Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death (The Grantchester Mysteries)

like. He’s not what you’d call one for the ladies.’
    ‘You suspect his inclinations lay elsewhere?’
    ‘I don’t suspect. I know. What do you think he was doing with my son?’
    ‘Employing him.’
    ‘It was more than that. They went swimming together.’
    ‘Swimming is not illegal.’
    ‘They shouldn’t have behaved the way they did.’
    ‘They were friends.’
    ‘They were more than that.’
    ‘And what evidence do you have?’
    ‘I saw the way they looked at each other.’
    Sidney tried to interject. ‘I don’t know what they did or did not do together. It is none of my business. I think adults should be given their privacy.’
    ‘Do you indeed? It shouldn’t be allowed. The things they do.’
    ‘Why do we need to know what people do in private, Mr Blackwood?
    ‘It’s a sin, whether it’s in public or in private. You know it is. And the police turn a blind eye.’
    Sidney answered calmly and sternly. ‘Sin is a very emotional word.’
    ‘Spare me the Church of England line.’
    Keating said nothing but his friend would not be distracted. ‘Sin involves choice. Sin is when you make the wrong choice.’
    ‘Which is what my son did.’
    ‘What if he had no choice?’
    ‘Of course he had a choice. Or rather that man did. He corrupted him.’
    ‘But what if he could not help being, in your words, “corrupted”? What if he was born with feelings for men rather than women?’
    Inspector Keating interrupted at last. ‘Oh Sidney, don’t start on this . . .’
    Frank Blackwood pushed his chair back. ‘You mean you’re saying he was born like that? If you go on like that I’m going to punch you in the face.’ He turned to Inspector Keating. ‘What’s this man doing here anyway?’
    ‘He is helping in the investigation. He is my friend.’
    ‘Not you as well, Keating? I thought you were married.’
    ‘I am . . .’
    ‘Although that doesn’t stop some people. You just have to lift up the carpet to see the vermin underneath. Why doesn’t anyone do anything about it? It’s against the law.’
    ‘And what do you think we should do?’ Sidney asked.
    ‘Get rid of them.’
    ‘Is that what you think?’ Inspector Keating asked.
    Frank Blackwood continued. ‘People like you don’t have the guts to do anything about it. Do you know what it’s like to have your own son living like that?’ he asked. ‘You can’t stop thinking about it. I know the way the men in the factory talk about it. Some of them pity me, others think it’s funny; the boss’s son unable to work with heavy machinery because he’s too busy looking at another man’s etchings.’
    ‘And because you thought your son was one of them you decided to take the law into your own hands?’ Sidney asked.
    ‘I’m not saying that.’
    ‘I think you just have,’ Inspector Keating replied. ‘I am suggesting that you killed a man because you thought he had feelings for your son.’
    ‘And what if I did?’
    ‘That is murder,’ said Inspector Keating.
    ‘No, it is not. It is justice.’
    Sidney interrupted. ‘Lord Teversham and your son had done nothing wrong.’
    ‘You think there’s nothing wrong with sodomy? Have you read your Bible recently?’
    Inspector Keating interrupted. ‘Frank Blackwood, I am arresting you for the murder of Lord Teversham. You have the right to remain silent but anything you do say may now be used in evidence against you.’
    Sidney left the room to fetch the officers who were waiting outside. Frank Blackwood complained as he left, ‘People should be grateful, not threatening to bang me up . . .’
    Keating persisted. ‘Do you want to make a statement?’
    ‘I’ll decide what I want to say in my own good time. In the meantime I’ve had enough of this pantomime. I’m off to do some work.’
    Keating persisted. ‘I don’t think you understood what I said.’
    Frank Blackwood was at the door. ‘I am the one in the right. I did what no one else was able to do.’
    ‘What you have done is against the law.’
    ‘What they were doing was illegal.’
    ‘We don’t know that, Mr Blackwood. All we do know is that you had a choice. You chose murder. It was the wrong choice.’
     
    Everyone thought it best if it was Sidney who told Ben Blackwood about his father’s guilt. Inspector Keating had volunteered to send a couple of police officers but he made the offer half-heartedly. He knew that his friend would offer to take the responsibility and, indeed, Sidney was accustomed to