A Lesson in Secrets_ A Maisie Dobbs Novel - Jacqueline Winspear [32]
“I didn’t want to scare the wits out of her—how often do senior officers from Special Branch get involved in heart attacks?”
After the body was removed and Miss Linden had left the college, MacFarlane, Stratton, and Maisie planned to leave separately so as not to draw the attention of any students or staff remaining at the college. A police forensic specialist would remain for some time, combing the room—everything from fibers in the carpet to the leather on the desk and the dust on the shelves—to ensure that anything out of the ordinary was captured and logged. The room would be locked overnight, and a policeman would remain on duty—inside the room, so as not to attract attention.
Sitting opposite Maisie in the chair that Liddicote had occupied at the time of his death, MacFarlane sighed before speaking. “Maisie, I know this will not be welcome news, but you will not be involved directly in the search for Greville Liddicote’s murderer. Your position here is as a lecturer in phil-bloody-osophy—and what kind of worker is that supposed to turn out, I wonder?” He looked at Stratton, who had pulled up another chair, then turned back to Maisie. “Anyway, you are here on behalf of Huntley’s department in the first instance, and that position must not be open to doubt or be compromised in any way.”
“But—”
MacFarlane held up his hand. “Hold your horses, I’ve not come to the end of my soliloquy.” He sighed, then went on. “But, on the other hand, you are in the best position to find out what’s going on. Stratton will be in charge of finding the killer, so any leads you uncover that will help him will doubtless be gratefully received—so channel everything through him or me. We have a tricky one here, a crossing over of interests, and—”
“It’s a web, Detective Chief Superintendent. A web. The death of Liddicote could be inextricably linked to whatever else is going on here, and frankly, I’ve not even got my feet under the table yet—though I’ve already learned that the pacifism-promoting College of St. Francis is far from peaceful.”
“Your brief from Huntley was loose—I’ll be honest, I think they’ve got only a wee shadow of a clue that something’s amiss here, which is why they wanted someone like you to come in and rake over the coals to see if their suspicions were on target. On our part, as we said at first, there were suspicions based upon an influx of aliens entering the country bound for this college—and the two came together.”
“And what about the mutiny?” Maisie threw in the comment to see if MacFarlane knew about the reputation attached to Liddicote’s book.
“What mutiny? What are you talking about, lass?”
“Liddicote’s children’s book, the one published in 1916, was withdrawn from circulation—as we know—but were you aware that there was talk that it was implicated in a mutiny on the Western Front, later that year?”
“There were no mutinies on the Western Front.” MacFarlane stared at Maisie.
As Stratton cleared his throat and looked away, Maisie remembered that he had been with the military police in the war. Ah, he knows, she thought, and pressed her point. “I have heard it said that there was not just one but several occasions when men downed the tools of war and walked off the job.”
“The boys on the other side might have walked off—there was a fair bit of mutiny in the German trenches in 1917 and on towards the end; they were starving, most of them—but our boys never mutinied, not the soldiers of the Crown and her colonies.”
“I think, Detective Chief—”
“And I think there’s a piece of paper with your signature on it, vowing that you will keep the secrets of the Crown. So, continue with your work, find out if there is anything going on here that is not in the best interests of His Majesty’s government.”
Maisie stared at MacFarlane. “Of course.”
He sighed. “Now then, time for you to go back to your lodgings. It’s been a long day for you and you’ve a big job on your hands. Stratton and I will pay a visit to Dr. Roth this evening. Anything else we can do for you?”
“I’d like two of those