Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death (13 page)

‘What a profligate waste,’ Iris tutted.

‘An accident, I hope?’ Alec asked.

Jennifer ploughed on. ‘Johnny thinks someone’s stolen it.’

‘Does he, indeed?’

‘But you were amongst friends,’ her mother cut in. ‘Surely that’s impossible?’

Alec continued. ‘I presume you searched everywhere, including the bathroom? Perhaps Amanda took it off in an absent-minded moment?’

Jennifer explained. ‘She hardly had it on in the first place. We looked everywhere. Although some of those present weren’t at their sharpest.’

‘Ah! I assume drink had been taken?’

‘It was New Year’s Eve, Daddy.’

‘It sounds ghastly,’ said Iris. ‘But I am sure it will sort itself out. Besides, it’s time to carve the joint, Alec. After we have eaten I thought that you both might like to help me with the Christmas thank-you letters. Some of your father’s patients have been exceedingly generous of spirit.’

Jennifer made her way to the table. ‘Well, I wish some of that generosity of spirit had been in evidence last night.’

Her mother served out the roast beef while her husband poured from a bottle of claret. ‘By the way, Sidney, I found the last clue in the crossword – “Boar’s head and all man? Yes.” It’s Hogmanay.’

‘Very good; hog, man, aye.’

‘Are you going to say grace?’

‘I will,’ Sidney replied. It was important to keep the family up to his standards even though his father had been positively agnostic of late.

‘
Mensae caelestis participes faciat nos Rex gloriae aeternae
.’

After the ‘Amen’ his father turned to Jennifer. ‘When are we going to meet this chap of yours?’

‘I’m not sure he’ll want to see me again after last night. It was so embarrassing.’

‘Is Nigel Thompson’s wife all right these days?’ Iris asked her daughter.

‘Juliette? I’m not at all sure. We all think she was the last to be seen with the ring in her hand but it can’t have been her. She was the hostess, for goodness sake.’

‘She has always had a nervy disposition.’

‘Now be careful, Iris,’ Alec cautioned. ‘We must not jump to conclusions.’

‘I’m sorry, darling, but poor dear Juliette is often her own worst enemy in life. I seem to remember . . . .’

Alec Chambers doled out the claret. ‘I hope no one cast any aspersions . . . .’

‘Have the Thompsons called the police?’ Sidney asked.

Jennifer rested her knife and fork on her plate and gave her brother one of her steady sisterly stares. ‘They don’t want this to become public knowledge. Nigel’s not been an MP for long and he doesn’t want anything to damage his prospects. You know how ambitious he is.’

‘Our future Prime Minister,’ Alec smiled.’ I expect Churchill’s got something to say about that.’

‘He can’t go on for ever, Daddy.’

‘You know that Gladstone formed his last administration at the age of eighty-three?’

‘But that was not a success.’

Sidney felt they were straying from the point. ‘So they plan to sort out this ring business amongst themselves?’

‘That’s the idea.’

‘And how are they going to do that, Jenny?’

‘I told them that you would come back and help.’

‘Me?’

‘Yes, my dearest brother, you.’

‘I am not sure how I can be of any assistance.’

Jennifer looked at her brother as if he was slow to understand. She had, since she was ten, spoken to him about serious matters in emphatic italics, never quite believing that he was giving her his full attention. She employed this tactic now. ‘You can help
look for the ring
and then, if it
is
still missing, you can
find out what went wrong
, without causing
a scene
.’

‘A scene has already been made, I recall.’

‘Nigel was going to telephone you . . .’

‘You suggested it?’

‘I told him that I would
talk to you in person first
. Juliette’s taken to her bed, and Amanda is apparently alternating between rage and tears. Nigel is one of your
oldest friends
. I promised I’d pop you round this afternoon. You were
there at the time
and you are
the only one everyone trusts
.’

‘But I have to get back to Grantchester . . .’

‘There are no services tonight or tomorrow, are there?’

‘No, Jennifer, but that is not the only thing I do. I lead quite a full life and need to be back tomorrow evening. I am never really off duty.’

‘And that’s precisely why you can be on duty now.’

‘It’s not even my parish. It’s St John’s Wood, for goodness sake. Haven’t they got a vicar of their own?’

‘Of course they have.’

‘Then why can’t they ask him?’

‘Because he wasn’t present at the time and their vicar is not a detective.’

‘Neither am I.’

‘You are going to have to become one. I have brought my car.’

Sidney looked to his father for support but found none. ‘You don’t appear to have much of a choice, old boy.’

It was hard for Sidney to retain his cheerfulness. Here he was, surrounded by the possibility of deceit, theft and betrayal, and now bullied into taking an unwilling part in an investigation into events at a party he had never been that enthusiastic in attending. He felt ethically compromised. He always liked to give people the benefit of the doubt and yet now, here he was, on the verge of questioning the lives and morals of his friends and acquaintances.

He saw already that if a crime had been committed he would have to look dispassionately at every member present, even his own sister, who could, he supposed, if he thought objectively, have stolen the ring out of some misguided jealousy. And yet it made him sick to be so suspicious.

Nigel answered the doorbell. He was wearing a tweed jacket and a crumpled open-necked Viyella shirt that looked as if it had been pulled straight back out of the laundry basket.

‘Thank goodness you’ve come,’ he said. ‘Everyone is in pieces.’

Sidney took a step back. ‘I’m not sure I can be of much assistance.’

‘Your calming presence will be a good start.’

Juliette came down the stairs in the same peignoir that she had worn the previous evening. She did not appear to have slept. ‘It’s Edna’s day off,’ she began. ‘But can I get you a cup of tea?’ It was a question, Sidney thought, which was more commonly asked of vicars than any other profession.

