The Murdered Schoolgirl: A Classic Crime Novel. John Russell Fearn

neck. And we didn’t tie her hands that tightly, either. Somebody else must have re-tied her wrists when we’d gone.”

      “I see.… What was the deceased’s full name, Miss Black?”

      “Frances Hasleigh, Inspector—but there is a definite amount of peculiarity attached to her parentage. In fact, I think we might have a private chat about her connections up at the college. How about tonight after you have brought the body home?”

      “Maybe it would be as well,” he agreed. “In the meantime I’ll have a look round here with what daylight there is left. I’ll see you at ten o’clock then, Miss Black, outside the gates.”

      She nodded and jerked her head imperiously to the girls.

      “This way, girls—if you two are fit to walk?” she added with a glance at Joan and Beryl.

      They both nodded, apparently forgetting for the moment they had no shoes on. Joan had hardly taken one step forward before she gave a yelp of anguish and sat down quickly, holding her foot.

      “Thorns!” she gasped painfully. “Nearly cut my foot to ribbons! Vera, you rotten beast, you—! Sorry, Miss Black,” she broke off, as Maria gave her a grim look.

      “Vera, fetch those shoes immediately,” Maria snapped. “And if you ever dare to think of such an escapade again, I’ll demote you to a lower form and take away all your privileges. Hurry, girl! It’s getting dark!”

      Vera went and returned quickly. Thankfully Joan slipped her shoes on, and Beryl did likewise—but even so Joan walked gingerly and with obvious pain after her adventure with the thorns. Maria watched her gravely as she came hobbling up. Beryl Mather however, did not seem in the least troubled, ambling along with her usual side-to-side motion.

      “What do I do with these, Miss Black?” Vera asked, holding out Frances’s shoes.

      “I’ll take them,” Maria responded, then she led the way over the stile and into the lane. Here she looked round on the serious faces. “Girls, I have something to say to you. This terrible affair is going to mean an exhaustive police inquiry, of course, involving all of you. Whatever may transpire, you must tell the truth every time. Never mind what revelations it may mean—such as your rather vindictive joke conception, Vera. Don’t try and evade anything. Lastly, none of you are to breathe a word of this to any of the other girls. What information they may glean from the newspapers does not require colouring by you. Is that understood?”

      “Yes, m’m,” they answered in chorus.

      “Good! And not a word must be said about the ambulance tonight. I shall severely punish any of you who dare disobey!”

      Maria led the way back to the school as the darkness was closing down, left the girls to scatter to their own quarters, and went along to her study. She found Miss Tanby waiting there.

      “Oh, so here you are, Miss Black! I’ve been waiting to ask your opinion of this chemistry thesis by Pragnell of the Fifth. I think she—”

      “Murder—sure as fate!” Maria breathed, laying Frances’s shoes down gently on the desk and getting out of her hat and coat.

      Tanby gave a start. “Mur—murder?”

      “Miss Tanby, prepare yourself for a shock!” Maria turned and faced her across the desk. “Frances Hasleigh has been murdered!”

      Tanby felt behind her for a chair, sank into it, clearly shocked.

      Briefly Maria outlined the facts, then she sat down at her desk. “In other words, Miss Tanby, I am face to face with murder right on my own home ground, as it were, and one of my own pupils as the victim! The tragedy and horror of the thing apart, I cannot help but welcome the chance it gives me.… Though I must say I never quite expected that strange girl to finish up so violently, or so suddenly.”

      “But what are we going to do?” the Housemistress bleated. “Think of the scandal! This school will be the main topic of conversation from one end of the country to the other once the news is published.…”

      “That is to be expected,” Maria shrugged. “One cannot have a pupil murdered without the Press extracting glory from the fact. Fortunately, the urgency of the war will keep us off the front pages, anyway. My immediate duty is to advise the Board of Governors as to what has happened, then communicate with the parents of the five other girls involved and make the facts as clear as I can.… The trouble is that Vera Randal and her two friends may have laid themselves open to arrest unless they can fully satisfy the police that they had nothing to do with it.”

      “Yes,” Tanby admitted, bewildered, “I suppose that’s true. But I’m sure they wouldn’t do such a thing!”

      “Unfortunately, Miss Tanby, the police will not just take your word for it. Anyway, you have the facts, and now I shall give you your orders. All talk of this matter among the girls is to be ruthlessly stamped out, and the visitors’ wing is to be out of bounds to everybody except you or me. As I have told you, the body will be placed in Room 10 in the visitors’ wing until it is decided what is to be done.… Is that quite clear?”

      “Yes, Miss Black. And you?”

      “I shall write to the various parents immediately, and then try and get in touch with Major Hasleigh through his bankers. For the moment, that is all. Most of my duties I shall have to turn over to you, Miss Tanby, for from what I can see, I am going to be very busy—very.”

      The Housemistress nodded and left the study dazedly. Maria sat in thought for a while—then out came her inevitable black book. She wrote swiftly:

      The mystery surrounding Frances Hasleigh has now developed into a tragedy. She was found hung today in Bollin’s Wood following a joke (so called) by three girls of the Sixth. Two points are interesting: 1. The rope about the wrists and the neck was knotted in a rather strange fashion—three times. And 2. She was a woman of 23 and not 16 years of age. Shall have to look into this matter privately, for I cannot think at this stage who would want to kill the girl. All I can recall, indeed, is the threat of Robert Lever that ‘many a man might slit her throat for telling lies as she did.’ Must look further. The time is 9:00 p.m.

      Next, she turned her attention to typing out letters to the various parents concerned, including a letter to the head of the Board of Governors. Altogether, with the amount of thought she put into them, it took her an hour. Then she collected them all, put on her hat and coat, and went with them to the school mailbox, thereafter taking up her position inside the gateway to wait her appointment with Inspector Morgan.