Free Jolly Foul Play: A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery by Robin Stevens Page B

probably what the argument was about: Enid having to collect firewood. ‘She’s always so busy with her books, she looked as though she hated being away from them!’ she said. She was replaced by Florence. Elizabeth had turned and told her (so said the second former, who was feeling very important by now, at having fourth formers listen to her so intently) to be careful collecting firewood, because
it might be too heavy for her
. This did not seem very likely to us. Everyone knows that Florence is strong as an ox and can stride over hurdles in the most terrifying way (women cannot compete at hockey at the Olympics, you see, so she has chosen hurdles as her sport, though during term time she is quite obsessed with hockey). But the second former was very insistent. ‘It’s what I heard!’ she said indignantly. I wrote it all down, frowning rather, but knowing we could not discount information just because it seemed unlikely. We had done that before, to our cost.
    Una had spoken to Elizabeth just before Miss Barnard’s speech. We’d had to consult one of the fifth formers for this information, no one else had been close enough to the fire at that moment to hear, but apparently Elizabeth had replied crossly to her. It was something about Una’s father, the fifth former thought, and Una had been furious – but of course, she’d had to whisper, so as not to disturb Miss Barnard, so the fifth former could not hear properly.
    Binny’s friend Martha was still spreading her story about seeing a man running away towards the woods, just before the fireworks began. We cornered her on the way up to House after school, and she blushed and said that, no, she had never said she had seen a
man
– only a figure – and it had been very dark, so perhaps …
    We had plenty of information, but nothing that we could point to and say that it ruled out any of the Five. In fact, everything we had discovered made all our suspects look equally likely. What we did know for certain was that the murder must have happened
after
the fireworks began. Lettice had been talking to Elizabeth just before, so that made her a strong suspect, but the others were all in the right area too, and they had all argued with Elizabeth. Now what we had to do was discover why. There were hints, indications, and now we had to seize on those threads and follow them through to the truth.



1
    Two more secrets came to light at dinner, on two more bits of paper. One was found by a third former, on the walk up to House, and another was found by a first-form shrimp just outside House. One of them we already knew: that Alice Murgatroyd (the fifth former who helped Daisy last year, now a Big Girl) smuggled cigarettes; and one we did not: that Sophie Croke-Finchley had only got a merit in her last piano exam, and her father had paid to have it promoted to a distinction.
    Whispers and giggles rushed through the Dining Room. Alice was sitting with her arms crossed, trying to look don’t-care, but next to her was a space where Heather Montefiore ought to have sat, and next to
her
, Astrid Frith had her hair hidden under a contraband hat. Nervousness flowed from the Big Girls. They were the subjects of nastiness now, the ones who it was done to.
    The other fourth-form dorm surrounded Sophie protectively, daring us with their eyes to even mention what we had heard. Kitty curled her lip at Clementine, and Clementine glowered back. The feud between them was clearly as bad as ever. I ought to have felt worried by it, but somehow I did not. I was thinking about Alexander again, about what he would say about all our new evidence, and somehow that made me feel light, but all the same full up before I even ate a bite. I found I could not manage the last few bits of my rabbit pie, and Lavinia had to eat them off my plate.
    ‘Whatever’s wrong?’ asked Beanie, concerned. ‘Are you ill?’
    I shook my head, and avoided Daisy’s stare.
    ‘Frith!’ said Una. ‘Headgear off in the