Murder on the Quilt by Winthrop Murray
27 August 2022 { Crime/Thriller }
Murder on the Quilt
A car pulled up outside the Parish Church in Shepperton Quilt, Somerset. A tall suited figure climbed out of the driving seat
"Come on Mary you'll be late."
"I'm coming, I've just got my handbag wrapped around the seatbelt, oh for goodness sake, here hold my flute."
Once she'd extracted herself from the car, Mary grabbed the flute case, gave John a peck on the cheek and ran inside shouting "We should be finished by 9.30, see you then darling."
The John in question was Detective Chief Inspector John Wily, he’d just dropped his wife off at St Gabriel's Church, for the Tuesday night practice of the Shepperton Quilt chamber orchestra. He watched her go into the ancient Church and then stood under the streetlamp for a while. It wasn't worth driving all the way home as he'd have to come straight back to pick up Mary. He decided to drop into the Feathers for a pint. It being a really old village, the pub was adjacent to the church, so he didn't have far to walk.
Shepperton Quilt was the largest of the quilt villages, the others were Plumpton on Quilt, Little Moreton on the Quilt, Tansey Quilt and Burton Mallet upon Quilt. Quilt being the old Somerset word meaning watery chalk meadow. They were all contained within a ten mile valley stretching from the Grossack hills in the North to the High Stypes in the South. The valley being known locally as the Vale of the White Rabbit.
DCI John Wily and his flautist wife Mary had lived in nearby Little Moreton on the Quilt since they were married almost 30 years ago. It was a close knit community with a surprisingly high murder count. Many years ago a special police detective had been sent to investigate this statistical anomaly but she'd gone missing and due to a misdirected email her disappearance was never followed up.
DCI Wily walked into the bar of the Feathers and sat down next to a hunched figure at the bar.
"Evening Malcolm." Detective Sergeant Malcolm Steady jumped up from his bar stool,
"Evening, CDI, I mean DCI, er evening sir John."
Malcolm steadied his balance by grabbing the steel handrail that runs along the bar, he was clearly a little worse for the wear.
"I'd offer you a pint but it looks like you've had quite enough"
"Sorry Sir, John, sir I couldn't face going home to an empty house and I must have lost track of time."
"Well I presume you were getting a taxi home, but I can drop you off as soon as Mary's finished her tootling, that's if you don't mind hanging round for a bit?"
Thanks sir, John sir, that'll be a big help, I can't quite remember where I left my bike."
The evening passes pleasantly. Malcolm moved on to lemonade and John makes a half of Wicked Lady last all evening. Before long it's time to pick up Mary. John grabs Malcolm by the arm and tows him to the Churchyard. They walk along crunching on the chippings that make up the pathway to the church, the stars shine high above over the little hamlet, the air is cool and sobering. John goes inside but Malcolm stays in the Churchyard. He stares up at the stars and then the gargoyles dotted around the church, he is suddenly mesmerised by a particularly disturbing Sheela Na Gigg. The crows whirl around the night sky settling setting down to roost in the ancient yew trees. The stars begin to spin round, the crows shout their hoarse and grating caws, Malcolm feels dizzy. He staggers to a Roman stone flower receptacle, he kneels down and admires the engravings around the sides then throws up in it.
Malcolm leans against the solid church wall and breathes deeply, the world spins a little more slowly now. The musicians come outside and gossip for a while under the streetlights before setting off for home on foot, on bikes and in cars. Mary and John bring up the rear and walk towards the car, Malcolm shuffles over to meet them
"May I introduce you to my colleague DC Malcolm Steady? He'll be sleeping in our spare room tonight if that's OK? We've got an early start tomorrow."
Mary glared at John but said "Yes that's fine, you're very welcome Malcolm." she added smiling.
"How was the new mouthpiece tonight?" asked John,
Mary looked down in a panic
"Oh no, I've left the flute in Church, won't be a minute darling." She turned and scurried back inside. A few seconds later there was a loud scream, John and Malcolm ran towards the Church to see what was wrong. Mary staggered out looking white as a sheet "Oh John it’s awful." DC Steady put his arm around Mary and DCI Wily ran inside.
There in front of the altar was the body of a young man, twisted several times around his neck was the silver slide from a trombone. He was bright red in the face and obviously dead.
