Peter Robinson - Innocent Graves

Just as she was trying to tape up a piece of cardboard over the window, the phone rang.

“Can you talk?” the familiar voice asked.

“Patrick. Yes. Yes, I can.”

“We’ve been given the day off, pupils and staff. That terrible business with the girl. It must have been especially awful for you. How are you bearing up?”

“Oh, not bad, I suppose.”

“Is Daniel…?”

“He’s out. Meeting in York. Said he couldn’t get out of it.”

“Could we see one another? I could come over.”

“I don’t know,” Rebecca said, feeling herself flush with desire like a silly schoolgirl as she spoke. “No, I don’t think we should. Not the way things are around here.”

“But I want you.”

Rebecca put her hand over the mouthpiece and took a deep breath.

“Don’t you want me?” he went on.

“Of course I want you, Patrick. You know I do. It’s just…there’s police all over the place.”

“We could go for a drive.”

Rebecca paused and looked around her. She couldn’t stay here, not with this mess, not after the threatening note; she would go insane. And she couldn’t deal with the police, either. On the other hand, the very thought of Patrick made her tingle. God, how she hated herself, hated the way her body could so easily betray her morality and her good intentions, how her defective conscience found ways of rationalizing it all.

“All right,” she said. “But you mustn’t come here. I mean it about the police. We shouldn’t be seen together.”

“I’ll pick you up at the-”

“No. Let’s meet at the hotel.” She looked at her watch. “There’s a bus at ten-fifteen.”

“All right. I’ll be waiting for you.”

“These are the dormitories for the boarding pupils,” Dr. Green pointed out as they walked through the school grounds. The two large buildings ahead were of far more recent construction than the main school building, redbrick for the most part, with some stone at their bases, functional rather than aesthetically pleasing. “As I said earlier, we have 286 boarders. They have showers, central heating, all the comforts the modern child requires. You’ll also notice we have installed a number of lamps along all the major pathways. They’re kept on until ten o’clock every night, by which time all the girls are expected to be in bed. This isn’t Lowood or Dotheboys, you realize. Parents spend a lot of money to send their children here.”

“Television?”

She smiled. “Yes, that too.”

“What’s that building over there?” Banks pointed through the trees to a three-storey rectangular building that seemed to be made of some sort of prefabricated concrete the color of porridge.

“That’s the staff residence, I’m afraid,” said Dr. Green. “Ugly isn’t it? Actually, it’s quite nice inside. The flats are quite spacious: living-room, bedroom, storage heaters. Luxury.”

“Who lives there, apart from you?”

“At the moment, six of the flats are occupied. It all depends. We have thirty members of staff, a very good ratio, and some of our teachers live in or near town. The flats are essentially for single members of staff who have recently moved into the area, or, as in my case, single teachers who want to maintain close contact with the school.” She tilted her umbrella and gave Banks a challenging glance from under the rim. “You asked me rather impertinently not so long ago whether I lived alone. The school is my life, Chief Inspector. I have neither the inclination nor the time for anyone or anything else.”

Banks nodded. Then he sneezed. Susan blessed him.

“Here we are,” Dr. Green went on, stepping under the porch of the dormitory and lowering her umbrella. She shook it carefully before rolling it up. “The infirmary is on the ground floor. We have one full-time nurse on staff and a local doctor on call.”

They walked down the hall and entered the infirmary. It smelled of disinfectant. After a brief word with the nurse, Dr. Green directed Banks and Susan towards a row of curtained cubicles, in one of which Megan Preece lay on a narrow bed.

“Megan’s fine, nurse says,” Dr. Green whispered. “But she’s had a terrible shock and she’s been given a mild tranquillizer, so please go slowly.”

Banks nodded. There clearly wasn’t room for all of them in the cubicle, yet Dr. Green seemed to want to stay.

“It’s all right,” Banks said, ushering Susan to Megan’s bedside chair. “We’ll find our own way out when we’ve finished.”

Dr. Green stood for a moment and frowned, then she nodded, turned on her heel and clicked away down the corridor.

When Banks found a chair for himself, Susan was already talking to Megan, reassuring her that everything would be all right. From what Banks could see of the head poking above the gray blanket, Megan was a slight, thin girl of about Deborah Harrison’s age, with dark curly hair and a tanned complexion.

But Megan’s features lacked whatever cohesion or symmetry it took to make her conventionally pretty, unlike her friend Deborah, who had been beautiful in that lissom, blonde, athletic sort of way. Megan’s nose was a little too big, and slightly crooked; her lips were too thin, and her mouth was too small for her teeth. But her big, serious earthbrown eyes were striking; they seemed to capture you at first glance and draw you to her.

Banks introduced himself, noting that Megan seemed comfortable enough in the presence of a male policeman, and said he wanted to ask her a few questions about Deborah. Megan nodded, eyes turning a little glassy at the mention of her friend’s name.

“Were you very close friends?” he began.

She nodded. “We’re both day-girls and we’ve known each other for years. We both live in the same area.”

“I thought you must be boarding,” said Banks. “Why aren’t you at home?”

“I had a dizzy spell at assembly, then I…I got all upset. Nurse says I should rest here for a while, then I can go home at lunch-time. There’ll be nobody there, anyway. Mummy’s away in America and Daddy’s at work.”

“I see. Now can you tell me what happened yesterday after the chess club. Go as slowly as you want, there’s no hurry.”

Megan chewed her lower lip, then began. “Well, when we’d put all the boards and pieces away in the cupboard and made sure the room was tidy, we left the school-”

“Was this the main building?”

“Yes. We hold the chess club in one of the upstairs classrooms.”

“What time?”

“Just before six o’clock.”

“How many attended last night?”

“Only eight. Lesley and Carol are doing a play with the theatre department, so they had rehearsals. The others are all boarders.”

“I see. Was there anyone else around?”

“A few people, coming and going, as usual. The school is always well lit and there are always people around.”

“Okay. Go on.”

“Well, we walked down the drive to Kendal Road. There’s only one main gate, you see. The school’s surrounded by woods, and there’s the river on the west side. It was so foggy we could hardly see the trees around us. I must admit I was getting a bit scared, but Debs seemed to be enjoying herself.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, she liked things like that. Spooky things. She liked to tell ghost stories in graveyards, just for fun.”

“Do you know if she ever went inside the Inchcliffe Mausoleum?”

“She never said anything to me about it if she did.”

“Okay. Go on.”

“We crossed the road. I live on St. Mary’s Hill, behind the shops, so Debs and I always said goodbye at the bridge.” She put her hand over her eyes.

“Take it easy,” Susan said. “Take your time.” When Banks looked down, he noticed that Megan was gripping Susan’s hand at the side of the bed.