Jolly Foul Play: A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery (18 page)

All the same, he had seen something that we had overlooked. We had become so obsessed with secrets, and gossip, and motives, that we had forgotten to look at this case
as
a case, as a logic puzzle. The more we investigated, the more Elizabeth’s death seemed inevitable, a fact. Elizabeth had been a person who had made so many people hate her that her murderer could have been anyone. But it was not. The Five had all had motives, but only one of them had done it. As Alexander had said, it was a simple question of who had been in the right place at the right time. That was what we had to discover. Why had we not done a re-creation of the crime yet?

It was a crucial thought, I knew, and I had to tell the others. But I did not want to speak to Daisy. I was afraid that she might not listen to my idea at all if I admitted it was from Alexander.

I was still struggling to think of how to tell her at dinner. I was very carefully looking down and taking great forkfuls of food without really tasting it. I became aware of a buzz all around me, people speaking louder than usual, far louder than they are usually allowed at dinner. I bit down on gluey stew, and then someone tugged at my elbow. I looked round, and there was the little third former Martha Grey.

‘Excuse me,’ she said, ‘but have you seen Binny?’

‘Binny’s hiding,’ said Kitty, twenty minutes later. ‘She must be. Ugh, that little beast, I shall kill her when she’s found. Oh, don’t squeak, Beanie, of course I don’t mean it. But I know what she’s done. She was jealous that Rose was getting all the attention, so she’s pulling some silly stunt. She’ll be in the airing cupboard, you’ll see, or under a table somewhere. She’ll have asked Martha to bring her food.’

But Martha, when questioned further, denied it. ‘It’s been hours,’ she said, pink-eyed and trembling. ‘I haven’t seen her since the end of school. She said she had to meet someone, and that she’d come up later with Alma. Only Alma says she came up with the Marys, and Binny wasn’t in the common room, and she wasn’t at dinner either. Do you think she’s all right?’

‘Of course she is!’ cried Kitty. ‘I told you, she’s hiding.’

Matron seemed to agree with her. She was in an absolute rage. To find that another girl was gone was more than she could bear. She went storming all about House, shouting about ridiculous third formers.

Only Binny did not appear. We all went looking for her, but she was not in the airing cupboard, nor under the beds, nor even lurking in the washrooms or the cabinets. She was nowhere. And although I began the search feeling rather distracted, I soon started to worry. I could feel Kitty wobbling, something inside her buckling a little more with every new room that was empty. I thought of what the Five had said, that they would find the person responsible for spreading the secrets of the Scandal Book and deal with them, and I began to feel really concerned.

I was searching in a small alcove on the second floor when a little voice behind me said, ‘Hazel?’

It was Martha. Her eyes had gone from pink to red, and she looked terribly distressed. ‘Are you all right?’ I asked.

‘No,’ said Martha, lip wobbling. ‘I couldn’t say earlier, but I really think something terrible’s happened to Binny!’

‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

‘She didn’t run away because of Rose!’ cried Martha. ‘That’s what Kitty said, and what Matron thinks, but it isn’t true. Binny’s been acting strangely all week. She kept on telling me that she knew something, that she had a secret, and of course I thought it was just talk, but then – well, I began to think that
she
was the one spreading the secrets. I tried to tell you at lunch, but you were busy. And now she’s gone! Oh!’

There was another ‘Oh!’ from behind me. I froze.

‘Hello, Daisy,’ I said.

‘Watson,’ said Daisy. I spun about, furious, because it was not fair of her to use that name, and I saw her standing there, nose crinkled and eyes very blue. She gave one small shake of her head, and in a moment, like letting go of a ledge, I understood. It was not the time to argue any more.

‘You really think Binny has gone?’ asked Daisy. ‘You aren’t just making things up?’

‘No!’ said Martha, hurt. ‘Never!’

‘Run away?’

‘I don’t know! What if … someone took her?’

‘The most likely explanation is still that she is hiding somewhere,’ said Daisy. ‘But – you think she was behind the spread of the secrets?’

