“Crikey,” said Fina as they left the dean’s rooms.
“Indeed,” said Ruby. “It does seem like a strong motive for murder if someone wanted to close the college. On the other hand, it seems like an awful lot of trouble and risk. You could more easily manufacture a series of other scandals.”
“The only reason to suppress the will is if you were a relative of Gasthorpe’s who would inherit,” said Fina.
“Yes. But it would appear a little suspicious. Besides, as far as we know, no one has come forward yet to claim the inheritance.”
“Early days, though. He died not that long ago.”
“Good point, Feens. It feels like an eternity,” said Ruby as they rounded the corner into their own quad.
“Look!” exclaimed Fina. “Isn’t that Vera’s room? I saw a flash of light from a torch.”
“Could be the police,” said Ruby.
“Why would they use a torch? Wouldn’t they just turn on the lights?”
“You’re right. Let’s see if we can catch them!” said Ruby, slipping off her low heels. She began to run in her stockings toward the college door. Fina followed suit.
They crept up to Vera’s door. Fina had a tiny pocket torch she used to lead them to the doorway. She shut it off and they were encased in complete darkness. Fina froze. Something was moving. She poked Ruby and pointed in the direction of the movement. Carefully, she swung the beam of the torch around. A furry face blinked up at them. Tibby! How did the grey ball of fluff find his way to this corridor? The scouts did their best to keep him out of the student rooms, but Tibby must have found a way to circumvent the rules, as was the case so often with cats.
Letting out a sigh of relief as silently as she could, Fina turned the torch back in the direction of Vera’s room. She could see a small stream of light emanating from the crack created by an open door. She whispered to Ruby, “Why wouldn’t the police have locked the door?”
“I’m sure they did,” she whispered back. “It must be someone who has access to keys in college.”
They both tiptoed, single file, to the far side of the door to listen.
Fina thought she recognised Professor Marlston’s voice.
“Where can they be? They must be here under this mess.”
“At least I found one notebook of my poems under a pile of clothes.”
That must be Grace.
Then came more shuffling of feet, the slow slide of drawers, and the slight creaking of a door being opened.
“We’ve searched and searched. She must have hidden them elsewhere. It wouldn’t surprise me if she had a stash hidden somewhere, since she clearly kept – or stole – everything.”
Light footsteps approached the door.
Ruby and Fina dashed around the corner. They held their breath.
Fina could hear a key turning in the lock. Blast it. There went their chance to search Vera’s room one more time. Although presumably there was no longer any need, as the poet and the professor had already performed a thorough search.
They gently exhaled as Victoria and Grace tiptoed down the corridor in the opposite direction.
As they sat on the sofas in the main common room of the college, Fina felt herself nodding off. Even though the room was ablaze with light. This was the one room in college in which the lights were left on all day and night.
“Feens! Wake up. We still have work to do. I feel tired, too. It must be that the sugar is wearing off … and it has been an exhausting day.”
Fina rubbed her sore feet. “Must we really? I can barely move.”
“Believe me, I know,” said Ruby, returning the gesture. “But Grace and Victoria’s search only confirms what we need to do. We must search the laboratory.”
Fina nodded, her head flopping like a rag doll. “What do you think they were looking for?”
Ruby rubbed her nose. “You heard Grace. She was looking for her poems. Perhaps Victoria was also a victim of Vera’s and was searching for her lost items.”
“You forget, dear Ruby, that I know your tell – when you rub your nose. What is it you’re keeping from me?” said Fina.
“I thought you were half asleep!” Ruby said with a mischievous grin. “But you’re right. I do have a little theory, but it will have to keep. To marinate.”
“Oh no, not marinating again. Does that mean you’re getting close to solving the case?”
“Hardly, but I do feel like some pieces are starting to fall into place.”
Fina knew better than to press Ruby for details. She’d have to wait until her friend was ready to reveal everything. Ruby could keep secrets. If she herself had even the slightest inkling of who had committed these murders, she would tell Ruby straight away. But then again, she didn’t have the slightest inkling of who had committed these murders.
As they prepared for their nocturnal adventure, they opted for sensible plimsolls instead of heels.
Ruby fished out a key from a pocket of her frock as they padded along the corridor. She almost always sewed pockets into her own frocks – one of those important practical details which made Ruby a rising star in the fashion world.
The turn of the lock sounded deafening in the eerie silence of the corridor. Soon they were inside. The lab was lined with windows so the moon provided enough light to guide their way. Fina felt she would gag from the smell of various chemicals mixed together in a heady concoction. Thankfully, Ruby waved her towards the small closet they had seen earlier.
Fina turned her small torch on as Ruby shut the closet door behind them. She pulled out a second torch from her satchel and presented it to Ruby. The closet was much larger than it looked from the outside – it could comfortably have fit at least five people, if it weren’t for the tables, boxes and chairs strewn about, making it into a storage closet. At the far end, Fina spied a small oil painting. Why did it seem familiar? That was it. The artist was the same one who’d created that oil painting in Vera’s room. She moved closer to the painting. It was undoubtedly placed in a peculiar position. She removed it from the wall.
“Ruby!” she hissed. “Look!”
Ruby flashed her torch on the now-empty spot with a nail in the wall. A silver lock gleamed in the light.
Fina groaned. “It’s a combination padlock.”
She spun the numbered wheels fruitlessly. Click. Click.
Fina could hear Ruby tap her teeth.
“Let me try something,” she said, moving toward the lock. Fina shone her torch as Ruby worked her magic.
“Blast it. I tried Bathurst’s office number – 406. Perhaps…” She bent over the lock again. “No, not Vera’s room number, either. Feens, have you got any ideas?”
