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– but everything – had some value to someone, somewhere, duly made a note.
    â€˜Presumably,’ went on Fixby-Smith, ‘that’s why he left it all to the Greatorex in the first place.’
    â€˜The family might have chucked it, you mean?’ asked Detective Constable Crosby insouciantly.
    â€˜They might,’ Fixby-Smith said, adding disparagingly, ‘You never can tell with people who don’t know the first thing about artefacts.’
    â€˜But the relations get the real money, do they?’ enquired the detective constable.
    The curator stiffened. ‘I couldn’t tell you who the residuary legatees are. We at the museum haven’t been informed.’
    â€˜I don’t think that’s our concern anyway, at this stage, sir.’ In principle, Detective Inspector Sloan was all in favour of ‘blue skies research’ – finding out all you can before you begin an inquiry – but that was something that didn’t seem to apply here.
    Hilary Collins said diffidently, ‘But surely, Inspector, we can do what the coroner wants and certify that the mummy is merely an ancient survival? After all, even if we don’t know the exact provenance we do know that it’s Egyptian.’
    â€˜I’m afraid, madam,’ said Detective Inspector Sloan with genuine regret, ‘that the coroner requires rather more than your formal certification.’
    â€˜Ancient isn’t the right word anyway,’ interrupted Marcus Fixby-Smith. ‘Even without seeing any radiocarbon datings I am prepared to state on paper, on the basis of its style and condition alone, that the mummy in question is definitely in the region of three thousand years old. Isn’t that good enough for the man?’
    â€˜What the coroner is asking for,’ said Sloan, euphemistically paraphrasing as best he could as he went along, ‘is the written opinion of a registered medical practitioner.’
    â€˜Then I only hope,’ said Fixby-Smith acidly, ‘that that practitioner has some idea of how much damage can be done to a mummy like this just by starting to open it up in the wrong way. I’ve been in touch with a palaeo-pathologist who’s an acknowledged authority on the subject. Miles, that is, Professor Upton, advises me that the whole procedure calls for very great care.’
    â€˜I’ll tell the doctor that,’ promised Sloan. ‘You must understand,’ he hastened on, ‘that we’re not in any way doubting the professional expertise of either of you here.’ Sloan looked from one curator to the other and said, ‘But surely, at the moment, your opinion could be based only on a view of the outer coffin?’
    â€˜Yes, but no one’s going inside it, no one at all,’ Fixby-Smith started up again with vigour, ‘doctor or not, until it’s been properly X-rayed first. I hope that’s clearly understood. And that whoever does the X-rays is familiar with radioactive isotope techniques.’
    â€˜I’ll be sure to pass your message on to Dr Dabbe, sir.’
    â€˜Dr Dabbe?’ said Fixby-Smith.
    â€˜He’s the Consultant Forensic Pathologist to the Berebury and District Hospital Trust,’ said Sloan.
    â€˜Then, perhaps,’ suggested Miss Collins timidly, ‘he might be able to tell us the cause of death of the mummy at the same time.’

Chapter Four
    Stained
    â€˜I would be the first to agree, Sloan,’ said Dr Dabbe, with whom the two policemen were discussing the problem, ‘that the cause of death can often be determined in really old bodies.’
    â€˜Even after three thousand years, doctor?’ asked Sloan. He and Detective Constable Crosby were sitting in the consultant pathologist’s office at the hospital in Berebury.
    â€˜You can tell a lot about illness from some mummies,’ said the doctor. He nodded in the direction of the mortuary beyond his office.