“Eugenics! Hah! The name’s a made-up word. It is in itself a euphemism for a very nasty notion. Selective breeding and its obverse—selective culling. Eugenics—sounds innocent enough. Fine breeding. Until you realise that it involves compulsion and the denial of human rights culminating in the knife and the lethal chamber. It’s the children of the future who are everything to the eugenists. Children who do not exist, who may never exist, are shaping our laws in Parliament as you observe, Commissioner. Surgeons are sharpening their scalpels. In some of the American states they’re using them! Vasectomy and salpingectomy are being practised, in themselves dangerous procedures. Many thousands have already suffered. The presently living are being sacrificed for an army of phantom children of the future.”
Carter paused for breath, aware that the vehemence of his outburst had startled the two officers.
Martin spoke gravely, shaking his head portentously: “That can’t be right! ‘What’s posterity ever done for me?’ I’ve often heard it asked.”
The doctor and the assistant commissioner burst into laughter, a release from the tension of the last five minutes.
“And there you have your best riposte to the eugenists!” Sandilands said. “Laughter! A good British guffaw.”
“THAT SHORT INTERVIEW raised more questions than it answered,” Joe commented as they hurried back up the hill to the school.
“Oh, I’m not sure I’d say that,” Martin said comfortably. “It solved a murder case. I know who, why and how as a result of the doctor’s information and insights. Just a question of gathering in the evidence from the laboratory, pulling all the threads together, and then I’ll be in a position to make an arrest. Can’t say I’m looking forwards to that very much. As far as I’m concerned, Rapson got what was coming to him. But I’m wondering, why at that particular moment?”
He thought for a moment, then spoke aloud for the first time the name at the forefront of their minds. “Clara. She’d had five years to think about it and had done nothing, not even complained to the headmaster, that his new form master had raped her daughter and got her into trouble.”
“Do you think Farman has any idea?”
“No. I don’t. And if Clara’s capable of snatching up a knife and stabbing a man—three times, they’re saying—on a snowy night in her own backyard, there’s more to it than just a sudden urge to avenge her daughter for a six-year-old offence. Clara’s a planner, I’d have judged.”
“I took a peek at the knives when I barged into the kitchen. Two, as old Rory said. But not a pair. Only one was worn thin. The second wasn’t new, but it wasn’t well worn either. A replacement?”
“I think so. The other thin one ended up in Rapson. I’ve not had the lab report back yet. Some prints may have survived two nights under snow.”
“But you’re right, Martin. Something triggered it. Clara’s snatching up the nearest kitchen knife, I mean. I bet we can trace it back with a bit of imagination and fevered speculation. Calm me down if you think I go too far. I think Rapson was being blackmailed by Clara. ‘I’ll go to the head and tell him if you don’t cough up.’ Blackmail’s too strong a word, perhaps, but you know what I mean.”
“Dues being exacted,” Martin corrected.
“Better. His cheque book shows he was paying out a sum of money—in cash—every month. What’s the betting that’s been going into caring for Harry? Possibly putting away a little something towards his future? Clara strikes me as being a calculating and careful type of woman. That household is frugal but well-ordered. But just before he was stabbed, Rapson withdrew vastly more than the usual amount. Why? Was it intended for the Bellefoys? Blood money?”
“Close the women’s mouths with a wad of bank notes and have the lad taken away? But where to? That car the boy heard, it was coming for him! A Talbot, you tell me. Does that signify?”
“I’m waiting to hear back from London. They can trace the registration numbers of all the cars in the country. My super is on to it. But it’s a Saturday.…”
“There’s more to this than just the Rapson murder, isn’t there? You hinted as much from the beginning. It’s linked in with your enquiry.”
“Yes. Rapson isn’t exactly the key to a very nasty business, but he’s the signpost. Think of it this way, Martin: If you came across something in the course of your researches into the history of the school, a pattern of disappearances, unaccounted for, suspicious in different ways.…”
“And you had all the time in the world to ferret about and all the documents you needed to hand, a telephone … the authority of the school behind you.…”
“You might find out what was going on and who was directing operations—much more easily than coppers like us ringing up on the off chance. Boys for different reasons are being spirited away from the school and into the blue yonder. Never seen again.”
“This is a notion that has an appeal—we now know—for Rapson! He himself has an unwanted, defective and expensive offspring round his neck. I think the victim of blackmail became himself a blackmailer. Instead of rushing to the police, he confronted the villains he uncovered and made them an offer: ‘Extend your services to me as a personal favour for not blowing the gaff. I have another little job for you.’ ”
“What a fool!”
“Not the brightest. He took on a cold and clinical organisation who deal in death.”
“Death, sir? You’d go that far? I was thinking on the lines of segregation or sterilisation. The loony bin or the snip. Possibly both?”
“There was one eu word the doctor didn’t utter. The second part of it is another Greek word: thanatos. Death. An easy death. Let’s call them a Euthanasian Society. I think these birds went along with Rapson as far as sending the car after dark to make the pickup. But something went wrong. The child escapes, or is never presented, or was never going to be taken, the car takes off into the night, and Rapson staggers back, dying of knife wounds. Having got his comeuppance?”
“We need to look again at that courtyard when the snow’s finally disappeared.” Martin’s voice suddenly held a ray of hope. “Who knows what tale it may be able to tell us if we look in the right places, sir. This organisation—I like the sound of that. Several people involved, are we thinking?”
“Almost certainly. Rapson, I’m sure, must have worked out that if there is such an organisation in place, it very likely features the headmaster. Farman. The man who attends the meetings of the Eugenics Education Society. The man who has no time for anyone of less than human perfection.”
“Unless it’s himself, of course. Farman! You’d be looking at him a long time before you thought of Adonis! I can’t see it, sir. Eugenist by conviction, I’ll grant you that, but cold-blooded murderer? Naw! He’d preach ’em to death, but I doubt he’d lay a finger on one. I can’t see him shoving a child off a cliff one dark night.”
“Nor can I, Martin. I think he’s just a cog in a much greater machine. He’s an enabler—does the word exist? Oh, Lord! I find myself trying to avoid euphemisms after Carter’s little pep talk! He’s a sort of Charon. Not killing the children himself but ferr—oh, my God!”
Joe stood, unable to move, mind racing.
“You all right sir? You look as though you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I have.” Joe shuddered. “A ghastly, grey-garbed, pitiless figure. Charon. Do you know what the headmaster’s name is in German? A horrible coincidence? I’m not superstitious or particularly credulous, Martin, but this makes my blood run cold. It was Gosling who said it—as a joke. ‘Herr Fahrmann,’ he called him. Fahrmann. In German that’s the Ferryman.”
“By God! Funny that! Makes you think. I wonder where he’s stashed all those obols he’s collected for punting the kids across to the Underworld?”