Jolly Foul Play: A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery (26 page)

We all piled on her, and for a moment everything else was forgotten.

‘Girls!’ said Miss Barnard sharply. ‘Take care! Don’t crowd her.’

‘I’m all right!’ said Beanie. ‘Only … my head does hurt.’

The Inspector had Enid firmly in his grip now, handcuffed and pinned against the tunnel wall. He shared a glance with Miss Barnard, and then she turned to us. ‘Miss Martineau may have concussion. Miss Freebody – both of you – you will accompany her to San at once. Tell Mrs Minn I sent you. Good grief, Binny Freebody, do you know you’ve had the whole school, and the police, looking for you?’

Binny smirked.

‘Una locked her in to keep her safe,’ I said. ‘She couldn’t get out!’ I could hardly believe I was defending Binny, but then, I could hardly believe any of what had just happened.

‘You have all behaved in a most shocking way,’ said Miss Barnard. ‘I shall have words with you tomorrow. Miss Freebody, take your sister and Miss Martineau and
go
! You others, you can go with them. I want you all out of this place at once.’

‘Not us!’ protested Daisy. ‘Hazel and I need to speak to the Inspector!’

‘Absolutely not,’ snapped Miss Barnard.

‘Miss Barnard,’ said the Inspector, ‘could they stay for a moment? I would like a brief word with them.’

I could see that Miss Barnard was scowling. ‘Inspector!’ she said unhappily.

‘They were helpful to me before,’ said the Inspector. ‘I have reason to believe that they may be so again.’

Miss Barnard paused, and then she sighed. ‘Oh, very well,’ she said. Lavinia craned backwards hopefully. ‘Not you, Temple! To San, immediately!’

Lavinia led Binny, Kitty, Martha and Beanie out of the tunnel, but although I knew that she was cross not to be staying with us, I had never seen her so proud of herself before. Perhaps detecting agreed with her after all.

Once the others were gone, the Inspector led me, Daisy, Enid and Miss Barnard out of the tunnel too, and into the deserted Hall. I stared up at the tiers of seats around us, the dim vaulted ceiling far above, and the panels painted with vague murals of enormous women who glared down at us as though we were slightly disappointing. When the Inspector spoke, the whole room echoed.

‘So,’ he said as Miss Barnard looked on. ‘Explain yourselves, girls.’

Daisy explained our case, in a rush, and I put in all the bits that she forgot (as usual, Daisy gets excited about the end of a case, and forgets to be entirely scientific). We explained how Elizabeth’s death had been a murder, not an accident, how Enid had killed her with the hockey stick, but left the rake next to her for cover. She had tried to destroy the stick later, but then, when it was discovered, tried to cover her tracks further by writing down Margaret’s secret and signing it with Florence’s name. The Inspector looked more and more serious, and Miss Barnard gasped in confusion and horror. She could not stop looking at Enid.

I tried not to. Enid had stopped struggling, and was sitting quite quietly on a chair, but she was looking at us with a despairing stare and it made my heart stumble. This is always the way of it – knowing who the murderer is does not make them a different person, but what they have done somehow overlays who they are, and turns them quite horrible. I had been wrong. I was not like Enid at all. I may not be a heroine, but I would never hurt one of my friends, not deliberately. Many things matter more to me than being good at lessons.

I imagined the moment: Enid raising the hockey stick in both hands and then bringing it crashing down on Elizabeth’s head. She must have been horribly afraid, to plan such a thing and then carry it out. But then, that was what Elizabeth had done to everyone: trapped them, so they could not escape. It was awful that this was the only way Enid felt she could be free. And now her secret would be out anyway.

‘Elizabeth was going to tell everyone she was a cheat,’ I said to the Inspector. ‘She wouldn’t have been able to go to university, and her parents told her she had to.’

Daisy snorted. ‘Imagine!’ she said. ‘Doing a murder for
that
!’

‘It wasn’t just that!’ cried Enid suddenly. ‘It was – it was everything. I had to get in, don’t you see? Daddy would have never forgiven me. My life wouldn’t have been worth anything.’

‘Indeed,’ said the Inspector. ‘It certainly won’t, now.’

I felt dreadful, all over again.

‘In this case,’ said Inspector Priestley to us, smiling rather, ‘I must say I am rather glad that you honourably decided to break into school property in the dead of night. You recovered a missing person and revealed a murderer. As always, I must congratulate you, although as always, I must also point out that you have been fearfully foolish.’

