Down Among the Dead Men

18

‘Why do you want to speak to this vicar?’

Georgina was back and letting Diamond know she was still on top of the job. She’d caught him emerging from the breakfast area after a full English and he’d been rash enough to say he’d like to interview the Reverend Conybeare.

The big detective picked his words carefully. ‘He had more to say about Joe Rigden than anyone else. I was reading his statement last night. Went through it line by line. Hen Mallin interviewed him herself.’

‘And?’

‘I’m not sure she asked the right questions.’

Her eyes were the size of the two fried eggs he’d just consumed. ‘Oh my word. Are you thinking she may have held back?’

‘Soft-pedalled... possibly.’

The ‘possibly’ made no impression on Georgina. She didn’t deal in uncertainties. ‘Because she already knew her niece was involved in the murder? That’s appalling.’

‘I’m not a hundred per cent on this.’

‘But you have your suspicions? Peter, you’re absolutely right. We have a duty to look at this again. I’ll join you.’

He’d guessed she would want to be in on the act. He said at once, ‘Both of us taking this on might not be the best use of our resources. We really ought to step up the hunt for Jocelyn.’

She was unimpressed and flapped her hand to show it. ‘That’s all in hand. She’s already on the PNC as locate-and-trace. Everyone has been informed — all the social agencies and car patrols, sea ports and airports.’

‘So we’re led to understand.’

Her antennae twitched — or at least her eyebrows did.

‘The search is being co-ordinated from here,’ Diamond added, ‘from Chichester CID. Don’t you think we ought to make sure there hasn’t been soft-pedalling over this as well? Remember who was in charge.’

She caught her breath and mouthed the words D. C.I. Mallin.

‘And they’re still her team.’

If a sky rocket had shot from Georgina’s lips it wouldn’t have given a louder whoosh. ‘That’s unthinkable.’

He raised his eyebrows and said nothing and encouraged her to think the unthinkable.

‘I’m taking an executive decision,’ she said eventually. ‘We shall divide our resources.’

And that was how Peter Diamond had the use of the police car for the morning.

‘Slindon,’ he told the driver. ‘Do you know it?’

‘I do, sir. I was brought up there.’

‘I’m calling on the vicar.’

‘That will be the rector.’

‘If you say so.’

‘Or the priest. Anglican or Catholic?’

‘Two churches, are there?’

‘The Catholics have always been strong in the village, even when it was dangerous for them. I’m going back in history, you understand. They had a secret chapel in the roof of a house at one time. Anyone looking for places to hide in Slindon is on to a good thing. Tunnels, priest’s holes, they’re two a penny.’

Diamond lodged that in his memory. Missing people weren’t necessarily dead people. They could be in hiding. ‘It must be the rector.’

‘No problem. I’ll take you to the rectory.’

‘The Reverend Conybeare.’

‘He’s not the rector.’

‘Then perhaps after all I want the priest.’

‘His name isn’t Conybeare either. And he doesn’t live in Slindon.’

Why was nothing ever simple? ‘The man I want to see definitely lives here.’

At Diamond’s suggestion, the driver contacted Chichester police over the radio. The confusion ended. The Reverend Conybeare was a retired cleric from Dorset who lived in Baycombe Lane.

A postcard-pretty cottage with thatched roof, roses and a low doorway with a marked leftward tilt. The elderly man who opened the door had no tilt, but he was short enough to use the entrance without stooping, which made him not much over five foot. He was in a blue clerical shirt.

Diamond explained who he was and why he was calling.

‘You’d better come in, then, Mr Detective,’ Conybeare said. ‘Mind your head.’

The interior was shadowy, requiring a moment or two for the eyes to adjust. Then some observation — if not detective work — was needed to work out that the tenant had an interest unusual for a man of the cloth. A display cabinet contained a top hat resting on its crown with white gloves displayed on the brim, a pack of playing cards fanned in a perfect arc, silk handkerchiefs, a coil of white rope, a silver revolver and a black wand tipped white at each end. Any uncertainty was dispelled by several posters for magic shows on the wall behind.

‘It makes sense if you think about it,’ Conybeare said in a world-weary voice suggesting he’d said the same thing many times to visitors. ‘A major part of my ministry was about miracles.’

‘Isn’t there a difference?’ Diamond said.

This earned a smile. ‘No magician worthy of the name admits to trickery.’

‘I was thinking about the showmanship.’

‘Ouch! That’s a low blow. You’re right, of course. There’s no comparison. Shouldn’t have made such a profane remark. I’m backsliding in my old age.’

‘Well, I hope you have a licence for the handgun.’

‘Caught again. I don’t.’ Without warning, Conybeare opened the cabinet, grabbed the gun, pointed it at his own head and pulled the trigger. There was no report. A spring-loaded flag popped out with the word ‘BANG’ on it.

