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Sanctuary

I

The vicar’s wife cae with her ararden soil was attached to her strong brogue shoes and a few frag to her nose, but of that fact she was perfectly unconscious

She had a slight struggle in opening the vicarage gate which hung, rustily, half off its hinges A puff of wind caught at her battered felt hat, causing it to sit even more rakishly than it had done before ‘Bother!’ said Bunch

Christened by her optimistic parents Diana, Mrs Hare for somewhat obvious reasons and the na the chrysantheate to the churchyard, and so to the church door

The November air was mild and damp Clouds scudded across the sky with patches of blue here and there Inside, the church was dark and cold; it was unheated except at service times

‘Brrrrrh!’ said Bunch expressively ‘I’d better get on with this quickly I don’t want to die of cold’

With the quickness born of practice she collected the necessary paraphernalia: vases, water, flower-holders ‘I e had lilies,’ thought Bunch to herself ‘I get so tired of these scraggy chrysantheed the blooms in their holders

There was nothing particularly original or artistic about the decorations, for Bunch Harinal nor artistic, but it was a ho the vases carefully, Bunch stepped up the aisle and made her way towards the altar As she did so the sun came out

It shone through the eastof soift of a wealthy Victorian churchgoer The effect was alht Bunch Suddenly she stopped, staring ahead of her On the chancel steps was a huddled dark form

Putting down the flowers carefully, Bunch went up to it and bent over it It was athere, huddled over on himself Bunch knelt down by hiers went to his pulse—a pulse so feeble and fluttering that it told its own story, as did the alreenish pallor of his face There was no doubt, Bunch thought, that the

He was a man of about forty-five, dressed in a dark, shabby suit She laid down the limp hand she had picked up and looked at his other hand This see ers were closed over what seehtly to his chest All round the clenched hand there were splashes of a dry brown fluid which, Bunch guessed, was dry blood Bunch sat back on her heels, frowning

Up till now the man’s eyes had been closed but at this point they suddenly opened and fixed the They seeent His lips moved, and Bunch bent forward to catch the words, or rather the word It was only one word that he said:

‘Sanctuary’

There was, she thought, just a very faint s it, for after a ain, ‘Sanctuary…’

Then, with a faint, long-drawn-out sigh, his eyes closed again Once ers went to his pulse It was still there, but fainter now and ot up with decision

‘Don’tfor help’

Thehis attention on the coloured light that ca that Bunch could not quite catch She thought, startled, that it ht have been her husband’s name

‘Julian?’ she said ‘Did you come here to find Julian?’ But there was no answer Thein slow, shallow fashion

Bunch turned and left the church rapidly She glanced at her watch and nodded with soery It was only a couple ofto knock or ring, passing through the waiting rooery

‘Youin the church’

Some minutes later Dr Griffiths rose from his knees after a brief examination

‘Can we e? I can attend to him better there—not that it’s any use’

‘Of course,’ said Bunch ‘I’ll go along and get things ready I’ll get Harper and Jones, shall I? To help you carry him’

‘Thanks I can telephone froe for an ambulance, but I’m afraid—by the time it comes…’ He left the remark unfinished

Bunch said, ‘Internal bleeding?’

Dr Griffiths nodded He said, ‘How on earth did he come here?’

‘I think he‘Harper unlocks the church in the oes to work, but he doesn’t usually come in’

It was about five minutes later when Dr Griffiths put down the telephone receiver and ca on quickly arranged blankets on the sofa Bunch wasup after the doctor’s examination

‘Well, that’s that,’ said Griffiths ‘I’ve sent for an a, looking down on the patient who lay with closed eyes His left hand was plucking in a nervous, spasmodic way at his side

‘He was shot,’ said Griffiths ‘Shot at fairly close quarters He rolled his handkerchief up into a ball and plugged the wound with it so as to stop the bleeding’

‘Could he have gone far after that happened?’ Bunch asked

‘Oh, yes, it’s quite possible A mortally woundeda street as though nothing had happened, and then suddenly collapse five or ten minutes later So he needn’t have been shot in the church Oh no He may have been shot some distance away Of course, he ered blindly towards the church I don’t quite knohy he e’

‘Oh, I know that,’ said Bunch ‘He said it: “Sanctuary” ’

The doctor stared at her ‘Sanctuary?’

‘Here’s Julian,’ said Bunch, turning her head as she heard her husband’s steps in the hall ‘Julian! Come here’

The Reverend Julian Harue, scholarly manner always made him appear much older than he really was ‘Dearin a ical appliances and the prone figure on the sofa

Bunch explained with her usual econo He’d been shot Do you know hiht he said your name’

The vicar ca man ‘Poor fellow,’ he said, and shook his head ‘No, I don’t know him I’m almost sure I’ve never seen him before’

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At thatman’s eyes opened once more They went from the doctor to Julian Har into Bunch’s face Griffiths stepped forward

‘If you could tell us,’ he said urgently

But with eyes fixed on Bunch, the man said in a weak voice, ‘Please—please—’ And then, with a slight tremor, he died…

Sergeant Hayes licked his pencil and turned the page of his notebook

‘So that’s all you can tell me, Mrs Harmon?’

‘That’s all,’ said Bunch ‘These are the things out of his coat pockets’

On a table at Sergeant Hayes’s elboas a wallet, a rather battered old watch with the initials WS and the return half of a ticket to London Nothing more

‘You’ve found out who he is?’ asked Bunch

‘A Mr and Mrs Eccles phoned up the station He’s her brother, it seems Name of Sandbourne Been in a low state of health and nerves for so worse lately The day before yesterday he walked out and didn’t come back He took a revolver with him’

‘And he came out here and shot himself with it?’ said Bunch ‘Why?’

‘Well, you see, he’d been depressed…’

Bunch interrupted him ‘I don’t mean that I mean, why here?’

Since Sergeant Hayes obviously did not know the answer to that one, he replied in an oblique fashion, ‘Come out here, he did, on the five-ten bus’

‘Yes,’ said Bunch again ‘But why?’

‘I don’t know, Mrs Har If the balance of the mind is disturbed—’

Bunch finished for him ‘They may do it anywhere But it still seems to me unnecessary to take a bus out to a small country place like this He didn’t know anyone here, did he?’

‘Not so far as can be ascertained,’ said Sergeant Hayes He coughed in an apologetic manner and said, as he rose to his feet, ‘It may be as Mr and Mrs Eccles will come out and see you, ma’am—if you don’t mind, that is’

‘Of course I don’t mind,’ said Bunch ‘It’s very natural I only wish I had so to tell them’

‘I’ll be getting along,’ said Sergeant Hayes