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

emptied its contents on to the dining-room table once more: the same compact, perfume, handkerchief, set of keys, diary, address book and small purse fell out. She scattered her change across the table. ‘Here we go round the mulberry bush,’ she said.
    ‘Amazing,’ said Johnny Johnson. ‘That’s exactly as you did it before.’
    Mary Dowland appeared beside him. ‘Then I came up beside you, I think.’
    ‘And Mr Hopkins went through the bag,’ Sidney explained. ‘Will you do so once more?’
    ‘It’s a bit pointless, isn’t it?’
    ‘On the contrary,’ Sidney said quietly. ‘Miss Young, I think you returned to your place and picked up your stole?’
    ‘I did.’
    ‘And then you said your farewells.’
    ‘That is correct. May I go now?’
    ‘Not quite,’ Sidney explained. ‘We need to continue, if you would not mind waiting. Mr Hopkins must give you your handbag . . .’
    ‘Thank you.’
    ‘And then the Dowlands leave quite shortly. As, of course, do I. So we will just re-enact these movements and then, instead of leaving, we will return to our places.’
    ‘I can’t see how that has done any good at all,’ said Mark Dowland when the domestic ballet had been completed.
    ‘On the contrary,’ said Sidney, ‘you have shown me a great deal. And now, I have something unexpected.’
    ‘I don’t like surprises,’ said Juliette Thompson, returning to her seat. ‘They make me afraid.’
    ‘But this is, I think, a pleasant one,’ said Sidney. ‘You will see that the ring from Woolworths has disappeared.’
    ‘Where is it?’ Guy Hopkins exclaimed.
    Sidney reached under the table in front of him. ‘Instead, I have something else. Quae amissa salva . What was lost is safe.’ He placed Amanda Kendall’s original engagement ring in front of him.
    ‘Where did you get that?’ asked Daphne Young.
    ‘Your lodger very kindly retrieved it from The Lanes in Brighton.’
    ‘He is not a “lodger”. He is a “paying guest”.’
    Sidney ignored the distinction. ‘In Brighton, there is a second-hand jewellery store, next to some shared accommodation for distressed gentlefolk. Living there is a rather confused gentleman called Hector Young, formerly of the jewellers Braithwaite and Young.’
    ‘You cad.’
    Sidney began. ‘The ring was reclaimed from your father, Miss Young. How it came into his possession is a matter for conjecture, but my colleague received a rather full explanation.’
    ‘You sent a priest under false pretences knowing that my father was confused?’
    ‘On the contrary, his mission was perfectly straightforward. I sent him under clear instructions to talk to your father and recoup the ring. You often take jewellery down to Brighton, I believe . . .’
    ‘There is nothing wrong with that.’
    ‘Most has been secured on approval so that it can be returned. Some former colleagues also help . . .’
    Daphne Young looked down into her lap. ‘It is the only thing that keeps him in his right mind. He remembers the treasures he has lost. Sometimes he believes he still has his shop.’
    ‘I am sure he does, Miss Young.’
    ‘He lost everything.’
    ‘How?’ Juliette asked.
    ‘He used to rent out things on deposit so that women could make a bit of a splash of an evening and then return the jewellery the next morning. Unfortunately, he . . . he . . .’
    Sidney quietly finished her sentence. ‘Gambled.’
    Daphne was pulling at the handkerchief in her hands. ‘He thought he could escape his debts and give his clients a little bit of the proceeds. He went to Epsom and Goodwood and put the biggest bets on the handicaps. He liked to think he could always spot an underrated horse but he was wrong. He didn’t mean to lose so he borrowed in order to pay his customers back. He thought it would all come right in the end. Then he started going to the pawnbrokers with some of the stock and without telling his business partner. Now half his mind has gone . . .’
    ‘You were being a dutiful daughter,’ said Sidney.
    ‘The jewellery I show him takes him back to the early thirties when I was a little girl and my mother was alive. The shop was a success then. So I’ve been trying to keep him living there, in the memory of that time, so that he can die with more contentment than he would if he was aware of the world today.’
    Mary was unsympathetic. ‘So are you trying to tell us that you stole the ring for charitable purposes?’
    ‘I took it without thinking. It was right