Death in the Cotswolds Read Online Free Page A

lying on its own in the angle made by the roof. Bending down she retrieved it and looked inside. ‘What’s this?’ she said, pulling something out.
    Phil beckoned her to where he was standing, not wanting to have to crouch in the lower part.‘Masking tape,’ he said. ‘All scrumpled up.’ He tilted his head at me. ‘This is what made those lines,’ he explained.
    ‘Why would they unpick it? Why not just leave it?’
    He shrugged. ‘They probably change. Maybe it’s just some sort of rehearsal.’
    Thea looked from him to me and back again. ‘What are you talking about?’ she demanded. ‘Is this making more sense to you two than it is to me?’
    She bent over the cardboard box, reaching out a hand. ‘Don’t touch anything!’ Phil warned her.
    She blinked at him in surprise and then turned her attention back to the objects. ‘Jewellery,’ she said. ‘Is it the stash of a burglar or something? This must be his booty. Phil – there are probably fingerprints on it all. You’ll have to call the police.’ Then she giggled, hearing herself. ‘Except, you are the police, aren’t you?’
    ‘Not really,’ he muttered, inattentively. ‘I haven’t got a fingerprint kit with me, for a start.’ He and I must have been acting strangely because Thea quickly picked up our reaction. ‘What?’ she demanded. ‘What’s the matter with both of you?’ She gave the box a sharp kick, shifting the contents. ‘A gold ring with a sort of sunburst pattern on it. And a watch with a bird design in the middle. Something made of blue silk with stars on it.’ She shook her head. ‘Nice things.’
    ‘It’s a blazing star, not a sunburst,’ I said. ‘It stands for the Great Being.’
    Phil gave an intake of breath. Even after all those years it upset him for the secrets of the Lodge to be spoken out loud. He glanced around as if expecting the All-Seeing Eye to materialise between the roof beams.
    ‘Great Being?’ Thea repeated. ‘I’m sorry, but you’ll have to explain. If you don’t, I might have to scream.’
    Phil spoke to her. ‘It isn’t a burglar, Thea. This stuff must belong to the…intruder.’
    She frowned at him. ‘How do you know?’
    He sighed. ‘They’re Masonic things. My guess is that there’s a man living locally who doesn’t want his wife to know he’s on the square. So he keeps all his regalia up here, where she won’t find it. He comes here to learn the ritual as well, making marks on the floor, to be sure he gets it right. These are Masonic books with the things that have to be learned. It takes time, so he’d stay overnight, eating out of tins. These cushions would make a tolerable bed.’
    ‘How ridiculous!’ she exclaimed. ‘Pathetic.’
    Phil sighed again. ‘You could say that,’ he mumbled. ‘Most people think that way these days.’
    ‘Don’t you?’ She widened her eyes at him. ‘All that secret handshaking and pretending to bury each other alive. It’s childish nonsense.’
    I drew back, wincing on Phil’s behalf. Even now, with much of their mystery exposed and the one-time pervasive nervousness around them dissipated, it felt dangerous to criticise them too openly. At the same time I was wondering whether Phil was going to be honest with her. He knew that I knew what he ought to reveal, the air crackling with our shared memories.
    ‘They take it very seriously,’ was all he said.
    Thea tossed her head and made a tutting sound and I gave Phil a look which he met full on. ‘Have you any idea at all who did this?’ he asked me with a frown.
    I’d already been asking myself the same question. One or two names had forced themselves into my mind, but I had no intention of uttering them to a Detective Superintendent until I’d had more time to think.
    So I acted dumb. ‘It doesn’t make sense,’ I said. ‘How did they get in? And why ? What’s the point?’
    ‘It’s lovely, though, isn’t it?’ said Thea. ‘Everything just right.’ She smiled at us like