Bury in Haste by Jean Rowden Read Free Book Online Page B

Four
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    ‘M orning, Thorny,’ Will Minter nodded. A slow-thinking, slow-moving man, he fell into step beside Deepbriar. ‘Been a bit of a fire.’
    ‘A fire? Here?’
    ‘Over yonder.’ he pointed. ‘Was me what found it. Smelt smoke when I come out this morning and sent one of my lads to have a look.’
    ‘It’s my barn, down in the hollow,’ Quinn bawled, half turning round but not stopping. ‘Burnt to cinders, along with what was left of last year’s hay.’
    ‘Bit hidden down there,’ Will Minter added, ‘nobody would have noticed, any road, not in the middle of the night.’
    ‘I hope you’ve not been trampling over the evidence,’ Deepbriar said. ‘If the fire was set deliberately they might have left signs.’
    ‘ “Set deliberately”?’ Quinn looked ready to explode. ‘You danged fool, of course it was set deliberately! It was Bunyard! Who else could it be?’
    ‘We went through this yesterday, Mr Quinn,’ Deepbriar said stolidly. ‘You could get yourself into trouble if you go slandering people. I agree Bert’s done a few things contrary to the law in his time, but he’s only human. He can’t walk two miles on a broken leg, and that’s a fact. We’ll go and take a look at the damage, and meanwhile I’d thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head.’
    Ferdy Quinn took a deep shuddering breath. ‘Yes,’ he said at last. ‘I’m sorry, constable. But I just know Bunyard’s behind all this somehow. He must be!’
    The three men walked on across the fields with Quinn muttering angrily under his breath until the steepening slope silenced him. A few wisps of smoke became visible, rising over the crest of the hill. At last the barn came into sight, or all that was left of it. A steep-sided valley sheltered a smouldering heap of charred wood.
    ‘Lucky I didn’t have any beasts in here,’ Quinn growled, kicking at a blackened doorpost.
    ‘Last year’s hay, you said.’ Deepbriar began writing in his pocket-book. He glanced up to see a range of emotions flit across Quinn’s flushed face, and quickly looked down again to hide his smile. The farmer was regretting his honesty; given time it might have occurred to him to claim something of more value had gone up in smoke; until now he’d been too upset to think about the insurance.
    ‘That wasn’t all,’ Quinn said, picking up a stick and poking at the ruins, uncovering what might have been a large metal buckle. ‘Kept my old harness in here, too.’
    ‘If there’s any evidence of foul play you’re going a fair way to destroy it,’ Deepbriar commented, and the farmer threw down the stick and retreated a few steps.
    ‘Thought you didn’t keep horses any more.’ Minter put in.
    ‘I don’t.’ Quinn was defensive. ‘But that doesn’t mean I can afford to lose that gear. Might have needed it again some time. Or I could have sold it.’
    Patiently Deepbriar wrote down the items Quinn listed, then he walked round the site of the fire, studying the ground, sniffing at the ashes. Not that anyone would need petrol to set a hay barn ablaze. ‘Could be the fire brigade might want to come and have a look,’ he said, having satisfied himself that the frozen ground hadn’t preserved any footprints. ‘Nothing more I can do here.’
    ‘Never mind, Ferdy,’ Will Minter said cheerfully as Deepbriar finished his inspection, ‘let’s face it, that barn was pretty old, it would have fallen down in a gale one of these days, any road.’
    Quinn scowled at him. ‘Easy enough for you to say, you’re not the one getting picked on. Suppose he comes back to do the same to the rest of my buildings?’ He glared at Deepbriar. ‘Who’s to stop him?’
    ‘I’ll be talking to Bert Bunyard later today,’ Deepbriar said. ‘But unless the man can fly I can’t see any way he could have got here.’
    ‘What about Bunyard’s son?’ Quinn growled. ‘You say it wasn’t him, but where’s your proof?’
    ‘Humphrey’s too scared of the