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

her taking the ring; an attempt to wake her up, as it were; and then unbeknownst to them both, Johnny Johnson took advantage of the situation. It’s a difficult business. Someone took the ring and hid it. But where? I am at a loss, I must admit.’
    ‘Is there anything I can do, Canon Chambers?’
    Sidney finished his pint of beer and an idea came at last. ‘There is perhaps, one thing . . .’ he began.
     
    South Kensington was abnormally quiet. The gas lamps of London were aflame, the smog had descended, and the last of the dog-walkers were returning home from the parks. Sidney made his way to the Underground and took the Piccadilly Line to Leicester Square. From there he planned to go into Soho and fulfil his assignation with Johnny Johnson. He would then take the late train back to Cambridge.
    He looked at his fellow passengers on the Tube. There was an elderly lady in a fur coat with a Pekinese dog on her lap; two young men, despite the vacant seats, standing and smoking roll-up cigarettes; a man in a battered trilby reading a copy of The Times : ‘Russian Date for Berlin Conference Accepted’ was the headline. None of them looked as though they had to worry about theft or betrayal, but doubtless they had their own demons. Sidney looked at the elderly lady’s hands. They were covered in rings.
    Emerging from the lift at Leicester Square, and crossing Chinatown, Sidney noticed the streets were filling up. This was where everyone had gone: skifflers, jazzers and rock’n’ rollers: political dissidents, free spirits, philosophers, ranters and rebels. All was noise, bustle, shout and song: street salesmen, market vendors, milk bars and music booths.
    Sidney believed that time flowed more easily in Soho. Life here was no longer broken up into a series of worldly meetings, appointments and assignations that had to take place between certain hours. Instead one event merged into another. People took their own time. It didn’t matter if they were early or late. They came and went as if the events they were going to had no beginning and no end. It was, perhaps, a secular incarnation of what the Church Fathers had referred to as a ‘glimpse of the infinite’.
    He remembered that his brother Matt was performing with his new band ‘The Bottlemen’ that night. He had half-promised to put in an appearance but Jennifer told him that Johnny would be at The Flamingo if he wanted a chat and Sidney thought it best to get the whole sorry business of the stolen ring out of the way as soon as he could.
    He found Johnny at the far end of the bar smoking a cigarette and drinking a Coca-Cola. He was dressed in the black suit with thin lapels that Sidney had appreciated on New Year’s Eve, and he wore a narrow tie. ‘What are you drinking?’ he asked.
    ‘I think I had better have something soft. I have had two pints of beer already this evening,’ Sidney apologised. ‘A bitter lemon?’
    ‘Have some gin in it.’
    ‘I don’t think that would be wise.’
    Johnny gestured to the barman for the drinks. ‘What are you doing getting involved in all this, Sidney? Couldn’t you just leave them be?’
    ‘I think it’s to stop the police becoming a part of it.’
    ‘Well, that’s one good thing. I assume someone’s told you about my Dad?’
    ‘I’m afraid so.’
    ‘No need to apologise. It was bound to come up. This is Dad’s place, in fact, but I lead a different life. I work in property. Flats mainly. I buy them up then rent them out. We charge too much but it’s more legal than what my father used to do. Although even he’s seen the error of his ways these days.’
    ‘You are a realist, I think, Mr Johnson, about business and about crime.’
    ‘No point lying to you, Sidney. If the ring is still missing then I am sure they all think I did it.’
    ‘It would have taken some nerve.’
    ‘Believe me, I’m not so daft as to go out with your sister and steal from her best friend the first time I meet her.’
    ‘I never imagined you did it. Unfortunately, I appear to be the only one who thinks this.’
    ‘As well as Jennifer.’
    ‘Yes, Jenny does too. So the only way in which I can keep the police away and deflect the blame from you is to find out exactly what happened. I am asking what you think as you were almost certainly the most sober person in the room and the theft probably took place under your very eyes.’
    ‘Well, unfortunately I did not see anything. It obviously wasn’t planned in any way as