A Girl Called Justice: The Ghost in the Garden: Book 3 by Elly Griffiths

Author:Elly Griffiths [Griffiths, Elly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
Published: 2021-05-12T22:00:00+00:00

Justice ate cold porridge in the empty refectory and then Matron escorted her to the staff room, where Detective Inspector Deacon was waiting. In ordinary circumstances, Justice would have been fascinated to see inside this room, which was normally out of bounds to pupils. The nearest she had ever come was standing outside to deliver a message, and she’d got a tantalising glimpse of a roaring fire, cosy armchairs and velvet curtains. There was no fire in the grate now, and the curtains were drawn back to reveal a dull, grey sky.

Inspector Deacon stood up when she entered, which Justice thought was unnecessarily polite. The inspector was tall and grey-haired with a soft voice that nevertheless had a definite note of command. Justice had met him once before and had been impressed by his casual air of being in control of even the stickiest situation. It was a relief to see him now.

‘Sit down, Justice,’ said the inspector. ‘Thank you, Matron. You can leave us now.’

Matron closed the door quietly. Listening to her footsteps descending the staircase, Justice suddenly felt nervous and rather guilty. She understood why people confessed things to police officers. She felt like confessing, even though she didn’t know what for.

‘So, Justice,’ said Inspector Deacon with a slight smile. ‘We meet again.’

‘Yes,’ said Justice. ‘Inspector.’ She didn’t know what to call him and it seemed a cheek to say nothing.

‘Tell me what happened last night,’ said Inspector Deacon.

Justice told him about the midnight feast, the ghost story and the flight through the gardens. She assumed that the other girls would have told him exactly the same story. The inspector didn’t look at her when she was speaking – he was gazing out of the window – but she knew that he was listening intently. When she had finished, he said, ‘Tell me about the ghostly figure.’

Justice had been trying to remember this all morning. She didn’t need the detective to tell her that this apparition, far from being a ghost, was probably the person who had abducted Letitia.

‘The person was tall,’ she said. ‘Wearing a long dress.’ She knew that this was a very poor description, unworthy of a sleuth but, at the time, she’d been too scared to notice much.

‘We’ve undertaken a thorough search of the grounds,’ said the inspector. ‘We found the remains of a picnic in the Old Barn – some field mice were having quite a feast – and footprints leading to and from the house. Unfortunately, there are so many that it was impossible to examine them properly. We did find this, though.’

The inspector held something out to her. It was a scrap of white material. Brocade, she thought, embroidered with tiny white flowers.

‘We found this caught on one of the rose bushes,’ said Inspector Deacon. ‘Could it be from the dress?’

‘I didn’t get a close look at it,’ said Justice, ‘but I suppose so.’

‘Think back,’ said the inspector. ‘Did the figure have long hair? Blonde or dark?’

This was difficult too because, in Justice’s memory, the figure had long, blonde hair like Grace Highbury.

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