by Colin Dexter
'One of your pals?' grinned Lewis, as he placed two more pints on the table.
'I don't think he's got any pals.'
'Perhaps if Lawson were still alive- '
'He's just the man we've got to talk about, Lewis – suspect number two. Agreed?'
'You mean he suddenly disappeared from in front of the altar, murdered Josephs, and then came and carried on with the service?'
'Something like that.'
The beer was good, and Lewis leaned back, quite happy to listen.
'Come on, sir. I know you're dying to tell me.'
'First, let's just follow up your idea about the poisoned chalice. There are too many improbabilities in the way you looked at it. But what if the Rev. Lionel himself put the morphine in the wine? What then? After his brother's had a swig, he can pretend that the chalice is empty, turn round to the altar, slip in the powder, pour in a drop more wine, give it a quick stir – no problem! Or else he could have had two chalices – one of 'em already doctored – and just put the one down and pick up the other. Easier still! Mark my words, Lewis. If it was either of the two brothers who poisoned Josephs, I reckon the odds are pretty heavily on the Rev. Lionel.'
'Let me get it straight, sir. According to you, Lionel Lawson tried to kill Josephs, only to find that someone had done a far neater job a few minutes later – with a knife. Right?' Lewis shook his head. 'Not on, sir, is it?'
'Why not? The Rev. Lionel knows that Josephs'll go straight to the vestry, and that in a few minutes he's going to be very dead. There's one helluva dose of morphine in the communion wine and the strong probability is that Josephs is going to die all nice and peaceful like, because morphine poisoning isn't a painful death – just the opposite. In which case, Josephs' death may well pose a few problems; but no one's going to be able to pin the murder on the Rev. Lionel. The chalice has been carefully washed out and dried, in strict accord with ecclesiastical etiquette – a wonderful example of a criminal actually being encouraged to destroy the evidence of his crime. Beautiful idea! But then things began to go askew. Josephs must have guessed that something was desperately wrong with him, and before he collapsed in the vestry he just managed to drag himself to the curtains and shout for help – a shout that all the congregation heard. But someone, someone, Lewis, was watching that vestry like a hawk – the Rev. Lionel himself. And as soon as he saw Josephs there he was off down the aisle like an avenging Fury; and he was down there in the vestry before anyone else had the nous or the guts to move; and once inside he stabbed Josephs viciously in the back, turned to face the congregation, and told 'em all that Josephs was lying there – murdered.' (Morse mentally congratulated himself on an account that was rather more colourful and dramatic than Bell 's prosaic reconstruction of exactly the same events.)
'He'd have got blood all over him,' protested Lewis.
'Wouldn't have mattered much if he'd been wearing the sort of outfit they were wearing this morning.'
Lewis thought back to the morning service and those deep-crimson vestments – the colour of dark-red blood… 'But why finish Josephs off with a knife? He'd be almost dead by then?'
'Lionel was frightened that Josephs would accuse him of doing the poisoning. Almost certainly Josephs would have guessed what had happened.'
'Probably everyone else would, too.'
'Ah! But if you stabbed Josephs in the back as well, people are going to ask who did that, aren't they?'
'Yes. And they're going to think that was Lawson, too. After all, it was Lawson's knife.'
'No one knew that at the time,' said Morse defensively.
'Did Bell think that's how it happened?'
Morse nodded. 'Yes, he did.'
'And do you, sir?'
Morse seemed to be weighing the odds in the mental balance 'No,' he said finally.
Lewis leaned back in his chair. 'You know, when you come to think of it, it's a bit improbable that a minister's going to murder one of his own congregation, isn't it? That sort of thing doesn't happen in real life.'
'I rather hope it does,' said Morse quietly.
'Pardon, sir?'
'I said I rather hope it does happen. You asked me if Lionel Lawson killed Josephs in a particular way, and I said I didn't think so. But I reckon it was Lionel Lawson who killed Josephs, though in a rather more simple way. He just walked down to the vestry, knifed poor old Harry Josephs- '
'And then he walked back!'
