Page 45 of Corpse in the Canal

Solomon’s serious, gentle tone had its effect. The vicar nodded in wary understanding.

“Percy had a young man’s faults,” he admitted. “And perhaps too large an allowance with which to indulge them. But as I told Mrs. Grey yesterday evening, I had little to do with Percy. He was not often at church.”

“Did he donate or otherwise help with your local charities?” Constance asked.

“Not beyond turning up at the occasional town fête or church fair.”

“To ogle the girls?” Solomon suggested.

Thomas shifted in his chair. “There may have been something like that. Many young men attend for the same reason.”

“We understand he hung around Dare Hall,” Solomon said, “making a bit of a pest of himself. Did Mrs. Jenkins ever complain to you about him?”

“She did not. But nor did I ever hear that she encouraged his attentions.”

“His parents believe she did,” Constance pointed out.

Thomas’s lips tightened. “I believe their partiality led them to mistake the matter. Mrs. Jenkins attends church and donates generously. In my hearing, she has several times brushed aside Percy’s…overtures. I believe her to be a virtuous woman.”

“Then it is only prejudice that makes the Harveys think otherwise?”

“In my opinion.”

“Were you aware,” Solomon asked, “of a liaison between Percy and Mrs. West, the lockkeeper’s wife?”

The vicar blushed. “I heard it said.”

“Did you also hear it said that West beat his wife when he found out?”

Thomas’s lips tightened. “I preached a sermon that Sunday on gentleness and forgiveness.”

“Why do you suppose he beat his wife rather than Percy?”

“Probably because Percy was not immediately at hand, and she was.”

“Do you think it was in his nature to kill Percy in revenge?”

The vicar opened his mouth and closed it again. “I tend to think that if he were to do such a thing, it would have been the night he beat his wife. He lashes out in temper, but I never heard that he bore a grudge.”

“Not even if he loved his wife?” Constance asked. “And then he cannot have been very happy to lose money at cards last Saturday night, to the man who cuckolded him.”

The vicar frowned. “Why would he have played with Percy at all if he was so angry? In any case, that must have been nearly a week before he died.”

Solomon nodded. “True. I don’t suppose you happened to see West or Mrs. West on Thursday afternoon?”

Thomas shook his head with the vague apology that seemed to be habitual to him. “No. On Thursday I was at the other side of Channing visiting the poor and the sick. Neither the Wests nor Percy had any reason to be in such an area.”

“We know,” Solomon said delicately, “that Percy occasionally sought his pleasures in the rougher areas of London.”

The vicar’s lips twitched with distaste. “I never heard that he did so in Channing. I have certainly never seen or heard of him there. But then, it is not like London. There is little amusement to be had in our poorer streets, and the worst danger is sickness.”

Constance gave him credit for that. He had worked out what they wanted to know and told them.

“So what time did you return to the vicarage on Thursday?” she asked.

“It must have been nearly seven. I prayed by a deathbed for some time with a rather tragically bereaved family.”

“Then you had no reason to pass the area between the lock and Larchford?”