Cat Among the Pigeons - Agatha Christie [45]
“Springer was in the Sports Pavilion—in the middle of the night. Why? We’ve got to start there. It’s no good asking ourselves who killed her until we’ve made up our minds why she was there, in the Sports Pavilion at that time of night. We can say that in spite of her blameless and athletic life she wasn’t sleeping well, and got up and looked out of her window and saw a light in the Sports Pavilion—her window does look out that way?”
Kelsey nodded.
“Being a tough and fearless young woman, she went out to investigate. She disturbed someone there who was—doing what? We don’t know. But it was someone desperate enough to shoot her dead.”
Again Kelsey nodded.
“That’s the way we’ve been looking at it,” he said. “But your last point had me worried all along. You don’t shoot to kill—and come prepared to do so, unless—”
“Unless you’re after something big? Agreed! Well, that’s the case of what we might call Innocent Springer—shot down in the performance of duty. But there’s another possibility. Springer, as a result of private information, gets a job at Meadowbank or is detailed for it by her bosses—because of her qualification—She waits until a suitable night, then slips out to the Sports Pavilion (again our stumbling-block of a question—why?)—Somebody is following her—or waiting for her—someone who carries a pistol and is prepared to use it … But again—why? What for? In fact, what the devil is there about the Sports Pavilion? It’s not the sort of place that one can imagine hiding anything.”
“There wasn’t anything hidden there, I can tell you that. We went through it with a tooth comb—the girls’ lockers, Miss Springer’s ditto. Sports equipment of various kinds, all normal and accounted for. And a brand new building! There wasn’t anything there in the nature of jewellery.”
“Whatever it was it could have been removed, of course. By the murderer,” said Adam. “The other possibility is that the Sports Pavilion was simply used as a rendezvous—by Miss Springer or by someone else. It’s quite a handy place for that. A reasonable distance from the house. Not too far. And if anyone was noticed going out there, a simple answer would be that whoever it was thought they had seen a light, etc., etc. Let’s say that Miss Springer went out to meet someone—there was a disagreement and she got shot. Or, a variation, Miss Springer noticed someone leaving the house, followed that someone, intruded upon something she wasn’t meant to see or hear.”
“I never met her alive,” said Kelsey, “but from the way everyone speaks of her, I get the impression that she might have been a nosey woman.”
“I think that’s really the most probable explanation,” agreed Adam. “Curiosity killed the cat. Yes, I think that’s the way the Sports Pavilion comes into it.”
“But if it was a rendezvous, then—” Kelsey paused.
Adam nodded vigorously.
“Yes. It looks as though there is someone in the school who merits our very close attention. Cat among the pigeons, in fact.”
“Cat among the pigeons,” said Kelsey, struck by the phrase. “Miss Rich, one of the mistresses, said something like that today.”
He reflected a moment or two.
“There were three newcomers to the staff this term,” he said. “Shapland, the secretary. Blanche, the French Mistress, and, of course, Miss Springer herself. She’s dead and out of it. If there is a cat among the pigeons, it would seem that one of the other two would be the most likely bet.” He looked towards Adam. “Any ideas, as between the two of them?”
Adam considered.
“I caught Mademoiselle Blanche coming out of the Sports Pavilion one day. She had a guilty look. As though she’d been doing something she ought not to have done. All the same, on the whole—I think I’d plump for the other. For Shapland. She’s a cool customer and she’s got brains. I’d go into her antecedents rather carefully if I were you. What the devil are you laughing for?”
Kelsey was grinning.
“She was suspicious of you,” he said. “Caught you coming out of the Sports Pavilion—and thought there was something odd about your manner!”
“Well, I’m damned!” Adam