'You've got it!'
Lewis' eyes rolled towards the tobacco-stained ceiling and he began to wonder if the beer had not robbed the inspector of his wits.
'With all the congregation watching him, I suppose.'
'Oh, no. They didn't see him.'
'They didn't?'
'No. The service at which Josephs was killed was held in the Lady Chapel. Now, if you remember, there's an archway in the screen separating this chapel from the central chancel, and I reckon that after the bread and wine had been dished out Lawson took a few of the utensils across from the altar in the Lady Chapel to the main altar – they're always doing that sort of thing, these priests.' (Lewis was hardly listening any more, and the landlord was wiping the tables, collecting glasses and emptying the ash-trays.) 'You want to know how he performed this remarkable feat, Lewis? Well, as I see it, the Rev. Lionel and his brother had got everything worked out, and that night the pair of 'em were all dressed up in identical ecclesiastical clobber. Now, when the Rev. Lionel walked out of the Lady Chapel for a few seconds, it wasn't the Rev. Lionel who walked back! There are only a few prayerful old souls in the congregation, and for that vital period the man standing in front of the altar, kneeling there, praying there, but never actually facing the congregation, is brother Philip! What do you think, Lewis? You think anyone looking up could have suspected the truth?'
'Perhaps Philip Lawson was bald.'
'Doubt it. Whether you go bald depends on your grandfather.'
'If you say so, sir.' Lewis was growing increasingly sceptical about all this jiggery-pokery with duplicate chalices and chasubles; and, anyway, he was anxious to be off home. He stood up and took his leave.
Morse remained where he was, the forefinger of his left hand marrying little droplets of spilt beer on the table-top. Like Lewis, he was far from happy about his possible reconstructions of Josephs' murder. But one idea was growing even firmer in his mind: there must have been some collaboration somewhere. And, like as not, that collaboration had involved the two brothers. But how? For several minutes Morse's thoughts were chasing round after their own tails. For the thousandth time he asked himself where he ought to start, and for the thousandth time he told himself that he had to decide who had killed Harry Josephs. All right! Assume it was the Rev. Lionel – on the grounds that something must have driven him to suicide. But what if it wasn't Lionel who had thrown himself from the tower? What if it was Philip who had been thrown? Yes, that would have been very neat… But there was a virtually insuperable objection to such a theory. The Rev. Lionel would have to dress up his brother's body in his own clothes, his own black clerical front, his dog-collar – everything. And that, in such a short space of time after the morning service, was plain physically impossible! But what if…? Yes! What if Lionel had somehow managed to persuade his brother to change clothes? Was it possible? Phew! Of course it was! It wasn't just possible – it was eminently probable. And why? Because Philip Lawson had already done it before. He'd agreed to dress up in his brother's vestments so that he could stand at the altar whilst Josephs was being murdered! Doubtless he'd been wonderfully well rewarded for his troubles on that occasion. So why not agree to a second little charade? Of course he would have agreed – little thinking he'd be dressing up for his own funeral. But with one seemingly insuperable problem out of the way, another one had taken its place: two people had positively identified the body that had fallen from the tower. Was that a real problem, though? Had Mrs Walsh-Atkins really had the stomach to look all that carefully at a face that was as smashe
d and bleeding as the rest of that mutilated body? Had her presence outside the church just been an accidental fluke? Because someone else had been there had he not? Someone all ready to testify to the identity – the false identity – of the corpse: Paul Morris. And Paul Morris had subsequently been murdered because he knew too much: knew specifically, that the Reverend Lionel Lawson was not only still in the land of the living, but was also a murderer, to boot! A double-murderer. A triple-murderer…
'Do you mind drinking up, sir?' said the landlord. 'We often get the police round here on Sunday mornings.'
