Clerical Errors

by D M Greenwood

  ‘I had a word,’ said Theodora briskly, ‘this morning with Miss Coldharbour. In his search of Canon Wheeler’s room Ian did not find the papers for which he was looking. Miss Coldharbour had kept these with her own files. All Ian succeeded in doing was leaving his fingerprints all over Canon Wheeler’s desk.’ Theodora felt a slight edge in her voice at Ian’s inefficiency. Though of course, she conceded to herself, he could not have known that Canon Wheeler was going to be killed and his room consequently searched.

  ‘It seems to me,’ she went on, ‘that Miss Coldharbour has been under a considerable strain for some time now. She is, as Ian has told us, conversant with Canon Wheeler’s affairs and has up to now been intensely loyal to him. It had, however, become increasingly apparent to her of late, that these affairs were tangled and not as innocent as they ought to be. The strain of divided loyalties began to tell. In a way Ian visited her at the crucial moment on Sunday night. And the additional shock of Wheeler’s death prompted her to give me a little more information. What she revealed to me was three facts. Firstly, she showed me the evidence for Canon Wheeler’s having transferred money from the Cathedral Appeal account to his own account.’

  The Dean frowned.

  ‘Secondly, she showed me the evidence for his having a wife and a second establishment to support in Glasgow.’

  The Bishop sighed.

  ‘And thirdly she told me that when she first discovered the monetary fraud, she called in Paul Gray.

  The Archdeacon’s face registered comprehension. ‘Paul trained as an accountant before he entered the priesthood.’

  ‘Just so.’ Theodora smiled at him. ‘Wheeler had, of course, been extraordinarily careless, or else arrogant, in his way of getting money. It seems to have escaped his notice that Rosamund handled all his affairs and that she had all the information to make the inference which Ian too made when he studied the figures carefully. But Charles’s attitude was that Rosamund was a typist so she couldn’t possibly have the knowledge of an accountant. However, she did have information and she was worried enough to go to Gray whom she had known as a curate at Narborough for some confirmation.’

  ‘Why didn’t she go through the proper channels?’ said the Dean testily.

  ‘I think she may not have known what the proper channels were for accusing a Canon of stealing.’

  ‘She could have come to any of the Chapter, the Archdeacon or myself or the Bishop.’

  Caretaker and Theodora were constrained to exchange glances. Theodora said, ‘She may have been frightened to do any of those things. She might have been afraid of being wrong, of looking foolish or worse, or losing her post or finding it intolerable to continue in it, if she were. She may too,’ Theodora added carefully, ‘have known how very difficult it is for laymen to present new facts to the clergy, particularly when one of their number is involved.’

  ‘What connection,’ said the Archdeacon, tactfully trying to change the subject, ‘has this with Canon Wheeler’s death?’

  Frost looked at Ian. ‘What did you do after you’d searched Canon Wheeler’s desk this morning at eight o’clock?’

  ‘I went for a walk.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Social awkwardness. I had an appointment to see Wheeler at half past ten. I didn’t relish meeting him before that time.’

  ‘When did you fix that appointment?’

  ‘I rang him at his home on Sunday night.’

  ‘Did you tell Canon Wheeler why you wanted to see him?’

  ‘I said a financial matter of some importance.’

  ‘What did he say?’

  ‘“I cannot spare you more than five minutes. I’m up to my eyes at the moment.”’ Caretaker’s voice was a tastelessly good imitation of Wheeler’s at his most pompous.

  ‘So you went out for a walk and returned when?’

  ‘Yes. I walked round the Cathedral and returned through the back door from the car park about twenty past ten.’

  ‘What happened at the interview?’

  ‘Wheeler denied everything. Challenged me to produce evidence, of which of course, I could only produce part, namely the figures which he denied had the significance which I had given them. He ended by telling me I could expect my cards at the end of the month. In fact it was a very typical exercise in Wheeler’s favourite technique of frightening people off.’

  ‘And what was your reaction?’

  ‘I intended to get hold of Miss Coldharbour and go to the Dean with the evidence. Before I did that, as I told your inspector, I went down to the Secretary’s office to see if I could find anything more on the appeals account. There was no one in that office so you have only my word for it that I was there from about half-past eleven, after my interview with Wheeler, until Theodora rang me at about half-past twelve with news of Wheeler’s murder.’

