“When Marcus took the job here with Chandler-Powell, and when we moved Father into Stone Cottage. He started having brief holidays here in the guest cottage, obviously hoping that he could kindle some cousinly interest in Marcus or myself. Frankly, it wasn’t there. But I did have a slight conscience about him. I still have. From time to time I’d help him out with small sums, two fifty here, five hundred there, when he asked, claiming desperation. But then I decided that this was unwise. It seemed too like assuming a responsibility which frankly I didn’t accept. And then, about a month ago, he got an extraordinary idea into his head. My father’s death followed my grandfather’s by only thirty-five days. If it had been less than twenty-eight days there would have been a difficulty about the will, which has a clause stating that a beneficiary must outlive the testator by twenty-eight days to inherit. Obviously if my father hadn’t benefited from our grandfather’s will, there would have been no fortune to pass down to us. Robin obtained a copy of Grandfather’s will and conceived the bizarre idea that our father had died some time before the twenty-eight days were up and that Marcus and I together—or one or other of us—had concealed his body in the freezer in Stone Cottage, thawed him out after a couple of weeks or so and then called in old Dr. Stenhouse to write the death certificate. The freezer finally broke down last summer, but at that time, although seldom used, it was working.”

Dalgliesh said, “When did he first put forward this idea to you?”

“During the three days when Rhoda Gradwyn was here for her preliminary visit. He arrived the morning after she did and I think had some idea of seeing her, but she was adamant that she didn’t want visitors, and as far as I know he was never admitted to the Manor. She may have been behind the whole idea. I’ve no doubt the two were in collusion—in fact, he more or less admitted it. Why otherwise did Gradwyn choose the Manor, and why was it so important for Robin to be here with her? The scheme may have been mischief on her part—she could hardly have taken it seriously—but with him it was deadly serious.”

“How did he raise the matter with you?”

“By giving me an old paperback. Cyril Hare’s Untimely Death. It’s a detective story in which the time of death is falsified. He brought it in to me as soon as he arrived, saying he thought I would find it interesting. Actually, I’d read it many years ago and as far as I know it’s now out of print. I simply told Robin that I wasn’t interested in reading it again and handed it back. I knew then what he was up to.”