The Dog Collar Murders by Roger Silverwood

no way that I could leave the presbytery unattended. A parishioner may have need of me in the night. Nor could I bring in another priest as your superintendent has suggested. There is simply nobody available. Clergy are in very short supply, you know?’
    ‘I’m sorry about that, Father. Police officers are also short on the ground. I strongly recommend you to compromise … perhaps stay in a hotel for the next few days and nights.’
    ‘
What
?’ he said. ‘Stay in the luxury of a hotel when so many of my parishioners are struggling to pay their bills and I am trying to preach the virtue of being frugal? I
don’t
think so.’
    ‘There is a murderer out there, Father Riley. He seems to be targeting priests. If you think you could still be useful to your flock dead then you
could
take the risk, I suppose. If not, then out of consideration for them, you should take all the steps necessary to stay alive. You do not have to stay at The Feathers. You don’t even have to stay in Bromersley. There are probably several very comfortable guesthouses in Barnsley, Rotherham or Sheffield that might not be seen as excessive. We are hopeful that these measures are temporary and will take only a few days.’
    ‘Mmm,’ he said. ‘Inspector, you may have a point. I must pray about it.’
    ‘Well, don’t be long about it, Father.’
    Angel heard a door open behind him. He turned and saw a light shine through the open vicarage door and the silhouetted figure of DS Taylor in his disposable paper overalls coming out with a white box on a strap slung over his shoulder.
    Angel turned back. ‘If you’ll excuse me, Father,’ he said, ‘I need to press on. Nice to have met you. Careful how you go, and remember what I told you.’
    Angel reached out in the dark to shake the priest’s hand. The man had an earnest grip but his hand was as cold as prison milk.
    ‘Indeed I will,’ Riley said. ‘God bless you, Inspector Angel. May you find the murderer soon and may he be condemned to a life in purgatory. Good night.’ Then the man in black turned swiftly away into the night, his cloak flowing behind him.
    ‘Good night,’ Angel said, then he went up to the SOCO’s van.
    Taylor heard him approach and flashed a torch in his face. ‘It’s you, sir,’ he said. ‘We’ve completed the scene of crime.’
    ‘I’ll take a look, then,’ Angel said.
    ‘The body’s gone,’ Taylor said as he held the door open for him. ‘Dr Mac saw it in situ. The murder took place in the little office in the vestry. One shot in the chest, through a cushion to deaden the noise. Same as Samuel Smart, sir.’
    Angel nodded and said, ‘The same man murdered both priests. Through a cushion? It’s a long time since anyone used that old trick. Shell case?’
    ‘One, sir. .32. No prints.’
    Angel sniffed then nodded knowingly.
    Taylor led Angel into a tiny room with only a desk, a chair and a filing cabinet in it. ‘The body was found on the floor, squashed between the chair and the desk.’
    Angel peered at the space. He saw dried blood on the desk drawer and the carpet. He quickly looked over the front of the desk drawers, the chair, the cushion on the chair, and the floor. His eyes took in everything. He didn’t linger over the scene. There would be a hundred or more pics available to him from the SOC photographer in the morning.
    ‘There was more room in Samuel Smart’s office, sir,’ Taylor said. ‘His body was full length on the carpet. Otherwise this seems to be the same layout and MO.’
    ‘Any sign that Raymond Gulli or Samuel Smart had retaliated or had any actual physical contact at all with the murderer?’
    ‘No, sir. But we have a small sample of white thread lifted from Raymond Gulli’s left coat sleeve that I think must have come from the murderer. There is no other source of that fabric in the room from which it could have originated. I will send it off to Wetherby – see what the lab boys can tell us.’
    Angel’s face