The Hills and the Valley (32 page)

‘Yes?' Harry prompted. He could see the pile of papers waiting for his attention and his head was beginning to ache again.

‘Well, it's like this,' Betty said, becoming visibly more agitated. ‘Since then I can't find my purse. It was in the fruit bowl on the sideboard before they came, where I always keep it. And now it's gone. I can't find it anywhere.'

‘I see.' Harry's headache was forgotten now. ‘Are you trying to say you think they have something to do with its disappearance?'

‘I can't think anything else,' Betty said. ‘I'm a Christian woman. I don't like accusing anybody of anything. But I can't find my purse anywhere. I've turned the house upside down looking for it in case I picked it up myself and put it down somewhere stupid, though I'm sure I wouldn't do that. And all I can think is – well, they were down there by themselves while I went upstairs. And now it's gone.'

‘I see.' Harry's face was grim. ‘Well, all I can say is you'd better leave it with me, Betty. I'll have a word with them this evening and see what they have to say for themselves.'

‘They'll deny it, no doubt. I wouldn't trust them any further than I could throw them. Oh, the trouble those vackies have caused! Everybody falling over backwards trying to help them settle in and this is all the thanks you get. They're a poor lot. Never seen the inside of a church, most of them. I don't know – it makes you wonder what we're fighting for.'

‘I promise I'll look into it for you,' Harry said hastily. ‘Did you have much in your purse?'

‘Not a lot, being as this is Wednesday. A ten-shilling note, I think, and 3s.6d. in silver and coppers. Oh – and the money I had put back ready for the insurance man. Half a crown, that was. I can't afford to lose it, Harry.' She was beginning to look flustered again and Harry felt sorry for her. Nearly a pound was a lot of money to someone like Betty. She would be ill able to afford to lose it. ‘Oh, and there's some milk tokens too!' she went on, distressed as she made a mental inventory of her purse. ‘And the raffle tickets I had off the WVS. I was in hopes of winning a dozen fresh eggs with one of those …'

‘What is your purse like?' Harry asked.

‘Black leather. A good strong purse. Our Ethel bought it for me the Christmas before last …'

‘If you do happen to find it let me know at once will you?' Harry said.

When she had gone he began pacing the kitchen deep in thought. He was sorry for her but he simply could not believe Elaine and Marie could be responsible for the disappearance of the purse. Why should they be? In all the time they had been there, problems though there had been, there had never been any suggestion that they might be thieves. It seemed a ridiculous assumption to make and quite unfair. The silly woman had probably put the purse down in some unlikely place and forgotten all about it. Then, unable to put her hand on it she had panicked. That had to be the answer.

Because he was feeling chilly again he fetched an extra pullover and put it on then sat down to begin work once more. But now he found himself quite unable to concentrate.

He remembered the girls going next door this morning and hearing them come back again while he was in ‘the back place' – the downstairs toilet that was little more than a cupboard, festooned with two garden chairs hanging on nails on the wall, Margaret's peg bag on the hook behind the door and two old tennis rackets stacked in a corner. For some reason Harry preferred ‘the back place'to the upstairs bathroom, perhaps because it had the same tightly enclosed feel about it that his pigeon house had once had – the pigeon house that had been his haven in the old days when he had lived at home in Greenslade Terrace. Now ‘the back place' provided him with that same sense of peace. He had taken the newspaper there with him this morning and he had still been there reading it when he heard the girls go out again on their way to school.

That, he supposed, was the reason he had not seen them with Betty's knick-knacks. Had they come back into the house to take them up to their room? And if so, why? Why hadn't they taken them directly to school if they were to be priced and put on sale there? Surely they would have been anxious for their teacher to see the treasures they had solicited. So why
had
they come back into the house and gone upstairs?

Any one of a dozen reasons, Harry told himself, but he was beginning to feel uneasy all the same. Perhaps he would take a look around and set his mind at rest He marked his place in his papers once more and went upstairs.

