Blood From a Stone (28 page)

‘Nobody really objected, Belle,' said Jack. ‘Mr Leigh had to be cajoled, but he took part. The thing is, Ashley, Celia Leigh could easily have the idea of a séance suggested to her and believe it was her own idea. But as regards Mr Leigh, I'll say it again. If it wasn't for him, both Wood and I would be goners by now.'

‘He was desperate when he realised that Wood was stuck in the cave,' agreed Isabelle. ‘When he found out what you'd done, he was determined to follow you in case you needed help.'

‘Thank God he did,' said Jack fervently. ‘I was pinned down like a butterfly on a card. Like an idiot, I blundered into the prop holding up the roof and brought it all tumbling down ...' He stopped and Isabelle saw his face change.

‘Jack? What is it?' she said urgently. ‘You look awful. Shall I get the doctor?'

He waved her silent. ‘No, it's not that.' He struggled further upright in the bed. ‘Oh, my God, Belle, I've just remembered
why
I blundered into the prop. I yelled my head off and jumped six feet. There was a body, a body in the grave.'

‘
What?
' exclaimed Ashley. ‘Which grave?'

‘One of the graves that had human sacrifices in them.'

‘
Human sacrifices?
' repeated Ashley in a stunned voice. His eyebrows crawled upwards. ‘I beg your pardon? What's been going on?'

‘Nothing recently,' said Jack with a laugh. Ashley looked so completely at sea he couldn't help it. ‘That ghastly god had human sacrifices made to it and a Victorian vicar, who excavated the caves, found the poor beggars in shallow graves in the cave and re-buried them in the churchyard. He marked where they'd been with wooden covers. The wood must've been affected by the fire, because when I knelt on one, it crumbled underneath me. There was a body in the grave. It gave me no end of a fright, I can tell you.'

‘But this is incredible,' said Ashley. ‘Are you sure it was a body?'

Jack nodded. ‘It was a body, certainly, but, what with one thing and another, such as having the ruddy roof cave on me, I couldn't make what you might call a thoughtful or prolonged examination of the evidence. I was rather more concerned with my own affairs at that point – and for some considerable time afterwards.'

‘I'd better get onto this right away,' said Ashley. ‘By the stars, Haldean, you don't half live. It's just one thing after another. Inspector Rackham's on his way. I'm going to meet him off the quarter-to-two train. If you're going to turn up unexpected bodies, it's probably just as well.'

‘Why's Bill coming?' asked Jack.

‘I'm not sure. He didn't want to go into details on the telephone, but it's something to do with Wood.'

‘I wonder what?' asked Isabelle. ‘There's something very odd about Wood. He doesn't act like a private detective.'

‘You've got so much experience of private detectives, of course,' murmured Jack.

‘Well, he doesn't. He acts as if he was one of the house party, not as if he was an employee at all.'

‘How d'you mean, Mrs Stanton?' asked Ashley. ‘You mean he acts as if he owns the place, perhaps? A bit cocky?'

‘No, it's not like that at all.' Isabelle shook her head in irritation. ‘He just
fits in
.' She sighed and looked at Jack for support. ‘You know what I mean, don't you?'

‘Yes, I do. He told me he wouldn't have done this sort of job before the war. Maybe it's that.'

‘Maybe,' said Isabelle, twisting the silk of the bedspread between her fingers. ‘I thought Mr Wood might be Terence Napier in disguise, but you don't think that's on the cards, do you, Jack?'

‘No, I don't.'

‘I can't see that's possible,' said Ashley. ‘Dr and Mrs Mountford spoke to him at some length in Topfordham. Mrs Mountford told us all about it. She's a noticing sort of woman and the doctor's nobody's fool. They'd have recognised him, even if he was in disguise.' He sighed heavily. ‘I wish I knew what the devil was going on. Your escapades in the cave have taken centre-stage, Haldean, but now there's a body to think about as well as those ruddy jewels. What I can't make out is this danger you're meant to be up against. Going off what Mrs Stanton overheard, it sounds as if Mrs Hawker's gunning for you, but why? What have you done to her?'

‘It's because Jack's a danger to Mr Leigh,' said Isabelle promptly. ‘She said Mr Leigh had committed a murder and she's scared Jack'll find out about it.' She coloured slightly. ‘I know I was eavesdropping, but there was no denying how Mrs Hawker feels about Frank Leigh. She's desperate he doesn't come to harm.'