  ‘May I ask you,’ Frost said, ‘when you went out this morning for your walk before your interview with Canon Wheeler, did you go out through the back door into the car park?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And did you happen to notice who was parked there?’

  ‘Well, there is only parking space for four cars. The Dean and the Archdeacon both keep their cars there and my own has a space, plus one other which is shared between Mary and Rosamund Coldharbour. Rosamund wasn’t in so Mary had it.’

  ‘Did you see any other car parked there?’

  ‘There wouldn’t have been …’ Caretaker trailed off. ‘There was a motorbike there,’ he said. ‘Largish, oldish.’

  Frost nodded with pleasure. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Inspector Tallboy should be charging Jefferson now. A task, I think, within his capacity.’ He smiled at Ian in a friendly fashion.

  Ian looked puzzled. ‘Why should Jefferson kill Wheeler?’

  ‘Before we go into that,’ said Frost, ‘may I ask you why you went to Canon Hardnut’s last night?’

  ‘In the light of Mrs Baggley’s remarks about having seen Markham in Canons’ Court on Thursday night, I wanted to track him down and see if he could provide me with information about a connection between himself and Wheeler and Gray in the matter of drugs. Once I’d verified the fact that both the asylum candle and the one from St Saviour’s had false bottoms and were carrying drugs I naturally thought of Markham. I surmised that he might have used Canon Hardnut’s as a place to keep candles in before passing them via Jefferson to Gray. I later realised that it wasn’t as simple as that. However, I think Theodora can fill us in on the real connection.’

  ‘Miss Braithwaite?’

  ‘You must understand that I am relying partly on the testimony of Mrs Baggley and partly on that of Mrs Thrigg, with whom I’ve had a word, combined with one or two inferences which I have made from what Mrs Gray said. I rather think, Superintendent, that you’ve already gathered similar information?’

  ‘I should be most happy if you could guide us through the maze, Miss Braithwaite,’ said Frost gallantly.

  ‘The clue,’ said Theodora thoughtfully, ‘is the comings and goings at Canons’ Court on the Thursday night before Gray’s death. We’re almost certain that he was bidden by Canon Wheeler to make one of his periodical appearances.’ She turned to the Dean. ‘Canon Wheeler was in the habit of requiring Gray to see him to receive advice about his running of his parish and in particular his youth club.’

  ‘What on earth for?’ said the Archdeacon in bewilderment. ‘Wheeler had no experience himself in running either. His ministry had been almost entirely in cathedrals.’

  ‘I don’t think that would have occurred to Charles. Whereas the pleasures of giving advice and admonition to a younger man were, we know, attractive to him.’ The Bishop looked as though he were about to say something and then changed his mind.

  Frost interrupted the fractious clergy. ‘Do please go on, Miss Braithwaite.’

  ‘We know he left home about six in the evening, without having cancelled his youth club and having made a phone call. I think the phone call was to Jefferson and it was to
tell him to pick him up from Wheeler’s after his interview with him. He did not cancel the youth club because he didn’t expect to have to miss it. His expectation was that he would see Wheeler and then go back with Jefferson in the usual way to Markham cum Cumbermound. But he didn’t get to Wheeler’s on time. Did his car break down, Superintendent?’

  Frost nodded. ‘Oil on his clothes and on his hands suggests it.’

  ‘The only people whose movements we can testify to in Canons’ Court that night are Mrs Thrigg, who came and went to a variety of houses and was seen and to some extent timed by Mrs Baggley, and Geoffrey Markham who was also seen by Mrs Baggley and, by inference from his motorbike, Jefferson.’

  ‘Quite right, Miss Braithwaite.’ said Frost.

  ‘First Mrs Thrigg. She arrived about seven and went to Wheeler’s to leave some shopping for the morrow. In the course of that visit she heard Wheeler and Gray quarrelling. While they were still quarrelling, Mrs Thrigg left and went to help Mrs Baggley with her Church Army coffee. What Mrs Thrigg didn’t reveal to Mrs Baggley but what I’m certain now she did do, was to return after the end of the party and leave some candles in Canon Hardnut’s house. Large altar candles which she had picked up from the market stall and was accustomed to leave in Hardnut’s to which she had the key for cleaning and caretaking purposes.’

