Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses by Catriona McPherson Page B

it did seem pretty feeble sitting there in his room with a hot cup of coffee warming my fingers and the faint sounds of the public bar wafting up through the floor and in at the open windows.
    ‘Fair point,’ I said, although he had not precisely made one. ‘There were scores of girls who would have overheard a scuffle even if the mistresses were all still in the common room miles away. And I suppose there must be matrons and maids and what have you. Yes, all right then, I should have stayed put and grilled her. Perhaps next time.’
    ‘Mistresses,’ said Alec. ‘How many have gone again?’ I gave him a grateful smile: he had already forgiven me and moved on.
    ‘Five,’ I said. ‘That occurred to me too. But five mistresses have disappeared and Fleur definitely said her total – my God, how horrid – was four.’
    ‘So no reason to make the connection.’ Alec shivered too. ‘I suppose you believed her?’
    I thought hard for a moment before answering and then nodded.
    ‘I believe she wasn’t lying,’ I said. ‘She might be mistaken – out of her wits – but it wasn’t mischief when she told me. It was more like a warning.’
    ‘Although,’ Alec said, ‘there is the point of her sister’s mysterious message. “Trouble in the past” that they thought Fleur had got over by now and a great dread that it would flare up again. I always wondered why they didn’t tell you straight what kind of trouble it was, but if it was four murders then it’s less of a puzzle.’
    I gave a grunt that was as close as I could get to laughter. ‘Yes, I shall be having a sharp word with Pearl if I find out she sent me off to see if a murderer was about to murder again.’ Then I shook my head to rattle the idea out of it. ‘She can’t be, Alec. She simply can’t be. She used to decorate her dolls’ house for Christmas. How could she kill anyone? And how could she possibly get a job in a good school if she had been in prison for murder? And if she had done it four times why wasn’t she hanged? And why haven’t we heard about her? She’d be more famous than Dr Crippen.’
    ‘Only if she were caught,’ Alec said. ‘And
is
it a good school?’
    I opened my mouth to answer and then stopped.
    ‘It has some awfully grand pupils for a bad one,’ I said. ‘And yet . . . five mistresses gone and the head is a funny little creature more like a . . . who she actually reminds me of is Batty Aunt Lilah. Almost one of the girls herself, and not at all suited to being
in loco parentis
.’
    ‘The way she bundled you in and let you loose on them in the dining room certainly doesn’t inspire much confidence in her judgement. No reflection on you, you understand, but you know what I mean.’
    ‘I do,’ I said. ‘Well, perhaps she was the matronly one and Fräulein Whatshername was the brains of the outfit.’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘The other headmistress,’ I said. ‘There used to be two until she died.’
    ‘Lifting our total to six?’ said Alec. ‘Six mistresses a-vanishing?’
    ‘No, she’s one of the five. She was the Latin mistress as well.’
    ‘So what are you going to do?’ Alec said. ‘What next? What first?’
    Before I could answer there came a timid knock at the door and the same maid who had brought our supper entered.
    ‘Just – eh – wondered if you needed anything else, sir,’ she said. ‘And madam.’ Her eyes were rounder than ever.
    ‘No thank you,’ Alec said. ‘Here, take the tray, but I’ll keep the plate in case I’m peckish later.’
    ‘And can I turn down your bed while I’m about it?’ she said, blushing a little and somehow giving off the strong impression that she had been put up to this by a third party.
    ‘No thanks,’ said Alec again.
    ‘You could turn mine down,’ I said, losing patience with it all. ‘Two doors along. And I’d like some hot water too if it’s not too late in the evening.’ The maid bobbed and disappeared.
    ‘You asked me what
I
was going to