‘
Fearfully
foolish!’ echoed Miss Barnard. ‘Why did you not think to tell anyone where you were going?’

‘We told the shrimps!’ said Daisy. ‘See? That’s how you know.’

‘We might not have done,’ said the Inspector. ‘I only happened to come into the house to speak to your Matron. I was accosted by young Miss Grey, who seemed desperate to talk to me. She told me that you had escaped House, and where you were going, and that she had seen Enid follow you. I telephoned Miss Barnard immediately, and rushed down to find you myself. You ought to congratulate Miss Grey. I believe she solved the case before any of you.’

‘Huh!’ said Daisy. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. We knew exactly what had happened.’

‘Did you?’ asked the Inspector. ‘According to Miss Grey, you were sure that the culprit was Una Dichmann, but Miss Grey was terribly worried, because she could not work out why, if that was so, it was Enid Gaines who had crept out after you.’

‘A lucky guess,’ said Daisy airily. ‘And we had everything in hand. Even if you had not appeared, we would have triumphed.’

‘Daisy!’ I said. ‘That isn’t true!’

‘It’s close enough!’ said Daisy. ‘Anyway, we’ve solved the case now.’

‘Miss Martineau was hurt very severely,’ said Miss Barnard sternly.

‘I can’t control the idiotic things my assistants do!’ said Daisy crossly. ‘I didn’t ask her to throw herself on Enid like that!’

‘I assume she thought she was helping you,’ said Miss Barnard.

‘She was trying to be brave,’ I said. ‘Will she be all right?’

‘I’m sure she will,’ said Inspector Priestley. ‘From experience I’d say that she has very mild concussion, at worst. The blow glanced off her, it was not a direct hit. Nurse Minn will sort her out.’

‘And will you bring back Jones?’ Daisy asked Miss Barnard. ‘He’s innocent! It was murder, not an accident, so he can’t have had anything to do with it.’

Miss Barnard sighed. ‘I will,’ she said. ‘And I will give him my full apologies. Now, if you’re ready, you need to go back up to House, if you please. I think your Matron will be missing you.’

‘Where will I go?’ asked Enid, and she sounded very frightened.

‘To the station, with me,’ said Inspector Priestley sadly. ‘There is work to be done, and a trial to prepare for. Since you have confessed, things should be easy.’

Enid made a gulping noise. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said softly. ‘I had to do it.’

‘I’m not sure you did,’ said the Inspector. ‘Although the judge and jury may see things differently. Now,’ he said, turning to us, ‘you’ve been very successful detectives. I’m sorry I ever doubted you, but now it’s time for you to be schoolgirls again. Think of it as an elaborate cover. Are you ready?’

Daisy nodded. She turned to me, and I could see she was grinning. ‘All right, Hazel?’ she asked. ‘Let’s go and pretend to be ordinary.’

Matron was quite furious, of course, and she could not understand what we had all been doing down at school – ‘and in a dirty tunnel, too!’ she cried. We both got rather stern slaps about the head, and were banished up to the dorm at once. But I think the Inspector and Miss Barnard must have spoken to her after that, because the next day we were given extra pudding at dinner, and Matron rather unexpectedly gave us a hug.

We went to see Beanie in San on Sunday afternoon. Kitty was there, by her bedside, and so were Binny, Lavinia and Martha. ‘I’m all right,’ said Beanie, blinking up at us from under a large white bandage wrapped around her head.

‘She’s got an awful bruise,’ said Binny gleefully. ‘It’s lovely. All I’ve got are scratches from the tunnel, it’s terribly dull. It was quite a boring kidnapping, really. Una brought me food and drink, and I had a blanket to sleep on. It was just like camping!’

I remembered the apple in Una’s bag. She really had been trying to look after Binny.

‘You beast. Beanie nearly died!’ said Kitty, who was able to be cross with Binny again, now she was safe.

‘I didn’t!’ said Beanie.

‘Whatever were you thinking?’ Daisy said.

‘I didn’t think,’ said Beanie, hanging her head. ‘I’m sorry, Daisy. I only – I didn’t want any of you hurt. You’re my friends, and I couldn’t bear it if something happened to any of you.’

‘
Beans!
’ said Kitty, and she threw her arms around her. Daisy grinned at me, and then we hurled ourselves on top of Kitty. Lavinia followed, and then Beanie was buried under all of us, squealing. I knew then that we could not be like the Five, not for anything. We were real friends, and whatever happened we would never turn against each other.