Diamond tried to look as if he’d fully expected it. ‘If only they were all like that. Do you give shows?’

‘If pressed. But you’re not here to see me perform.’ Conybeare gestured towards an armchair. ‘No need to check. It’s not a whoopee cushion. I don’t do practical jokes.’ But could he be believed? This was a playful clergyman.

From the chair Diamond tried to sound a serious note. ‘After Joe Rigden’s violent death in 2007, you were interviewed by the police.’

‘I was one of many, I believe.’

‘You knew him better than most. At any rate, your statement was longer than anyone else’s.’

‘That may well be true. I tend to go on a bit.’

‘He wasn’t your gardener, I understand.’

‘I couldn’t afford him. I have to do battle with my own little plot, and a battle it is. “One is nearer God’s heart in a garden...” doesn’t apply in my case. I’d rather be doing almost anything else.’

‘We understand each other, then. I’m no gardener either.’

‘Fortunately there’s nothing in the scriptures to say we should pull weeds.’ He smirked as if he’d just thought of something improper. ‘On the whole it would have been better if everyone in the Bible had avoided going into gardens. But you asked about Joe. I had a high regard for the man. His violent death was a mystery to us all. He led a good life, from all one could tell.’

‘How did you get to meet him?’

‘As a local volunteer. There are elderly folk in the village and they appreciate a helping hand with shopping, meals on wheels and so forth. Joe did it from the goodness of his heart. He was a lovely man. He didn’t share my faith, but I have to say he was kinder to others than many Christians I could name.’

‘What was his religion?’

‘He didn’t have one. He described himself as a realist. When someone says that to a clergyman it’s a bit of a slap in the face.’

‘But you still admired him?’

‘Couldn’t fail to. He was cheerful, honest, reliable, hardworking and mindful of others. He kept most of the Ten Commandments without having to think about them. It was only worshipping God he found impossible.’

‘There are plenty like him.’

‘Not like Joe. He lived by his principles.’

‘It sounds as if you got to know him well. Did he talk much?’

‘Not as much as me. We chatted, found our lives overlapped in other ways.’

‘Such as?’

‘I used to visit several of the properties where he was employed. Garden parties and the like. Being a retired rev, so to speak, I’m on several invitation lists. I was able to admire Joe’s handiwork, the stripes the mower made and the state of the flower beds. I’d make a point of complimenting him later.’

‘Wasn’t he there?’

‘At the garden parties? No, in village society, gardeners are classed with hewers of wood and drawers of water.’

‘How did he feel about that?’

‘He didn’t let it bother him. He was a teetotaller, anyway. Parties weren’t his scene at all. I suppose he was a throwback to an earlier generation when working men were supposed to know their place and get on with life. Thinking about it, we had that in common as well. For some folk, the clergy are below the salt.’

Diamond didn’t go down that avenue. ‘Did you ever discuss your beliefs with him?’

‘On a few occasions. Mostly we agreed to differ. I could tell it was no use trying to convert him.’

‘So was he an awkward cuss?’

After a pause, Conybeare said, ‘That’s rather cynical if I may say so.’

‘You’ll have to make allowance,’ Diamond said. ‘I’m trying hard to think why anyone murdered such a saintly man.’

‘It’s a mystery to me, too.’

‘Sometimes upright men antagonise others without meaning to.’

‘Sadly, that is true.’

‘You said he knew his place and got on with life. Was that because he felt inferior to the gentry, if I can call them that?’

‘You mean the upper crust of the village? Inferior? Certainly not. He’d laugh about their vanities, just as I do.’

‘But not to their faces?’

‘He didn’t go out of his way to be offensive.’

‘If pressed — say if one of them accused him of doing shoddy work — would he stand up for himself?’

‘Absolutely. He lived by his principles and defended them without fear or favour.’

‘Did he have friends?’

‘I’m not sure “friends” is the word I would use. People liked him, but he kept them at a distance. He wasn’t ever seen in the pub in the days we had one and he didn’t join things other than the volunteer group, who functioned mainly as individuals. You might think the horticultural society would have appealed, but Joe wasn’t a member.’

‘I expect he’d had enough of horticulture, doing it all day. Did he have a hobby, as you do?’

‘The magic?’ He laughed. ‘That’s peculiar to me and Joe thought it peculiar, too. In fact, he called it trickery. As a joke I once snapped my fingers and produced a bunch of flowers. Flowers for a gardener, get it? They’re a paper effect, packed very small, and spring open. He wasn’t at all amused. He threw them aside like a piece of waste. He liked his world to be solid and real.’

‘Both feet on the ground?’

‘Constantly. Well, he may have propped them up of an evening. He worked hard in the day and liked to relax quietly at home.’

