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

Cambridge?’
    Sidney gathered his papers and his suitcase. ‘I must telephone the police at once and return to London.’
    ‘But you’ve only just left.’
    ‘Amanda may be in danger. How could I have been so dim? I knew there was something wrong . . .’
    ‘My clue!’ Mike Standing called, but Sidney had already alighted and was making his way purposefully towards the stationmaster’s office.
    He was convinced that the murderer had been working under an assumed name. He telephoned Amanda to test his theory and matched it with a newspaper report from Colindale that he’d made a note of, checking that the dates tallied. Then he telephoned Inspector Keating and persuaded him that an arrest needed to be made. The easiest place to do so, he informed Keating, would be at Phil Johnson’s jazz club in Soho that evening.
    Inspector Williams was far from impressed that a clergyman had come up with a theory that might threaten the conviction of Sam Morris, but he was sufficiently fair-minded to agree to bring the suspect in for questioning. As a result, the forces of the law gathered together at 9 p.m. Officers in civvies mingled amongst the punters, uniformed police took up positions both at the front and in the back alley, while Keating and Sidney enjoyed a ginger ale at the bar.
    Gloria Dee was in the middle of her first half. Sidney had persuaded the men to wait until she had finished as there would be less disruption and the arrest, provided there was no kerfuffle, could be made discreetly in the interval. She ended the session with ‘Aint No Grave’, accompanied by one of the finest jazz piano accompaniments Sidney had ever heard.
     
    ‘When I hear that trumpet sound
    I’m gonna rise right out of the ground
    Cause there ain’t no grave
    Gonna hold my body down’
     
    In the gaps between the verses, Jay Jay Lion let rip on the piano, with Gloria shouting out the odd ‘ Hey ’, as he went into free improvisation. As soon as they had finished, and before the band could get off the stage, four men moved to the green room while two others covered the back stairs. Liza had one hand on a bottle of beer and another on a towel ready for Gloria Dee’s exit. Justin Wild was reading a copy of Melody Maker and smoking a roll-up. He looked unsurprised at the arrival of the police and made no attempt to escape.
    Chief Inspector Williams made the announcement. ‘Justin Templeton, I am arresting you for the murder of Claudette Johnson on the seventh of May 1954. You do not have to say anything now, but anything you do say . . .’
    ‘Justin Templeton ?’ Liza asked. ‘I thought your name was Wild . . .’
    Gloria Dee burst into the room, gathered her towel from Liza and was about to down her beer but stopped when she realised something was going on. ‘What the hell are you doin’?’
    Inspector Williams explained. ‘I am arresting your driver on suspicion of murder.’
    ‘Are you crazy?’
    ‘Never saner.’
    Gloria turned to Justin. ‘I thought you just met her? What the hell were you playin’ at?’
    ‘I wasn’t playing,’ Justin replied.
    ‘What you talkin’ about? You killin’ people random style?’
    ‘It wasn’t random,’ Sidney interrupted.
    Gloria Dee turned to confront him. ‘Jeepers, it’s you. What you doin’ now?’
    ‘I have been helping the police.’
    ‘You fingered my driver? How did you figure that one?’
    ‘I looked to the past, what might have been a motive.’
    ‘How far back do you go?’
    ‘Nearly ten years.’
    ‘You mean this has been planned for a decade? Holy moly.’
    ‘I had to look for an underlying reason for the crime.’
    Gloria Dee thought for a moment. ‘I see. Goin’ for the chords rather than the melody.’
    ‘I think that’s what Charlie Parker does, doesn’t he?’ Sidney replied, unsure whether he should expose his scanty knowledge of bebop. ‘The improvisation on the chords of “Cherokee”?’
    ‘You’re on the trolley, man.’
    Chief Inspector Williams interrupted. ‘If I could just make this arrest?’
    Gloria Dee turned to Justin Wild. ‘I never had you down as an ice-man. She was just a baby. Shame on you.’
    Justin Wild said nothing. The police led him away.
    Sidney held back to apologise to Gloria. ‘I am sorry we had to step in. He had been recognised. He could have struck again.’
    ‘You mean he could have killed me ?’
    ‘No, another woman.’
    ‘That broad you were with?’
    ‘Indeed.’
    ‘You sure attract