Enid was taken away to the police station, and from there on up to London, but of course it was all around the school by Monday morning. ‘Enid killed Elizabeth!’ went whispering all around the halls and corridors, and I heard some utterly awful stories about what exactly had happened, which were both less and more dreadful than the truth. I knew that Miss Barnard was tensed for the mothers and fathers to descend on her, and in fact a few girls were pulled out of the school that week. Deepdean seemed dangerous again, even more so now that girls had been bumping each other off, but the fact that Enid had already been caught saved us all, I think. The danger was gone before it was known, and so it was past, not present.

Jones was back, with no fuss, a week later. He was merely there one day, raking the winter beds. He raised a hand to us, and smiled crookedly at Daisy, and went back to his weeding. Daisy sighed contentedly, and I knew what she meant – that the school was as it should be again.

It was true that Deepdean felt different. The corridors were freer, I heard laughter again, and even the mistresses smiled. The remaining members of the Five were changed as well. I am not sure they were
friends
, even now, but they were together. What had happened had bent them into a new shape, and that mattered. They were not cruel to the younger years any more, they were careful, as though they knew what might happen to them. We still had the power as much as they did.

Our dorm really was closer than ever. Solving the case together had changed something between us, too. Daisy and I did not have to hide the detective side of ourselves at all, and it felt wonderful. Daisy looked at Beanie, Kitty and Lavinia in a new way – they had all finally proved themselves, and could truly be trusted. Kitty, who is quite clever with her hands, made us all Detective Society badges, which we wore pinned to the underside of our ties, and the Inspector sent us the most enormous parcel. When we unwrapped it, it was filled with a delicious spread: cakes and biscuits and five different sorts of jam. We had the most marvellous midnight feast – there was so much that we could even invite Charlotte, Binny, Betsy, Emily and Martha to join in. If this was the new Deepdean, I thought, as Lavinia and Binny tried to outdo each other in the number of bits of cake they could eat at once, and Beanie and Martha fed biscuit crumbs to Chutney the dormouse (he had made his way back to Beanie’s tuck box a week after Elizabeth’s murder, and had been living there very happily ever since), I liked it very much.

The outcome of the mystery for the Five was more mixed. What exactly Una had done in the tunnel was slightly blurry, but it was understood that she had tried to protect Binny, and for that she became Head Girl. She stopped ordering the younger girls about, and instead spent most of her time hovering about near the pigeonholes in the House hallway. There was word that her family had decided to come to England – they were on their way, but the journey out of Germany was difficult. I crossed my fingers for them.

Although Margaret knew that we had not been behind the spreading of her secret, she resigned as prefect. That was a nasty little after-effect of Elizabeth. For a while, in fact, we barely saw her. She kept herself to herself, and I knew that what had been discovered about her had damaged her. But one day, towards the end of term, I turned a corner at House quickly, and almost walked into her and Astrid together. My eye only caught the end of it, but I was sure I saw Margaret dropping Astrid’s hand, and both of them turning away with blushes in their cheeks. I was glad.

‘Margaret—’ I said to Daisy later, and she said, ‘Shush, Hazel! Ask no questions.’ So Daisy knew – of course she did. We did not speak about it after that.

Florence did not come back to school. She was sent away to convalesce. Her dreams of the Games were quite over. Lettice, though, stayed. She withdrew, and became more quiet, but I saw that she had begun to eat a little more at meal times, and sometimes I even saw her smile. She would still be presented at Court in January, and her dress was nearly ready.

I had sent Alexander an explanation of everything that had happened, and how we had solved the case, and a week before the end of term I got a letter back.

Weston School, Thursday 28th November

Dear Hazel,

I am so glad you solved the case! I never guessed who it was. I thought it would be Florence. George says he did know it was Enid, but George sometimes doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Is Daisy happy now that it’s all over?

Hazel, I’ve had an idea. George’s brother goes to John’s, in Cambridge, and he’s going to stay with him this Christmas hols. Father wants me to go with him, so I can see what it is like (he was at Trinity, and he wants me to do the same), and I thought – Daisy’s brother is at Maudlin, isn’t he? Well, could she (and you of course) manage to go visit him at the same time? Would her parents allow it? If so, we could all be in Cambridge for Christmas! Wouldn’t that be spiffing? Say you’ll at least try – will you?