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handkerchief.
    ‘Whatever for, sir?’ asked Crabb. ‘There’s only a load of old bones inside – old Sir Roger. Who would want those?’
    ‘There may be just old Sir Roger’s bones there now, but what if there was something else inside the tomb? Yes of course! There must have been something else lying next to the bones on the floor of the tomb. You noticed how tall the monument was. If there was something lying there, it would have been impossible to have reached over and secured the item,’ said Ravenscroft, replacing his spectacles and becoming increasingly animated.
    ‘You mean our man climbed into the tomb—’
    ‘—To secure whatever lay there, and after he had passed the item on to his companion, that was when the second man hit him on the head!’
    ‘That’s why the killer could not replace the top stone!’
    ‘Exactly, Crabb. He could not move the stone on his own, and so he left it as we found it.’
    ‘I wonder what was taken from the inside of the tomb?’
    ‘That is what we have to find out. No doubt once we have found what was taken, then we will be able to arrest our killer. I wonder why the deceased man and his companion come to Tewkesbury – and what was in the tomb that was so important to them? And what were those five people doing gathered round the tomb at such a late hour? What had brought them all to the abbey on such an inhospitable night? I tell you something, Crabb, this has all the makings of a strange and baffling case, and no mistake, the sooner we commence our investigations the better we will be placed to arrive at a solution.’

CHAPTER TWO
TEWKESBURY
    ‘Intolerable! This is just intolerable!’
    Ravenscroft looked up from his desk in the snug of the Hop Pole at the irate military gentleman who had just strode into the room. ‘Major Anstruther, I believe. Would you care to take a seat?’
    ‘Your constable has prevented me from leaving; I tell you this delay is not to be borne, sir!
    ‘This is a very serious matter, sir—’
    ‘I don’t care how serious this is; the fact remains that I am expected to rejoin my regiment later today in London.’
    ‘And what regiment would that be, sir?’ asked Ravenscroft, looking down at the papers before him and trying to sound as calm as possible.
    ‘The Guards, man! The Guards!’ exclaimed Anstruther, staring intently at the balding, middle-aged man and the young, fresh-faced constable.
    ‘Of course, I should have known. If you would be kind enoughto answer a few questions for us, we will try not to detain you too long. Please take a seat, Major.’
    ‘Intolerable! I don’t see what all this has to do with me anyway,’ replied Anstruther reluctantly accepting the chair.
    ‘You were in the abbey yesterday evening, when the body was discovered. You don’t deny that?’
    ‘Of course I was in the abbey, man!’ retorted Anstruther.
    ‘Then perhaps you would care to tell Constable Crabb and myself what you were doing inside the building at such a late hour, standing next to an opened tomb which contained the remains of an unknown person who had been brutally murdered that same evening?’ enquired Ravenscroft leaning back in his chair and looking directly at his suspect.
    ‘I know it looks bad, Inspector, but there is a simple explanation for all this, I can assure you.’
    ‘Please proceed, Major Anstruther.’
    ‘We had all been conversing together with one another, in this very room, earlier in the evening—’
    ‘You say “we” – could you elaborate further?’
    ‘Yes; Ganniford, Jenkins, Miss Eames, Dr Hollinger. We had all arrived in the town earlier that day, and were enjoying a pleasant evening together when someone suggested that we should all go and take a tour round the abbey, take in the monuments and such like.’
    ‘At twelve o’clock at night?’ asked Ravenscroft.
    ‘I know it sounds rather strange, but we had all been drinking a lot and thought it would be rather interesting to go and see the