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

room to think through all the permutations. One has to have a bit of faith.’
    Sidney imagined the room to be a series of cubes on a three-dimensional grid. He would move from north-west to south-east, working in a series of horizontal lines from left to right and then right to left, using both a torch and a magnifying glass. He would look at the wood, the table, the walls and the floorboard. He would open the sideboard and empty the canteen of cutlery, and he would sit for a few moments, every ten or fifteen minutes, with the seating plan and the notebook, thinking and praying and waiting for inspiration to come from his observations.
    Three hours later he had his own, minor, epiphany.
     
    It was not a popular decision to re-create the final moments of the dinner party and it took place at the inexact time of five in the afternoon as the guests, or suspects, had only agreed to come on the condition that it did not scupper their plans for the evening. Daphne was being taken to Madam Butterfly at Covent Garden, Jennifer and Amanda were due to see Richard Attenborough in The Mousetrap , and although the Dowlands had no plans for the evening they were required to cut short their annual expedition to the National Exhibition of Cage Birds at Olympia. Consequently, there was considerable tension in the atmosphere as they sat down in their allotted places and waited for Sidney to conduct them through the events of the previous week.
    Nigel was further disconcerted by the idea that he was expected to waste yet another bottle of champagne by deliberately dropping it where he had done so before. Sidney reassured him that he could mime these actions as long as everyone repeated their movements on the night.
    ‘Next thing I know,’ Nigel complained, ‘you will suggest that I dropped the damn thing deliberately in order to cause a distraction.’
    ‘I have already discounted that,’ Sidney replied, rather too punctiliously.
    ‘Are we expected to keep to the conversation as well?’ Guy asked.
    ‘You can paraphrase,’ said Sidney. ‘I would just like to recreate our movements round the table from the giving of the ring.’
    ‘When do we stop?’
    ‘At the moment you were left alone with Miss Kendall and your hosts, Mr Hopkins. The subsequent conversation has no relevance to the disappearance of the ring even though it was certainly of importance to those involved.’
    ‘I’ll say,’ said Amanda.
    ‘There’s no need to bring that up,’ Guy snapped.
    ‘I would remind you,’ Amanda bristled, ‘that we are on “no speaks”.’
    ‘Then why are you “speaking” to me now?’
    ‘I am not talking to you. I am “speaking” to Canon Chambers.’
    Sidney tried to calm the proceedings. ‘Let us begin. We need, of course, a ring. I have brought one in this box from Woolworths. I hope it will suffice. Mr Hopkins, if you would be so good as to give it to Miss Kendall?’
    ‘Very well.’
    Guy stood up and walked round. He placed the box in front of her and she opened it. ‘I see. Rather better than the one you gave me last week.’
    ‘Oh, for God’s sake.’
    ‘Mr Hopkins,’ Sidney continued, ‘if you would be so good as to return to your seat.’
    Amanda handed the ring across the table to Daphne Young. She passed it across to Mary Dowland, who gave it to Sidney. He then placed the ring in front of Juliette.
    ‘I feel quite sick,’ she said.
    ‘Now,’ said Sidney, ‘Mr Thompson, can you please drop the bottle of champagne?’
    ‘I found some rather uninspiring sparkling wine,’ said Nigel. ‘I am sorry about the waste but I think I might as well repeat the whole blasted thing.’
    As he did so his wife gave a shriek and dropped the ring, Johnny Johnson pushed his chair back and brushed the sparkling wine off his trousers with a cry of ‘twice in one week’.
    ‘Continue,’ Sidney ordered.
    Amanda removed Juliette from the room while Daphne fetched a dishcloth and Mary Dowland a dustpan and brush.
    After the mess had been cleared up for a second time, the ring from Woolworths remained by Juliette Thompson’s place.
    ‘You can hardly expect someone to steal it this time,’ said Mark Dowland.
    ‘Please go on,’ Sidney insisted. ‘Let us repeat our search.’
    The guests walked round the room, looking across and under the table.
    The maid rang the doorbell. Sidney explained. ‘Miss Young, I think you said your goodbye at this point.’
    ‘I certainly did.’ Daphne Young opened her bag and