‘In one way it seems to have worked out,' said Jack. ‘Cue the séance, Wood goes off to spend the night in the cave, and the rest we know. Only we don't know, because Mr Leigh came to the rescue. If he'd wanted to kill me, it would have been easy enough to knock me on the head and let nature take its course. I couldn't have stopped him and Wood was unconscious. He'll never have a better chance.'

‘I'm blessed if I know what to make of it,' said Ashley. ‘However, the fact you've found a body, Haldean, makes the idea of murder that much more credible. Did he actually say,
I've committed a murder
, Mrs Stanton?'

‘More or less. Mrs Hawker said words to the effect of,
this is murder we're talking about. I don't blame you, but this is murder
, and he sort of gulped at her and said he didn't know she knew.'

Ashley shook his head, bewildered. ‘None of it makes sense. There's one thing for sure though, we need to find that body in the cave. That's solid evidence. Then, if Mrs Hawker knows so much about murder, maybe she can give us an explanation.'

‘I'll get up,' said Jack. ‘I can't imagine what the cave's like after the fire, but I can show you where I found the body.'

‘Are you sure?' asked Ashley. ‘I don't want you suffering a relapse.'

‘I'll be fine,' said Jack, which was near enough the truth for his conscience not to be troubled. ‘Besides that, I want to be up and doing when Bill Rackham arrives.'

T
he path up to the temple had been carpeted with lush green moss. Now it was rutted with churned-up ridges of mud and innumerable scars of boots, all bearing witness to the frantic struggles of the night before. The smell of damp, fire-ravaged timber hit them in a dismal wave as they went through the cedarwood door in the temple.

‘I see this part of the cave is more or less untouched,' said Jack, as they splashed past the carving of Euthius weeping his tears into the stream. ‘I couldn't see a thing last night, the smoke was so thick.' He shone his torch at the carvings of
dendrophori.
‘There's a fair old bit of soot, but that should clean off.'

There were lights and voices up ahead. Four men, gardeners from the estate, armed with spades, picks, buckets and a wheelbarrow, were clearing the rubble from the entrance.

‘Morning,' called Jack cheerily, as they approached. ‘My word, you've got your work cut out here and no mistake.' He pulled out his cigarette case and offered it round.

Nothing loath, the men rested on their spades. ‘Are you the gentleman who was pulled out of the cave last night, sir? The one who climbed down the well?' asked one of the gardeners, a grizzled, older man in a moleskin waistcoat. Jack nodded.

The men exchanged looks. ‘It's more'n I'd care to do, and no mistake,' said the gardener. ‘I said as much to Sam, here.' He nodded at a younger man in earth-spattered corduroy who smiled bashfully. ‘We never thought as our old well' ud come in so handy.'

Jack stepped back and looked at the entrance. The men had made an uneven gap about five foot high and three foot wide in the mound of earth and rubble. ‘This must have taken some clearing. Have you been at it long?'

‘Since nine or thereabouts. Excuse me, gentlemen, but were you wanting to go in the cave?'

‘We were, actually.'

The men looked at each other dubiously. ‘I don't know about that, sir. Mr Leigh said nobody was allowed in. He was worried about the roof collapsing, you see.'

‘That's all right,' said Ashley. ‘I'm a police officer. This is official business.'

The men looked at each other and shrugged. ‘Mind your heads, then,' said the man in corduroy. ‘There's a fair old bit of timber down in there.' He reached out his hand to help Isabelle over the rubble. ‘Up you come, miss. Watch your step.'

With her torch as a guide, Isabelle picked her way through the entrance and into the cave, Jack and Ashley close behind.

The light of their torches showed the bulk of the damage was beside the entrance and up the far side of the cave, where the fire had burnt away the timber props of the roof and walls. Jack winced as he saw the mound of rubble he had been trapped under.

Ashley made his way across the stream and directed his torch at the soot-blackened altar. ‘It's enough to give you nightmares,' he said with feeling. ‘I'm not surprised there's so many tales about Breagan Stump, with that thing in the middle of it. Who the devil is it meant to be?'

