Murder Before Evensong by The Reverend Richard Coles

Author:The Reverend Richard Coles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags:  
Publisher: Titan

19

Daniel called in at the post office before going home; ‘Post Office and General Store’, it said, in Champton beige, although the ‘general’ was misleading for there were barely three shelves of goods on sale: some bags of sugar, teabags, Players No 6., biscuits from the cash and carry, tins of terrible meat, and a chest freezer with choc ices, Orange Maids and fish fingers. Half the counter was plain, the other was for post-office business, and Mrs Braines had to shift between the two, legally constrained from selling stamps and dog licences alongside Silver Spoon and Garibaldis.

The chimes over the door rattled as Daniel pushed it open, but Mrs Braines was already behind the counter and the tiny shop full, thanks to the presence of Dot Staveley, Stella Harper, Kath Sharman and Jane Thwaite. The chatter he could hear from the street ceased the moment he walked in, but the Sharmans’ Jack Russell jumped up and barked at him.

‘Scamper, hush!’ snapped Kath, and the little dog gave a tiny growl and sat down. ‘It’s your two she’s smelling, Rector; you know what little dogs are like with each other.’

Daniel felt an impulse to defend Cosmo and Hilda, but he knew Kath was right. They hated Scamper and Scamper hated them.

‘Good morning, Rector,’ said Mrs Braines. Why the formality, he wondered. Was it to dispel the wild energies of gossip?

‘Good morning, ladies,’ said Daniel, formal himself, and moved to stand behind Jane Thwaite in such a way as to suggest he was forming a queue.

‘Go ahead, Daniel,’ said Jane. ‘We’ve been served.’

Mrs Braines gave her a glance of reproach. ‘We were just chopsing, Rector,’ the colloquialism at odds with the formality of the address.

‘Stamps, please, Mrs Braines,’ said Daniel, and she moved, formal again, from behind the plain counter to the post-office counter, with a pane of glass separating her from him like the grille of a confessional.

‘Fifty first and fifty second, please.’

She opened the fat books of stamps. ‘Do you want plain or fancy? Only the fancy are about the Welsh Bible, and you might like that.’

Daniel, particular about stationery, had a preference for uniformity where correspondence was concerned. ‘Plain, I think.’

As she detached the strips of dark blue and bright red from the pages, Dot Staveley said, ‘Parish in good heart, Rector?’

‘I think so … under the circumstances.’

Jane Thwaite said, ‘Ned is still very shaken, Daniel. To think the murderer had been camping out in the bath house and none of us knew!’

‘Oh, that would be jumping to conclusions. We don’t know who’s been there – we don’t really know much at all. It could be nothing.’

‘Nothing?’ said Stella. ‘A man’s been murdered! A smoking gun in our midst!’ Daniel thought for a moment of steam rising from the abandoned mug in the bath house.

‘That’s not quite what’s happened. And isn’t it better not to speculate too much until we have a clearer picture?’

‘I suppose …’ said Stella, ‘but the fact remains there’s a murderer on the loose.’

Dorothy butted in.

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