B006ITK0AW EBOK by Unknown Read Free Book Online

himself out.
    Just before he closed the door to the office, the policeman said, ‘The video that might hypothetically be in the video player of the house of the gentleman who died. What sort of video was it, do you think?’
    ‘It was a video Victoria made when she was a student at drama school,’ said Emily.
    ‘Ah!’ he said. ‘I see.’
    ‘Not that kind of video,’ Emily said, closing the door.
    When he had gone, she asked Dr. Muriel, ‘If you really liked someone but you thought they might have done something stupid, should you speak up about it even though they might get in trouble?’
    ‘Aha!’ said Dr. Muriel. ‘Now, we’ll be addressing all sorts of questions like this at the next conference in Eastbourne. Or is it Torquay? Anyhow, it would be wonderful to have you come along and listen to some of the finest minds in Europe debate such conundrums, both trivial and meaningful. It gets very heated. Most amusing. There is no right or wrong, of course. Only brilliant arguments from all sides.’
    ‘What I’m trying to say,’ said Emily, ‘is do you think David could have bashed Dizzy on the head? He was gone for ages before he suddenly “found” him with us.’
    ‘He doesn’t strike me as a basher. And what’s his motivation? No, it doesn’t follow.’
    ‘But then he said he waved and smiled at Mr. Barrymore in his kitchen window. But the policeman said that Mr. Barrymore had been dead for some time.’
    ‘Indeed, indeed – most suspicious. But, although that young policeman wasn’t prepared to say anything, I do think Mr. Barrymore might have been watching Vicky’s video, don’t you?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘So it follows that if Mr. Barrymore stole that video, then it was probably Mr. B who bashed Dizzy.’
    ‘Yes. But you don’t think the video killed Mr. Barrymore, surely?’
    ‘No, I don’t… Good Lord!’
    ‘What?’
    ‘What’s that frightful noise?’
    Emily had also heard the noise coming from downstairs. It was a sawing sound. Last-minute repairs? Perhaps Dizzy’s head injury had been more serious than anyone realised and he was running amok with power tools. She listened carefully. ‘I think it might be the Flight of the Bumblebee.’
    ‘Good. Good. First song of the afternoon. It means we’ve got a long, long time till the prize-giving. Morgana will never forgive me if I don’t sit through the show and watch it with her, but I’ve put up with worse things than Morgana’s unforgiveness. Come on. We need to do a little sleuthing for ourselves. We know what we do not have: we do not have a video that is such bad luck or so horrendous to watch that it kills people, because that would be daft. We do not have an actor who is a murderer. We do have an injured man, a dead man and a dead dog.’
    ‘And we have poison pen letters,’ said Emily. ‘I have a theory about who might have sent those.’
    ‘Do you? Marvellous! Then we’ll do some confronting later on.’
    ‘Not on stage? Not in front of the children?’
    ‘No, my dear. That would be a denouncement. That wouldn’t do at all. A denouncement is public and upsetting. A confrontation is by invitation only and most satisfying. We’ll do the confronting shortly before the policeman comes back, perhaps. When all the parents and the children are gone.’
    ‘What if that policeman wasn’t a real policeman? What if he was an actor who’d been hired to pretend that Mr. Barrymore was dead, to frighten Victoria?’
    ‘He was rather young and handsome, wasn’t he? He recognised us, though, didn’t he? And he seemed rather sweet on you. He kept smiling and looking at your arm. No, I’m afraid there’s nothing else for it. We have to go and confront the thing we fear most.’
    ‘Victoria’s video?’
    ‘Only indirectly. No, I meant death.’
    Emily and Dr. Muriel went back down the stairs, meaning to reach Mr. Barrymore’s home by cutting across the playground. Before they got to the door that led outside, they passed the