Within what seemed like only minutes the Police arrived and parked their cars willy-nilly on the sacred ground. The caretaker Mr Mallis came out shouting about the lack of respect but he was sent away by the rector. The Church was cordoned off and before long there were little numbered flags all around the interior of the church marking the evidence. DCI Wily and DC Steady stood talking to Thaddeus Crumhorne the rector of St Gabriel's.
"What's the history of the Orchestra?" asked DCI Wily. "Well it started about ten years ago, a few of us musicians got together and decided to form a small orchestra. In fact if you look on the wall by the organ, there’s a photograph of the five original members. They walked over to a framed photo hanging from a large iron nail. "Well obviously that's me with the violin, Donald Tabor on trombone, God rest his soul. Dr Richard Sackbut on Clarinet, Lady Viola Sinfonye on Tuba and Rosemary Pandeiro who played the flute."
"And where are the others now" asked DCI Wily
"Well they're all still with the orchestra expect for Rosemary, it turned out she wasn't really a very good flute player. Unfortunately, we had to ask her leave."
"And how did she take that?"
"Well not too good really, she ended up leaving the area, I don't think anyone kept in touch, she was a bit of a stroppy character at the best of times. It’s a shame really, but she just couldn't keep to a tempo."
"And who has access to the church?"
"Well I do, I keep the keys in the vicarage and I know our caretaker Mr Mallis has a spare set. You met him briefly when he asked you not to park all the police cars on the grass.
***
It was 4 am and John arrived home with Malcolm who was dispatched to the spare room in the attic. John crept into the bedroom trying not to disturb Mary but she was wide awake.
"Is Malcolm alright? He seemed a bit worse for wear."
"Yes he's the new DC from London, apparently he was a bit of a high flier in London but split up with his girlfriend and had a sort of a breakdown. They thought sending him to the Quilts may ease him back into work. He seems a nice lad, I'm sure he'll settle in OK." They shared a goodnight cuddle and within minutes were both fast asleep.
***
Early in the morning John tapped on the spare room door "Come on Malcolm we've got a murderer to catch."
There was the sound of someone's head banging then a voice
"OK, I'm coming."
Mary had cooked them both a full breakfast, Malcolm struggled to eat much due to his hangover but John wolfed it down, he rubbed his hands as if trying to generate fire and said
"Right, our first job is to trace and interview all the original members of the orchestra. I've got all their details from the Rector. You can interview Lady Viola Sinfonye up at the hall, I'll drop you off and I'll go and interview Dr Richard Sackbut. I'll pick you up in an hour."
DCI Wily was true to his word and dropped DC Steady at the big house. "I'll be back in an hour and for God's sake eat a couple of these mints."
DCI Wily drove five minutes up the road and knocked at the door of Delius Cottage. There was no answer, he went round the back and found the back door open, he knocked again then went inside. "Hello, Dr Sackbut it's DCI John Wily, I'd like a few words if I may." He went through a small kitchen and on in to the living room and there, slumped over a futon was a male figure. Sticking out of the middle of his back was a clarinet, the mouth end buried deep in the torso and blood spurting out of the key holes. The blood was still spurting out of the keys all the way up to Bflat, he cursed his musical knowledge as he skidded in a pool of clotting blood. As he steadied himself his mobile rang, it was DC Steady.
"Sir, I'm at the Hall. I'm afraid Lady Sinfonye is dead. I found her sitting on a Chesterfield with a tuba jammed on her head, when I took it off, her head was in a plastic bag, all steamed up, she's been suffocated. It was an Asda bag!"
"Good God this is a massacre" said DCI Wiley "Stay there I'll come straight round."
***
Over the next few hours an investigation room was set up in the big house. DCI Wily brought his hastily assembled team up to date.
"There's been three murders. It appears all were founder members of the Shepperton Quilt chamber orchestra. I think it's too much of a coincidence but we’d better keep all options open just in case. The only other original members are Thaddeus Crumhorne the rector of St Gabriel's (he's got an officer assigned to him at all times) and Rosemary Pandeiro who disappeared years ago. We're trying to trace her whereabouts because she could be in real danger.
Malcolm came in with the teas and coffees, he'd forgotten who had ordered what so there were many odd expressions on faces as they swigged their unfamiliar beverages.
