Reginald Hill - An Advancement of Learning

But Pascoe could feel almost sorry for the man now as he stared out of the window in the direction of the golf course.

Dalziel distrusted him and though he’d left a whole list of instructions for Pascoe, Kent had nothing but a few reports to work on and Pascoe could almost feel him working himself up to take a stroll towards the links.

Which would be foolish, but it wasn’t Pascoe’s business to say so. He had work enough to do.

The first thing was to get as clear a picture as possible of Miss. Girling’s movements on the day of her departure for Austria.

It is remarkable how difficult it is to reconstruct one particular day after five years. Pascoe tried it for himself and found it impossible.

The actual disaster had taken place in the early hours of December 20th.

A Tuesday. Pascoe had arranged for copies of relevant press reports to be discreetly obtained for him. There was no point in provoking interest before they had to. The discovery of the bones had created a small stir, but generally speaking the public preferred fresh, warm blood.

Examination of the relevant year book which had provided much help with his lists the day before revealed that term had ended on Friday December 16th.

This seemed late to him. He consulted Landor who came in from time to time in search of files to take to his new office.

“We are not a university, Sergeant,’ he answered drily. ‘ am realistic enough to fear that many of our students will not deign to open a book once away from us for the vacation. So we keep them here as long as we can. And in Miss. Girling’s day, the place was very much a ladies’ seminary.”

Pascoe was growing to like Landor. Before leaving, Dalziel had told him of the previous night’s discoveries. Landor was unamazed.

“How clever of you, Superintendent,’ he had said. ‘ we expect an early solution? It has taken a mere five years to discover that poor Miss. Girling was murdered.” Landor now suggested that Miss. Scotby might have preserved some record of the sequence of end-of-term events. He himself was quite unable to help. Nothing in the registrar’s office was of any assistance either.

But before he could even start another Scotby-hunt, there was an interruption.

A small aggressive man with a Scottish accent burst in.

“Where’s the other, the fat one?’ he demanded.

“You mean Superintendent Dalziel?”

“Dalziel? He’s a Scot?”

“Only by birth. He’s not here at the moment. Can I help?’ The man looked doubtful, then nodded.

“Why not? I’m Dunbar. Chemistry.” He said it as though he were the science’s personification.

“Yes, Mr. Dunbar?”

“What’s all this about Girling? That fool Disney’s been twittering about her all morning evidently. She’s a dreadful creature, dreadful. But they all are. It’s an occupational hazard. But what about Girling? The daft creature was hinting at a connection between our late lamented principal and those bones out there?”

He pointed dramatically into the garden. His short arm didn’t seem to stretch as far as he would like.

“We have reason to believe that the remains discovered yesterday are Miss. Girling’s,’ said Pascoe officially.

There’s a thing,’ said Dunbar. ‘, now. I didn’t believe the others, but this is horse’s mouth stuff, eh?” “Others?’ said Pascoe.

“Aye. Disney yesterday. I had to hold her up. “It’s Girling!” she cried.

Man, I near ruptured myself. Then some students this morning. They were convinced. Said they had it from a weejy board or some such nonsense. You’re certain, it’s true?” “Yes,’ said Pascoe in some exasperation. Dunbar nodded as if reluctantly convinced. He pulled a disproportionately large pipe from his pocket and began to shred what looked like brown paper into the bowl.

“She had it coming to her, y’know,’ he said. ‘ thought it was the hand of God, but this… “

He struck three unsuccessful matches.

“You knew Miss. Girling then?’ asked Pascoe. He knew full well that Dunbar’s name was on the list of staff surviving from six years before.

“Aye. Well. Too bloody well. Me and Saltecombe — you’ve met him? Fat chap in charge of history — we were the first men ever appointed here, you know. 1965. Must have been mad. She didn’t want us, I’m pretty sure.

But there were pressures. Others could see the way things were going, so we were a kind of concession. Reckoned we were pretty harmless. Mind, I think Disney would have had us operated on if she could. There was a girl got pregnant that year. She didn’t speak to us for days.”

He laughed loudly and his breath scattered charred shavings from his pipe.

“I don’t know how I’ve stuck it all this time.”

“But now…?”

“Now? We exchanged one old woman for another.”

“You speak very frankly, Mr. Dunbar.”

“It’s my nature, laddie. Look, how the hell did it happen? I mean, what’s she doing here when she should be feeding the edelweiss in Austria?” That’s what we wish to find out. Tell me,’ said Pascoe, ‘ did you last see Miss. Girling. Alive?”

“Man, that’s a hard one! Let’s see. That morning. The last day of term.”

“December 16th?”

“If you say so.”

“Friday.”

Dunbar looked at him puzzled.

“Ah, no!’ he said. ‘ would be when the students went off. But not us. Oh no. We used to hang around over the weekend so we could have a cosy little postmortem at a staff meeting on the Monday morning. The 16th, you said? Then it would be Monday 19th.”

“I see. So all the academic staff were there on Monday 19th. Have you any idea when Miss. Girling would have set off on her holiday? She was flying to Austria, you’ll recall.”

“No recollection at all. The day is dead to me. I’d be off myself as soon as I humanly could.”

“A pity. Perhaps Miss. Disney, or someone on more friendly terms… “

Dunbar stood up, letting loose his unpleasant laugh once more.

“Disney! Friendly! Man, you’ve been propagandized!”

“But I understood… “

“It’s a myth. She’s got no friends among the living, that one, so she appropriates the dead. One of the few things in Al’s favour was that she couldn’t stomach Disney. Good day to you!”

“Goodbye. I’m sure the superintendent would like to talk… “

But the door was already slamming shut.

“Not a very nice kind of man,’ said Kent from the window-seat. Pascoe had forgotten he was there.

“You handled him well, Sergeant. I think I’ll take a little stroll around the estate and soak up a bit of atmosphere. Back in half an hour if I’m wanted.”

Pascoe watched him stride purposefully out of the room. Perhaps I’ll be like him with a year to go to retirement, he thought wryly.

He turned back to his work. Dunbar had been interesting. But first things first. At what stage did Miss. Girling cease to be Miss. Girling on her way to a winter holiday and become a corpse ready for its grotesque interment beneath her own memorial? Any point you cared to choose on the road from the college to Osterwald seemed as impossible as any other. Only the reasons changed.

At least this wasn’t one where time was of the essence. There was no freshly killed corpse to be examined, no relatives to be informed (perhaps there were? but it wasn’t the same), no frantic rush to track down a killer, while the traces were still fresh. There was no need to browbeat witnesses, to cut corners.

This one could be taken leisurely, almost academically (not that Dalziel would approve of either of those words!).

But it was true. Pascoe felt almost happy as he went about his work.

There was a feeling of cosiness in the old panelled room with the wind outside pushing vainly against the windowpane.