Read Online Jolly Foul Play: A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery by Robin Stevens - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Robin Stevens
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now? It could not be the murderer, letting them out so freely, could it?
‘It can’t be the murderer,’ said Daisy, as though she had heard my thoughts. ‘The grown-ups think Elizabeth’s death was an accident and Jones is to blame, so there’s no need for the murderer to be dropping secrets to throw investigators off the scent. There won’t
be
any official investigators, and no one knows that we’ve taken on the case.’
‘So?’ asked Beanie, eyes wide.
‘So something else is going on, something we don’t understand yet. It seems such an odd thing to do, to let out secrets like this. It doesn’t make sense, and that’s important. If something’s untidy, there’s usually a reason for it. That’s what Hazel and I have learned in our career to date.’
‘So what do we do?’ asked Kitty.
‘Carry on with our plan of action,’ said Daisy smartly. ‘But with some additions. We know that Jones was framed, and that we are dealing with a murder. We believe we may know why Elizabeth was murdered – because she had a secret about the murderer, and was holding it over them. So although we must keep on listening for gossip, and collecting alibis, we can begin to be more precise. What do we know about the Five? What might their secrets be? And what more can we find out about Elizabeth and her collection of secrets? Where did these pages come from? How many more are there? And, most importantly, who is releasing them and why?’
‘I want to
hurt
whoever it is,’ growled Lavinia.
‘We can’t actually hurt them,’ I said. ‘But we can find them. That’s part of the plan of action.’
‘Indeed,’ said Daisy, nodding. ‘Finally, we need to get back to the crime scene.’
‘But how?’ asked Beanie. ‘They won’t let us go up to the sports field! Miss Barnard said so.’
‘Of course they will!’ snorted Lavinia. ‘Miss B just said that for show. I heard her tell the other mistresses that we’ll still have Games tomorrow, and that Saturday’s match isn’t cancelled either. Worse luck.’
‘Oh, excellent!’ said Kitty. ‘You see, we’re good at this.’
‘Of course we’re good at this,’ said Daisy. ‘We are detectives!’
8
I knew what Daisy had said about not mentioning the case, but somehow I could not quite help myself. Alexander already knew there had been a murder, after all, so I owed it to him to keep him up to date with what we had discovered. During English with the new mistress, Miss Dodgson, when we ought to have been writing our compositions, I tucked this casebook on my lap, open on a fresh page. I took out my special pen with its lemon-juice ink, one of two (the other, of course, is in Alexander’s school bag), and began to write, the letters fading away almost as soon as I had put them down.
Deepdean School, Wednesday 6th November
Dear Alexander,
The case has moved on since I wrote to you last night. First, it looks as though our handyman – Jones, do you remember? – is really being blamed for what happened. He’s been made to leave Deepdean. We know he couldn’t have done it. He’s a very careful sort of person, and he never would have left a rake lying about like that, especially not when he knew we were all going to be running around the field after dark. He can’t remember doing it, either, but because Miss Barnard is sure that Elizabeth’s death was an accident, she is blaming him. It makes me sure that the person who killed Elizabeth is truly awful. They are framing Jones, making him take the blame for it, and that is terrible. It’s quite wrong, and we can’t let it stand.
And there is another reason why we must solve the case: people have begun to find secrets all over the school, the sort of secrets people want to keep for good reasons. They’re written on bits of paper, and we have discovered that the handwriting on them is Elizabeth’s. They must be hers, so they must connect to her death, but how did they get out, and why are they being
‘It can’t be the murderer,’ said Daisy, as though she had heard my thoughts. ‘The grown-ups think Elizabeth’s death was an accident and Jones is to blame, so there’s no need for the murderer to be dropping secrets to throw investigators off the scent. There won’t
be
any official investigators, and no one knows that we’ve taken on the case.’
‘So?’ asked Beanie, eyes wide.
‘So something else is going on, something we don’t understand yet. It seems such an odd thing to do, to let out secrets like this. It doesn’t make sense, and that’s important. If something’s untidy, there’s usually a reason for it. That’s what Hazel and I have learned in our career to date.’
‘So what do we do?’ asked Kitty.
‘Carry on with our plan of action,’ said Daisy smartly. ‘But with some additions. We know that Jones was framed, and that we are dealing with a murder. We believe we may know why Elizabeth was murdered – because she had a secret about the murderer, and was holding it over them. So although we must keep on listening for gossip, and collecting alibis, we can begin to be more precise. What do we know about the Five? What might their secrets be? And what more can we find out about Elizabeth and her collection of secrets? Where did these pages come from? How many more are there? And, most importantly, who is releasing them and why?’
‘I want to
hurt
whoever it is,’ growled Lavinia.
‘We can’t actually hurt them,’ I said. ‘But we can find them. That’s part of the plan of action.’
‘Indeed,’ said Daisy, nodding. ‘Finally, we need to get back to the crime scene.’
‘But how?’ asked Beanie. ‘They won’t let us go up to the sports field! Miss Barnard said so.’
‘Of course they will!’ snorted Lavinia. ‘Miss B just said that for show. I heard her tell the other mistresses that we’ll still have Games tomorrow, and that Saturday’s match isn’t cancelled either. Worse luck.’
‘Oh, excellent!’ said Kitty. ‘You see, we’re good at this.’
‘Of course we’re good at this,’ said Daisy. ‘We are detectives!’
8
I knew what Daisy had said about not mentioning the case, but somehow I could not quite help myself. Alexander already knew there had been a murder, after all, so I owed it to him to keep him up to date with what we had discovered. During English with the new mistress, Miss Dodgson, when we ought to have been writing our compositions, I tucked this casebook on my lap, open on a fresh page. I took out my special pen with its lemon-juice ink, one of two (the other, of course, is in Alexander’s school bag), and began to write, the letters fading away almost as soon as I had put them down.
Deepdean School, Wednesday 6th November
Dear Alexander,
The case has moved on since I wrote to you last night. First, it looks as though our handyman – Jones, do you remember? – is really being blamed for what happened. He’s been made to leave Deepdean. We know he couldn’t have done it. He’s a very careful sort of person, and he never would have left a rake lying about like that, especially not when he knew we were all going to be running around the field after dark. He can’t remember doing it, either, but because Miss Barnard is sure that Elizabeth’s death was an accident, she is blaming him. It makes me sure that the person who killed Elizabeth is truly awful. They are framing Jones, making him take the blame for it, and that is terrible. It’s quite wrong, and we can’t let it stand.
And there is another reason why we must solve the case: people have begun to find secrets all over the school, the sort of secrets people want to keep for good reasons. They’re written on bits of paper, and we have discovered that the handwriting on them is Elizabeth’s. They must be hers, so they must connect to her death, but how did they get out, and why are they being
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