and a mahogany seat with, above it, a hanging chain set under a single high window. Lastly an open door showed him a high square room, almost certainly set under the campanile, which was obviously both the vestry proper and the bell room. Opposite it the passage was separated from the body of the church by a ten foot long grille in delicate wrought iron which gave a view up the nave to the cavernous glitter of the apse and the Lady Chapel on the right. A central door in the grille topped with figures of two trumpeting angels gave entry to the church for the processing priest and choir. To the right a padlocked wooden box was fixed to the grille. Behind it, but within reach of stretching hands, stood a branching candlestand, also in wrought iron, with a box of matches in a brass holder attached to it with a chain, and a tray con-taining a few small candles. Presumably this was to enable people who had business in the vestry to light a candle when the grille door to the church was locked. Judging from the cleanness of the candleholders it was a facility of which they seldom, if ever, took advantage. There was only one candle in place, stuck upright like a pale wax finger, and this had never been lit. Two of the brass chandeliers suspended above the nave gave a gentle diffused light but the church looked dimly mysterious compared with the glare of the passage and the figures of Massingham and the detective sergeant quietly conferring, of Miss Wharton and the boy patiently sitting like hump-backed dwarfs on low chairs in what must be the children's corner, seemed as distanced and insubstantial as if they moved in a different dimension of time. As he stood watching Massingham looked up, caught his eye, and moved down the nave to-wards him.
He returned to the Little Vestry and, standing in the doorway, drew on his latex gloves. It always surprised him
$7
a little that it was possible to fix the attention on the room itself, its furniture and objects, even before the bodies had been packaged and taken away, as if in their fixed and silent decrepitude they had for a moment become part of the room's artefacts, as significant as any other physical clue, no more and no less. As he moved into the room he was aware of Massingham behind him, alert, already drawing on his gloves but, for him, unnaturally subser-vient, pacing quietly behind his chief like a recently quali-fied houseman deferentially attendant on the consultant. Dalgliesh thought: Why is he behaving as if I need tactful handling, as if I'm suffering from a private grief?. This is a job like any other. It promises to be difficult enough with out John and Kate treating me as if I'm a sensitive con-valescent.
Henry James, he remembered, had said of his approach ing death, 'So here it is at last, the distinguished thing!' I Berowne had thought in these terms, then this was an in congruous place in which to receive so honoured a visita--tion. The room was about twelve foot square and lit by z fluorescent tube running almost the full length of the ceil-ing. The only natural light came from two high curved windows. They were covered outside by a protective mesh which looked like chicken wire on which the dirt of decades had accumulated, so that the panes were honeycombs of greenish grime. The furniture, too, looked as if it had been gradually acquired over the years; gifts, rejects, the un-regarded remnants of long-forgotten jumble sales. Opposite the door and set under the windows was an ancient oak desk with three right-hand drawers, one without handles On its top was a simple oak cross, a much used blotter in leather pad, and an old fashioned black telephone, the re
ceiver off the rest and lying on its side.
Massingham said:
'Looks as if he took it off. Who wants the telephone t ring just when he's concentrating on slitting his jugular?'
'Or his killer was taking no chances on the bodies beint discovered too soon. If Father Barnes took it into his heac to ring and got no
He returned to the Little Vestry and, standing in the doorway, drew on his latex gloves. It always surprised him
$7
a little that it was possible to fix the attention on the room itself, its furniture and objects, even before the bodies had been packaged and taken away, as if in their fixed and silent decrepitude they had for a moment become part of the room's artefacts, as significant as any other physical clue, no more and no less. As he moved into the room he was aware of Massingham behind him, alert, already drawing on his gloves but, for him, unnaturally subser-vient, pacing quietly behind his chief like a recently quali-fied houseman deferentially attendant on the consultant. Dalgliesh thought: Why is he behaving as if I need tactful handling, as if I'm suffering from a private grief?. This is a job like any other. It promises to be difficult enough with out John and Kate treating me as if I'm a sensitive con-valescent.
Henry James, he remembered, had said of his approach ing death, 'So here it is at last, the distinguished thing!' I Berowne had thought in these terms, then this was an in congruous place in which to receive so honoured a visita--tion. The room was about twelve foot square and lit by z fluorescent tube running almost the full length of the ceil-ing. The only natural light came from two high curved windows. They were covered outside by a protective mesh which looked like chicken wire on which the dirt of decades had accumulated, so that the panes were honeycombs of greenish grime. The furniture, too, looked as if it had been gradually acquired over the years; gifts, rejects, the un-regarded remnants of long-forgotten jumble sales. Opposite the door and set under the windows was an ancient oak desk with three right-hand drawers, one without handles On its top was a simple oak cross, a much used blotter in leather pad, and an old fashioned black telephone, the re
ceiver off the rest and lying on its side.
Massingham said:
'Looks as if he took it off. Who wants the telephone t ring just when he's concentrating on slitting his jugular?'
'Or his killer was taking no chances on the bodies beint discovered too soon. If Father Barnes took it into his heac to ring and got no
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