Fina could only shake her head.
“There was something he told us,” said Ruby. “If I could only … Wait, it’s coming to me … aha! Let me try another. 1-2-8.”
Selkies and kelpies. Success!
“What does 1-2-8 mean?”
“H-2-O. Hydrogen is number 1 on the periodic table, then 2, obviously, and then number 8 for oxygen on the periodic table.”
“How on earth did you come up with that?”
“H-2-O equals water. Bathurst mentioned it when he was showing us around the lab. I thought it odd at the time, but I’m sure he enjoyed stumping us with a seemingly random reference.”
They made their way inside the next closet. It was quite large as well, but it was filled with knick-knacks, trunks, and various other bits and bobs. As Fina shone her torch around the space, it lighted on a messy pile of pastel silk and lace. Women’s undergarments! This must be where Vera hid everything she had stolen over the past few months.
In the opposite corner, Ruby’s hand frantically waved her over. She had stopped at a wooden box and as Fina held the light steady, Ruby opened the lid. It was stuffed with papers. But that wasn’t all. Fina saw a stack of two other boxes behind her. Ruby lifted the top off the next box, confirming that it, too, was packed with papers. The folders inside held newspaper clippings and scribblings about various people’s personal lives.
“Who do they belong to?”
Ruby held up a letter. It was signed Harold Baden Gasthorpe.
They selected another letter at random. It was the same. All the notes in the folders were in the same handwriting – it must all belong to Gasthorpe.
Ruby gave Fina a glance of joy and exasperation. Selkies and kelpies! How could they look through all these papers tonight? They couldn’t stay here, as the night porter might come through on his rounds – or perhaps even the police. And they certainly couldn’t haul all these boxes back to their rooms without being noticed, let alone make multiple trips back and forth.
Fina opened the box nearest her and pulled out a few slips of paper at random. One read “Princess Goes Awry” and the other, “Businessman’s Dubious Dealings”. Fina sighed. But the third piece of paper made her nearly jump out of her skin. Though she could read only the top portion of the paper as the remainder was hidden in the box, the words “Dear Fina” caught her eye. She whipped the paper out of the box. Ruby, who had her back toward her, began to turn around. Fina hurriedly crumpled the paper and shoved it into her dress pocket. Time enough to read it later.
With an air of resignation, Ruby slid one of the tops of the boxes back into place.
She whispered, “We must notify the police about this. At least they can sort through the papers.”
“You didn’t see any papers related to the case in there?”
“No, but I’m quite certain they must be in there.”
“Do we have to tell the police?”
Ruby nodded. “I know, I don’t want to, either, but there may be a lot of confidential information in there we really shouldn’t see. Besides, if they found out we were hiding this, you would be in even more danger than you are right now. We’ll tell them in the morning.”
As they made their way out of the closet, Fina saw a flash of light coming from the windows.
“Hurry!” she hissed. “It must be the night watchman on his rounds. Or the police!”
They scampered down the corridor in the opposite direction of the light. The doors were locked. Ruby waved her hand for Fina to follow her into a dark stairwell. She almost slipped on the well-worn staircase, but caught herself just in time by holding onto the railing.
She nearly fell down the stairs again as Ruby halted suddenly, just as they were reaching what looked to be a door.
“What is it?” asked Fina.
“Do you hear that noise?” Ruby stood still.
“It sounded like a scream,” cried Ruby, running toward the door. Luckily, it swung open. They dashed onto the quad. The scream seemed to have come from there, but the closed-in walls created a deceptive echo effect.
At the archway nearest them, Fina could see a hooded figure gripping Professor Marlston painfully hard and shaking her, as Grace Yingxia stood next to her, trying to pry the attacker off her friend. As they got closer, they could hear foul language referring to women and women who love other women. “Bloody high-and-mighty man-hater…” the invective went on.
Fina spotted a broom standing at attention in the archway. Without thinking at all, she scooped it up and gave the attacker’s legs a great whack. Then another. Ruby was by Victoria’s side to catch her when she fell.
“Eeeeeee…” yelled the mysterious figure. He ran off, holding his hood in place tightly as he dashed out of the quad. Grace began to run after him. Ruby hissed, “Grace! Stay here!”
Reluctantly, she turned around with a look of fury on her face.
The three of them huddled around Professor Marlston. “Shall I call a doctor?” asked Ruby.
Victoria groaned and said, “No, I’ll be fine. His bark was worse than his bite.” She paused, looking at Fina. “Splendid batting, Miss Aubrey-Havelock.” She turned to Ruby. “And thank you for stopping me from hitting my head on the ground.”
“Who was it?” asked Fina.
“It was that– that—” Grace was gasping so heavily she could barely get the words out. “That utter bastard Esmond Bathurst!”
Ruby and Fina turned to stare at each other.
“Well, we must tell the police,” said Fina. “They’ll charge him with assault.” Ruby looked at her quizzically. It was true, thought Fina, that the only solution which presented itself to her was to call the police. Despite everything she had been through with the blasted police, her first reaction was to call them in a crisis.
“I forbid you, Miss Aubrey-Havelock,” said Victoria. “I do not want a scandal. It will cost me my job, not his.”
“But he cannot get away with this!” cried Fina.
“There are other ways to ensure he does not do this again,” said Grace quietly. Fina couldn’t imagine what these other options might be but then again, this was Oxford. Backbiting politics at its highest and most original level.
“And you two must keep your mouths shut about our … my…” Victoria said gruffly.
Grace’s eyelids flickered. “What Victoria is trying to say is you must keep our relationship secret.”
Ruby and Fina nodded in unison.