Valerie was cool, elegant and wary. She displayed much less nervousness than either of the men had done. She had been fond of Celia, she said.
Celia was not particularly bright and it was rather pathetic the way she had set her heart on Colin Mcationabb.
“Do you think she was a kleptomaniac, Miss Hobhouse?” “Well, I suppose so. I don’t really know much about the subject.” “Do you think anyone had put her up to doing what she did?” Valerie shrugged her shoulders.
“You mean in order to attract that pompous ass Colin?” “You’re very quick on the point, Miss Hobhouse.
Yes, that’s what I mean. You didn’t suggest it to her yourself, I suppose?” Valerie looked amused.
“Well, hardly, my dear man, considerin-, that a particular favourite scarf of mine was cut to ribbons. I’m not so altruistic as that.” “Do you think anybody else suggested it to her?” “I should hardly think so. I should say it was just natural on her part.” “What do you mean by natural?” “Well, I first had a suspicion that it was Celia when all the fuss happened about Sally’s shoe. Celia was jealous of Sally. Sally Finch, I’m talking about. She’s far and away the most attractive girl here and Colin paid her a fair amount of attention. So on the ni lit of this party Sally’s shoe disappears and she has to go in an old black dress and black shoes. There was Celia lookin, as smug as a cat that’s swallowed cream about it. Mind you, I didn’t suspect her of all these petty thievings of bracelets and compacts.” “Who did you think was responsible for those?” Valerie shrugged her shoulders.
“Oh, I don’t know. One of the cleaning women, I thought.” coneaAnd the slashed rucksack?” ‘Was there a slashed rucksack? I’d forgotten. That seems very pointless.” “You’ve been here a good long time, haven’t you, Miss Hobhouse?” “Well, yes. I should say I’m probably the oldest inhabitant. That is to say, I’ve been here about two years and a half, now.” was So you probably know more about this hostel than anybody else?” “I should say so, yes.” “Have you any ideas of your own about Celia Austin’s death? Any idea of the motive that underlay it?” Valerie shook her bead. Her face was serious now.
“No,” she said. “It was a horrible thing to happen.
I can’t see anybody who could possibly have wanted Celia to die. She was a nice, harmless child, and she’d just got engaged to be married, and . .
.” “Yes. And?” the Inspector prompted.
“I wondered if that was why,” said Valerie slowly. “Because she’d jot engaged. Because she was going to be happy. But that means, doesn’t it, somebody well-mad.” She said the word with a little shiver, and Inspector Sharpe looked at her thou litfully.
“Yes,” he said. “We can’t quite rule out madness.” He went on, “Have you any theory about the damage done to Elizabeth Johnston’s notes and papers?” “No. That was a spiteful thing, too. I don’t believe for a moment that Celia would do a thing like that.” “Any idea who it could have been?” “Well … Not a reasonable idea.” “But an unreasonable one?” “You don’t want to hear something that’s just a hunch, do you, Inspector?” “I’d like to hear a hunch very much. I’ll accept it as such, and it’ll only be between ourselves.” “Well, I may probably be quite wrong, but I’ve got a sort of idea that it was Patricia Lane’s work.” “Indeed! Now you do surprise me, Miss Hobhouse.
I shouldn’t have thought of Patricia Lane. She seems @u very well balanced, amiable young lady.” “I don’t say she did do it. I just had a sort of idea she might have done.” “For what reason in particular?” “Well, Patricia disliked Black Bess.
Black Bess was always ticking off Patricia’s beloved Nigel, putting him ri-L lit, you know, when he made silly statements in the way he does sometimes.” “You think it was more likely to have been Patricia Lane than Nigel himself?” “Oh, yes. I don’t think Nigel would bother, and he’d certainly not go using his own pet brand of ink. He’s got plenty of brains. But it’s just the sort of stupid thing that Patricia would do without thinking that it might involve her precious Nigel as a suspect.” “Or again, it might be somebody who had a down on Nigel Chapman and wanted to suggest that it was his doing?” “Yes, that’s another possibility.” con’Who dislikes Nigel Chapman?” ‘Oh, well, Jean Tomlinson for one. And be and Len Bateson are always scrapping a good deal.” “Have you any ideas, Miss Hobhouse, how morphia could have been administered to Celia Austin?” “I’ve been thinking and thinking. Of course, I suppose the cot ee is the most obvious way.