‘I was reading your original statement and it seems you were one of the last to speak to him.’

‘Was I?’

Patiently, Diamond spelt out the facts. ‘Chichester police stopped a car on the Tuesday evening and found it contained Joe Rigden’s body and it was estimated he’d been shot some time in the previous twenty-four hours. He gave you a lift into Chichester, on Sunday, September twenty-third.’

‘He was always doing good turns like that.’

‘You attended morning service at the cathedral while he spent the time shopping. Do you still recall it?’

‘I do. An excellent sermon on the raising of the widow’s son.’

‘I meant the drive in the car, in particular what was said.’

‘Have a heart, superintendent. This was seven years ago.’

‘But you remember the sermon.’

‘It was the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. The second lesson is always St Luke on the widow’s son. I’ve preached on it many times.’

Diamond was beginning to wish Georgina had taken over this interview. ‘You told DCI Mallin there was a difference of opinion in the car.’

‘That must be true, then. DCI Mallin — yes, a lady. I remember her questions and very sharp they were. She interviewed me here and gave me the cue to fire my trick gun, just as you did. Good at her job. Firm, but friendly.’

‘I’m asking about Joe Rigden.’

‘I appreciate that.’

‘What was this difference of opinion you had? It isn’t clear from the statement.’

His expression changed. ‘I’m sorry. It was a private conversation, of no conceivable relevance to your investigation. It did neither of us much credit and I prefer to remember Joe in a more positive light.’

‘I’m sorry too, but this was the last conversation he’s known for certain to have had with anyone. I need to know his state of mind.’

‘He wasn’t suicidal, if that’s what you’re thinking.’

‘You’re withholding information, sir. You may think it has no bearing, but I need to hear it.’

Conybeare gave an impatient sigh. ‘If you must know, we had words about the sermon I’d heard, a theological matter, so you see it’s of no interest to you at all.’

‘The miracle of a man raised from the dead?’

‘Yes, I told you. Now can we move on?’

‘What was the issue?’

‘Really, this is too much.’

Diamond was firm with him. ‘It’s not enough.’

Another sigh. ‘If you must know, it was our old debate about magic. Joe said there was sure to have been a rational explanation for Our Lord bringing the man back to life — the usual thing one gets from disbelievers about people being pronounced dead and then resuscitated. I begged to differ, as I was bound to. I said this was only one of a number of miracles and I accepted it as fact, just as I accepted the feeding of the five thousand. He said as an amateur conjurer I ought to know a clever illusionist can do almost anything. He’d seen a man on television make the Statue of Liberty disappear. I insisted there was a difference between magic and miracles and he got very angry.’

‘He got angry? I would have thought you had more right to be angry.’

He gave a faint smile. ‘I was, to be truthful.’

‘He was winding you up.’

‘No, it wasn’t like that. The concept of miracles unsettled him. He liked to believe everything had a rational explanation.’

‘It sounds as if he was irrational, letting it get to him.’

‘Sometimes it seemed like that. He told me — not for the first time — how much he disapproved of my hobby. He referred to it as conjuring, not magic, as I do. It was almost as if the word magic was too upsetting to speak aloud. I knew it was a sensitive point. I’m sorry our last conversation turned out the way it did.’

‘Was there anything else on his mind, do you suppose?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, maybe he was under threat.’

‘From whoever shot him? I hadn’t thought of that. All I can say is that he didn’t seem himself at all.’

‘Did you part as friends?’

Conybeare sighed. ‘With less grace than I would have wished. I could tell he was troubled and I thought it was my fault. I thanked him for the lift and that was the last I ever saw of him.’

‘You said you knew several of the people he worked for. Were there any who treated him shabbily?’

‘If there were, he would never have told me. He was discreet.’

‘Any with a reputation for violence?’

‘You’re clutching at straws now, aren’t you? I don’t deal in tittle-tattle any more than Joe did, never have.’

‘Answer the question, please.’

‘No, I can’t think of anyone who would have wished him harm.’

This was getting nowhere. A different approach was wanted. ‘Put yourself in my position,’ Diamond said. ‘Here was a good man who apparently worked hard and gave no offence to anyone, yet was murdered and his killer was never found.’

‘I understood a man was put on trial,’ Conybeare said.

‘Convicted as an accessory after the fact. He isn’t thought to have committed the murder. The killer may still be living here as one of your neighbours.’

‘Oh, I very much doubt it. People here are convinced it was an outsider, a professional criminal, some armed robber who was challenged by Joe at one of the large properties where he worked. It would have been typical of Joe to face up to an armed man. His sense of justice quite outweighed the caution most of us would exercise in such a situation. The robber shot him and drove off with his body to cover up the crime. We don’t lose any sleep thinking we’re going to be murdered by one of our own.’