It was a fine Autumn day and Bainton Gray was taking a stroll around a churchyard. He was with his friend Cordelia. They were accompanied by her Aunt, Miss Jane Stow.
He paused, as he noticed the freshly disturbed soil of a new grave. He was somewhat saddened to see a humble makeshift wooden cross, which simply bore the words John Smith. Cordelia's aunt glanced swiftly at it before walking on ahead, taking Cordelia with her.
How Bainton longed to be able to walk alone with Cordelia, but she was always chaperoned. As the three of them wandered back towards the church, he thought of a plan.
“Miss Stow, did you know the Reverend Orange wanted a word with you? It’s quite important.”
Cordelia's Aunt Jane looked appraisingly at Bainton. He adopted his most angelic expression. Jane Stow concluded that no wrong could occur in a churchyard, so she decided it would be safe to leave her niece for a few minutes.
As soon as she was out of sight, Bainton grinned. He grabbed Cordelia’s hand and pulled her behind a Cypress tree.
He looked at her, she was rather flushed with excitement. She looked up at him, eyes sparkling. Bainton had the sudden urge to say something ridiculously sentimental, but then he had a better idea - to kiss her! He knew it was morally improper, and not even the right place to be romantic. He just couldn’t contain himself. He leaned over towards her.
But before he could embrace her, Cordelia suddenly let out an ear-piercing scream!
Bainton looked over his shoulder to where she pointed. Lying face down in the bushes was a man, his hair stained red with blood. Horrified, Bainton bent over to look at the body. The man was quite short and stocky. He wore a shabby brown waistcoat and an incongruous top hat.
Then suddenly, the "corpse" jumped up and laughed!
Bainton heard laughter coming from behind one of the trees. His cousin Stephen then stepped out from where he was hiding. He stood there, wiping away tears of mirth.
“Well, seeing as you haven’t come across any real murders for ages, we thought we’d act one out for you!" he teased. My friend Adam here had some red stuff and poured it over his head to look like blood”. Adam, who worked in the churchyard, grinned sheepishly at Bainton.
Bainton turned away; he was not amused.
At that moment, Reverend Orange and Cordelia's aunt came rushing out of the church. Miss Stow had been terrified at hearing Cordelia's scream.
Bainton cast a dark look at his cousin, Stephen, who was forced to explain everything. The reverend’s face puckered in disgust.
“In a place of worship, how blasphemous! To think that you", (he pointed at Stephen), "were due to be wed here soon. Well, I certainly will not be marrying you here!”
Then he stormed back inside the church.
Miss Stow glared at Bainton, as though she somehow believed he’d had wicked designs on her niece. She took hold of Cordelia’s arm and quite forcibly led her away down the path to where their carriage was waiting. As Stephen and Bainton watched them leave through the church gates, Bainton couldn't help feeling angry with his cousin. His moment of passion with Cordelia had been all too brief. Just why did it have to be curtailed by his cousin's stupid prank?
Stephen went inside the church, to apologise to the reverend. He needed to talk to him to try and get him to change his mind about his wedding. He was due to marry Bainton's sister in the next few weeks.
Bainton glanced around. He seemed to be on his own. The only thing he could hear was the blackbirds rustling about in the treetops and the crows on the church roof. Adam had disappeared back to his work maintaining the grounds. There was no-one around. So he went inside the church to wait for his cousin.
Stephen and Rev. Orange were out of sight. Bainton could hear muffled sounds of conversation in the distance, which seemed to be coming from the vestry.
He sat down on a pew, clasped his hands together and bowed his head. Deep in thought, he gazed downwards, staring at the flagstone floor. A tapestry kneeling rest caught his eye. Looking closer, he noticed that the beautiful handiwork had been ruined. There were small red stains on it.
It was then that he was distracted by an odd noise coming from close by.....
He listened intently. What were those strange, echoing noises? It sounded like footsteps....they seemed to be getting nearer. He looked around - but there was nothing there…!
Bainton shivered. Hearing creepy footsteps had somehow put him on edge. Nervously, he glanced over his shoulder again, trying to work out from which direction they came. His eyes anxiously scanned around the church, peering into the shadowy depths of every dark corner.
Meanwhile, Stephen was doing his best to get the vicar to reconsider. After Rev. Orange had hinted several times about the need for donations for repairs, Stephen slipped him some money. Oddly enough, the reverend seemed to have a sudden change of mind. He informed him that the wedding could now go ahead!
