The maid knocked and opened the door for the elders, the doctor, the priest and the cabinet maker. They made the mayor’s study seem small. And Misha was there. Why the cursed boy should have chosen this of all days to bring the body down from the mountain, he couldn’t imagine. He should have left it up there until after his grandfather’s wedding. But he was the village idiot. The mayor cleared his throat.

‘Before the avalanche, I received a letter from the shepherd’s father. He is a merchant in the town. He wrote because he’d had no word from his son who he knew was engaged to a girl called Edith who lives in this village.’

The word ‘merchant’ surprised the cabinet maker.

‘Are you sure?’ he said. ‘I thought the shepherd was a gypsy.’

‘As I said, he was a merchant’s son.’

The cabinet maker, never able to keep his thoughts to himself, said aloud, ‘Wealthy?’

‘I would imagine so.’

The cabinet maker felt the icy gaze of the butcher on him and said, quickly, but with a hint of regret, ‘It was a passing whim of Edith’s – just a girlish crush.’

The mayor continued. ‘The merchant asked me to make enquiries.’

‘It seems that Misha made enquiries for you,’ said the butcher taking charge of the situation, ‘so the mystery is solved.’

‘Quite so,’ mumbled the other elders.

‘Not so hasty,’ said the mayor. ‘Let the doctor speak.’

‘Perhaps,’ said the doctor, ‘we should discuss this at a later date.’

‘Agreed,’ said the butcher. ‘Tomorrow is my wedding.’

The mayor tried to regain control. ‘It’s precisely because of the wedding that this must be discussed now. There is a feeling among the womenfolk that the marriage should wait. Doctor, please continue.’

‘The young man was killed by a bullet in the back from what I believe was a hunting gun.’

The men muttered to each other in shock and disbelief.

The mayor interrupted them. ‘I’m sure you’ll all agree that in these circumstances, the wedding is… ah… inadvisable.’

No one spoke. All eyes were on the butcher.

‘What?’ he said. ‘Let all the food go to waste? The pigs and the chickens, all butchered for nothing? Tomorrow I’m going to be married. It makes no difference if the blacksmith has two or three bodies unburied. The earth is hard, so the matter can wait.’

The mayor felt the blood in him rise but, at the very same moment, a cooling thought came to him. He could not afford to be on the wrong side of this man.

‘Surely there is no doubt that the young man was murdered,’ he said.