Eleven
A day or two later Colonel Melchett and Superintendent¹ Harper looked at each other across the former’s big desk.
Harper had come over to Much Benham for a consultation².
Melchett said gloomily:
“Well, we know where we are—or rather where we aren’t!”
“Where we aren’t expresses it better, sir.”
“We’ve got two deaths to take into account,” said Melchett. “Two murders. Ruby³ Keene and the child PamelaReeves. Not much to identify her by, poor kid, but enough. That shoe that escaped burning has been identifiedpositively as hers by her father, and there’s this button from her Girl Guide uniform. A fiendish business,Superintendent.”
Superintendent Harper said very quietly:
“I’ll say you’re right, sir.”
“I’m glad it’s quite certain she was dead before the car was set on fire. The way she was lying, thrown across theseat, shows that. Probably knocked on the head, poor kid.”
“Or strangled, perhaps,” said Harper.
Melchett looked at him sharply.
“You think so?”
“Well, sir, there are murderers like that.”
“I know. I’ve seen the parents—the poor girl’s mother’s beside herself. Damned painful, the whole thing. The pointfor us to settle is—are the two murders connected?”
“I’d say definitely yes.”
“So would I.”
The Superintendent ticked off the points on his fingers.
“Pamela Reeves attended rally of Girl Guides on Danebury Downs. Stated by companions to be normal andcheerful. Did not return with three companions by the bus to Medchester. Said to them that she was going intoDanemouth to Woolworth’s and would take the bus home from there. The main road into Danemouth from the downsdoes a big round inland. Pamela Reeves took a shortcut⁴ over two fields and a footpath⁵ and lane which would bring herinto Danemouth near the Majestic⁶ Hotel. The lane, in fact, actually passes the hotel on the west side. It’s possible,therefore, that she overheard or saw something—something concerning Ruby Keene—which would have proveddangerous to the murderer—say, for instance, that she heard him arranging to meet Ruby Keene at eleven thatevening. He realizes that this schoolgirl has overheard, and he has to silence her.”

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