Inspector Colbeck's Casebook by Edward Marston Read Free Book Online Page B

Odell, firmly. ‘The other warden and I are extremely careful with our keys and Simon Gillard is so dutiful that I wouldn’t be surprised if he takes his to bed with him. How two people got inside the church is a mystery. Only one, alas, came out alive.’
    After plying the vicar with some more questions, the detectives asked the policeman to let them into the church. He stood aside so that they could open the door. Some of those lingering nearby edged forward to take a peek but Colbeck shut the door firmly behind him. The atmosphere inside the church was eerie. It was quite warm outside but both of them shivered involuntarily. Consecrated ground had been violated by a foul murder. There was a strange sense of unease. They walked down the nave and into thechancel to view the body. Though both of them had seen many murder victims, they were shocked. Colbeck was also curious.
    ‘What does it remind you of, Victor?’ he asked.
    ‘That man in Norwich, sir,’ said Leeming. ‘He’d been battered to death with a sledgehammer. His head was just like pulp.’
    ‘Look at the way the body has been arranged in front of the altar.’
    ‘That’s just the way he fell.’
    ‘I don’t think so. There’s something almost … artistic about it.’
    Leeming frowned. ‘Is there?’
    ‘It’s reminiscent of those medieval paintings that depict the slaughter of Thomas Becket. He was hacked down in front of the altar by four knights who thought they were doing the king’s bidding.’
    ‘It doesn’t look like that to me, sir. And if what they say is true, he’s certainly no saint like Becket. Exton was a real sinner.’
    ‘Then we could be looking at the
punishment
for his sins.’
    Colbeck knelt down to examine the corpse. Around the mouth were traces of vomit. He searched the man’s pockets but they were empty. He then gently pulled back the sleeves of Exton’s jacket.
    Leeming was perplexed. ‘What are you looking for, Inspector?’
    ‘Something I expected to find,’ said Colbeck, ‘and you can still see traces of the marks on his wrists. As we’ve heard, Exton abhorred churches. He’d never have come in here and stood obligingly in front of the altar so that someonecould bludgeon him to death. I think that he was knocked unconscious elsewhere, tied up and gagged, then brought here to be killed.’
    ‘Then we’re looking for a strong man, sir. Exton was heavy.’
    ‘Let’s get him out of here,’ said Colbeck, standing up. ‘He’s defiling the church. Tell the vicar to summon the undertaker and ask that constable to frighten the crowd away. We don’t want an audience when we move him. However much of a rascal he was, Exton is entitled to some dignity.’
     
    Simon Gillard was propped up in his armchair with bandaging around his head. Still shocked by the ghastly discovery in the church, he was in a complete daze. When his wife admitted Colbeck to the house and took him into the parlour, her husband was staring blankly in front of him.
    ‘This is Inspector Colbeck from Scotland Yard,’ she explained. ‘He needs to talk to you, Simon.’ There was no response. ‘I’m sorry, Inspector,’ she went on. ‘He’s been like this for hours.’
    ‘That’s understandable,’ said Colbeck. ‘Perhaps you can help me instead.’
    ‘It was my husband who found the body.’
    ‘Does he enjoy being a warden?’
    ‘Oh, yes,’ she said, ‘he loves it. Since he retired, the church has taken over his life – both our lives, in fact. I’m one of the cleaners and I organise the flower rota.’
    Winifred Gillard was a short, roly-poly woman with grey hair framing an oval face that still had traces of her youthfulappeal. She talked fondly of her husband’s commitment to the church since his retirement from the railway, and she spoke with great respect of the vicar.
    ‘Does your husband ever lend the key to the church to anybody?’
    ‘Only to me,’ she replied. ‘Simon guards his bunch of keys like the family jewels