The Bishop's Crime by Bailey H. C

Author:Bailey, H. C. [Bailey, H. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Published: 1940-03-06T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

The Dean’s Wife

REGGIE WANDERED AWAY from the canons’ houses. His round face, plaintive and reproachful of the universe, was like a lost child’s. He loitered inconsequent, he looked hither and ‘thither and in this manner went slowly round the cathedral again. The sunset had faded out, twilight was falling grey upon the close. As he passed once more through the dark entry he saw a broad back in front of him, a back which went heavily and in every lumbering line betrayed vexation of spirit. He kept-behind it, he followed its jostling through the slow crowds of Bootham and only caught it up at the police station. “My Travis, what of thee?” he murmured:.

Travis started and turned a baleful gaze upon hin which was not mitigated by recognition and the grunt: “It’s you!”

“Yes, think so,” Reggie sighed.

“Come on in.” With some violence Travis shut his office door behind them and pushed chairs about and sat down. “My dear chap!” Reggie condoled. “Are we down-hearted? Yes. Mrs. Dean very tryin’?”

“TI tell you this is a hell of a case,” Travis snorted. What he told was hard to follow, but that seemed more the lady’s fault than his. Mrs. Boon began in a fury about nothing having been done and he had to give her what for and they had a rare set to. Then she calmed down a ‘bit and he asked her why the dean went into the cathedral all by himself. She blew up again, It wasn’t for him to question the dean’s actions—what did he mean by it?— impudent folly and that sort of talk till he shut her up, told her he was there to find out what really happened to the dean and she’d better not keep things back. That brought her to her senses. Still very haughty and angry but talking fairly reasonable. She said he seemed to be quite ignorant of the dean’s duties and handed out a lot of talk about being responsible for the cathedral and devotion to it and so on. The dean would inspect it at any hour and all hours and especially of late. There were grave reasons, she supposed Travis knew nothing and had made no effort to learn.

Travis retorted that what he didn’t know was why she wouldn’t say what she meant. How often had the dean been in the cathedral at night lately? She couldn’t be certain of course, the dean would not count the hours he spent. What made him go more lately than he used to? Then she talked about protecting cathedral property against sacrilegious enemies just like she did when Travis saw her before and he said he supposed she was referring to the dispute with the bishop over selling books from the library. What had that to do with the dean going to the cathedral of nights?

She got very nasty. It was no use talking to people with no intelligence. He’d heard of the outrage committed in the Mary Chapel, hadn’t he? ,

Travis stopped in his story.

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