave her a rather odd look.
Oh blast! Daisy thought, wasn’t that where the detective came from who had behaved so abominably to Alec? Suppose they should happen to send DI Gant? He was probably still seething at having the triple murder investigation taken out of his hands. He would not have forgotten the name of the man who took it from him.
If Gant took charge, he was bound to ferret out Daisy’s connection with Scotland Yard. And in that case, she wouldn’t have a hope in Hades of concealing from Alec her involvement in the murder in the maze.
CHAPTER 17
Detective Inspector Gant stared suspiciously at Daisy, smoothing the strands of hair carefully, if ineffectively, draped across his balding pate. In his late forties, at a guess, he had an incongruous round, babyish face, with a ridiculous little toothbrush moustache. ‘Fletcher?’
‘It’s not an uncommon name.’ Daisy had her fingers crossed in her lap.
In vain. He wasn’t going to be satisfied with ‘Daisy Fletcher.’
‘Mrs Fletcher. As you say, madam, it’s not an uncommon name. I’ll need it in full.’
Seeking a brainwave, Daisy let her gaze wander round the hotel writing
room, commandeered by Gant for his interviews. It was rather shabby, crammed with heavy Victorian furniture unwanted elsewhere. In a corner, half hidden in an enormous armchair, lurked a stolid detective constable with a notebook.
She looked from Sakari to Melanie and back, but neither was inspired to interrupt with a timely comment or question. Did she dare tell the inspector her husband’s name was James, or William, or … No, the truth, if not the whole truth, as she had advised Mel.
‘Mrs Alec Fletcher.’
Gant stiffened. His baby-face reddened. ‘And you’re visiting from London?’
‘All of us, just for the weekend.’
‘We shall drive back to town tonight.’ Too late, Sakari drew his fire.
‘Oh no you won’t! I’ll have to ask you not to leave Saffron Walden for the present, until I’m satisfied that none of you had anything to do with the death of Harriman.’
‘Inspector, you’ve obviously realised that my husband is DCI Fletcher of Scotland Yard. I wish you’d admit that he had no say in taking charge of the Epping Forest affair. He goes where he’s sent.’
‘How do you know I had anything to do with that case? He must have told you!’
‘Why on earth should he do that? I suppose I read it in the newspapers.’
‘I don’t recall seeing my name in any newspaper.’
‘It must have been.’ Daisy appealed to her friends. ‘You two both knew Mr Gant was on that case before I mentioned it just now, didn’t you?’
Of course they did. She had told them earlier. Both agreed, Melanie hesitantly, Sakari with a twinkle in her eye. She was enjoying the battle of wits.
Daisy turned back to Gant. ‘You see? You can’t possibly imagine that the wives of a chief inspector of the CID, a banker and a high official in the civil service conspired to murder a schoolmaster!’
‘Stranger things have happened,’ he insisted. ‘From all I’ve heard, there’s some nasty business going on at some of these boarding schools.’
‘I suspect you’re thinking of boys’ Public Schools. We all have daughters at the school. We’re talking about a school for both boys and girls—’
‘If shutting ’em up together isn’t asking for trouble, I don’t know what is!’
Daisy, who had had her own qualms when the idea was first broached, ignored this. ‘And Harriman taught only the boys. What’s more, it’s run by the Quakers.’
‘Some of these peculiar religious sects are downright dangerous. They ought to be banned. Quakers – I’ve heard of them. They’re pacifists, aren’t they? Encouraging war resisters! The lot of ’em should be in prison, or shot!’
‘That’s beside the point, except that it shows they’re against violence and the least likely people to commit murder.’
‘So if they didn’t kill this schoolmaster, who did?’ Gant said sarcastically.
‘That’s for you to find out, isn’t it. It wasn’t we three.’
The inspector eyed them with increasing doubt. He could hardly deny that Daisy and Melanie looked like thoroughly ordinary, respectable middle-class matrons, as was indeed true of Melanie. Daisy did her best to look just as middle-class and respectable. Gant was the sort who very likely considered the aristocracy just as untrustworthy as the dregs of society. However, as he already disliked her for being Alec’s wife, if he found out her father had been a lord it wouldn’t make much difference.
Inevitably, he singled out Sakari. ‘What’s this native woman doing here with you?’ he demanded of Daisy.
‘Mrs Prasad is not a native,’ she said coldly. ‘Here in England, you and I are natives. She is a British citizen, however. She is our friend, Mrs Germond’s and mine. Her daughter, like ours, is a boarder at the school. Her husband is in the upper ranks of the British civil service, a much more important gentleman than mine.’
‘And mine,’ added Melanie.
So put that in your pipe and smoke it, Daisy thought, smiling at Mel.
She could see calculations racing through Gant’s mind. If Sakari’s husband was more important than a detective chief inspector of the Yard, where did that leave a mere county detective inspector? Certainly not in a position to insult the lady.
‘No offence, madam.’ He did at least attempt to sound conciliatory.
‘None taken,’ Sakari assured him, beaming – another English idiom mastered. She was not easily offended. Daisy noted that the twinkle had not vanished from her dark eyes. To her, Gant’s insult was doubtless just part of his amusing conflict with Daisy.
