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

discovered news of the death so quickly?
    ‘And are you a patient of Dr Michael Robinson?’
    Clearly someone had been talking. Sidney was about to answer when the driver of the police car ushered him away. ‘No time for that, Canon Chambers . . .’
    ‘I’m so sorry. Please excuse me.’
    ‘My card,’ the girl pressed.
    ‘Yes of course.’
    ‘Come on, Canon Chambers.’ Sidney climbed up the stairs into Inspector Keating’s office.
    His friend was waiting and went straight to the point. ‘This is a tricky business. It will take time for the coroner to make his report and, in the meantime, there are a lot of frail, elderly people out there. I am tempted to arrest Dr Robinson and get the whole thing over and done with but we don’t have the evidence and I don’t want to cause a stir. I have heard that the talk has already started.’
    ‘Indeed,’ Sidney replied. ‘My housekeeper has been guilty of it herself.’
    ‘Now, Sidney, you may not like this but I want you to go and see the doctor.’
    ‘I have already visited him twice.’
    ‘You didn’t tell me.’
    ‘There was nothing to report.’
    ‘Then you need to go and see him again. Make up whatever excuse you like. Plans for the wedding would do it. I want you to win his trust and find out the truth. Is he getting carried away? If he is, I want you to stop him.’
    Sidney resented the way that Inspector Keating was speaking to him as if he was an employee, but this didn’t seem to be the moment to take him up on it. Instead, he checked that they both thought in the same way. ‘And if he is breaking the law then you can arrest him.’
    ‘Of course. But the situation may be more complicated than that. What if he isn’t breaking the law but bending it? Going so far but stopping just short?’
    ‘Then he is acting within the law. I would have thought that was perfectly clear.’
    ‘You know what I mean, Sidney. This man may be putting patients’ lives at risk. I can feel the tension in the community. Something’s not right. People are very worried.’
    ‘I am sure Dr Robinson has their best interests at heart.’
    ‘Are you sure, though, Sidney? That’s what I want you to find out. I have a feeling that you also have doubts.’
    ‘How did you know?’
    ‘I am a detective . . .’
    ‘And I am a priest. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt.’
    ‘Well, I don’t. Perhaps that’s why we are such a good team. One of my men will take you round to Dr Robinson’s surgery. If he’s not there I take it he will be in Chedworth Street with Miss Livingstone. I’d like you to talk to him and report back.’
    ‘He’ll see through all this, of course. He’ll guess that I have come under your instruction.’
    ‘There’s nothing to see through. Your visit is perfectly legitimate, unlike the doctor’s methods . . .’
    ‘We don’t know that, Inspector.’
    ‘But with your help, Sidney, we soon will.’
     
    Sidney decided that the only way to get a straight answer from Dr Robinson was to ask a few direct questions. He arrived at his surgery at midday and was informed by the receptionist that he would have to wait until the doctor had seen the last of his patients. This left Sidney with half an hour to kill, a period of time in which he tried and failed to amuse himself with back numbers of Punch . Consequently, when Dr Robinson was ready to see him, Sidney was feeling rather impatient.
    ‘How are your mystery ailments?’ the doctor asked. ‘Any better?’
    Sidney had almost forgotten that this was how the conversation would have to begin. ‘I’m sorry. Much better, thank you.’
    ‘Then what can I do for you?’
    ‘I have come about the death of Anthony Bryant.’
    ‘Is he one of your parishioners?’
    ‘I received a telephone call from Inspector Keating.’
    ‘If he was that concerned why didn’t he telephone me himself? I can’t understand why he’s roped you into some completely spurious line of inquiry that is entirely without foundation. I have done nothing wrong.’
    ‘No one is saying that you have.’
    ‘They seem to be implying it. Why can’t they just come out and say it?’
    ‘Some members of the family felt that his death came rather more quickly than might have been expected.’
    ‘And are any of them doctors?’
    ‘I don’t think so.’
    ‘Old people can’t be expected to survive rampant infections, Canon Chambers, and when death comes, as you know full well, it comes at an unpredictable