Jolly Foul Play: A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery (9 page)

Hazel

At that point, Miss Dodgson came walking down the rows of desks to see how we were getting on with our work, and I had to shuffle the pages of my letter under an old half-finished composition that I use for camouflage and pretend to be writing that. I looked over at Daisy, and saw with a shock that she was looking back at me, with her eyes very slightly narrowed. It felt like all the fizz in my chest had been sucked away. She must think I was working on this account, surely. But what would she do if she discovered that I was writing to Alexander about the case instead? I looked down as quickly as I could and told myself that I had every right to carry on. He was my friend, after all, and another detective.

I quickly turned back to this casebook, and my usual blue-ink pen, and carried on writing until the bell went. But I was really thinking of something else. Writing the letter had somehow given me a plan, a rather Daisy-ish one, and I wanted to put it into practice.

Now, the first formers happened to have a lesson in the room next door to ours, and so we all came flooding out together at the bell. Just as the crush became truly close, I spilled my books out of my hands, into Lavinia. As I knew she would, she growled, lashed out with her elbow and (I stepped aside as neatly as I could) knocked into one of the first formers, Emily Dow. Emily stumbled, and then Lavinia (being Lavinia) pushed her all the way over. Emily shrieked and fell.

‘Lavinia!’ Beanie cried, and rushed to help Emily up. ‘Don’t do that! Poor Emily!’ For a moment Beanie looked quite fierce. Emily burst into tears and Beanie put her arms around her protectively. I was glad that Beanie, at least, had not been infected by the nastiness of this year.

‘It’s Elizabeth,’ I said as Beanie and Emily stood up, and Daisy and Kitty pushed over to where we were. ‘That’s why we’re all upset. Lavinia didn’t mean it.’ (I felt rather guilty as I said that). Everything depended on what Emily said next, and she did not disappoint.

‘It’s horrid!’ said Emily, wiping her face. ‘I’ve been thinking and thinking about it, ever since last night. We were so near, after the end of the fireworks! What if
we
had stepped on that rake?’

‘But—’ said Beanie, and then she went red. She looked at us helplessly.

‘But you didn’t,’ Daisy said pointedly, and Beanie collected herself.

‘It was Charlotte who found her,’ said Emily, and I thought of what Daisy says: that if you give people room to talk, they will explain everything without you having to ask. ‘She – she
tripped over her
.’

‘She was just
lying there
,’ said Charlotte Waiting, a little first former with curly blonde hair and eyes even bigger than Beanie’s. Daisy made sympathetic noises, and as usual they did the trick.

‘It was awful,’ Charlotte went on passionately. ‘We went over to the bonfire after the display to warm our hands – it was awfully cold – but the prefect beside it—’

‘Enid, wasn’t it?’ asked Daisy casually.

‘Oh no, it was Una, she had just put another load of wood on – she told us to move along. She was terribly flustered and cross. So we went back beyond it, towards the pavilion, and that’s when we – when I –
trod on Elizabeth
.’

I could have cheered. There we had the beginnings of our first suspect’s movements. Una had been at the bonfire just after the end of the fireworks, exactly on the spot to hurt Elizabeth.

A group of third formers shoved past us then, giggling at something.

‘Watch it!’ shouted Kitty, and one of them (of course, it was Binny) turned and stuck out her tongue. Then all four of them shrieked with laughter and rushed away.

‘I don’t like the way the younger years are behaving today,’ said Kitty crossly. ‘Why, if I was in charge, I should—’

‘You sound just like one of the Five!’ said Beanie rather reproachfully.

Kitty froze. ‘I am nothing like the Five!’ she gasped.

‘Do you think another secret has been found?’ asked Emily shyly, looking rather more cheerful. ‘I never knew that the older girls had so many. I’m much less afraid of them now.’

Kitty opened her mouth to say something snubbing, caught herself and shut it again. She blinked, as though she had just thought of something. ‘It
is
only the older girls’ secrets coming out,’ she said. ‘Goodness. Our form is the youngest that’s had anything revealed about them. What if the secret-spreader is one of the younger girls?’