Chapter Twenty-five
On the same day, just after eight o'clock in the evening, a middle-aged man, his white shirt open at the neck, sat waiting in a brightly lit, well-furnished room. He was lounging back on a deep sofa, its chintz covers printed in a russet-and-white floral design, from which, smoking a king-sized Benson & Hedges cigarette, he vaguely watched the television. She was a little late tonight; but he had no doubts that she would come, for she needed him just as much as he needed her. Sometimes, he suspected, even more so. A bottle of claret, already opened, and two wine-glasses stood on the coffee-table beside him, and through the half-opened bedroom door he could see the hypotenuse of white sheet drawn back from the pillows.
Come on, girl!
It was eight-ten when the key (she had a key – of course she did!) scraped gently in the Yale lock and she entered. Although a steady drizzle persisted outside, her pale-blue mackintosh seemed completely dry as she slipped it from her shoulders, folded it neatly across its waist, and put it over the back of an armchair. The white cotton blouse she wore was drawn tight across her breasts, and the close-fitting black skirt clung to the curve of her thighs. She said nothing for a while; merely looked at him, her eyes reflecting no affection and no joy – just a simmering animal sensuality. She walked across the room and stood in front of him – provocatively.
'You told me you were going to stop smoking.'
'Sit down and stop moaning, woman. Christ! You make me feel sexy in that outfit.'
The woman did exactly as she was told, almost as if she would do anything he asked without demur; almost as if she thrived on the brusque crudity of his commands. There were no tender words of preliminary love-play on either side, yet she sat close to him as he poured two full glasses of wine, and he felt the pressure of her black-stockinged leg (good girl – she'd remembered!) against his own. In token of some vestigial respect they clinked their glasses together, and she leaned back against the sofa.
'Been watching the telly all night?' Her question was commonplace, uninterested.
'I didn't get back till half-past six.'
She turned to look at him for the first time. 'You're a fool going out like that. Especially on Sundays. Don't you realise-?'
'Calm down, woman! I'm not a fool, and you know it. Nobody's seen me slipping out of here yet. And what if they did? Nobody's going to recognise me now.' He leaned across her and his fingers deftly unfastened the top button of her blouse. And then the next button.
As always with this man, the woman experienced that curious admixture of revulsion and attraction – compulsive combination! Until so very recently a virgin, she was newly aware of herself as a physical object, newly conscious of the power of her body. She lay back passively as he fondled her far beyond the point which a few months previously would have been either pleasing or permissible; and she seemed almost mesmerised as he pulled her up from the sofa and led the way through to the bedroom.
Their coitus was not exceptionally memorable – certainly not ecstatic; but it was satisfactory and satisfying. It usually was. As usual, too, the woman now lay between the sheets silently, feeling cheap and humiliated. It was not only her body that was naked, but her soul, too; and instinctively she drew the top of the sheet up to her neck and prayed that for a little while at least he would keep his hands and eyes away from her. How she despised him! Yet not one half, not one quarter as much as she had learned to despise herself.
It had got to stop. She hated the man and the power he had come to wield over her – yet she needed him, needed the firm virility of his body. He had kept himself wonderfully fit… but, then, that wasn't… wasn't surprising… not really… not really…
Briefly she fell asleep.
He spoke to her as she stood by the door, the mackintosh loosely over her shoulders. 'Same time on Wednesday?'
Once more the humiliation of it all settled heavily upon her, and her lip was shaking as she replied.
'It's got to stop! You know it has!'
'Stop?' His mouth was set in a conceited sneer. 'You couldn't stop. You know that as well as I do.'
'I can stop seeing you whenever I like, and there's nothing you or anybody else- '
'Isn't there? You're in this as deeply as I am – don't you ever forget that!'
She shook her head, almost wildly. 'You said you'd be going away. You promised!'
'And I shall be. I'll be going very soon now, my girl, and that's the truth. But until I do go, I keep seeing you – understand? I see you when I want, as often as I want. And don't tell me you don't enjoy it, because you do! And you know you do.'
Yes, she knew it, and she felt her eyes prickling with hurt at his cruel words. How could she do this? How could she hate a man so much – and yet allow him to make love to her? No! It just couldn't go on like this! And the solution to all her troubles was so childishly simple: she just had to go and see Morse, that was all; tell him everything and face the consequences, whatever they were. She still had a bit of courage left, didn't she?