‘All the same, you’ll all have to stay. At the very least, the coroner will want you as witnesses to the discovery of the victim’s body.’
‘Mrs Prasad and Mrs Germond didn’t discover the body.’ Nor did Daisy, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her, nor allow this dreadful man to pester poor Lizzie. Thank goodness the constable had allowed Kesin to take all three girls back to school, with strict instructions to tell no one what had happened.
If Gant had gathered the impression that Daisy was the one who had stumbled upon Harriman, that was his look-out. She continued, ‘They never even saw the body. They didn’t go anywhere near the maze. They’re of no conceivable use as witnesses.’
Gant glanced at his notes. ‘It was Mrs Germond who reported the discovery to the local police station,’ he pointed out accusingly.
Melanie looked apprehensive, but left it to Daisy to respond.
‘Because I asked her to. The children were still lost in the maze. I had promised them I’d go back and help them find the way out.’
Once again, all depended upon the taciturnity of the gardener. Daisy couldn’t imagine him actually volunteering any information.
The inspector glared at her. ‘Very well,’ he snapped, ‘Mrs Prasad and Mrs Germond can leave. After I’ve questioned—’ He glanced at Sakari and changed his choice of words. ‘After I’ve talked to them. But you’ll have to stay, Mrs Fletcher.’
‘I shall stay with you, Daisy,’ said Sakari, ‘to support you in this ordeal.’
‘Oh, Daisy,’ Melanie cried, distressed, ‘you won’t think I’m deserting you and Elizabeth if I go home? It’s just that Robert, and the younger children … Robert expects me back. He’ll be quite upset if … My housekeeper gets in such a muddle, you see, if I’m not there to keep things running smoothly.’
‘Of course you must go, Mel. I’m sure Sakari will be a more than adequate support for me, and we’ll both make sure the girls are all right.’
Judging by his face, Gant had changed his mind and would much prefer Sakari’s departure to her presence at – and on – Daisy’s side.
‘Kesin shall drive you home, Melanie.’
‘Oh, but, you don’t like to walk …’
‘If it is necessary to go any distance, I shall summon a taxi. Besides, my husband may have need of the motorcar during the week.’
‘All the same, it’s very kind of—’
‘If you’ve quite finished?’ Gant interrupted Melanie’s thanks. He asked for her address, apparently not trusting the local constable’s notes. ‘Mrs Germond, did you ever talk to the deceased?’
‘Talk to Mr Harriman? Oh no. I had no reason to. As Mrs Fletcher explained, he taught only boys. My eldest son is at a different school. All boys.’
He glowered at her, as if he suspected she was being ironic at his expense because of his exchange with Daisy about boys’ schools. Mel looked dismayed, recognising his animosity but not understanding the reason for it. Daisy, who knew her friend incapable of irony, was about to jump to her defence when she realised her intervention was more likely to foment trouble than to help.
‘You would have recognised Harriman, though,’ Gant barked at Melanie.
‘Certainly. I had seen him about the school, on previous visits but especially yesterday.’
‘Why yesterday?’
‘He’s – he was the games master, so he was organising the sports, as Mrs Fletcher explained.’
This time he glowe
red at Daisy. She wished she could warn Mel not to mention her name if she could possibly help it.
‘Did you see or hear him quarrelling with anyone?’
‘I wasn’t watching him, Inspector. I was watching my daughter and chatting with Mrs Prasad and Mrs Fletcher. I had no interest whatsoever in Mr Harriman.’
‘I suppose you couldn’t know he was going to be murdered,’ Gant admitted grudgingly.
‘It was murder, then?’ Sakari asked.
Her turn to be on the receiving end of the glower. ‘I’m asking the questions,’ he reminded her, then as an afterthought added, ‘madam.’
Daisy had heard the phrase more than once before. She had come to the conclusion that it was often a sign of a detective who had lost control of an interview and didn’t know where he was going.
‘Mrs Germond, you were familiar enough with Harriman, I take it, to recognise him when you saw his body.’
‘I didn’t see it,’ Melanie explained patiently. ‘Of the three of us, only Mrs Fletcher saw it.’
Gant gritted his teeth. ‘When was the last time you saw him alive?’
‘Yesterday afternoon. It was impossible to miss him, because he was shouting through a megaphone, starting the races. I suppose the last time I actually noticed him was when the last race began. We left when it ended. I’m afraid I don’t know what time that was, but I dare say someone at the school will be able to tell you.’
‘How did you spend the rest of the afternoon and evening?’
She told him about taking the girls out for an early meal, sending them back to school in time for their curfew, and dining at the Rose and Crown. ‘And then we had coffee in the residents’ lounge. We stayed there chatting until we retired for the night.’
‘Did you, for any reason, leave the hotel again after that?’
‘Certainly not!’ Melanie exclaimed, astonished. ‘What reason could I possibly have for wandering about in the dark?’
‘Perhaps, Melanie, the inspector suspects you of having a secret tryst with Mr Harriman.’
‘Really, Sakari, that’s not in the least funny!’
‘It’s not a joke, Mel,’ said Daisy, frowning at Sakari. ‘It’s his job to suspect everyone.’