‘Yes,’ said Martha, tears standing in her eyes. ‘I’m almost sure. She was being so odd about them. Binny does make things up sometimes, but this wasn’t like that. When you’re friends with someone, you
know
.’

‘I know,’ said Daisy. ‘Friends can always tell.’

Martha ducked her head to swipe her hands across her eyes, and I caught Daisy’s eye. My throat felt full.

‘Come with us,’ said Daisy. ‘Come to our dorm. We’ll get to the bottom of what’s been going on, won’t we, Hazel?’

I nodded.

‘Tell us everything,’ said Daisy, sitting down on her bed. ‘When did you last see Binny?’

Kitty, Lavinia and Beanie were clustered around her, and Martha was standing at the head of the bed. I was at its foot, taking notes.

‘Last lesson this afternoon was French,’ said Martha. ‘When we got out, Binny told me that she had to stay down at school.’

‘Be more specific,’ said Daisy. ‘Every detail, no matter how small, could be important.’

Martha took a deep breath and squinted. ‘She said she was meeting someone, and she’d come up later with Alma. But Alma says she never did.’

I had a sudden horrid memory of our case last year, and of Miss Bell, off to her meeting in the Gym – the meeting that ended in her murder. I shuddered, and Beanie made a little noise. I could tell the others were having the same thought, though none of us wanted to say it.

‘All right, so she was meeting someone,’ said Daisy, pulling us back. ‘Who?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Martha. ‘She didn’t say!’

‘Someone from school, or the town?’

‘If it was out of school, she’d have had to leave the grounds with me, or Alma, or
someone
,’ said Martha, showing impressive logic. ‘You know we can’t go out on our own. She didn’t leave with me, or any of us in the year, and so she must have stayed down at school.’

She was certain, and I knew she was most likely right. But I could not help imagining Binny being bundled away into the night, long after everyone else had gone. If that had happened, then by now she could be anywhere.

I thought back, and saw the pattern: the way Binny had been boastful and smug and full of her own secret. She had discovered a crucial piece of the puzzle, and once again we had all been looking in the wrong direction, and missed it. I felt shame flowing through me. I had listened to Kitty, and seen Binny as a little sister, not a person.

I realized then that I was imagining the worst. Binny had known something important, and now she was missing. It was not much of a leap to assume that the person who had killed Elizabeth really had taken her. But what would happen to her now? Surely the murderer could not do anything, not to a little half-shrimp like Binny. She was foolish, and loud-mouthed, but she was not bad. But … the Five were serious about keeping their secrets, I knew. We had heard Florence and Una promising to hunt for the thief. And the murderer had already killed Elizabeth …

‘Binny’s going to be all right,’ said Kitty, after Martha had left, still sniffling. ‘She bounces. She’s like an ant, terribly difficult to kill.’ But her voice sounded wan and wobbly. ‘Mummy will never forgive me if something happens to her,’ she said, and Beanie squeezed her hand.

‘We’ll find her,’ said Beanie.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘We will.’

‘We all will,’ said Daisy.

I turned to look at her.

‘Watson,’ said Daisy. ‘I think we need to talk.’

Daisy led me through the shouting, running, exclaiming House, everything upside down and inside out (Matron had decided to call the police again, and so Binny was now officially missing), to the long wide window on the second floor that sits just above a little ledge. The older girls sometimes go and sit on it to smoke without Matron catching them, but now it was empty. Daisy pushed open the sash and slipped out onto it, and I followed her.

‘What do you want?’ I asked, once we were sat, being stung by the wind and by little speckles of rain. It was a hard night to be outside. I thought of Rose, hiding somewhere in Oakeshott Woods, and then I thought of Binny. Where was she? Was she safe?

‘I needed to speak to you, Hazel,’ said Daisy. ‘Alone.’

‘Now?’ I said. I was cross. ‘Not before? It’s your fault – it’s
our
fault that Binny’s gone. If we hadn’t been so busy arguing, this would never have happened. What if something’s happened to her?’

