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‘So your room was vandalised between six and whatever time it was I found you?’
‘Yes. It could have been Aaron or Ella, while I was with Hugo.’
‘Or it could have been Hugo while you were in Seal’s with Aaron and Ella. Or it could have been me at any time. Or someone else.’
‘Aaron could have faced a life sentence for what he did,’ Jem said. ‘Toby was blackmailing him and succeeded in breaking up their love affair. It was one of them, with the other’s knowledge. I think the evidence is pretty convincing.’
‘And if you take it to the police and you’re wrong, Aaron could presumably still face a gaol sentence for these nameless and, I assume, victimless crimes, despite not being the killer,’ Nicky said. ‘Are you prepared to risk that over the death of a blackmailer?’
Jem felt the breath rush out of his lungs. ‘He wasn’t just a blackmailer. He wasToby.’
‘I know who he was. Better than you, I suspect. That aspect of his personality was not unprecedented, and it was worsening. Or perhaps he just hadn’t previously found himself so affronted, I don’t know. Do you recall the Sherlock Holmes story of the blackmailer who is murdered? What does Holmes say? “There are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which justify private revenge.”’
‘Holmes is fictional,’ Jem said. ‘And if it was Aaron or Ella who went through my room and poured oil on the stairs in an effort to break my neck, they also tried to incriminate you with that page of Anglo-Saxon. So I’m not sure why you’re defending them.’
‘Because neither Aaron nor Ella killed Toby.’
‘How can you say that?’ Jem demanded. ‘How can you assert they didn’t kill him if you don’t know who did?’
Nicky raised a brow. ‘In the same way I can assert that the prime minister didn’t do it. I still have some small faith in a few of my fellow men.’
‘Well, I don’t,’ Jem said. ‘I think the person who booby-trapped that stair did so to stop me looking into the murder, and I’m not going to back down in the face of that.’
‘Why the hell not? You might have died!’
‘Yes. I might. And, you know, it’s one thing to say we should let Toby’s killer go free because they were intolerably provoked, but that person could have killed me yesterday. We’re talking about a potential double murderer now. Is that still forgivable?’
‘Jem…’ Nicky paused, and exhaled. ‘Will you promise me something? Will you give me, let’s say, twenty-four hours before you go to the police or make any accusations to anyone?’
‘Why?’
‘Because I want to think about this, and I have tutorials from twelve and going on all afternoon. There are certain other facts you should take into account before you accuse Aaron and’—he kept going over Jem’s interruption—‘an accusation could ruin him even if he is not accused or convicted of murder. For God’s sake, Toby’s been dead for ten years. Another day won’t hurt.’
‘What other facts? What do you know?’
‘I am asking for twenty-four hours before you destroy a life, and I am telling you that there are things you don’t know and need to know. Can you give me that trust, and that time, Jem? For the sake of past glories?’
Jem swallowed hard. ‘Why can’t you tell me now?’
‘Because I have a student arriving in five minutes. Fine: just give me the day. Only that. Meet me back here at seven, and we will talk then.’
‘All right,’ Jem said. ‘But after that, I act.’
‘Understood. At seven. I hate to throw you out, but there is an illiterate on his way, fearing my undivided attention.’
Jem retrieved his belongings from the bedroom and made his way out, with a distinctly queasy feeling about the day to come.
He went to the Lodge first to speak to Moffat about the vandalism. The Head Porter was suitably apologetic, though Jem couldn’t help but feel he was being regarded with a jaundiced eye. He was trouble and had brought trouble back to the college.
‘Very bad business, MrKite,’ Moffat said. ‘Very nasty accident.’
‘It wasn’t really an?—’
‘We’ve given you a room on the ground floor of Bascomb instead, as DrRook requested. You’ll be with us two more days, I think?’
That was right. It was Friday now, and he’d booked for a week. ‘I think so. I might need to stay a little longer, but?—’
‘Well, do let the Lodge know, MrKite, and we’ll see if that’s possible.’