‘I imagine it is more or less meant to be the devil,' said Jack. ‘According to Duggleby, it's a British god called Euthius from late-ish on in Roman times. The Reverend Throckmorton, the Victorian vicar he quotes endlessly, thinks Euthius was the god of an anti-Christian cult.'

‘I wouldn't expect to see his picture on a Christmas card, that's for sure,' said Ashley. ‘And that ghastly thing had human sacrifices made to it?'

‘He nearly had a couple more chalked up to him last night.'

Isabelle shuddered and Jack squeezed her arm comfortingly. ‘Come on. Let's see what we can turn up.' He shone his torch at the roof. ‘I think everything that was going to fall has fallen already, but we'd better not make any sudden noises.'

They picked their way across the uneven ground. The remains of a roof timber, charred and hollow with white ash, lay scattered across the shallow depressions of the graves.

‘There were six graves in all,' said Jack. ‘Six grave covers, anyway.' He crouched down and shone his torch along the ground. ‘The covers have mostly burned away but there's a rim of wood round the edges.' He reached out and the wood crumbled to ashes in his hand.

‘Are you sure there were six graves?' asked Isabelle. ‘I can only see five.'

‘One's under the rubble, Mrs Stanton,' said Ashley. ‘I can see the edge of it. Haldean, where were you when you found the body?'

Jack stood up and, with his torch, picked out the broken beam which had pinned him to the ground. Looking behind him, he took a few paces backwards. ‘This is the place. Which means,' he added, directing the light downwards, ‘the grave in question should be ... here!'

They crowded round. The depression in the earth was filled with ash and scattered earth, but nothing else.

‘It'll be one of the others, I daresay, Haldean,' said Ashley. ‘You probably mistook the place, and no wonder, on top of everything else that was going on.'

They carefully searched through the rest of the uncovered graves. They found a great deal of ash but nothing else.

Ashley rocked back on his heels. ‘Haldean, you can see for yourself there's nothing here. Could you have imagined it?'

‘No, I couldn't. I admit I didn't stand and gaze at the thing, but there was a body in the grave, all right.'

Ashley ran his hand round his chin. ‘It wasn't a skeleton, was it? I'm wondering if it was an ancient body that this Victorian vicar overlooked somehow. If they were old bones, they might have been burned in the fire and be mixed up with all this ash.'

‘It wasn't a skeleton. I knelt on the thing and it was, if you'll pardon the expression, all squishy.'

‘Then where the deuce is it?' said Ashley, getting to his feet. ‘It'll be difficult to get the chief constable to take any action if we haven't got any evidence to show him. He can't argue with a corpse but if we haven't got one to show him, it's going to be tricky.'

‘It was here last night,' said Jack firmly. ‘It's not here now. Therefore it's been moved.'

‘But who could have moved it, Jack?' asked Isabelle. She stopped. ‘I don't suppose Mr Leigh could have, could he?'

‘He
could,'
agreed Jack. ‘After he pulled me out from under that ruddy beam I was spark out until the firemen came to the rescue. He could have moved a hundred bodies and I wouldn't be any wiser. The trouble is, I know what you heard him say in the gallery all right, but he saved my life.'

‘Which doesn't stop him from being guilty, more's the pity,' said Ashley.

‘Let's have a word with the men clearing the rubble,' said Jack. ‘They'll tell us if anyone's been in here.'

But the gardeners' account was nearly, if not quite, conclusive. There had been a succession of sightseers coming and going to the entrance all morning, which Jack could well believe. Gazing at the aftermath of a fire was such a natural human response that he wouldn't have credited it if they'd said otherwise. As far as getting into the cave itself, though, the gardeners were sure that no one, bar themselves, had done it. No, not even Mr Leigh. Quite apart from Mr Leigh's instructions, the hole hadn't been big enough to get through with any ease until an hour or so ago. Which wasn't, as Isabelle said, the same thing as saying that no one
had
got through; it was just they hadn't been spotted doing it.

‘They'd have to get out again, though,' said Ashley. ‘They'd be very lucky not to be seen either coming or going.'

‘The body was here,' insisted Jack. ‘Someone's moved it.'

‘Well, where is it now, Haldean?'

‘It must be in the cave somewhere,' said Isabelle. ‘I still think someone could have waited their moment and sneaked in and out, but I can't see them taking a body with them.'