‘If something’s happened to her, it’s too late,’ said Daisy. ‘But if it hasn’t yet, then it’s up to us to find her before it does. I know you’d rather detect with someone else, but can’t you pretend, Watson? Just for a while?’ Her voice had gone very fierce, and even in the dark I could make out the wrinkle at the top of her nose.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

‘You’d rather detect with Alexander than me!’ said Daisy. ‘You’re writing to
him
, and asking
him
for help and … not me!’

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. ‘He’s my friend,’ I said.

‘
You’re
my friend!’ said Daisy furiously. ‘My
best
friend – or at least, you were! You’ve been
betraying
me with a
boy
, and it isn’t fair!’

‘Why do you have to say things like that?’ I asked. ‘That’s horrid. I can be friends with you as well as him. One doesn’t have anything to do with the other.’

‘Really?’ asked Daisy. She sounded puzzled. ‘I don’t—Are you
sure
? You’ve changed.’

I looked at her, and suddenly I saw the last few months from her point of view. Daisy was Daisy still, with her peculiar Daisy-ishness the same as ever, and she had not known what to do while I had been writing letters and thinking about someone other than her. To her, I had gone away and left her lost.

‘Of course!’ I said, and my eyes stung. ‘You’re
Daisy
, you’re my best friend in the world. Or you
were
, until you said those horrid things about me and Alexander.’

There was a pause. The wind licked around us and ruffled my hair, and a spatter of rain cooled my face.

‘Hazel,’ said Daisy, after a while. ‘Have you not been explaining things properly to me? Is Alexander
not
your best friend now?’

It was such an absolutely Daisy-ish thing to say that I had to stifle a gulp. ‘Of course not!’ I said. ‘You idiot. Alexander is a boy, and my friend. But he isn’t you. Neither are Kitty or Beanie or Lavinia. And you ought to know that. You shouldn’t be angry with me for writing to him.’

‘Oh, of course I am,’ said Daisy matter-of-factly. ‘But I see now that you were only hiding the letters because you thought I would disapprove. And I – I overreacted, I suppose. I ought never have said what I did. It wasn’t good form. Can’t you forget it? What matters now is Binny. She is missing, and I am sure that her disappearance has everything to do with Elizabeth’s murder. It is reasonable to assume that the person who killed Elizabeth has taken her, to stop her revealing their secret. So to find her, we must solve the case. And I can’t do it without you, Watson.’

I blinked, hard. ‘Oh,’ I said. ‘All right, then. I’m sorry, Daisy. I shouldn’t have gone behind your back.’

‘Detective Society for ever?’ asked Daisy.

‘For ever,’ I said, and almost before I knew what I was doing, I put out my hand, and we shook. We leaned together, with the rain on our cheeks and the cold dark of the evening all around us, and I was happier than I had been all term.

‘Now,’ said Daisy, leaning back against the bricks of House. ‘How are we going to go about solving the case?’

I knew she was smiling. So was I.

‘I’ve realized something,’ I said. ‘We’ve been going on and on about motives and secrets. But they don’t matter, not really. We know all the Five
have
motives, and that’s enough. The important thing is
who had the opportunity
. That’s how we’ll solve the case, and how we’ll get to Binny. We need to do a re-creation of the crime.’

‘Lord!’ said Daisy. ‘You’re right! We’ve been so focused on the secrets, when— Why, Watson, we’ve been chumps! Why didn’t we think of it before now?’

‘It wasn’t me who thought of it at all.’ I stared her straight in the eye. ‘It was Alexander. He can be useful, don’t you see? He isn’t here, so he can see things differently. I think he can help us, just like he did before.’

Daisy flinched. There was a silence. ‘All right,’ she said, at last. ‘I see what you mean. We must do a re-creation of the crime. Oh, if only we hadn’t had to leave that hockey stick!’

‘We know it exists, though, and anyway, we don’t have a fingerprint kit!’ I said. ‘What could we tell from it, even if we had it?’

Daisy sighed. ‘It
is
a problem that we don’t have a proper kit,’ she said. ‘I mean to ask for one for Christmas.’