Editing Lord Peter Views the Body (section)

===The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention===
Lord Peter is visiting a friend, Mr. Frobisher-Pym, in a small village in [[Essex]]. Mr. Burdock, a local member of the [[landed gentry]], has recently died, leaving two sons: Martin, who married discreditably beneath his class and moved abroad, and Haviland, a businessman in London.

Peter is introduced to a villager who reports having seen a ghostly [[coach (carriage)|coach]], drawn by four headless horses, galloping soundlessly in the middle of the night, which he takes as an omen of death. Peter goes to investigate, finding no clues, but meets the [[High Church]] vicar and learns of an unusual plan for various village inhabitants to keep an overnight vigil, two at a time, for the deceased Mr. Burdock.

Peter then borrows a horse and rides to a neighboring village to catch up with an old [[World War I|war]] comrade. On his way back, late at night and inebriated, he encounters the same ghostly coach, and notes where it goes. In the morning, he learns that the church has been vandalized and the two vigil-keepers locked in the cellar, apparently the work of [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Nonconformists]]. Regardless, Mr. Burdock's coffin is buried.

Investigating where the ghostly coach might have gone, Peter finds a barn containing a number of suspicious items that might have been used to make a carriage appear spectral. He visits the decaying manor house of the late Mr. Burdock, and discovers, behind a water-damaged copy of the [[Nuremberg Chronicle]], the last will of the deceased gentleman. It contains a bizarre stipulation: as long as his body remains above ground, Martin inherits his wealth; but as soon as it is buried, it reverts to Haviland.

Since the body was apparently already buried, Haviland appears to have won, but it soon transpires that the coffin was empty, with the body having been removed by friends of Martin, who arranged the ghostly coach and vandalism of the church to distract from their theft of the corpse. But Haviland is not innocent either; the matching water stains on the Chronicle and the adjacent wall prove that the will had been only recently placed there. Martin, who was not aware of his friends' handiwork until after the fact, declares he will have his father entombed above the ground, and split the fortune with his brother. Lord Peter concludes that the whole affair "throws a sad light on human nature" and departs for London.