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‘Okay. Are you sure you don’t want me to come up, though?’
‘No, we’ll be fine. Why don’t you make sure everyone is up and sorted so we can be ready to start as soon as we know everything’s all right?’
‘Sure thing. Oh, hang on, here comes Scott now. He’s been for a run by the looks of things.’ Cam heard him call out an enquiry to Scott, but couldn’t catch the reply. ‘He’s been round the woods,’ Adam relayed a few moments later. ‘Said he did a couple of laps of the yellow route and didn’t see anyone.’
Cam tried to recall the map Hope had shown him a couple of weeks ago. He couldn’t remember the exact layout of either the yellow or the red routes, but neither of them went anywhere near the dig site. ‘Okay, thanks. I’ll give you a call back ASAP.’
Hope paused at a junction, turned to look at Cam and he shook his head. ‘I don’t like this at all,’ she muttered as she crossed the main road and began to follow the gentle incline up towards the site. Well, he supposed it was some comfort that he wasn’t the only one feeling uneasy.
They arrived to find Ziggy and Declan deep in conversation in the middle of the compound. Ziggy had his phone out and was typing something into it.
‘Is everything okay?’ Hope called out.
‘You’d better come and see for yourself,’ Declan said, his expression grim.
Cam exchanged a worried look with Hope as he held open the pedestrian gate for her to enter. They followed the foreman as he led them over to the cabin they were using as the site office. ‘Someone forced the door,’ Declan said, pointing at the jamb. ‘There’s scratches here from a crowbar or something similar.’
‘Have they taken anything?’ Instead of answering, Declan stood to one side so they could see inside the open door.
‘Jesus Christ.’ A scene of absolute devastation greeted them. The chairs and tables had been upended and stuff was strewn everywhere.
‘I haven’t gone further than the top step because I didn’t want to touch anything,’ Declan said from behind Cam. ‘Whatever they used to force open the door has been used to break into the lockers as well.’
‘Oh, God, that’s awful!’ Hope exclaimed. ‘Have they taken anything?’
Cam turned away from the mess to see Declan shaking his head. ‘I don’t know. It looks like whoever it was has dumped the kit, but I don’t know if any of the kids left their valuables. There was a petty cash box in the desk with about a hundred and fifty quid in it. I couldn’t spot it in amongst all the mess, but as I said, I haven’t been inside.’
‘I’ve spoken to the police,’ Ziggy said, coming to join them. ‘They’re going to get someone from the investigation team to give me a call. I’m not expecting much of a response given how many people have been in and out of the office. As soon as I’ve got a report reference for the insurance company, I’ll get onto them. Do we know if the cabin door can be secured?’
‘I haven’t tried yet as I didn’t want to touch anything,’ Declan replied.
Ziggy nodded. ‘Let’s leave it as is until the police call me back and we’ll go with whatever they advise.’ He huffed out a breath. ‘I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do because we’ve never had anything like this happen before.’ His phone began to ring and he walked away to answer it.
‘Who the hell would bother to break in?’ Cam wondered. ‘Apart from the cashbox and whatever they found in the lockers, there’s nothing of any real value.’ The main equipment was kept in a secure container at the other end of the compound and Cam spun towards it.
‘This is the only unit they’ve damaged,’ Declan said, as though reading his mind. ‘I would’ve said it was kids up to no good, until I checked the lock.’ He reached into his pocket and pulled out the code lock Cam recognised from the gate. ‘There’s no sign of tampering, so unless we didn’t lock it properly last night, it must have been someone who knew the code. I’d better make a list of everyone I gave it to.’
Cam closed his eyes, trying to picture leaving the site the previous evening. Declan had already gone to meet his wife ready for the barbeque, so Cam had closed up. He’d been chatting with Cassie, but he was sure he’d secured the lock behind them, but maybe he hadn’t? He’d rather it was his error than consider someone they thought they could trust was responsible. ‘I can’t be 100 per cent about the lock, but I’m pretty sure I closed it as we left. We all walked back to the campsite afterwards, and everyone was together when we went to the farmhouse and back. I spoke to Adam earlier and the only person who left the campsite since then was Scott and he only went for a run around the woods. I don’t for one moment believe anyone on my team would be capable of something like this.’
‘Oh, I’m sure it’s no one involved with the project,’ Hope agreed. ‘Everyone was so excited last night, I can’t believe they’d risk sabotaging things.’
‘Plus they’d know there was nothing of value in the office,’ Declan added. It wasn’t exactly an endorsement, but the site manager didn’t know them as well as Cam did, so he let it go. Declan frowned. ‘The only other person I can think of is that lass who’s doing the cleaning. I forgot to give it to her when she dropped by, so I sent her a text with the code on it.’
‘Lass?’ Hope looked surprised. ‘I’d hardly call Daisy Riley a lass.’
‘The Riley bit’s right, but the girl who showed up here was called Amelia. She had all my details from Mrs Davis and came at the pre-arranged time for her safety briefing.’ He turned towards Cam. ‘You remember her popping in, right?’
Cam shook his head. ‘Can’t say I do, but there was a lot going on yesterday.’
‘Amelia is Daisy’s daughter,’ Hope interjected. ‘Daisy’s come down with a cold so Amelia is filling in for a few days. Sorry, I should’ve mentioned it to you both.’
Declan didn’t look happy, and Cam couldn’t blame him. The site manager took his job very seriously. ‘Well, she never said anything about that yesterday when she signed the risk assessments. I can’t have one person signing on behalf of another, even if they’re only coming to do a bit of cleaning. The insurance would have a field day if something happened.’
Hope shook her head. ‘I’ve known Amelia all my life and she’s not the type to deliberately mislead anyone. There’s a lot going on with her family, so don’t be too hard on her, please. When Daisy is well again, you can run through everything with her.’ Hope glanced towards her uncle. ‘I’ll talk to Ziggy, and we’ll try and get an update on the situation.’
As Hope walked away with a frown on her face, Cam turned back to the problem at hand. ‘If the lock still works, will the cabin be safe to use?’
Declan shrugged. ‘I’ll have to talk to the hire company once we’ve got the go-ahead from the police. They’ll probably want to swap out the unit, which will be a pain in the arse, but not the end of the world. I’ll see about getting a stronger lock for the gate and I think we should install a security light and an alarm on the compound. It’ll be up to them, I guess, as they’re the ones footing the bill, but that’s what I’d recommend.’ Declan nodded towards Hope and Ziggy.