As they left the church, Bainton wasn't happy when Stephen started bragging about how easily the reverend had been bribed.
It seemed to Bainton that the more he learnt of clergymen, the more disconcerted he became. He’d heard stories in his village about corrupt clergy. It was said that long ago they used to help with smuggling liquor.
That evening, Bainton was sitting in his chair in front of the fire. He reflected on the day's events. He knew that deep down inside, he just didn’t want his sister to marry Stephen. He no longer trusted him.
Just then, there was a knock at his door. With a sigh, Bainton got up and answered it. He'd got used to people knocking on his door for help these days. Since word had got round of his success at solving mysteries, everyone seemed to think that he could help them. They kept asking for help with their problems. Even when the problems were trivial. Things like family arguments and petty squabbles.
He opened the door. It was Constable Wright.
The Constable soon got right down to business:
“We've got another strange case down at the station, Mr. Gray", he said, taking off his helmet and warming his hands by the fire. He continued:
"One evening last week, a Methodist gentleman was returning home. He was on his way back from his meeting and took a short cut through the churchyard. He told me what he saw there; horrified he was too. Says there was a body in the bushes. Some gentleman lying face down. His top hat askew...and a fine top hat it was too. All stained blood red."
"The odd thing is.....", he gave Bainton a puzzled look,".....he says he went to get help, but when he came back, the body had gone! ”
Bainton shook his head in disbelief. He was so angry with his cousin at that moment. To think that Stephen and his friend had pulled off yet another prank. And this time on some poor unsuspecting churchgoer. How could they?!! Well, that was the final straw.
Bainton explained what he knew of the "dead body prank" to Constable Wright. The local bobby looked annoyed. He would have to have a word with those young scoundrels!
After the Constable had left, something struck Bainton as odd. If Adam had disguised himself as a corpse, then how had he managed to disappear so quickly?
He decided to pay Stephen a visit as soon as possible.
Constable Wright wasn't the only person to ask for Bainton's help lately. Bainton smiled to himself as he remembered the time, not so long ago, when someone had needed help with their problematic goats!
There were times lately when he felt utterly bewildered by what people expected of him.
Then of course there had been that other odd request recently. Bainton had been happily chatting to his mother. Someone’s maiden aunt had turned up one weekend, asking to speak to him. She was worried about her niece, Peggy. She told Bainton how Peggy had been unwell, then she'd left in the night. When Peggy came back, a week later, she'd refused to say where she'd been. The maiden aunt wanted an explanation to this mystery! At that point, Bainton's mother had asked to have a “quiet word” with him in the kitchen, during which she delicately outlined what she thought was the cause of Peggy’s disappearance....
Bainton pondered this news, before deciding that women had a lot of problems to bear in life.
The next day, he took himself off to find Stephen. Fortunately he was at home.
“Stephen, I’ll get straight to the point. Your dead body “joke” is just NOT funny! I want to know how many people you've tried it on?”
Stephen explained that they hadn't played the prank on anyone else. Bainton asked him whose idea it was? But there was a shifty look in Stephen's eyes as he claimed that he couldn’t remember. According to him, he’d been in the Crown and Oak public house at the time. His memory seemed a bit hazy.
It was obvious to Bainton that he wouldn't get very far asking Stephen questions. Well, if Stephen wasn't forthcoming, perhaps it was time to ask Adam?
Bainton arrived at the small cottage where Adam lived with his sister and aunt. When Bainton asked about the prank, Adam looked him in the eye as he answered. He replied that he'd never played that prank before that day in the churchyard. He also said that he hadn't played it since. He seemed quite sincere - so Bainton believed him.
Adam said that he'd got the idea for the prank from someone else. They'd leaned over and whispered it to him. When asked who, all that he could remember was that it was someone in the pub who had a hoarse voice.
Bainton returned home. That night he kept mulling things over in his head....
If it wasn’t a prank, then exactly what did happen in the churchyard that night? Could it have been a real murder?
Who was this "body" - this missing man? How could a body disappear like that?
And why?
*******************************************************************************
Puzzled? Have you worked it out yet? Now read on for Part Two, which contains the Solution to the whodunnit.
Please click the link below:
http://thebaintongraymysteries.blogspot.com/2011/03/bainton-gray-and-churchyard-mystery.html
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