Free The Burry Man's Day by Catriona McPherson Page A

for exhumed corpses and I thought Mrs Dudgeon would rather he was at the hospital.’
    ‘That’s a very kind thought,’ I said.
    ‘An autopsy?’ breathed Cadwallader, paling.
    ‘It’s a sudden death, Mr de Cassilis,’ said Inspector Cruickshank. ‘I’d go as far as to say a suspicious death, so certainly the body must be examined. I daresay Dr Rennick won’t find anything, but we have to be sure. And in the meantime, I’m just asking around, to see what I can see.’
    I am sure the inspector had no idea how threatening he sounded in his vagueness so while Cad continued to shrink into his seat and stare I tried to take matters into my hands and move them along a little.
    ‘How can we help you?’ I said. ‘Anything that any of us can do, obviously.’
    Buttercup made some kind of echoing murmur.
    ‘Two things,’ said Inspector Cruickshank. ‘Mrs Dudgeon was very keen to get Robert’s body home with her, and she’ll need to be told there’s no chance of that until tomorrow at least. She’ll need to be told about the post-mortem and it will all be better coming from you, Mrs de Cassilis, than from one of my men, don’t you think?’
    Buttercup looked quite stricken at the thought and shook her head slightly. I felt a little irritation. After all, running a place was not all playing at castles and had it been our estate carpenter at Gilverton I should not have relished the task but I should not have shirked it.
    ‘And the other thing?’ said Daisy.
    ‘Yes, well, as I say,’ said Inspector Cruickshank. ‘My guess is that Rennick will find natural causes, but just in case he doesn’t, I might as well get ahead of the game while I can.’ This did not quite ring true, I thought, and looking at him closely I wondered just how sure he really was. ‘So,’ he went on, ‘I believe Robert Dudgeon came to speak to you yesterday night, Mr de Cassilis. What can you tell me about that?’ A surreptitious sound from the corner drew my attention and I saw the constable flicking open a notebook and drawing out a pencil he had threaded into its spring.
    ‘He seemed very well,’ said Cadwallader. ‘In good health, you know. No signs of any illness. So it must have been terrifically sudden.’
    ‘And how was he in himself?’ said Inspector Cruickshank. ‘In his spirits?’ Cad shrugged as though to suggest he had nothing to add and I stared at him, shocked. The senseless guilty conscience act was one thing but he could not seriously intend to lie to a policeman. I blushed inwardly at my own moral outrage (after all, lying to policemen was not unknown to me) but this was different.
    ‘He was troubled,’ I said in a loud, clear voice. Cadwallader could say what he liked to me later; there was no point in making this any worse than it was. Inspector Cruickshank cocked an eye at me and waited for more.
    ‘He didn’t want to do the Burry Man,’ I said. ‘I was there too, you see, Inspector. He didn’t want to do it one little bit, but he wouldn’t say why.’
    ‘And how did you persuade him in the end?’ said Inspector Cruickshank. I thought about this for a moment before answering.
    ‘I can’t honestly say,’ I told him. ‘I can’t quite remember what I said that made the difference.’ I looked towards Cad, before remembering that he had left by the time it came to that. But came to what? ‘I made a little joke about Mr de Cassilis taking over, but he knew I didn’t mean that. Then he just seemed, all of a sudden, to change his mind.’
    ‘Interesting,’ said Inspector Cruickshank. ‘Would you say he seemed frightened of the job?’
    ‘No,’ I said slowly. ‘Cad, did he seem frightened to you when he first turned up?’
    Cadwallader shook his head. ‘He seemed exactly the same as when I was up on the roof with him earlier. Quite himself and perfectly calm, only absolutely determined not to dress as the Burry Man.’
    ‘Until he changed his mind,’ said Inspector Cruickshank. ‘And when you