As a result of this, Smiley is able to follow clues to the real murderer, Terence Fielding. Fielding attempted to frame Stanley for the murder, but failed, and murdered Stella because she had been blackmailing him over his wartime conviction of gross indecency with another male member of the Royal Air Force. Fielding was also blackmailed by the school authorities, who used their knowledge of his conviction in order to force him into remaining at his teaching post but with significantly lower salary than his peers at the school. Tim Perkins had accidentally made a discovery that would have derailed Fielding's attempts to implicate Stanley Rode, and would have reassigned the obvious blame to Fielding, despite Fielding maintaining that whatever Perkins had seen was insignificant.