Блейз Клемент - Cat Sitter Among The Pigeons

“Why did Ann Shapland also choose a sandbag to kill Mademoiselle Blanche?” asked Miss Bulstrode.

“For one thing, she could not risk a pistol shot in the school building, and for another she is a very clever young woman. She wanted to tie up this third murder with the second one, for which she had an alibi.”

“I don't really understand what Eleanor Vansittart was doing herself in the Sports Pavilion,” said Miss Bulstrode.

“I think one could make a guess. She was probably far more concerned over the disappearance of Shaista than she allowed to appear on the surface. She was as upset as Miss Chadwick was. In a way it was worse for her, because she had been left by you in charge - and the kidnapping had happened while she was responsible. Moreover she had pooh-poohed it as long as possible through an unwillingness to face unpleasant facts squarely.”

“So there was weakness behind the faзade,” mused Miss Bulstrode. “I sometimes suspected it.”

“She, too, I think, was unable to sleep. And I think she went out quietly to the Sports Pavilion to make an examination of Shaista's locker in case there might be some clue there to the girl's disappearance.”

“You seem to have explanations for everything, M. Poirot. ”

“That's his specialty,” said Inspector Kelsey with slight malice.

“And what was the point of getting Eileen Rich to sketch various members of my staff?”

“I wanted to test the child Jennifer's ability to recognize a face. I soon satisfied myself that Jennifer was so entirely preoccupied by her own affairs, that she gave outsiders at most a cursory glance, taking in only the external details of their appearance. She did not recognize a sketch of Mademoiselle Blanche with a different hairdo. Still less, then, would she have recognized Ann Shapland who, as your secretary, she seldom saw at close quarters.”

“You think that the woman with the racquet was Ann Shapland herself.”

“Yes. It has been a one-woman job all through. You remember that day you rang for her to take a message to Julia but in the end, as the buzzer went unanswered, sent a girl to find Julia? Ann was accustomed to quick disguise. A fair wig, differently pencilled eyebrows, a 'fussy' dress and hat. She need only be absent from her typewriter for about twenty minutes. I saw from Miss Rich's clever sketches how easy it is for a woman to alter her appearance by purely external matters.”

“Miss Rich - I wonder -” Miss Bulstrode looked thoughtful.

Poirot gave Inspector Kelsey a look and the inspector said he must be getting along.

“Miss Rich?” said Miss Bulstrode again.

“Send for her,” said Poirot. “It is the best way.”

Eileen Rich appeared. She was white-faced and slightly defiant.

“You want to know,” she said to Miss Bulstrode, “what I was doing in Ramat?”

“I think I have an idea,” said Miss Bulstrode.

“Just so,” said Poirot. “Children nowadays know all the facts of life - but their eyes often retain innocence.”

He added that he, too, must be getting along, and slipped out.

“That was it, wasn't it?” said Miss Bulstrode. Her voice was brisk and businesslike. “Jennifer merely described it as fat. She didn't realize it was a pregnant woman she had seen.”

“Yes,” said Eileen Rich. “That was it. I was going to have a child. I didn't want to give up my job here. I carried on all right through the autumn, but after that, it was beginning to show. I got a doctor's certificate that I wasn't fit to carry on, and I pleaded illness. I went abroad to a remote spot where I thought I wasn't likely to meet anyone who knew me. I came back to this country and the child was born dead. I came back this term and I hoped that no one would ever know. But you understand now, don't you, why I said I should have had to refuse your offer of a partnership if you'd made it? Only now, with the school in such a disaster, I thought that, after all, I might be able to accept.”

She paused and said in a matter-of-fact voice,

“Would you like me to leave now? Or wait until the end of term?”

“You'll stay till the end of the term,” said Miss Bulstrode, “and if there is a new term here, which I still hope, you'll come back.”

“Come back?” said Eileen Rich. “Do you mean you still want me?”

“Of course I want you,” said Miss Bulstrode. “You haven't murdered anyone, have you? Not gone mad over jewels and planned to kill to get them? I'll tell you what you've done. You've probably denied your instincts too long. There was a man, you fell in love with him, you had a child. I suppose you couldn't marry.”

“There was never any question of marriage,” said Eileen Rich. “I knew that. He isn't to blame.”

“Very well, then,” said Miss Bulstrode. “You had a love affair and a child. You wanted to have that child?”

“Yes,” said Eileen Rich. “Yes, I wanted to have it.”

“So that's that,” said Miss Bulstrode. “Now I'm going to tell you something. I believe that in spite of this love affair, your real vocation in life is teaching. I think your profession means more to you than any normal woman's life with a husband and children would mean.”

“Oh, yes,” said Eileen Rich. “I'm sure of that. I've known that all along. That's what I really want to do - that's the real passion of my life.”

“Then don't be a fool,” said Miss Bulstrode. “I'm making you a very good offer. If, that is, things come right. We'll spend two or three years together putting Meadowbank back on the map. You'll have different ideas as to how that should be done from the ideas that I have. I'll listen to your ideas. Maybe I'll even give in to some of them. You want things to be different, I suppose, at Meadowbank?”

“I do in some ways, yes,” said Eileen Rich. “I won't pretend. I want more emphasis on getting girls that really matter.”

“Ah,” said Miss Bulstrode, “I see. It's the snob element that you don't like, is that it?”

“Yes,” said Eileen, “it seems to me to spoil things.”

“What you don't realize,” said Miss Bulstrode, “is that to get the kind of girl you want you've got to have that snob element. It's quite a small element really, you know. A few foreign royalties, a few great names and everybody, all the silly parents all over this country and other countries want their girls to come to Meadowbank. Fall over themselves to get their girls admitted to Meadowbank. What's the result? An enormous waiting list, and I look at the girls and I see the girls and I choose! You get your pick, do you see? I choose my girls. I choose them very carefully, some for character, some for brains, some for pure academic intellect. Some because I think they haven't had a chance but are capable of being made something of that's worthwhile. You're young, Eileen. You're full of ideals - it's the teacher - that matters to you and the ethical side of it. Your vision's quite right. It's the girls that matter, but if you want to make a success of anything, you know, you've got to be a good tradesman as well. Ideas are like everything else. They've got to be marketed. We'll have to do some pretty slick work in future to get Meadowbank going again. I'll have to get my hooks into a few people, former pupils, bully them, plead with them, get them to send their daughters here. And then the others will come. You let me be up to my tricks, and then you shall have your way. Meadowbank will go on and it'll be a fine school.”

“It'll be the finest school in England,” said Eileen Rich enthusiastically.

“Good,” said Miss Bulstrode, “and, Eileen, I should go and get your hair properly cut and shaped. You don't seem able to manage that bun. And now,” she said, her voice changing, “I must go to Chaddy.”