The girls occupied the small room that had been going to be the nursery. He opened the door and took a step backwards at the muddle facing him. The bed had been ‘covered up' rather than made, clothes and comics lay about everywhere. I didn't know they had so much stuff! Harry thought. Margaret must have bought them quite a lot without telling me. He looked around, shifting this and that, then opened drawers and rifled through. Plenty of rubbish but no sign of the purse. He moved the pillows, picking them up and dropping them back into place. Nothing. He turned back to the door relieved, then noticed the boxes containing their gas masks in a corner. Once they had carried the gas masks everywhere with them, nowadays they had ceased to bother. Harry flipped open the top of one box. And there, nestling beside the gas mask, he saw it.

‘Oh no!' he said to himself.

He picked it up – a black leather purse, slightly worn – and opened it. Inside were the milk tokens Betty had mentioned and a little wad of raffle tickets. But no money. He stood for a moment holding it in his hand and wondering what to do. He should go straight round and tell Betty, he supposed, but he would like a chance to recover the money first – and ask the girls what they had been thinking of.

He glanced at his watch. Almost a quarter to twelve. The girls would be having their dinner hour soon. Although their school was so close they did not come home for dinner – with Margaret working it was not practicable. But today whether they knew it nor they
were
coming home.

He put on his overcoat and walked down the hill to the Board School. As he approached he heard the bell clang to signify the end of morning lessons and the almost instant chatter of childrens' voices as they escaped from their classrooms. He went in at the gate and marched straight through the cloakrooms, ignoring the children milling there.

In the first classroom a young woman teacher was cleaning the blackboard with a duster. She looked round, hair falling down from a velvet band which she wore Alice in Wonderland style around her head.

‘Mr Hall! What can I do for you?'

‘I'd like to take Elaine and Marie home with me,' he said.

‘Oh dear – some trouble is there?

‘A family matter,' Harry said grimly. ‘Where can I find them?'

‘I expect they've gone in to dinner.'

‘Please fetch them,' he ordered.

‘I think perhaps I ought to tell the headmaster,' she said, looking harrassed. ‘While they are in school they are our responsibility you see.'

‘I'll take responsibility,' Harry said firmly. ‘I want them now.'

‘Even if they're having their dinner?'

‘Even if they're having their dinner.'

She went out, looking worried, and within a few minutes was back, following in the wake of the tall spare figure of the headmaster.

‘I understand you want to take your evacuees out of school,' he began. ‘May I enquire why?'

‘A personal matter. I'd rather not say any more until I've spoken to them.' Harry, in spite of his'flu, was at his most magesterial.

The headmaster nodded. ‘Fetch them please, Miss Lane.'

The moment they came into the room Harry knew they were aware of his reason for being here. The guilt was written all over them. Elaine glaring at him defiantly, Marie hanging her head and looking as if she was about to burst into tears. They were already wearing their coats.

‘Come along you two,' Harry said. His head had begun to ache again and the throb made him speak even more severely than he intended. They followed him unwillingly. He marched them back up the hill in silence. Then, in the kitchen, he took the purse out of the pocket of his overcoat and held it out accusingly. ‘I would like an explanation of this.'

Marie looked as if she wished she could curl into a small ball like a hedgehog. Elaine stared at the ground and scuffed her toe against the leg of the table.

‘Stop that!' Harry ordered.

She stopped. She was afraid of Harry.

‘Well?' Harry demanded. No answer. ‘I found this purse in your room', he went on. ‘You stole it this morning from Mrs Franklin next door, didn't you?'

Still no answer. Harry opened the purse.

‘There was money in it this morning. Nearly a pound. Where is it?'

They looked at one another furtively.

‘If you don't tell me I shall send for Sergeant Button.'

Marie began to sniffle.

‘I mean it!' he threatened.

‘We spent it!' Elaine muttered. Her weaselly face was defiant.

‘You're a liar as well as a thief,' Harry accused. ‘You have had no opportunity to spend the money. I want it back this instant or I shall certainly call Sergeant Button.'

