Tup and Stern and the Skipping Rope Scandal at Tampin's Stone Mystery.
Written by S.
D.
Hudson.
Performed by Stephanie Poppins.
Chapter 8 The next morning,
Tuppence Stern was walking down the school corridor as the whole building seemed to hold its breath.
Teachers passed by each other like conspirators in a Cold War thriller.
The only person who seemed unfazed was Alfred Moss,
The caretaker,
Who pushed his mop bucket through the halls with his usual calm whistling.
Something once decades ago might have been classed as a hit.
It was against this hush that Tup and Stern retreated to the staff room.
The room that smelled permanently of instant coffee,
Damp anoraks and stale cigar smoke.
She sat down in a large armchair and looked over the notes in her notebook.
There were far too many question marks in it for her liking.
It was time to get some answers.
Hadn't she promised Mr Bonus the night before she would get some answers?
She began as she always did with the people who had the most reason to lie.
Miss Alice Weed,
For starters,
Recruitment officer and the one who had chosen Malcolm Marshall in the first place.
Tuppence now knew for certain she was working for the police,
But she had not told Martin this.
Annoyingly,
He didn't seem to have any reason to suspect Weed of anything,
Which Toppins put down to preference.
He'd never once mentioned her sniffing around night and day,
And he would have known,
Being the one alerted every time anyone left the teacher's block after hours.
Tuppence had already established there was no way anyone was foraging for lavender during the day.
Every member of staff except Weed was accounted for after teaching hours too,
Supervising mandatory study halls or homework sessions when they weren't drinking Yorkshire tea.
She'd done the legwork.
All rotors were complete,
All boxes were ticked.
Everyone was accounted for,
All the time.
But what about Mr.
Dunforth,
The other PE teacher?
Maybe he'd been jealous of his new counterpart.
Maybe he was worried that he'd be replaced.
He had had a row with Malcolm Marshall in the locker room.
Though no one seemed to know what it was about.
He was accounted for being busy with lessons.
But there was still a question mark over the man.
Then there was Sharon Stanning,
Who dumped Marshall over his two timing ways.
She didn't sleep in the main building,
Which meant she could have slipped out at night undetected.
Who was he two-timing her with?
The caretaker's niece,
She said.
That was a potential lead.
Except that as a dorm assistant who worked in the nurse's office by day.
The caretaker's niece would have been far too closely monitored to get out after dark.
Let alone to overpower a victim the size of Malcolm Marshall.
Lavender poisoning or not.
And then there was the science department and the small matter of their distillation equipment.
If none of them were involved.
Why wouldn't they have noticed something missing?
Had anyone clocked a stranger hanging around,
Usually didn't haunt their corridor.
Not to mention the gym itself!
Which was locked when Marshall's body was found.
Who had the keys?
According to Martin,
There were only two keys.
He had one,
And the other lived on a shared key rack in the adjacent locker room.
A room that was always open.
Anyone could have taken that,
Used it,
Even copied it,
And put it back without a soul noticing.
And why oh why had Malcolm Marshall been found naked?
Was this humiliation,
Ritual or misdirection a way of leaving the victim exposed and defenseless in the retelling so everyone would be looking at the wrong kind of crime entirely?
And of course the person Bart had interviewed,
The caretaker.
Alfred lived outside the main building and had access to the allotment at night without Martin Boners ever hearing him come or go.
But what motive did Alfred have?
By every account,
Girls and staff alike.
He and Malcolm Marshall had been pally from the start.
Marshall had even helped him with heavy lifting more than once.
Toppence allowed herself a small smile.
At least Martin knew that he could rely on her.
He must have seen her heading to the gym that night for her own investigations and said nothing.
He really was relying on her to solve this,
Wasn't he?
It was a nice feeling having someone trust in you.
Tappence considered the woman's footprint pressed into the chalk on the gym floor It was hidden behind the vault and easy to miss on a first pass.
But closer inspection showed it was just ordinary gym chalk.
But the lavender smell she'd since learned traced back to the vault itself.
This was thanks to an intercepted phone call between Weed and Inspector Tryhard.
Courtesy of Tuppen's friend and ally on the school switchboard,
Mrs Fenwick.
Tuppence scribbled away in her book.
And then suddenly Bart was there to fill in the rest of the news about the caretaker.
Shall we go out for a walk?
He said,
Snack box in hand.
Tuppence privately suspected it was a shepherd's pie.
But she wasn't about to ask him.
She hated shepherd's pie.
Yes,
Why not?
" she replied,
Eager to get out.
So that they could discuss things further.
They made their way down the steps and out through the main entrance onto the gravel drive.
Then walk round to the allotments.
Unlocking the gate.
Bath stepped in and led Tuppence to the wooden bench where he sat when he wanted a bit of privacy.
We've got to come out here where no one else goes.
I need to speak about Alfred in private.
Who's have ears in there?
You're right Bart.
So,
What was the interview like?
How did it go?
Well,
I found out that Alfred's a bit of a favourite amongst everyone.
He doesn't speak too much.
He works very hard.
It's always got Werther's Originals on the go.
And he doles them out.
I don't know whether that's to bribe people or to keep them on side or what but.
.
.
He seems to be a very affable kind of a chap.
Tup and smiled.
He also has keys to every building on the site,
She said,
Including the gym.
Yeah.
About that.
Alfred said he was sleeping on the night of the murder.
He'd had a very rough night apparently,
And it was only when he was woken up by the alarm in the morning,
The one we ran to.
That he realised something was up.
It got up late,
He said.
Hmm,
Very convenient,
" said Tuppence.
Well,
You can't just accuse him because he looks suspicious,
Or you don't like him.
Sit back.
I'm not doing that.
But there's more to the man than meets the eye,
I'm sure of it.
And what would that be then exactly?
Mrs Fenwick,
As you know,
Has been here for years.
And And she used to know him when he was called a different name.
So his name hasn't always been Alfred then?
No!
Used to be called Reg.
Reg?
What kind of old fashioned name's that?
Reginald Friendly No wonder he wanted to change his name.
Exactly!
I think you're barking up the wrong tree,
Tappans.
Stranger things have happened at sea.
I think that's worse things.
Oh,
You know what I mean.
I'm going to look into that a bit more closely.
And there's another thing too.
The pathology's report said.
.
.
Whoever committed the strangulation was standing behind Malcolm,
Rope crossed and pulled,
But the force was uneven,
There was a stronger pull on the left side than the right.
And how did you get hold of the pathologist's report?
A little birdie told me.
A little birdie Would that little birdie be Alice Weed by any chance?
You've been listening in to her phone calls.
You know me too well,
Bartholomew Bowman.
So what's that got to do with Alfred the caretaker?
He's left-handed,
Isn't he?
Now you come to mention it.
.
.
I think he is.
