Matricide at St. Martha's (28 page)

‘I’m surprised she didn’t try the pre-menstrual tension defence,’ observed Amiss. ‘I seem to remember her bleating on about how it excused any violence.’

‘She said that to me once,’ said the Mistress. ‘I asked her if that made it all right for men to be excused rape if they had an excess of testosterone. That shut her up for a while at least.’

‘And then?’ prompted Amiss.

‘They pursued the insanity angle, but couldn’t find a compliant shrink.’ Pooley shrugged. ‘What was left to Sandra but the child-abuse angle? Her father had abused her sexually, her mother had abused her psychologically, she had been unattractive, she hadn’t got good grades at High School because her teachers didn’t like her and so on and so on. This not only failed to impress the lawyers but caused her parents to take deep umbrage. They disappeared back to America leaving her to work out her defence with a solicitor and barrister provided by legal aid. She’s feeling very aggrieved about that.’

‘So what’ll happen?’

‘Life imprisonment,’ said Pooley.

‘Is it fair,’ asked Amiss, ‘when Bridget gets off scot free?’

‘Not really scot free,’ said the Mistress. ‘She’s working out a very long penance. Besides, I think she truly has learnt her lesson.’

‘Nobody as duplicitous as that could ever be relied on.’

‘Oh, we won’t rely on her, will we, Mary Lou? We’ll use her. She’s not the sort of person you make a friend of but there’s plenty like her in public life. You just make sure they’re channelled in the right direction and their success is dependent on yours.’ She burst out laughing. ‘Mind you, you haven’t heard the best of it.’

‘What’s that?’

‘She’s not a lesbian.’

‘Who?’

‘Bridget.’

‘How do you know?’

‘She told me,’ said Mary Lou. ‘That’s one of the reasons they mucked up so badly over the alibi. Sandra was always pursuing her but she wouldn’t succumb. She had a boyfriend in Ely, rather rough trade and is as straight as they come. It was just convenient to pretend otherwise.’

‘So poor old Sandra wasn’t even getting her oats.’

‘Poor old Sandra, my foot,’ said the Mistress. ‘It’s people like her get women a bad name. St Martha’s is going to produce robust feminists, isn’t that right, Mary Lou? And they’re going to have some fun as well.’

‘Female cavaliers,’ said the Bursar with a grin.

Amiss smiled at her. ‘Two months in, you’ve achieved high office, you’ve turned your back on all you were taught at your alma mater, you have conspired to bring down your sisters, indeed you sleep with the enemy. I hope you feel a sense of shame.’

‘Balls!’ said the Bursar.

—«»—«»—«»—

R
UTH
D
UDLEY
E
DWARDS
was born and brought up in Dublin. Later she became a post-graduate student at Girton College, Cambridge, and, in London, a civil servant and then a freelance writer.

Her most recent non-fiction includes the authorized history of
The Economist
and an investigation of the British Foreign Office, written with its cooperation. She is also a prize-winning biographer.

She feels intellectually English and temperamentally Irish. This is her fifth crime novel in a series taking an irreverent look at the British Establishment.

—«»—«»—«»—

[scanned anonymously in a galaxy far far away]

[A 3S Release— v1, html]

[May 15, 2007]

Table of Contents

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PROLOGUE

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EPILOGUE

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