‘Lainey – get it, please!' Marie whimpered.

Elaine shot her a disgusted look but she crept out of the room and upstairs. A few moments later she was back, flinging the money down onto the table. A threepenny bit rolled off onto the floor.

‘Pick that up!' Harry ordered. Marie scuttled to obey. Harry counted the money. It seemed to be all there.

‘Now we are going next door to see Mrs Franklin,' he said. ‘You are going to apologise for what you did. And you had better do it properly and I hope you can convince
her
not to call a policeman.'

Elaine's eyes went dark with terror.

‘But you said if we gave you back the money …'

‘I said
I
wouldn't call the police if you returned it. I can't answer for what Mrs Franklin will do. It was her purse you stole, not mine. But this I promise you. If ever I have cause to suspect you have done something like this again, I shall have no hesitation. There won't be a second chance for you then. I shall take you straight to the police station and let them deal with it.' He opened the back door. ‘Are you ready? Come along then!'

White-faced they went with him. But when Harry knocked on Betty Franklin's door there was no reply. He saw the relief on the sisters'faces and was determined not to let them off so lightly. This had to be a lesson they would not forget.

‘Perhaps she is at the police station now,' he said. ‘There's nothing more we can do until she comes home. You two had better go back to school for the afternoon and we'll discuss this again later. I'll take care of the purse until we can return it. Come along, I'll see you back to the school gates.'

Elaine went morosely, obviously still shaken by the threat of the police, but with the immediate danger passed Marie had other things on her mind.

‘We've missed our dinner now.'

‘It won't hurt you to go hungry for once,' Harry said sternly. Knowing Margaret there would be a good meal on the table for them the minute she got in this evening; he had seen the pan of soup simmering on the stove and a cottage pie on the slab in the larder all ready for warming. But perhaps if the girls'bellies rumbled a few times this afternoon it would help to teach them a lesson. Harry was quite determined to prevent a repeat performance of today's scenario.

He left the girls at the school gates and watched them scuff miserably across the playground. Then he went back up the hill. His head was throbbing wretchedly and his legs felt so heavy it was an effort to move them. As he unlocked the back door he sneezed and the sneeze started a shiver.

I think I'll have a couple of aspirin and go back to bed for a couple of hours, Harry decided.

He was awakened by Margaret's voice.

‘Hello! Hello! Isn't anyone at home?'

He fought through the muzzy layers and opened heavy lidded eyes to see her peeping around the bedroom door. She was wearing a woollen cap; beneath it her face was rosy from the cold.

‘Oh, there you are! You went back to bed did you? Where are the girls?'

He fought the thickness in his head and turned to look at the clock which stood on the bedside table. Six o'clock. He'd slept for five hours!

‘I'm sorry I'm late,' she said. ‘The meeting just went on and on. I thought you'd all deserted me!'

He sat up. ‘Aren't the girls home?'

‘No. They haven't had their tea either. It doesn't look as though they've been in at all.'

‘Where the devil are they then?'

‘I don't know. That's what I'm asking you.'

A sense of impending doom penetrated his muzziness. ‘We had a bit of an upset today. I had to get them out of school at dinner time.' He went on to tell her what had happened and saw her face change.

‘Oh no! I thought they had stopped all that.'

‘You mean something like this has happened before?' he demanded.

‘Well – yes. Several times I've missed money and I've suspected Elaine.'

‘Why didn't you say anything about it?'

‘I wasn't sure. I didn't want to cause trouble so I was biding my time.'

‘You mean they've been thieving and you've let them get away with it?'

‘Not Marie. I'm pretty sure it's Elaine. But nothing has gone missing for ages now and I thought she'd got out of it.'

‘What rubbish!' he exploded. ‘If that's not encouraging her I don't know what is. I'd have thought you'd have had more sense, Margaret.'

‘Well, all
you
seem to have done is succeeded in frightening them so much that they haven't come home!' Margaret said defensively. ‘Where are they, Harry? That's what I'd like to know!'