An Advancement of Learning (3 page)

Now they were ready to believe it.

It was a skull, grinning empty-eyed at them. And most hideously there was a mop of dark red hair hanging rakishly down over where had been the left ear.

Jane Scotby's hand went to her mouth, but only the dilating of her pupils showed she was not just stifling a little yawn; Marion Cargo was white as death, Henry Saltecombe gripped Halfdane's shoulder with unconscious violence, while Ellie Soper seized his other hand so he could not move.

"It's Miss. Girling!' shrieked Miss. Disney.

"Yes, it is,' she added in a matter of fact way as though someone had denied it. Then, unbelievably, she fainted into the reluctant arms of George Dunbar.

"Clear a space,' he shouted. ', Fallowfield, give us a hand here."

Fallowfield was the staff medical expert, having done two years of a medical degree course before abandoning it in favour of straight biology.

But when they looked for him now, he was nowhere to be found.

Chapter 3.

... they are ill discoverers that think there is no land when they can see nothing but sea.

SIR FRANCIS BACON Op. Cit.

"This is what they spend my bloody taxes on, is it?' said Detective-Superintendent Dalziel, peering out of the window of the principal's study.

Sergeant Pascoe said nothing and kept his gaze fixed firmly on an area of neutral space midway between the balding, taurine figure at the window and the long, spare frame of Simeon Landor seated at his desk.

"I sympathize,' said Landor, smiling. ' feel much the same when I see the way you go about your work, Superintendent." "Sorry?' said Dalziel turning. ''s that you said?"

He cupped a large hand to a proportionally large ear.

If the buggers get clever, he had once told Pascoe, pretend you can't hear. Then pretend you can't understand. Nothing's funny if it's repeated and explained.

Landor shook his head, still smiling.

"Now, Superintendent,' he said. ' want to help your enquiries in every possible - way, of course. So just fire away with any questions you like."

Oh God, groaned Pascoe. Honours even, so he extends the hand of friendship. Give the bull a scratch!

"What was going on out there?' asked Dalziel, pointing to the staff garden which the room overlooked. The mechanical digger had gone now but the deep furrows of its progress were still clearly visible. Over the cavity left by the removal of the concrete base a canvas shelter had been erected.

Men were moving slowly, efficiently around, watched by a silent crowd of students on the edge.

"We're extending on all sides as you can see,' said Landor. ' new biology lab is planned there, so naturally we had to move the statue."

"Who was out there watching?"

"The principal was good enough to make out a list, sir,' said Pascoe smartly in his best young executive manner, making a feint towards his brass-bound genuine-leather document case, an object of some derision from Dalziel when it first appeared.

"Of course, it's almost certainly incomplete,' began Landor, but Dalziel waved aside his apologies along with Pascoe's contribution and, by implication, any further interest in the list.

"Why were they watching?' he asked, scratching his inner left thigh voluptuously.

"I'm sure I don't know, Superintendent,' laughed Landor, still pursuing his sweetness-and-light policy. ' most cases it would merely be the old hole-inthe-road syndrome ... "

"What?"

Landor was wise enough not to explain. Pascoe gave him a mental tick.

"Was that all?' asked Dalziel as if an explanation had been given.

"Well, no. There were emotions other than mere curiosity on display, though I don't see what they can have to do ...' He tailed off thoughtfully, then started again with renewed vigour.

"Miss. Cargo of our Art Department was there for a special reason.

Concern, I suppose you'd call it. You see, she had designed the statue and was naturally concerned to see it suffered no damage."

Pascoe was taking shorthand notes, a skill Dalziel mocked as feminine.

"Then there were some older members of staff who were there to express their disapproval, I felt."

"Disapproval? Because their garden was being dug up?"

"Partly that. But partly also because the statue was a memorial. They felt it smacked of sacrilege to pull it up."

"A memorial? Who to?"

In answer Landor picked up the bronze plaque from his desk and handed it over. Dalziel read it carefully with an expression of grotesque devoutness. Like a close-up in Songs of Praise on the telly, thought Pascoe.

"Alison Girling,' he said, enunciating each syllable with great care like a child reading.