The following say was Saturday and a Victorian themed fun day had been organised in Burton Mallet upon Quilt. There was talk of cancelling it due to the murders, but they'd decided to go ahead anyway as Murders were quite commonplace in the Quilts.
DCI Wily and DC Steady were walking towards the village green, when he received a phone call to say Thaddeus Crumhorne had insisted on going to officially open the Victorian Fair and had taken his police protection with him. He ended the call and looked over the enormous village green filling up with people, many dressed in Victorian clothing.
"For God's sake where is he?" said DCI Wily
"Well according to the brochure Sir, he'll be arriving on the tourist train which runs from Shepperton Quilt to Little Moreton on the Quilt. It’s a narrow gauge railway which is great for tourists, and travels through the fields giving a view that is perfectly unique, there being no roads or even paths that pass near the railway. It’s one of the highlights of any visit to the Vale of the White Rabbit."
"It's alright Steady, you can stop reading now."
"The fact is the Rector isn't safe we've got to find him." DCI Wily stopped walking and turned to look at DC Steady.
"If someone is trying to kill him how would they do it knowing he's on a train? take a pot shot as he drives by? I mean there's no way to get at him with all these people around. It’s just an open railway track"
"I suppose there's the tunnel" said Malcolm pointing to the tunnel on the far side of the green "They could do it in there"
"That could be it Steady, you get over there and stop the train before it gets to the tunnel, better to be safe than sorry."
DC Steady set off across the green. He ran through the coconut shy tripping over the rope and landing in a heap. Quick as a flash he was up again and ran straight through a cricket game, he caught the ball in full pelt and didn’t think to give it back, to much jeering and many two fingered salutes.
Eventually he got to the far side of the village green and looked inside the tunnel with his torch, he looked back across at the Inspector shouting and gesticulating "Just stop the bloody train" shouted DCI Wily. He ran over to a group of ladies in Victorian attire, there was a discussion and a bit of a kafuffle. He knocked one of the ladies down and reached his hands up into her skirts and yanked out an enormous red Petticoat, as deftly as a conjurer removes a tablecloth from a fully laden tea table. He ran on to the rail tracks and began waving the petticoat above his head shouting “Stop.”
He shouted and gesticulated to thee Victorian ladies and two of them removed their own petticoats and joined him waving at the approaching train. Luckily Thaddeus Crumhorne was driving the train, he was sat astride the engine with his cassock billowing out in the wind. On noticing the waving petticoats he slammed on the brakes. The train screeched and lurched to a halt about 10 yards in front of the tunnel. Malcolm fainted. It was, more to do with sprinting across a huge field with a hangover rather than the shock of the situation.
When DCI Wiley arrived at the tunnel he looked inside with his police regulation torch. "There's enough gelignite in there to blow up the whole village. We'd better clear the area. Steady, get someone to make an announcement and clear the Village green." The field was quickly cleared.
“You know” said DCI Wily “There’s a few things that have puzzled me. I think we need to have a chat with Mr Mallis the caretaker, there was something a bit odd about him.”
DC Steady looked across to the police exclusion line and said “Isn’t that him sir? Over by the butchers.” The unmistakable outline of Mr Mallis was watching from afar. DCI began to walk purposefully over towards him, as he did so, Mr Mallis started to walk the other way. “DC Steady, he’s over there, fetch!”
"Oh for God's sake, here we go again" mumbled Steady as he galloped after the disappearing figure. This time there were no obstacles and he managed to corner Mallis in the memorial gardens. As DCI Wily arrived there was a bit of a scuffle and Mr Mallis stumbled to the floor. His flat cap fell off and unusually so did a grey wig and a false beard. “What on earth?” exclaimed Steady
“This, my young constable, unless I’m very much mistaken is Rosemary Pandeiro, one of the original members of the orchestra.” Thaddeus confirmed her identity and she was arrested and charged with the three murders.
***
Mary and John were at home, seated at the table eating a lovely home cooked meal, Malcolm was on one side enjoying the meal, he was seated on a deckchair and considerably lower than the other two.
“I can’t believe someone would commit murder just because they weren’t good enough to play in the orchestra” said Mary.
“Well that’s the Quilts for you” said John.
They both looked across at Malcolm, he had spilt gravy down his shirt front.
Mary looked at John and smirked.
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