18. A Job Down the Drain

A WIDOW WOMAN Part 18

     “What is it you want of me, officer?” asked Jane, nervously.

“The sergeant asked me to call in,” replied the policeman, PC Gyles Gibbs, cautiously, “it’s nothing for you to be afraid of, ma’am, just an idea he had…”

Jane looked at him. In his uniform he looked smart and likely to be in control of any situation that presented itself. She instantly liked him. There was a keen cleanliness about his face, and he was no callow youth dressed as a policeman but a more mature man, hair thinning and with wisps of grey where once it would have been dark.

“What is it, then, officer?” repeated Jane, “er… come in if it’s going to take you longer than a minute or two to tell me.”

“It might do that, ma’am,” he replied, and he followed her into the front room where the Reverend Jonah Pyke was already sitting. “I see you have company,” he added, noting Jonas’s clerical collar.

“That’s all right. I have no secrets from the vicar,” replied Jane, honestly enough.

“The sergeant is troubled, ma’am,” said the constable, cautiously, “he’s been looking around and discovered you’ve started a new job in a school kitchen?”

Jane nodded. “What of it?” she asked.

“Well, ma’am,” he murmured, and paused.

“Call me Mrs Simpson rather than ma’am,” she said, “it’s less formal.”

“All right, Mrs Simpson. It seems that the last three ladies who were employed in that school kitchen all had serious complaints levelled against them, by the Headmaster, who claims they stole food and other items from the kitchen, and when enquiries were made they all had similar accounts of their short time there. They turned down what can only be called advances from that Headmaster, advances of a personal nature, and subsequently he made reports that they had purloined certain items from the kitchen. In all three cases it was pie that was stolen, one a tray or several portions of meat pie, one of cheese pie and one of apple pie. And when a policeman investigated he discovered that, apparently unknown to the individual ladies, those articles were found amongst their possessions. The first time it happened the lady concerned ended up in court and was fined for the theft, the second time several weeks later a different lady actually collapsed when she was accused and she was taken in a frail state to hospital where she spent several days recovering from what looked like shock, and the third time, just a few days ago, a case is being currently being investigated. But the sergeant is troubled because he considers it most unlikely that three apparently innocent and hard working ladies would commit three identical and unlikely crimes after having been, er, approached by the Headmaster.”

“It sounds odd. But what’s that got to do with me?” asked Jane.

“Well, Mrs Simpson, we wondered, at least the sergeant wondered, whether you would take note of anything the Headmaster were to say to you, maybe something of an unwelcome personal nature, and keep a weather eye on your own bags before leaving work, just in case someone is up to something he shouldn’t be up to. We’ve had other questions concerning that Headmaster when it comes to his behaviour towards what I would call attractive ladies.”

“I find all this very odd,” murmured Jane, “you see, the Reverend here came to see me and he actually warned me about the very same thing.”

Jonah coughed quietly. “That’s true,” he said, “Mr Cornwallis, the Headmaster, is getting a reputation amongst my mother’s group for, how shall I put it, insisting that they like him.”

Jane shuddered. “This all sounds most unlikely, and I wouldn’t have believed your theories, gentlemen, before I met him. But today was my first day, and I did meet him. In the bike shed of all places. He wanted me to call him Jasper, which is his Christian name, and I’m not used to calling important men by their first names!”

“The thing is,” said PC Gibbs, “the sergeant, who is suspicious when three similar offences occur in rapid succession but involving very different people. He sees some sort of dastardly plan, and I was asked to let you know what he suspects in case anything similar were to happen to you. Put it like this, if the man tries to inveigle you into behaviour properly associated with married life, would you inform us at the station? Ask for Constable Gibbs. It’s not a top priority case and I’m long enough in the tooth to handle it discreetly!”

“You think … how could he put stolen food in my own bag? I’d notice the weight!”

“Not if other legitimate things were also in it, adding to what you normally carry.”

“Like what? It doesn’t make sense!” she asked.

“The other three ladies were each ordered to take a quantity of weighty cooking implements home, to wash at home, on the excuse that it had been their job at work and they had been lazy and missed them. It’s the head cook, a Mrs Jones, who packed them in a bag, and it was in those bags that the apparently stolen pies were found. The Headmaster collared the ladies at the gate before they left the school premises and ordered them to let him search their bags, and lo and behold he found, not only the articles that supposedly needed to be washed, but also purloined pies! The supposed thefts were then reported to the police and the ladies dismissed from their jobs.”

“All this is dreadful,” said Jane, “I don’t want to work there any more! He’s a hateful man!”

“With your help we could catch him at it,” said PC Gibbs, “catch him in the act, so to speak.”

Jane thought for a moment then shook her head.

“I agree,” put in Jonah, “to ask a lady, the mother of two, to put herself in that position isn’t right. She’s paid little enough for the job as it is.”

The policeman nodded. “I agree,” he said, surprisingly, “it’s just that the sergeant thought it might be a good idea. But I can see that it’s nothing of the sort. We’ve got a couple of young police constables, the variety that wear skirts, and maybe one of those could go under cover.”

“I’m not going back again,” said Jane decisively, I’ll find myself another job, but one with honest people and without a pervert in charge!”

“Who’d have thought it of a headmaster, though,” murmured Jonah.

PC Gibbs smiled at him. “You’d be surprised,” he said, “there are even one or two in cassocks who we’re keeping an eye on. And in addition not even all politicians are as clean as they’d have you believe, either. And us coppers … I’ve known the odd bad copper, too.”

Jonah shook his head. “I suppose to be human implies some weaknesses somewhere,” he said.

“It’s just that I thought I’d be safe in a school kitchen,” sighed Jane, “and the last thing I want it to be accused of theft just because I’m not willing to lower my undies for a headmaster!”

© Peter Rogerson 01.07.21

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