Read Online Chapter and Hearse by Catherine Aird - Free Book Online

lifetime; it was assuredly an accurate description of how he now looked many weeks after his death.
    The Sheriff’s gaze travelled down from the suspended body to the floor. What the men had told him about that was true too. There was nothing at all there which Black Ian could have climbed on or kicked aside to jump to his death. All that was visible was a large damp puddle on the floor, surely greater by far than could have come from the body above. He put his shoulder to the door of the bothy and found, as the others had done, that the entrance was still firmly barred against them.
    â€˜Shall we batter the door down, Sheriff?’ asked Hugh Merkland, always a man of action rather than thought.
    â€˜No,’ said Rhuaraidh Macmillan sternly. ‘Wait you all over there while I take a look around.’
    He walked slowly and carefully round the outside of the bothy. Ramshackle it might be, but it was still proof against the elements and animals. Deer would not have been able to get in there any more than the four men could. The primitive building had never boasted windows or a chimney.
    â€˜Murdo Ross’ll be away over the hills by nightfall,’ murmured Merkland restively. ‘We’ll no’ catch him now.’
    â€˜And Black Ian didn’t have any other enemies,’ said Colin Mackenzie with emphasis. ‘None at all.’
    â€˜Och, one enemy’s enough for any man,’ put in Angus Mackintosh of Balblair, stroking his chin sagely. ‘Isn’t it, now?’
    â€˜Black Ian was his own worst enemy,’ said the Sheriff, stepping back to examine the roof. ‘He didn’t need others. You all know that.’
    â€˜Aye, that’s true,’ conceded Colin Mackenzie, nodding. ‘The man should never have taken cold steel to a kinsman right enough … What is it that you’re seeing on the roof, Sheriff?’
    â€˜Nothing,’ replied that official with perfect truth. ‘It’s quite sound.’
    â€˜It would need to be up here,’ observed Angus Mackintosh, looking round the bleak countryside. ‘If the wind had once got under it, yon roof would be away up over Beinn nan Eun in no time at all.’
    â€˜Or down in the loch,’ said Merkland.
    Colin Mackenzie pointed down the hill. ‘It’s a wonder Black Ian didn’t just jump into Loch Bealach Culaidh there – if he had a mind to make away with himself, that is.’
    â€˜It’s hard to drown if you’re a swimmer,’ remarked the Sheriff. ‘Or if the water’s frozen.’
    â€˜It’s hard to hang yourself from a high beam without having anything to hold on to or stand on to get you there,’ said Hugh Merkland. ‘I still think we should be away after Murdo Ross…’
    â€˜No,’ said the Sheriff quietly. ‘Tell me, is that Ian Tulloch’s own axe I saw in there?’
    â€˜It is,’ said Mackenzie.
    â€˜Ah…’
    â€˜Man,’ exploded Merkland, ‘you dinna need an axe to hang yoursel’.’
    â€˜Ian Tulloch did,’ murmured the Sheriff.
    â€˜But…’ Merkland’s eyebrows came together in a ferocious frown.
    â€˜He couldn’t have done what he did without an axe,’ said the Sheriff. ‘Or something like it.’
    â€˜But it’s rope you need to hang yoursel’,’ protested Colin Mackenzie. ‘We all know that.’
    â€˜Mind you,’ said Rhuaraidh Macmillan, ‘I’m not saying that Black Ian didn’t need the rope as well as his axe.’
    â€˜But…’ Hugh Merkland began his objection in turn.
    The Sheriff said, ‘He needed the rope afterwards.’
    â€˜Afterwards?’ echoed Merkland.
    â€˜After he had used the axe.’
    â€˜But…’ began Colin Mackenzie.
    â€˜And the rope together,’ said the Sheriff.
    â€˜I still don’t understand,’ said Colin Mackenzie.
    â€˜Neither did