She was quite right. For a moment we all stared at each other in surprise. Had we discovered something else important?

‘It might be,’ said Daisy thoughtfully. ‘But it could also just be a blind. After all, there could be plenty of older girls whose secrets haven’t come out yet. I happen to know that Violet—’

Just then, Betsy North came hurrying up to us. ‘Psst,’ she said. ‘Information.’

‘What is it, horrid little shrimp?’ said Daisy loudly, shooing the first formers away. Then, in a lower voice, ‘Go on, tell!’

‘Listen to this!’ whispered Betsy. ‘I heard one of the third formers saying it just now. They were standing near Elizabeth, just before we all formed up in rows for the fireworks, when Lettice came up to her. She was shaking, and she said something about
secrets
. And Elizabeth laughed at her. She told Lettice that
she had better be careful, for the sake of her sanity
. And Lettice looked
terrified
. She went rushing away, and that was when Una came by, to line them all up.’

‘Oh, well done!’ said Daisy, excited. ‘Bunbreak privileges for you tomorrow morning, Betsy, I promise you that! Detectives, we are beginning to gather important information. Now it is your mission to discover what else was overheard on Tuesday.’

That was the beginning of our run of good luck. We spoke to all the younger years – Daisy worked her magic on them, and they melted. There was general agreement that the Five had been behaving even more badly than usual last night. Margaret had shouted at a first-form shrimp, just after we had seen her snap at Astrid. Una had given two third formers detention for pushing out of their line, just as the fireworks were beginning. But we also spoke to plenty of girls who said that the Five were not merely cruel, but upset. Lettice, handing out sparklers, had had tears in her eyes, and before that she had been storming about, full of angry energy and snapping at everyone she passed – we had this from several people. Enid had been distracted, muttering to herself and not even seeing the third formers pretending to fence with their sparklers, although they did it right in front of her.

Each of the Five had been seen speaking to Elizabeth before the fireworks – it seemed as though she had never left her comfortable position near the bonfire. To our sighting of Margaret, and the third formers’ of Lettice, were added three more. A second former had seen Enid pausing with a load of wood in her arms to speak with Elizabeth next to the fire, just after everyone had arrived and been greeted. Elizabeth was speaking crossly to her, telling her off, and then Enid walked away again to collect more firewood from the pavilion. The second former thought that this was quite probably what the argument was about: Enid having to collect firewood. ‘She’s always so busy with her books, she looked as though she hated being away from them!’ she said. She was replaced by Florence. Elizabeth had turned and told her (so said the second former, who was feeling very important by now, at having fourth formers listen to her so intently) to be careful collecting firewood, because
it might be too heavy for her
. This did not seem very likely to us. Everyone knows that Florence is strong as an ox and can stride over hurdles in the most terrifying way (women cannot compete at hockey at the Olympics, you see, so she has chosen hurdles as her sport, though during term time she is quite obsessed with hockey). But the second former was very insistent. ‘It’s what I heard!’ she said indignantly. I wrote it all down, frowning rather, but knowing we could not discount information just because it seemed unlikely. We had done that before, to our cost.

Una had spoken to Elizabeth just before Miss Barnard’s speech. We’d had to consult one of the fifth formers for this information, no one else had been close enough to the fire at that moment to hear, but apparently Elizabeth had replied crossly to her. It was something about Una’s father, the fifth former thought, and Una had been furious – but of course, she’d had to whisper, so as not to disturb Miss Barnard, so the fifth former could not hear properly.

Binny’s friend Martha was still spreading her story about seeing a man running away towards the woods, just before the fireworks began. We cornered her on the way up to House after school, and she blushed and said that, no, she had never said she had seen a
man
– only a figure – and it had been very dark, so perhaps …

We had plenty of information, but nothing that we could point to and say that it ruled out any of the Five. In fact, everything we had discovered made all our suspects look equally likely. What we did know for certain was that the murder must have happened
after
the fireworks began. Lettice had been talking to Elizabeth just before, so that made her a strong suspect, but the others were all in the right area too, and they had all argued with Elizabeth. Now what we had to do was discover why. There were hints, indications, and now we had to seize on those threads and follow them through to the truth.

