The Headmaster's Wife by Stephen Birmingham

Author:Stephen Birmingham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2024-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Eleven

Clarissa puts her keys and purse on the lowboy in the front hall. “Come into the library, Rose,” she says.

In the library, she pours a short inch of gin into a glass and drops an ice cube in it. “Now, sit down,” she says. “Tell me what happened.”

“Well, they’re calling it a suicide, Mrs. S,” Rose says. “But if you ask me, in my candy opinion, we’ve got reasons to suspect foul play.”

“How did she do it?”

“Poison.”

“Oh dear. How awful. Now start from the beginning.”

“They found her this afternoon, about three o’clock. One of her girlfriends, the Smith girl, that Cecily Smith, found her in her room and got hysterical. Rigmo had already set in, you see, so she was stiff as a board. That’s why they think it happened, the poisoning, last night.”

“And all day long, nobody—”

“Well, it seems last night she told her girlfriends at Colby that her monthlies were coming on. It seems she has real bad monthlies, and she had a note from her doctor at home to give her three days off from classes when they come on. So, when she didn’t show up for classes this morning, nobody did a thing. Her door was closed, and the girls in Colby just thought she was in there resting from the monthly troubles. Then, after classes were over, the Smith girl came over to her room to give her the homework assignments. Her door was locked, but the Smith girl had another key. That’s how she found her and got hysterical. You should have heard the screaming! It was all over campus in five minutes, the news of it.”

“Did the police come?”

“An ambulance. But thank heavens no sirens. Mr. S saw to that. Of course, it was too late for an ambulance. The rigor had already set in, you see.”

Clarissa sips her drink. “What makes you think there was foul play?” she says.

“There was no note. Don’t suicides always leave a note?”

“Not always, no.”

“Well, I’m no Albert Steinway genius, but I can put two and two together. They say it was chemicals, Mrs. S, chemicals. She was poisoned by chemicals.”

“Well, that could mean—”

“Now stop and think who in this school might want to see that girl dead, Mrs. S.” Besides myself, Clarissa thinks. “Who?” she says.

“Mrs. Schlachter, that’s who!”

Clarissa almost laughs. “Adelaide Schlachter? Sweet little Adelaide Schlachter in her smocks and granny glasses?”

“It’s always the one you’d least suspect. She’s head of the Chemistry Department, isn’t she? Who else could get their hands on chemicals?”

“I hardly think they keep deadly poisons in the Chemistry Department, Rose.”

“But she’s the one who could get her hands on chemicals easiest. And Mr. Schlachter is one of the men they’re saying was—you know, fiddling with that girl. That’s what they’re all saying over in Buhl Hall.”

“I thought that was supposed to be Miss Chabot.”

“Her, too. They say that old goat was fiddling with them both. They say he likes ’em young. At first, I thought it could have been the Chabot woman who did it.

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