Hunting Shadows: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery by Charles Todd

they were talking about the wedding as they moved toward the west door. And behind them, another motorcar had followed their own, stopping to set down its passengers. That was the bridegroom and his best man, as we were to discover. The chauffeur of that motorcar was already moving on, making room for the one behind it. This meant that the bridegroom was only a little way behind Captain Hutchinson, and perhaps about five feet to his right. And then everything seemed to happen at once.”
    Warren moved forward, then stopped again.
    “Hutchinson went down just here. The reverberations of the shot shocked everyone for an instant, and then Mrs. Sedley began screaming for a doctor as her husband knelt to try and help the victim. When we were finally able to speak to her, it was clear she hadn’t seen anything but the Captain collapsing at her feet. Nor did Sedley, for that matter. He was intent on doing what he could to save Hutchinson. But of course that was hopeless.”
    Now Warren pointed toward the Cathedral. “There was general pandemonium. Guests who hadn’t yet entered the west door and local people who were standing behind a barrier set up just there, to keep them out of the way of the wedding party”—Warren pointed to the spot—“while watching the show, ran in every direction, expecting more shots to be fired.”
    “It must have been difficult to account for everyone who was a potential witness.”
    “Believe me, it has been a nightmare.”
    “Better you than me.”
    “Yes, well, I hope they give you more than they have given us. There was an artillery Major, man by the name of Lowell, who more or less took charge. He sent someone for the police, another man to find a doctor who was amongst the wedding guests, and ordered everyone within hearing to stay where they were. Unfortunately, he himself had been standing just inside the church doorway and couldn’t tell us where the shot had come from. But he informed us at once that it had been a rifle. And of course that was borne out by the distance. Still, it saved an inordinate amount of time trying to sort out the various accounts.”
    “Very convenient. Could he have fired that shot, then hidden the weapon?”
    “I don’t see how. He arrived just before Hutchinson and was speaking to one of the canons by the door. In plain sight. There were other former officers attending the wedding, but they had taken their places in the nave with their wives. Lowell is unmarried and was in no hurry to go inside.”
    They were walking now toward the West Front and the door to the Galilee Porch. Warren was saying, “Those buildings to your right belong to the Cathedral. We searched them as well as the Cathedral itself. Top to bottom. The Gallery—that’s the wall there, still to your right—encloses the church grounds, offices, and the homes of various churchmen. We discovered a ladder placed up against the wall on the inside, out of sight from where we are, of course. See there, where that woman with the small child is passing? We left it where it is. I refused to allow them to move it because no one would admit to putting it there, not a churchman, not a gardener, no one. It’s possible our man used it as a fallback position. Climbing it and resting his rifle on the top as he fired, then ducking out of sight. The problem is, he’d have been visible to anyone in the grounds who looked that way. Still, it offered the best means of escape. The artillery Major told us the angle was wrong, unless the killer was going for a head shot.”
    Rutledge looked toward the wall and then turned to the spot where Hutchinson had fallen. “Yes, Major Lowell is right.”
    “Our next possibility was to the left of the Cathedral door. There, see that makeshift wall? It runs out from the Lady Chapel and then turns down by the lane.” Warren began to walk in that direction. “And there’s a door in it. It’s closed now, but it was standing ajar that day. We found a single