Reginald Hill - An Advancement of Learning

All Pascoe wanted to do was to re-immerse himself in his (so-far, unproductive) researches into the last movements of Miss. Girling. But Dalziel didn’t seem in the mood for demarcation disputes.

These are distinct and separate enquiries, sir?’ said Pascoe hopefully.

“If you mean, is there any connection, the answer’s yes,’ snapped Dalziel. Two bodies in the same place means a connection to me. It might be accident; but coincidence is like the bastards we pull in, assumed innocent till proved guilty. And we do that by finding two distinct and separate killers. Right?”

“I suppose so,’ said Pascoe.

“Anyway, how are you getting on? Any progress?”

“Precious little. I was just getting into it when news of the girl came in. I’ve got an outline of the day here. Look. Mostly from Miss. Scotby’s old diary of events. She hoards them. The students had gone down the previous Friday. There was a staff meeting on the Monday morning and a governors’ meeting in the afternoon. Now Miss. Girling was catching her flight at 11.30 p.m. or thereabouts. She was evidently a believer in starting the vacation as soon as humanly possible. Anyway, Miss. Scotby saw her after the meeting, about 5 p.m. and she says she waved to her as she drove out, presumably on her way to the airport, about an hour later.”

Dalziel grunted. ‘ didn’t leave herself much time. It’s well over a hundred miles.”

That’s what I said. But Scotby says she thinks the governors’ meeting may have been arranged late in the term, after Girling had made her holiday plans. The ink confirms this.”

“Ink?”

“It’s not the same as the stuff she used for the other major events. So she deduces she noted the meeting later.”

Dalziel rolled his eyes. The whites were quite revolting without the little brown pupils to hold the attention.

“So what are you doing now?”

Pascoe was ready for this.

“What I’d like to do is check at the airport. The big question is, did she get that far or not? They may still have records. And at the other end, Austria, too.” “All right,’ said Dalziel. ‘ remember, it’s taxpayers’ money, lad.” “It’s the taxpayers’ bodies as well,’ said Pascoe, but only after Dalziel had gone out of the door.

His destination was the golf clubhouse where Kent had set up a temporary HQ. He found the inspector gazing dreamy-eyed at a large gilt-framed photograph of Harry Vardon in mid-drive.

“Look,’ he said. ‘ had his jacket on. And a tie.”

“Was he playing here today?’ asked Dalziel.

“No. Of course not.’ Kent returned to earth. ‘.”

“Anything new?”

“Nothing much. The p.m. report won’t be through for a while yet, but I’m sure they’ll confirm what the doctor said. Death by asphyxiation. Her mouth and nostrils were full of sand.”

He grimaced at the memory.

“Next of kin?”

“Her parents. They live in Newcastle. They’ll be on their way.”

“Have you seen Mr. Landor? I couldn’t find him at the college and they said he might have come up here.”

“That’s right. He’s through there.”

Kent nodded at a door to his left.

“He doesn’t look well.”

“Right. How’s the search?”

“Nothing yet. Or rather, a great deal. Those sand dunes are pretty popular evidently, by day and by night. But nothing obviously relevant.” I’ll have a look later,’ said Dalziel.

He went through to the next room where he found Landor leaning against a billiards table, sightlessly flicking a red between the opposite cushion and his hand.

“Hello, Principal. I asked for you in the college.”

“Superintendent. I had to come up here. They had taken her away. I was glad really, I would not have liked to see her. As it was, I had to come through here and be by myself for a moment. That poor girl! Why her? On top of all her other troubles… ” Dalziel interrupted in his turn.

“What other troubles?”

Landor looked surprised.

“Didn’t you know. Anita, Miss. Sewell, she’s at present in the middle of an appeal against dismissal from her college course. She has — had — made certain allegations against a member of my staff… “

“Oh, that. It’s that girl? That’s interesting.”

“Why? You can’t think there’s a connection? Oh, it’s vile!”

Landor turned away and with a single convulsive movement hurled the ball away from him down the table. Dalziel noted with interest that it went into the farthermost pocket without touching the side.

“What kind of girl was she?”

“I’m not sure. Who can tell these days? She seemed an amiable young thing, quiet, well-mannered, not one of our high-fliers academically, but intelligent. Then last Autumn term, there started a falling off in the quality of her work which soon reached serious proportions. I talked to her, of course. She appeared quite unchanged from the description I have just given you, agreed that there was cause for concern, could offer no explanation but gave assurances of renewed diligence, then went off and continued as before. We don’t work on exams alone here. Course assessment plays a very important part in all our courses and it was clear by the end of the Easter term that she was in desperate straits.”

“What did you do then?’ said Dalziel.

“I wrote to her in the vacation suggesting she came up early to have a talk with me. She didn’t reply. She didn’t come early. Indeed she didn’t turn up till almost a fortnight after the start of term. Her case was discussed at a meeting of the Academic Board. There was nothing else to do but ask her to go.” “High time from the sound of it,’ said Dalziel.

“We try to be humane,’ said Landor coldly.

“And then she appealed to the governors? And brought out this story about… whatsisname?”

“Fallowfield. That’s right. She alleged that her relationship with him was the major factor affecting her work.”

“Did he deny it?” “No,’ said Landor sadly. ‘ admitted freely that they had been lovers.”

“Is that unprofessional conduct?”

“In the eyes of some, yes. But not in any legalistic sense. Our humanity doesn’t stop at the students, Superintendent.”

“I’m glad to hear it. So?”

“She claimed also that they quarrelled, he wanted rid of her. And alleged that his assessment of her work in biology was unfairly weighted against her.” “I’m a bit thick,’ said Dalziel, scratching his pate as though to prove the point. ‘ couldn’t someone else just have a look at what she’d done?” “Of course,’ said Landor. ‘ has been done. It’s of a very low standard. But just as important in that course is practical work, laboratory work done under supervision, experiments, dissections, that kind of thing. It was here that Mr. Fallowfield was most critical. It was here the suggestion was made that he had allowed his personal involvement to outweigh his academic judgment.”

“Which could be serious for him? Real unprofessional conduct?” That’s true,’ said Landor. Suddenly he looked at Dalziel sharply. ‘ you can’t think… you’re not motive-hunting, Superintendent?”

“We’re always doing that,’ said Dalziel.

The door opened.

“Can you spare a moment, Super?’ said Kent.

Dalziel joined him in the other room.

“What is it?”

Triumphantly Kent held up a flimsy white brassiere.

“They’ve just found this. In some gorse bushes about two hundred yards from where they found the body.”

“So?’ said Dalziel.

Kent was a little nonplussed to find his own enthusiasm so little shared.

“Well, it might help to pin-point where the actual killing took place.”

“If it’s hers.”