Did The Vicar Solve The Mystery?

Written by William Shepard

Whenever Miss Marple returned from a vacation away from the little hamlet of St. Mary Mead, in southern England, she always enjoyed catching up on the local news. A great deal of gossip was available at the Martin Tea Shop, and much of it was of good value, setting the stage for Miss Marple’s later, amazing deductions. That is why a fortnight away from home required her to catch up on what had happened during her absence. She could never tell when some tiny detail might later provide the evidence to solve a local mystery. Her visit in Shropshire had been interesting, and it was fun to see old friends, but now she was home again.

Surprisingly, the local news was so exciting that she didn’t even have to ask. Friends and neighbors sort of blurted out their versions of what had happened during her absence. She had no sooner settled in at her usual table at Martin’s Tea Shop and ordered some tasty buttered scones with jam and a pot of tea, when she first heard the news.

“You haven’t heard? It just surprised all of us so,” said Alice Wiggins, her longtime friend and bridge partner, pausing to sit down at Miss Marple’s table and a bit short of breath. “And I always thought that Elmer Tydings was honest as the day is long!”

Alice was louder than usual, and soon everyone in the tea shop wanted to share what they knew with Miss Marple, their local sleuth celebrity.

“Of course you must have heard, Jane dear, about the robbery at the church,” said Tom the Postman, who was stopping by the Martin Tea Shop to deliver their mail. “Nobody talked about anything else for days. It must have happened, let me think, just a few days after you left for your holiday. Of course, everyone knows that Elmer didn’t do it!” He glared at Alice.

“Yes indeed, Jane,” added Martha Jenning, another friend, who drew up a chair to share the sense of excitement, “we have had quite a time here in St. Mary Mead.”

“Tell me all about it, Tom” Miss Marple said, smiling at Alice and Martha, while leaning forward at her tea table. She knew from experience that Tom the Postman was a close observer who did not let his imagination run wild. His version would be a good place to start on this mystery, whatever it was! “All right, they won’t mind if I just take a minute and rest my feet. Besides,” he confided, “the Postmaster is gone to Salisbury for the day, so I’m my own boss.”

He knitted his brow for a moment, wanting to make sure that he got the details right and in the correct order. He had Miss Marple’s close attention and valued her good opinion.

“It was the Sunday after you left, Jane. We were all at church, of course, and the Vicar had given a good sermon, not too long this time. It was most interesting. I wish I could remember what it was about.”

“Sin, most likely,” Alice added helpfully. “He’s always against it.”

Tom glowered at her for a moment, then resumed his story. “It was about the value of old traditions,” he said. “The Vicar was telling us to value what we have, and he was going to use for an example the old bible that is usually kept under lock and key at the vicarage.”

“Yes, Jane,” Martha added impatiently, aware that Tom always took forever to tell his stories, “but he couldn’t. The bible had been stolen!”

“Not the King James Version!” Jane was really shocked. Their village copy consisted of fifteen separately bound pages of the original 1611 first edition. These were the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, which told the story of the Sermon On The Mount. How did these pages become separated from the original bible? The legend was that a knight from the region wanted these pages always with him when he went to battle. And so this precious excerpt was separately bound as a small volume. Over the years, his family had died out, and the small volume had been left to the village church. Its value was considerable. It was the most valuable possession of the local church. For that matter, it was probably the most valuable single object in the entire village.

Tom the Postman plodded on. “The Vicar announced that the bible was gone, and he added that it was such a shame. He had been going to bring it to our attention, but the fact is that it is such a valuable property, that the money it would have brought at auction would have more than paid for repairs to the church roof. For, like Shakespeare’s church and last resting place at Stratford, many repairs were needed quickly, and there was just not enough money to pay for them.” He shook his head firmly, showing agreement with himself.

“That, of course, was the bombshell, if you see what I mean,” Alice added. “The Vicar said that he had been going to consult with the entire village on the matter before the bible was put up for auction, but now, the bible and the chance to raise the necessary money, were both lost.”

Miss Marple’s eyes narrowed, as though she was seeing something far away. “Did anyone know about the Vicar’s plans to sell the bible? Has an arrest been made?”

Tom glowered at Martha and went on. “Only four people knew about it, John and Louise Stubbs, and Elmer and Katherine Tydings,” he said. Miss Marple shook her head knowingly. It was a mystery why two couples that disliked each other so much were always on committees together.

Tom went on. “We found out that they disagreed about selling the bible. John and Louise Stubbs, however reluctantly, favored selling the bible. Louise Stubbs knew its value from her library work. Her husband John, who has that farm a few miles outside the village, has fingernails so dirty that he doesn’t have any interest in books. Even his wife won’t lend him books from the St. Mary Mead library!

“Now, Katherine Tydings, on the other hand, was very much opposed to selling the bible: she just wouldn’t hear of it - the book must stay here. You know how strong willed she is, Jane! Of course, her husband Elmer went along with her. He always does.”

“When was the bible last seen?” Jane Marple wanted to know.

“It was the night before the service,” Tom replied. The five of them were meeting about selling the bible. The way the Vicar told it to the police, there was quite an argument.” (Jane remembered that Tom’s brother Frank was a patrolman on the St. Mary Mead Constabulary.) “Elmer Tydings was so upset, that he actually grabbed the bible and left the church. That was the last time that anyone saw the bible.”

“It all sounds straightforward enough,” Miss Marple said. “Elmer is now in custody, I presume.”

“Yes indeed, on the Vicar’s statement,” Tom replied. “But he absolutely denies having stolen the bible. In fact, he claims that he soon thought better of things, and that it was returned later that night to the church. He and Katherine had talked it all over. He says he wrapped it carefully, and Katherine drove into town and put the book through the door slot on the side door of the church, which is used for donations of books throughout the week. He wanted to see a show on television, so Katherine drove their car into town and returned the book.

“Katherine corroborates his story. And there is a witness who saw her walking from her car to the church.”

“Did Elmer know what was on television?”

Tom answered. “Yes, my brother saw the same show, and they talked about it.”

Was the door locked?”

“Yes, Jane. But nobody looked at the donations for hours. Nobody does until the volunteer librarian shows up. That’s her job. It’s Louise Stubbs, of course, and she usually spends an hour or so there in the late afternoon after she finishes cataloging the books at our local library. She doesn’t recall seeing the book. As a matter of fact, Louise says she had nearly a sleepless night after that scene at the church meeting, falling asleep so late that she didn’t even go to the church after she finished work at the town library.”

“Who knew,” Miss Marple wanted to know, “aside from Elmer and Katherine Tydings, that the book had been returned?”

“Just the Vicar himself, it seems. He was telephoned by Katherine the night the bible was taken. He promised that if the book was returned, he would not press charges against Elmer. But he had an emergency to attend to and didn’t make it into church until late the following afternoon. With no bible, he called the police and gave them a statement. They have detained Elmer.”

“What an interesting thing to happen in our little town,” Miss Marple observed. “I’ll have a little chat with the Vicar. He clearly thought he was doing the right thing. I hope he won’t be too embarrassed if I have to tell him the wrong person has been arrested!”