Cold in the Earth by Aline Templeton

Author:Aline Templeton [Templeton, Aline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-10-29T04:00:00+00:00

‘Stuff happens.’ Max Mason shrugged. Like Scott Thomson in the same situation, he was leaning back in the dining-room chair, though this time it looked like a calculated attitude rather than a gesture of defiance. His facial expression suggested contemptuous indifference.

The temptation to say, ‘Don’t care was made to care,’ and wipe it off with a clip round the jaw was strong, but Tam MacNee said only, ‘So the feeling I got that you were knocked sideways when you heard about it wouldn’t be right, then?’

Max’s reaction had been a niggle at the back of his mind; he wanted to prod him about it before he moved on to the questions he’d been commissioned to ask.

‘Well, normally,’ Max drawled, ‘if I’d been told someone I knew had been found decaying quietly in one of our fields I’d have taken it pretty casually. As you do. But you may recall it happened when I’d thought it was my mother and actually I was quite fond of her, strange as that may seem. You haven’t found her yet, have you?’

He scored with that one; MacNee gritted his teeth. ‘No, we haven’t. You’re still claiming she was murdered by your father?’

Max shrugged again. ‘It’s more than likely, isn’t it? He killed Diana, obviously—’

‘That’s rather less obvious to us than it is to you.’ The snotty little bastard was taking control of the interview; it was throwing MacNee off his stride. Hoping to swing the balance his way, he hurried into an ill-judged question. ‘What if I suggested she’d been gored by one of the bulls?’

There was no doubt that he’d succeeded in taking him by surprise, but not usefully. Max’s eyes flickered, but he only said, ‘A bull? You could tell that, after all this time?’

‘Oh, you’d be surprised what we can find out. Did she help with looking after them?’

‘Diana? Of course not.’

‘Would the bulls have been out in the fields then at that time of year – winter?’

There was a fractional pause, then he said heartily, ‘Oh, certainly. Absolutely. Welsh Blacks are a very hardy breed. That’s why my grandfather chose them.’

MacNee was kicking himself now. He should have asked that question first; the bull theory was a nice, convenient one and since Mason had said the girl didn’t work with the beasts, the only place she could have come into contact with one was in an open field. Maybe it was a truthful reply – maybe!

Max was prepared to be expansive now. ‘The field she was in was Satan’s field. He was a big brute with a nasty temper – there was trouble with him before, I’m sure, though I was too young to know the details. Conrad could probably tell you.’

‘“Satan” could hardly have buried her,’ MacNee pointed out drily.

‘But my father could!’ Max was leaning forward eagerly now. ‘He wouldn’t want a fuss—’

‘Seems a bit extreme, surely?’

‘He is extreme – anyone could tell you that! He’s not normal – never has been.’

‘That’s a nice neat theory anyway, isn’t it, seeing we can’t talk to the man and see for ourselves.

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