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‘I won’t stay long,’ said Ruth. ‘And I’ll have my daughter with me.’
‘That’s fine,’ said Jamie. ‘We’ve got lots of interactive activities for her to play with.’
Now, glancing at Kate immersed in her phone, Ruth can’t imagine some ‘What would Neolithic people have had for breakfast?’ display keeping her entertained for long. But Kate looks up after a while and they have a good conversation about school and the SaveUNNArch campaign.
‘Megan’s really good at art,’ says Kate. ‘She could make you a poster.’
Ruth hopes that Megan isn’t supplanting Isla as Kate’s best friend. Isla has been a real support in Kate’s first year but, like Ruth and unlike Kate, Isla is slightly shy and socially awkward. Megan didn’t look like she is either of those things. Ruth hopes that Kate isn’t becoming dazzled by her new acquaintance. But, then again, Ruth was part of a friendship triangle at school. Ruth, Ali and Fatima. The three amigas, they called themselves. So maybe it could work. Ruth knows better than to say any of this, though. After all, Kate might only be on walking-to-the-bus-stop terms with Megan. Ruth tries to think of some neutral remark that nevertheless boosts Kate’s self-worth.
‘You’re good at art too. I loved the cards that you made for Dad and Granddad.’ Nelson still hasn’t seen his, she realises.
‘Not as good as Megan,’ says Kate impatiently.
Ruth decides to abandon art appreciation and launches into a description of Grime’s Graves. Kate is fascinated by the mention of Grim, the hooded one.
‘It’s one of the names of the Norse God Odin,’ says Ruth.
‘Sounds a bit like the devil,’ says Kate.
‘The devil isn’t real,’ says Ruth. She’s usually circumspect when talking about God, but she’s not prepared to pay Old Nick any such respect.
‘Nor is Odin,’ counters Kate.
‘I suppose that’s where the word “grim” comes from,’ says Ruth. ‘As in Grim Reaper.’
‘Or the Grim in Harry Potter,’ says Kate.
Ruth can’t remember the Grim in the endless volumes about the boy wizard. Is he an owl? A winged horse? Kate explains that he’s a dog, or rather he’s Harry’s godfather disguised as an animagus. Or something like that.
‘I read somewhere about church grims,’ says Ruth. ‘They’re spirits that guard a particular church. Sometimes they take the form of a black dog.’
‘Maybe that man we saw was one of those,’ says Kate. ‘The man in the church with the paintings.’
Ruth thinks of the bearded man at St Mary’s Houghton-on-the-Hill.Who controls the wheel of fate? One minute we are raised up, the next we are in the depths.Didn’t he also talk about protecting the building from Satanists?
‘He was probably just the church warden or something,’ she says. ‘Great, we’re here. At last.’
‘Where is it?’ says Kate. They are driving along the tree-lined road.
‘Just wait,’ says Ruth. ‘Here it is.’ Once again, the sky opens up and the green and yellow fields are all around them.
‘Where are the graves?’ asks Kate.
‘Under the earth,’ says Ruth. She parks by the visitors’ centre. There’s only one other car there. Is it Jamie’s? Ruth and Kate walk over the grass, Ruth pointing out the undulations that betray the presence of the mine shafts.
‘Can we go down the mines?’ asks Kate, as Ruth knew she would.
‘Maybe,’ says Ruth. ‘Just the one that’s open to visitors.’ She remembers the electric light and the solid metal staircase. It wouldn’t be so bad to go down again and it would mean she could get some proper samples at the right depth.
There’s no sign of Jamie but, on the horizon, Ruth sees a man walking by the edge of the woods, near the mound known at Grimshoe. The trees look dark and sullen in the airless afternoon. Thetford Forest is manmade, planted after the First World War, but, nevertheless, Cathbad has some sinister stories about the place. Ruth also remembers Nelson mentioning a hooded man emerging from the woods during that fateful dig nineteen years ago. So, when the figure detaches itself from the shrubbery and moves towards her, she’s hard put not to scream.
‘Sorry, Ruth,’ says Leo Ballard. ‘Did I scare you?’
‘Of course not,’ says Ruth, moving closer to Kate.
‘You know,’ says Leo, as if he’s carrying on a conversation that has already started, ‘Cathbad and I also thought there were bodies buried here, in the mound. I tried to get funding for a dig but without success. Jamie thinks it was just a meeting place but I’m not so sure.’
Is this what Leo meant about Cathbad knowing where the bodies are buried? An innocuous explanation, if so. Why doesn’t Ruth feel reassured?
