The principal stared back blankly. ‘That was Edmund’s area. It might take a while to organise that.’

‘That’s all right, I can wait,’ Cardilini said calmly, feeling a slight panic internally. Why was he doing this?

‘I’m not sure how to go about it.’

‘Do you have a key?’ Cardilini asked.

‘Well,’ he picked up the phone, ‘Miss Reynolds, come in here, please?’ He replaced the receiver looking at Cardilini. Miss Reynolds entered. ‘Do we have keys to the armoury, Miss Reynolds?’

‘We might have, but they would be among Captain Edmund’s possessions.’

‘Right. That’s what I thought. While I think of it, that break-in we had a while back, did that get reported?’

‘Yes.’

‘Was the armoury also entered?’ Braun asked.

‘It hasn’t been mentioned, sir,’ Miss Reynolds answered.

‘The armoury?’ Cardilini asked.

Braun replied, ‘Yes, some of the local louts pried open the canteen door which is near the armoury. When was that, Miss Reynolds?’

‘Nearly two weeks ago, it’s in your diary,’ she replied.

Cardilini glanced at Miss Reynolds who stood looking stony-faced at the principal.

‘So. We don’t know how long it will take to find those keys but I will inform your office once we do. So, that’s underway.’ The principal gave a slight shooing motion and Miss Reynolds left. He turned brightly to Cardilini, ‘What’s next?’

Cardilini slowly folded the sheet of paper and returned it to his pocket, ‘I see the trees adjoining the quadrangle have had the lower branches lopped.’

‘Yes. It was reported by a teacher that boys were seen climbing the trees.’

‘Okay. Could I speak to that teacher?’

‘I don’t know who it was,’ Braun answered.

Cardilini looked back stubbornly.

Braun dialled his phone, ‘Miss Reynolds, who reported the boys climbing trees? I see.’ He hung up.

‘It wasn’t recorded. The pruning was a simpler solution than constantly patrolling the area.’

‘Could you ask the staff?’

‘No. Boys are always climbing the trees.’

‘Where was the report of the theft made?’

‘We deal with East Perth.’ The principal consulted an open page of his diary. ‘That was on the 14th of October.’

‘Fine. What’s next on the list, Salt?’ Cardilini asked, wiping his forehead.

‘You wanted to finalise a report on the room, sir.’

‘That makes sense. Thank you, Salt. Well, we’ll leave you now. Don’t mind us. There’s a teacher and some students we will have a chat with later.’

‘Who are they? As you know the body wasn’t discovered until the next morning. And the sound of distant rifle fire wasn’t unusual. Sometimes, it sounds quite close but that’s to do with the inversion layer, I’ve been told. As I’m sure you know. So no one witnessed the shot.’

‘I have to confirm that for the report. So, perhaps, if I could speak to the boarding master who was on duty that night and a random selection of say, two boarders?’

‘Fine, I’ll arrange that.’

‘No. I mean randomly selected by me. So, a list of boarders, please?’