AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Calm,’ says Clough. ‘Resigned.’
‘There’s often an element of relief when remains are found,’ says Nelson, ‘but we have to tread carefully.’
It’s not often a DCI and a DI make house calls together but Gordon Pickering, a retired GP, seems reassured by their seniority.
‘We only had a DS before,’ he said. ‘He never really seemed that interested.’
‘It must have been a terrible ordeal for you,’ says Nelson. They are sitting in a comfortable room filled with books and family pictures. A brown Labrador pants at their feet.
Naomi Pickering, a bird-like woman in mud-stained dungarees, says, ‘It was a nightmare. It’s all been a nightmare. It’s the not knowing. . .’
Gordon makes a patting gesture without making contact. Clough says, ‘Can you tell us about Emily?’
Naomi reaches for a framed photograph on the mantelpiece. It shows a pretty curly-haired girl in what look like graduation robes.
‘This is Emily at her matriculation,’ says Naomi. Then, seeing the blank looks, ‘You matriculate at the beginning of your Cambridge career. It means joining the roll. Emily was reading archaeology at St Jude’s College. She never got to graduate.’
Several things about this statement make Nelson uneasy. Archaeology is one. And Ruth once taught at St Jude’s College. Also, Emily reminds him of someone.
‘Do you have other children?’ asks Nelson, making sure to use the present tense. Naomi produces another picture of a fresh-faced graduate. ‘Sophie. She’s two years younger. She’s a doctor now.’
Emily was twenty when she vanished in 2002. She would be nearly forty now, Sophie in her late thirties. But, here in this room, they are both eternally young.
‘When did you last see Emily?’ asks Clough. He’s doing the sensitive thing quite well, thinks Nelson, leaning forward, engaged and unthreatening. Nelson realises his own arms are crossed and uncrosses them.
‘She was coming home for the Easter holidays,’ says Naomi, ‘but she was doing a field trip first. We thought she’d just been delayed but, when it got to Good Friday and she hadn’t turned up, we contacted the college. Emily had left the field trip on the Monday and no one had seen her since.’
‘Where was the field trip?’ asks Nelson.
‘Grime’s Graves,’ says Naomi.
‘Where’s that?’ says Nelson.
‘It’s in Thetford,’ says Naomi. ‘There are all these old mines there. From Stone Age times.’
This, together with the sinister name, makes Nelson feel very twitchy. Then Gordon says, as if he has been holding it in, ‘It was all his fault. Emily’s professor. Ballard. I’ve always thought he had something to do with it.’
‘Gordon. . .’ Naomi makes a shushing gesture. ‘You can’t say things like that. Remember. . .’
‘I don’t mind how many times he sues me for defamation,’ says Gordon. ‘I still think he was involved. Him and that so-called druid. What was his name? Cathbad.’
Clough and Nelson stare at each other. Sensing a change in the atmosphere, the dog starts to bark.
Nelson and Clough drive to the nearest open space, a recreation ground where a bad-tempered game of Saturday football is in progress. They park and get out of their cars.
They lean against Clough’s jeep and, for the first time in years, Nelson wishes he still smoked.
‘Do you think it’s our Cathbad?’ says Clough.
Gordon Pickering told them that Emily was part of an ‘elite archaeology group’. ‘They used to do all sorts of weird things: go to stone circles to watch the sun come up, eat Stone Age food, spend the night in bloody caves underground.’ The group had been led by Professor Leo Ballard but another member had been a druid called Cathbad.
‘It certainly sounds like our Cathbad,’ says Nelson. ‘He would have been living in Norfolk at the time and working at a university. Remember, he was a lab assistant at UNN.’
‘It’s hard to imagine Cathbad doing a real job.’
‘He’s had a few of them. He used to be a postman.’ And found time to deliver a few poison pen letters to the police, Nelson remembers.
‘Are you going to ask him about Emily?’