‘Say yes,’ her husband whispered. ‘We have to keep her mind on other things.’

‘That would be most kind.’

The two men walked to what Sidney supposed he must refer to as the scene of the crime. ‘How would you like to begin?’ Nigel Thompson asked. ‘We went through the room as thoroughly as we could and then put it back to normal. Juliette found it too upsetting to leave it in a mess. There were still bits of broken glass everywhere. I don’t know how we missed them.’

The dining table was without its tablecloth and was set with two silver candlesticks and a lazy Susan at the centre but was, Sidney noticed, smaller than the previous night. ‘There are only six places,’ he observed. ‘And yet the dinner party was for ten.’

‘It extends,’ Juliette explained as she came into the room with a pot of tea. ‘You can pull it out at either end. We can even seat twelve at a push . . .’

‘Late Georgian walnut,’ her husband continued, ‘with a rather unpredictable mechanism underneath. It’s a bit of a palaver to go under the table and do it and then put it back together in the morning but it’s a family heirloom. However, you’re not here to discuss the furniture.’

‘Indeed.’

Amanda entered the room. She was wearing a black jersey-knit twin-set and looked on edge. Sidney wondered what the outcome of the evening had been and whether she was engaged to Guy Hopkins or not. He would have to find the right moment to ask.

Juliette turned to her husband and began to cry. ‘I know that everyone thinks I did it.’

‘No they don’t, my darling.’

‘I was the last person that people can remember seeing with the ring but I know I never took it. It would never occur to me to betray one of my closest friends.’

Amanda put an arm around her while looking firmly at her husband. ‘Believe me, Juliette, none of us would ever suspect you of such a thing.’

‘Would other people?’ Sidney asked.

‘I am afraid so,’ said Nigel. ‘Juliette, perhaps you would like a little lie down, my darling? You know how these conversations upset you.’

‘But I don’t want to lie down.’

‘I will take you upstairs,’ Amanda offered. ‘Let’s leave the men to talk for a bit.’

Juliette looked frightened. ‘You will come and see me in a little while, Nigel? You know how I hate to be on my own.’

‘Of course, my darling. I think Sidney and I need a word in private. Amanda will be with you.’

The two men watched as the women left the room. Then Nigel Thompson closed the door. ‘Can I get you something stronger now we’ve had the tea?’

‘No, thank you. I’m sorry Juliette is so upset.’

‘The theft is a disaster. It’s clear everyone thinks she stole the ring because she has had her moments in the past.’

‘I remember you telling me. It was a sad time.’

‘I’m not sure that I confessed in full, Sidney. After we lost our first child I’m afraid there were incidents. Shoplifting. Mainly baby clothes. When she was caught I managed to appeal to the police and they turned a bit of a blind eye, thank God. I can hardly ask them to do the same thing again. I promised I would keep her in check. Now, of course, she’s too scared to leave home without me. I knew she was delicate when I married her. Daphne had even warned me. She told me Juliette would need a lot of looking after, but I didn’t expect this.’

‘Are you are sure she can’t have taken the ring without knowing what she was doing?’

‘We have searched the house. I’ve questioned Juliette quite carefully and I’ve never seen her frightened in this way. I wonder if she might even have seen something or if someone has threatened her because I genuinely don’t think she has done it. In the past she was never upset. She could not accept she had done anything wrong. Now she is all too aware of what has happened and she can’t think of anything else; and just when her nerves seemed to be getting better. I can’t understand it and it makes me furious. All these people are our friends, for goodness sake.’

‘And you have no suspicions?’

‘Well, I’m afraid I do, but it wouldn’t be fair to jeopardise your own line of inquiry.’

‘You mean Johnny Johnson?’

‘I can hardly suspect anyone else, can I?’

‘Even though he’s a friend of my sister?’

‘He was going on to a jazz bar afterwards. He could have passed off the ring there . . .’

‘I won’t believe it,’ Sidney answered. ‘You can’t just arrive as a guest at a house for the first time and do something like that. And Jennifer speaks very highly of him.’

Nigel thought for a moment. ‘It’s difficult though, isn’t it? You can hardly suspect Guy of stealing a ring that he has only just given to his future fiancée, or Amanda of taking it. I hope you don’t suspect me, and I’ve already told you about Juliette. Apart from Johnny Johnson and your sister that only leaves the Dowlands, who don’t appear to be too concerned about such things.’

‘Tell me a little bit more about Daphne Young.’

‘She was at school with Juliette. They were the prettiest girls in their year. Her mother died when she was fifteen and then her father went to the bad, I’m afraid. She doesn’t like to talk about it but it was gambling. As a result she works in the Health Service. Does very modern work: research papers into the psychological influences that contribute to addiction, although that doesn’t stop her enjoying the odd flutter herself. Research, she calls it. As you know, she’s one of the most popular girls in London.’

‘No money worries?’

‘I can’t imagine so. I think her suitors pay for whatever she wants. And she takes in paying guests. I think she has some kind of chaplain at the moment. Didn’t she mention him to you?’

‘She did.’

‘Of course she can’t have taken the ring. She emptied her handbag in front of us all before she left. And then, after we had searched everywhere and you had left, Guy went mad. He accused Amanda of being too scatty for words, careless, irresponsible, unreliable, clueless, embarrassing and stupid.’

‘She is certainly not stupid.’

‘The Dowlands made an attempt to stop him but Guy called them meddling know-nothings. That didn’t go down too well, either. He said that if they really wanted to involve themselves then they should have done so earlier by spotting the thief. He then poured an enormous glass of port and announced that if the ring wasn’t found he would go to the police and blame us all. I tried to calm him down as it’s the last thing I want but then Juliette started having hysterics and I had to get her to bed and the Dowlands went home. That meant leaving Guy and Amanda to scream at each other.’