The man was watching her carefully, half-guessing what was going through her mind. He was used to taking swift decisions – he always had been; and he saw his next moves as clearly as if he were a grandmaster playing chess with a novice. He had known all along that he would have to deal with her sooner or later; and, although he had hoped it would be later, he realised now that the game must be finished quickly. For him, sex had always come – would always come – a poor second to power.
He walked over to her, and his face for once seemed kind and understanding as he placed his hands so very lightly on her shoulder, his eyes looking searchingly into hers. 'All right, Ruth,' he said quietly. 'I'll not be a nuisance to you any more. Come and sit down a minute. I want to talk to you.' Gently he took her arm and led her unresisting to the sofa. 'I won't make any more demands on you, Ruth – I promise I won't. We'll stop seeing each other, if that's what you really want. I can't bear to see you unhappy like this.'
It had been many weeks since he had spoken to her in such a way, and for a while, in the context of her wider grief, she felt infinitely grateful for his words.
'As I say, I'll be going away soon and then you can forget me, and we can both try to forget what we've done. The wrong we've done – because it was wrong, wasn't it? Not about us going to bed together – I don't mean that. That was something lovely for me – something I shall never regret – and I'd hoped… I'd hoped it was lovely for you, too. But never mind that. Just promise me one thing, Ruth, will you? If you ever want to come to me – while I'm here, I mean – please come! Please! You know I'll be wanting you – and waiting.'
She nodded, and the tears trickled down her cheeks at the bitter-sweet joy of his words as he cradled her head against his shoulder and held her firmly to him.
She stayed there for what seemed to her a long, long time; yet for him it was little more than a functional interspace, his cold eyes staring over her shoulder at the hateful wallpaper behind the television. He would have to kill her, of course: that decision had been taken long ago anyway. What he was quite unable to understand was the delay. Surely the police were not so stupid as they seemed? Nothing so far – why? - about the Shrewsbury murder. Nothing definite about the body on the tower. Nothing at all about the boy…
'Your mother all right?' He asked it almost tenderly.
She nodded and sniffed. It was time she was back home with that mother of hers.
'Still cleaning the church?'
She nodded again, continued her sniffing, and finally broke away from him.
'Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays?'
'Just Mondays and Wednesdays now, I'm getting a bit slack in my old age.'
'Still in the mornings?'
'Mm. I usually go about ten. And I've been going for a drink in the Randolph when I've finished, I'm afraid.' She laughed nervously, and blew her nose loudly into her sopping handkerchief. 'I could do with a quick drink now if- '
'Of course.' He fetched a bottle of Teacher's whisky from the sideboard and poured a good measure into her wine-glass 'Here you are. You'll feel better soon. You feel better now, don't you?'
'Yes, I do.' She took a sip of the whisky. 'You – you remember when I asked you whether you knew anything about – about what they found up on the church tower?'
'I remember.'
'You said you hadn't any idea at all- '
'And I hadn't – haven't. Not the faintest idea. But I expect the police will find out.'
'They just say they're – they're making enquiries.'
'They've not been bothering you again, have they?'
She breathed deeply and stood up. 'No. Not that I could tell them anything about that. '
For a moment she thought of Morse with his piercing eyes. Sad eyes, though, as if they were always looking for something and never quite finding it. A clever man, as she realised, and a nice man, too. Why, oh why, hadn't someone like Morse found her many years ago?
'What are you thinking about?' His voice was almost brusque again.
'Me? Oh, just thinking how nice you can be when you want. That's all.'
She wanted to get away from him now. It was as if freedom beckoned her from behind the locked door, but he was close behind her and his hands were once again fondling her body; and soon he had forced her to the floor where, within a few inches of the door, he penetrated her once again, snorting as he did so like some animal, whilst she for her part stared joylessly at a hair-line crack upon the ceiling.