"My predecessor,' explained Landor.

"She wasn't old,' observed Dalziel. ' happened to her?" "A tragic accident,' said Landor, doing with his voice what Dalziel had done with his face. ' holiday abroad at Christmas. She was a close friend of some of the senior staff here. They felt it deeply when the statue had to be moved."

"Who are they, Mr. Landor?' asked Dalziel. ' how deeply did they feel it?"

"Well, Miss. Scotby, she's my Senior Tutor, and Miss. Disney, who's in charge of our divinity department, and very much the moral conscience of the college.' He gave a snort which might have been amusement or amazement. ' was rather bizarre when those bones started to fall from the base of the statue. Miss. Disney let out a kind of shriek and screamed, "It's Miss. Girling!" A Gothic notion, don't you think?"

"Bizarre,' echoed Dalziel, as though savouring the word. '. Get that, Sergeant? You mean she reacted as if it was Miss. Girling's tombstone rather than just a memorial? Where is Miss. Girling buried, as a matter of interest?"

"I'm not certain. Austria, I believe. That's where she died. It was all several months before I first came to the place, of course."

"Of course. Were you here when the memorial was erected, Mr. Landor?"

The question was dropped very casually. Landor answered it just as casually.

"No. No, I wasn't. I didn't take up the post till the beginning of the following academic year, September that is. And now I come to think of it, I'm sure the statue was up when I came for an interview here the previous March." "Good, good,' said Dalziel, suddenly expansive. ' good."

He came to a halt before an oil painting of a large amiable woman with warm blue eyes and bright red hair.

"Why, it's Miss. Girling,' he said, peering closely at the frame. ''s well remembered, isn't she?"

"Yes,' said Landor drily. ' is."

There was a perfunctory knock at the door and a large well-rounded woman burst in. She had a formidable chest development, but it looked quite solid with no hint of a central cleavage, and seemed the natural descendant of a series of fleshy outcrops which began with her lower lip and progressed downward and outward through three chins.

She looked indignant, but this meant nothing, Pascoe decided. Her features didn't seem equipped to deal satisfactorily with any other expression.

It turned out, however, that she was indignant.

"Good morning, Miss. Disney,' began Landor. ''m rather busy ... " "Principal!' she interrupted, ' really cannot tolerate this. I am scheduled this afternoon to conduct an extremely important seminar on Isaiah. But there's no one there. No one!"

She paused triumphantly.

Landor eyed her warily.

"Where are they, you ask? I'll tell you. I'll show you. They are there."

A dramatic arm was stretched out towards the window and the garden beyond.

"Look at them! That boy Roote, he should have been reading a paper at my class. He has degenerated visibly since becoming President of the Union.

I knew it was the beginning of the end when we admitted men in the first place. We never had this kind of trouble in Miss. Girling's day!"

Once again Landor showed his quality.

"I'm glad you called, Miss. Disney,' he said blandly. ' were just talking about you, the superintendent and I. I know he wants to ask you a few questions. Please use my study for any interviews you care to make, Superintendent. I'll be with the Registrar if needed."

He was out of the room before anyone could reply. Miss. Disney seemed ready to pursue him through the door, with or without opening it, but Dalziel stepped forward smartly.

"Please sit down, Miss. Disney. You have had a trying day. These things hit some of us more than others, I know. It's a question of sensitivity."

Oh Christ, scribbled Pascoe in his neat shorthand. Extreme Unction. Oily Dalziel oozing over stormy Disney.

Neatly he scratched it out and waited.

Miss. Disney glared at Dalziel, decided here was a soul mate, and made her way round to Lander's chair behind the large desk, which seemed to swell visibly as though to take on the proportions of its new incumbent.

"Well?"

"Mr. Landor told us how distressed you were this morning."

Miss. Disney was obviously reluctant to agree with any diagnosis from the principal, but Dalziel pressed on.

"I believe you were against the despoiling of the garden?"

It was a good word. Disney nodded emphatically, her chins and jowls tossing in sprightly dance.