  ‘Why on earth should she do that?’ asked the Archdeacon.

  ‘She was, as you now know, one of the black magicians who intended to use the Cathedral for a ritual on Monday, the ritual which Ian disturbed. Canon Hardnut’s was handy for the Cathedral. The candles were awkward to carry around, being about three foot long and fairly thick. It might provoke comment if they were seen in the environs of the Cathedral.’

  The Archdeacon broke in, ‘But if she wanted candles for her nasty rites why didn’t she use the Cathedral ones which Williams could get for her?’

  ‘I think they may have done so at first,’ said Ian, ‘but when I questioned Williams he told me that Canon Wheeler had been checking up on quantities. They may have thought it too dangerous to continue using the proper ones and so looked for alternative sources of supply.’

  Ian returned the conversation to Theodora who continued, ‘What Mrs Baggley did not know was that these particular candles had, as a result of Jefferson’s mistake, not been relieved of the drugs they contained in their base. You know that, don’t you, Inspector, because I’m sure you’ve found that the ones your men picked up from the floor of the Cathedral after the magic rites had heroin in their bases?’

  Frost smiled warmly. ‘Quite right, Miss Braithwaite. Our information from Mr Tambiah is that the Dutch cruiser, Merlin, brings in consignments of eastern goods every ten days from Holland. Amongst the brass and wicker goods are the fake St Manicus candles with heroin in their bases. They are emptied and then sold on from the market stall or recycled by Jefferson on to churches connected with his youth work. Only on this occasion, Jefferson was careless and a packet of unemptied candles was sold. Is that not so, Miss Braithwaite?’

  Theodora took up the narrative again. ‘I surmise that as soon as Jefferson realised that a packet of full candles had been sold from the market stall to the general public, in this case Mrs Thrigg, he phoned Markham and set off in pursuit of them some time after the stall had closed on Thursday evening. The stall owner knew Mrs Thrigg since he’d sold her various things before. Jefferson caught up with her but of course had no opportunity to get back the candles. So he trailed her and hung about Canons’ Court waiting for her. Mrs Baggley, you remember, saw his machine illicitly parked. The last thing which Mrs Thrigg did when she had finished at Mrs Baggley’s was to go to Canon Hardnut’s and dump the candles ready to be picked up on Monday evening, the night of the full moon.’

  Ian broke in, ‘So I was wrong to think Markham and Jefferson habitually used Hardnut’s as a cache for storing heroin candles.’

  ‘Yes. You picked the right house for the wrong reason. The cache was Mrs Thrigg’s not Markham’s. He had no need for a second staging post. The market stall was enough.’ Theodora pressed on. ‘Markham and Jefferson entered Hardnut’s after her departure and were in the process of looking for them when they were interrupted.’

  Theodora paused. ‘We have to remember that we left Paul Gray having one of his monthly sessions with Canon Wheeler.’ And I can just imagine how it would go and the tone Charles would use, Theodora thought, lecturing, instructing, hectoring the younger man as though he were a pupil, Gray unsure how far Wheeler’s authority extended, or whether it was backed by the Bishop himself, unsure too of the purity of his own motives. She continued steadily. ‘Mrs Thrigg, you remember, told Mrs Baggley that Mr Gray and Canon Wheeler were having a set-to about a woman and money. Topics on which Mrs Thrigg thought it quite proper for gentlemen to be quarrelling. I think that what this means is that when Charles started in on Paul, Paul finally lost his temper and used the two bits of evidence against Wheeler which Miss Coldharbour had supplied to him, namely his marriage and his stealing funds.’

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘If you search Canon Wheeler’s house, Superintendent,’ Ian broke in, ‘and then look at Canon Hardnut’s, I think you’ll see what happened next. When Julia was using it last Friday night she noticed that the balustrade of Canon Wheeler’s back staircase had been broken away and pushed back into place without too much conviction. And on the floor of Canon Hardnut’s hall you’ll find, I think, traces of blood from Gray’s body.’

  ‘If you’re lucky,’ Theodora concluded, ‘you might even find Canon Wheeler’s fingerprints in Canon Hardnut’s hall. I don’t suppose Charles thought ahead enough to wear gloves.’

