After catching a glimpse of Sir. Freddy Butler and his three wives, Joyce and Cully decide to take Barnaby along to the Haddington Hall Open Day to see what is so important that Sir. Freddy has called for all his family to be around him as his life slowly starts coming to an end. Sir. Freddy has two children: Michael Butler with his current wife Lady Tara Butler, and the heir of the manor after death Richard Butler who was the result of Sir. Freddy’s first marriage with Lady Annabel. Sir. Freddy has also invited along his second wife, Lady Lucinda, who has made it along with her current lover Simon Oliver.

The heir, Richard, has married himself to Sandra Butler, a tarty woman who has tried everything she can to fit in with the rest of the traditional family but it always backfiring on her. Other relatives of Sir. Freddy are his brother, Teddy Butler. There are also three loyal workers – gardener Amos Brown and the cook and her daughter, Hatty and Jenny Down.

At the evening gathering, Sir. Freddy calls for silence after a hearty meal but dies before he can reveal something, which concerns them all. Bullard can eventually rest assured that Sir. Freddy’s only killer was himself, after living so long in such a lifestyle it was more of a surprise that he didn’t ‘pop his clogs’ earlier. Barnaby is not so sure however, despite his pathologist being wrong, and he is not along in his thoughts. Lady Tara Butler suspects he was murdered.

Jones winds up at the kitchen after getting lost in the house and starts talking to Hatty and Jenny Down. Apparently Jenny saw Simon Oliver searching items of furniture in the smoking room which has closed down for years. What was he doing there? Simon later tells Jones he is an antique’s dealer and always takes a look at such furniture whenever possible. But he and Lucinda just burst out laughing.

Lady Lucinda Butler and Simon are more concerned about matters elsewhere in the house, trying to track down those Haddington emeralds which once belonged to Catherine the Great of Russia, which supposedly are hidden in the house. Finding the next clue hidden away in an item of precious furniture, they are lead to a poetry book in the town where Barnaby is going to visit Sir. Freddy’s solicitor Henry York, to see who benefits from the Will. There is someone watching.

Sadly Barnaby cannot be told who inherits until two days after the funeral. Shortly after leaving, the place is ransacked and Sir. Freddy’s final Will goes missing. Henry tells Barnaby that luckily there are still surviving copies at his house. That evening, Henry’s house is set alight and he falls out of the window on fire. Tyre marks which appear to be from a quad bike lead down from the cottage, and Barnaby knows there is one over at the hall.

At the same time Jones has been questioning members of the Butler family, but none of them believe so much that Sir. Freddy could have been killed. He takes a keen interest on the cook’s daughter, Jenny. She has never known the real identity of her father but Sir. Freddy paid for her to go to University and set up a business. But with all the investigations going on, the last thing Barnaby needs is for his new sidekick to get involved in some romance.

DCI Tom Barnaby

Haddington -