"Indeed I was. I am! For many reasons. It has always been a place of comfort and repose for those of us not utterly unresponsive to natural beauty. It is almost the only remaining link with the college as it was before all this. And if this were not enough, it is in its own way, which is a very real way, a shrine to the memory of dear Miss. Girling."

She sniffed and took an absurdly small lace handkerchief from her capacious sleeve. Pascoe would have been less surprised to see her pull out the flags of the nations of Europe all strung together.

Dalziel clucked sympathetically.

"Forgive me for asking,' he said in a low, vibrantly sincere voice television interviewers use when questioning the tragically bereaved, 'but why did you say that it was Miss. Girling when the - er - decedent's remains came into view?" "It was silly, I know,' said Miss. Disney almost girlishly. ' dear Alison was so much in my mind, as you might imagine. And when I saw the bones and the hair ... "

She broke off and looked up at the portrait on the wall.

"She had such lovely red hair, you know. You can't imagine how it used to be here in the old days. Just a handful of staff and a hundred or so girls. We knew them all by name. Al's gals, we used to call them. Such nice, decent girls too. Whereas now ... I'

"So it was the hair ... ?' prompted Dalziel.

"Yes, Superintendent. It was as if Alison had risen from her distant grave to reproach me for permitting all this to happen."

"So you passed out?' Dalziel's tone was suddenly casually conversational again.

"I fainted,' said Miss. Disney, moving just as rapidly from the submissive female to her previous role. ' must say, Inspector, that I cannot really see how this line of enquiry is relevant. It's not the uncovering but the burying of these bones which is surely of interest.

And that must have happened at least six years ago. Now I must go and teach the remnants of my class." She stalked to the door, but paused there a moment as if reluctant to exit on an altogether damnatory note.

I'll tell you one thing, Superintendent,' she said, reinstating him in his proper rank. ' bones are not all that is buried here. This is no longer a happy place. There is godlessness at work in this college, on all levels. Good day to you."

Pascoe managed to get the door open before she walked through it. He closed it gently behind her.

Dalziel had seated himself at the principal's desk and was dialling a number on the internal phone.

"Hello, love,' he said. ' chance of some tea for a thirsty policeman?

In the principal's study. Oh, he has, has he? That's nice. For two?

That's right, tea for two."

He put the phone down.

They're making us welcome,' he said. ' now, Sergeant, this is more your kind of scene, as they say. I'm out of my depth here in all this academic intellectual stuff. So what do you make of it?"

Pascoe did not believe a word of this modest disclaimer, but he knew better than to say so. He had a degree in Social Sciences, a qualification Dalziel frequently treated with mock-deference. But when he asked you a question, he listened to what was said, despite all appearances to the contrary.

"It's not an unusual kind of situation here,' he said. ' educational expansion programme of the sixties took places like this used to be by the neck and shook them up a bit. Government started thinking industrially about education, that is in terms of plant efficiency, productivity, quotas, etc. Small colleges such as this was could become four or five times larger in as many years."

"Could? You mean there was a choice?' Dalziel sounded faintly incredulous.

"To some extent. You can't be too autocratic with an educational system based on liberal principles. Really what it boiled down to was the willingness of those in charge to co-operate. If you dug your heels in, progress was slow. If you went out after money and expansion, it could be relatively rapid. Landor's obviously an expansionist."

"And her?' Dalziel nodded at the portrait.

"It sounds as if she was the other kind. A digger-in of heels."

Dalziel suddenly seemed to lose interest.

"What do you think Disney meant by "godlessness"? Are they groping each other during her lectures, or something?" "I don't know,' said Pascoe thoughtfully. ' just that. Your modern students have come a long way from

"Al's gals" I should imagine.

But I can probably find out. I've been looking at the staff-list.

There's someone here I was at university with. She's a lecturer in the Social Sciences department."

He kept his tone casual but Dalziel, as always, was on to him in a flash.

"She?"

"Yes. She. It was a mixed university."

"She,' said Dalziel again, nodding as if some dreadful fear about his sergeant had been confirmed. ' close friend?"

"Close enough. What's next on the agenda, sir?"

"Still close?"

"Hardly. It's several years now, and ... "