Two more secrets came to light at dinner, on two more bits of paper. One was found by a third former, on the walk up to House, and another was found by a first-form shrimp just outside House. One of them we already knew: that Alice Murgatroyd (the fifth former who helped Daisy last year, now a Big Girl) smuggled cigarettes; and one we did not: that Sophie Croke-Finchley had only got a merit in her last piano exam, and her father had paid to have it promoted to a distinction.

Whispers and giggles rushed through the Dining Room. Alice was sitting with her arms crossed, trying to look don’t-care, but next to her was a space where Heather Montefiore ought to have sat, and next to
her
, Astrid Frith had her hair hidden under a contraband hat. Nervousness flowed from the Big Girls. They were the subjects of nastiness now, the ones who it was done to.

The other fourth-form dorm surrounded Sophie protectively, daring us with their eyes to even mention what we had heard. Kitty curled her lip at Clementine, and Clementine glowered back. The feud between them was clearly as bad as ever. I ought to have felt worried by it, but somehow I did not. I was thinking about Alexander again, about what he would say about all our new evidence, and somehow that made me feel light, but all the same full up before I even ate a bite. I found I could not manage the last few bits of my rabbit pie, and Lavinia had to eat them off my plate.

‘Whatever’s wrong?’ asked Beanie, concerned. ‘Are you ill?’

I shook my head, and avoided Daisy’s stare.

‘Frith!’ said Una. ‘Headgear off in the Dining Room! Or do you have something to hide?’ Astrid simply stood up with a gulp and ran out of the room. Una caught Florence’s eye, and smirked, and I felt indignant. Why, if it was our year in charge, we should never be so dreadful … but then I noticed that Kitty was drumming her fingers on the table. No, not drumming,
playing
, as though she was at a piano. Sophie made a gasping sort of sob and covered her face with her hands. Clementine was seething. Beanie looked upset, and I winced. Not even we were above the nastiness.

‘Clementine,’ said Daisy suddenly. ‘How many goals did we lose to Headley House by last weekend?’

For a moment I thought that Daisy was joining in with the cruelty, and reached out to pinch her under the table, to stop her. But then I saw the look in her eyes. Daisy, as usual, did not mean a word she said. She was merely up to something.

‘Two,’ said Clementine, turning her head. ‘Why?’

‘And how many goals did you let in?’ asked Daisy.

Clementine turned pink. ‘You know perfectly well,’ she snapped. ‘Oh, don’t be such a sourpuss, Daisy. It’s not my fault the team’s losing matches. I heard Florence talking about it with Elizabeth just after we arrived on Tuesday evening, next to the fire. Someone’s not properly fit – I didn’t catch all of it, but I know that things are about to change.’

‘I bet it’s you who’s not fit,’ said Lavinia loudly.

‘Rudeness!’ said Clementine, blushing brightly with rage. ‘You really are a disgusting cad, Lavinia Temple, not a lady at all! No wonder, when you don’t even have a father about to teach you manners!’

Lavinia gave a roar, and lunged at her.

Up jumped Lettice at the end of our table (her food was untouched again, I saw) and shrieked, ‘Temple! Get up to your dorm at once! Detention!’ I saw her hands shaking, the bones of them awfully red and thin, and I wondered about her again.

Lavinia shrugged. ‘Don’t even care,’ she said, then she pushed back her chair and rushed out of the Dining Hall up to the dorm.

Beanie jumped up to race after her, so we all had to follow. The way the Dining Room was that day, no one bothered to stop us.

As we hurried up the stairs, I wondered exactly what Elizabeth and Florence had been talking about on the evening of the fireworks, when Elizabeth had said that the firewood might be
too heavy
for Florence. Clementine must have overheard the same conversation as that second former, but more of it. And what she had heard was odd. Elizabeth had not been particularly sporty, or much interested in that side of Deepdean life. Why would she suddenly bother with the hockey team on the last evening of her life?