Free The Resurrection Man by Charlotte MacLeod Page A

who’d been sipping gingerly from the all-but-transparent china, put down his empty cup with a faint sigh of relief and got back to business.
    “How come your husband was the first one up, Mrs. Protheroe? Were you aware that he’d gone downstairs?”
    “I was aware that he hadn’t gone up. George had been sleeping down here in his study for quite a while, the stairs had got to be too much for him. It was either this or install an elevator up to his bedroom, we didn’t want all that mess and bother.”
    “You don’t have one of those chair-lift things?”
    “Don’t be ridiculous. You’ve seen my husband, or what’s left of him, poor soul. George could never have fit on one of those things, and I’d never have let him try. He was too fat, like me. But he did still enjoy his food, God bless him. We’d had a nice little roast of pork for dinner, with applesauce and sweet potatoes and a strawberry parfait to follow. Last thing on earth we should have been eating in this hot weather, but that was what George said he wanted and I’m glad we gave it to him, though I don’t suppose I’ll ever be able to face a roast of pork again.”
    Anora groped vainly in her dressing-gown pocket. “Blast! Hand me one of those tissues, Sarah. I must look like the devil, sitting here snuffling like a pig after truffles, but I can’t help it so you’ll just have to put up with me.”
    “We don’t mind, for goodness’ sake. What did you do after dinner?”
    “Sat for a while and watched some idiotic television program. Then George started nodding off, you know how he always did. I shook him a little by the shoulder and told him he’d better go to bed or he’d be spending the night in his chair and wind up with a crick in his back. Once he’d got to sleep, I’d never have been able to handle him alone. Phyllis is about as much use as a butterfly. Anyway, I helped him into the study and got him settled. By that time I was ready to call it a day myself.”
    “Are you still sleeping upstairs?” Sarah asked her.
    “Oh yes. You know me, I like my creature comforts. I read till about midnight, then dropped off to sleep and didn’t wake up till about seven o’clock, which is pretty good for me these days. I don’t know whether George got up more than that once during the night. He generally did, his kidneys were in awful shape. Weren’t they, Jim?”
    “Pretty bad,” the doctor agreed. “How could they have been anything else, considering the way he ate and drank? I told him he was eating himself into the—well, I was wrong, wasn’t I? You know, Anora, what’s happened here is a dreadful thing for us, but a quick death isn’t the worst that could have happened to a man who’d been abusing his body for eighty-five years. Sorry, I suppose that was tactless.”
    The doctor’s apology actually drew a hint of a smile from Anora. “Since when have you ever bothered yourself about tact? Just tell me one thing, Jim. Did it hurt him much?”
    “I should say very little. I haven’t examined him myself, you know, but the spearhead appeared to have stabbed straight into the heart, which would have caused almost instant death. George’s reflexes were so sluggish that it was very likely all over before he’d begun to feel pain. I don’t know whether there’d be any point in doing an autopsy, that will be for the medical examiner to decide. Strange as it may seem, considering the length of time I’ve been in practice, I’ve never been involved in a case like this. I don’t see how it could have been misadventure, unless George had been trying to act out one of his yarns about spearing an elephant or something.”
    “Don’t be such a mealymouth, Jim Harnett. Of course it’s not misadventure. My George was murdered, you know that as well as I do. Somebody deliberately broke into this house with a spear in his hand and skewered poor George like a joint on a spit.”
    “But why would anybody do such a ghastly