  The Bishop leaned forward in the grip of strong emotion. ‘I refuse to believe that a Canon of the Church of England in this diocese could cut off a fellow priest’s head and put it in a font.’

  Ian restrained himself from saying he had no such difficulties of belief. He had been following Theodora’s narration with close attention and he felt he was now in a position to make one or two inferences on his own account. ‘I don’t think he did,’ he said, ‘I think Wheeler saw his future bishopric disappearing over the horizon when he heard Gray’s accusation. To produce a nondescript wife twenty-five years after you’ve married her, would look eccentric even by the standards of the Church of England. For it to be known that you had had your hand in the till to keep yourself in claret might, too, be rather difficult to hush up, even given the Church’s resources. I think Wheeler panicked.’

  Frost intervened. ‘I mentioned that we’ve questioned Jefferson,’ he said. ‘Canon Wheeler may certainly not have meant to kill Gray. But he did force him out on to his back staircase. Whether he meant to break his neck we shall never know. And he certainly did convey the body to Canon Hardnut’s because Jefferson, and I expect Markham when we lay our hands on him, will bear this out, saw him bring the body into Hardnut’s. They were both there, as you surmised, Miss Braithwaite, looking for their drug candles at about midnight. They’d found one. But Mrs Thrigg had bought more than that and had put them in different places. Naturally they were eager to recover as many as possible. The delay was long enough for them to observe Wheeler dumping the body.’

  ‘Then,’ said Ian to Frost, ‘I suppose it was Markham who conceived the idea of frightening Wheeler and informing him that his action had been witnessed by severing Gray’s head and putting it in the font? Markham would know about the Bishop’s door and might guess about how often’ – Ian chose his words carefully, not daring to glance at the Bishop – ‘it was locked. I’m sure it was he who returned the sword and he certainly used the Bishop’s door for that. Wheeler was in residence this month and so due to take Evensong as one of his duties. To make sure, Markham rang his office but failed to get through to him, owing to the protective activities of Miss Coldharbour.’

  ‘Why,’ asked the Dean grimly, ‘would he go to such elaborate trouble?’

  ‘Partly out of mischief, tormenting Wh
eeler, and partly out of its being useful to have someone in a position of power whom he could blackmail. Also it might deflect interest away from drug-filled candles and make us think about motives stemming from ritual murder.’

  ‘Why put his body in the compost heap?’

  ‘To make sure that it was, in the end, found. Again they couldn’t point you in the direction of Canon Hardnut’s without there being a danger that the other drugged candle would be discovered.’

  ‘While we’re on the subject of phone calls,’ said Frost, ‘do I gather the Archdeacon has been receiving malicious ones?’

  The Archdeacon roused himself from abstraction. ‘I think they may be part of the activities of the unhappy Mrs Thrigg and her fellow magicians. In retrospect I recognised her voice.’

  ‘Ah, yes,’ said Frost meditatively. ‘That would figure.’

  ‘What about Paul’s car?’ asked Ian.

  ‘I should think we’ll find it,’ Frost obliged him, ‘at one of those breakers on the Medewich to Markham cum Cumbermound road on the other side of the river. Markham could have taken it the same night.’

  ‘What about Wheeler’s death?’ asked the Archdeacon. ‘You say Jefferson did it. Why?’

  Frost took the explanation upon himself. ‘Jefferson has this odd sense of morality. He genuinely liked Gray, though he thought him weak. He also thinks that there is such a thing as justice as a sort of equilibrium. An eye for an eye. Wheeler had killed. It was his plain duty to kill Wheeler in return. Jefferson certainly regards killing as justified in certain circumstances. I gather he was perfectly prepared to kill Julia and Mr Tambiah when he supposed they had evidence from hollow candles of there being a drug ring in operation.’

  ‘How did he know about our having the candles?’ said Theodora to Ian.

  ‘I think he may have been about the evening Julia and I walked up to the asylum. I remember hearing a motorbike engine in the distance.’

  ‘And I suppose if he were trying to track down missing drug candles he could have discovered I had the one from Paul’s altar by asking the church warden,’ said Theodora. ‘He’d know it went missing after my visit. No wonder Jefferson turned over my room.’