Read Online Silent as the Grave by Bill Kitson - Free Book Online

benefit. The adults were markedly less enthusiastic. I wondered if this was from a fear of the sinister implications behind his disappearance or merely an indication of Beaumont’s unpopularity.
    Tony left Harriet to delegate different areas of the castle to various guests. Much to my disappointment, Polly was assigned the top floor together with the twins, Sammy and Becky, whilst I was given the ground floor along with Charlie and Eve. We set off, with Charlie acting as our tour guide. We searched all the family rooms first, the sitting room, the dining hall, the sun room, the breakfast room, Tony’s study, the library, the snooker room, and then began inspecting the working quarters. We passed quickly through the kitchen, where Cathy Marsh was in the throes of the final preparations for the Christmas dinner and looked in the gun room, the scullery, the coal and log stores, the wine cellar, and the laundry.
    In the laundry there was another door apart from the one we used. ‘Where does that lead?’ I asked Charlie.
    â€˜Nowhere much; there’s a corridor leading to the garden. All there is down there is a toilet. We only use that door in summer.’
    â€˜We’d better check it, nevertheless.’
    The toilet was empty; the outside door was securely locked and bolted. As I turned from inspecting this I noticed a small puddle on the tiled floor of the corridor. I bent to examine it. ‘What is it, Adam?’ It was the first time Eve had spoken directly to me since the previous night.
    I looked up at her. Her face registered no more than mild curiosity. ‘It’s water,’ I told her, ‘but what puzzles me is where it’s come from.’
    I traced my finger through the small pool of water and towards the centre met with a little resistance. I looked all round, at the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, then I glanced back at the door checking that the bolts were securely in place. ‘This water,’ I told my companions, ‘is melted snow. Someone has been outside and returned with snow on their shoes that they’ve stamped here to get rid of it.’
    It was then that my mind went back to Beaumont’s room and to what I had failed to notice there. I looked up again. ‘Eve, think back to yesterday evening. When I dropped you at the front entrance, did Beaumont go straight to his room?’
    She thought for a minute. ‘Yes,’ she said slowly, ‘we stopped for a moment to say hello to Tony. He told us which rooms we were in and we went straight upstairs. I was miffed because you’d been allocated the room I usually get, when Russell Rowe and that dreadful wife of his haven’t claimed it, that is. I stopped to protest, but Tony said you were the guest of honour. He’d already told Russell the same. I spent a couple of minutes talking to Tony but Beaumont stalked straight off up to his room. Why, is it important?’
    â€˜It might be. Can you remember if he took his coat off before he went to his room?’
    â€˜No, definitely not; I’d have remembered because I was still laughing at him falling in the snowdrift and the back of his coat was wet through.’
    I smiled. ‘Yes, I enjoyed that too.’
    â€˜You still haven’t explained why you think it might be important.’
    â€˜If he didn’t leave his coat downstairs, why isn’t it in his room?’
    â€˜Isn’t it, are you sure? Now you mention it I don’t recall seeing it when we looked just now. So what does that mean?’
    â€˜It may mean he left the building sometime last night. If not, where’s his coat vanished to?’
    â€˜But that’s mad,’ Eve objected. ‘Nobody in their right mind would have gone outside in that foul weather. There was a blizzard raging outside.’
    I looked at her. ‘I remember last night very well, there was a blizzard raging outside and a virago raging inside.’
    She reddened