The Drowning Ground by James Marrison

Author:James Marrison
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466857216
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

27

In the end, I decided to take Graves along with me to Lower Slaughter to see Nancy. I let him drive. The trees and bushes rushed past us as the road uncoiled beneath our wheels. We plunged further into the growing darkness while the names of small villages whipped past us and we were enveloped by the falling snow.

‘What did Brewin say?’ I said. ‘Did the samples he took from the body match the missing girls?’

‘The results aren’t in yet. He’ll know tomorrow.’

‘And what about the forensics lab? He phoned them?’

‘Yes. They don’t want to say too much until they’re sure. But they say that they might be able to extrapolate, or at least get some idea of the age from one of the bones. They’re going to have to try to make their best guess from a single bone once the biological profile is complete. The femur is almost intact. But all they can confirm so far is that the body is female.’

‘That’s not much to go on, is it? Nothing else at all?’

Graves shook his head.

The houses looked empty and silent. There was a trampled path of frozen sludge leading towards Number 5 Patch Close, a small semi at the end of the road. A grey Nissan was in the driveway, and a woman with her back to us was lifting bags of shopping out of the boot. She whirled round when she saw us looming out of the darkness towards her.

‘We’re looking for Nancy,’ I said. ‘You’re her sister, right? She told me she’d be staying with you for a bit. While she was here for her old boss’s funeral. Frank Hurst.’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Who are you?’

She was a little older than her sister; tall but with a rounder face. She was looking at me with the bags weighing heavy in her hands, and the plastic digging into her fingers. She slumped slightly and let the bags rest on the ground in the snow.

‘I’m Detective Chief Inspector Downes,’ I said. ‘I’d like to talk to her. Do you know where she is? In the village perhaps?’

‘No. She’s out.’

‘Out where?’

‘She’s gone to Cheltenham. Took the bus.’

‘When?’

‘Oh, about an hour ago.’

‘What for?’

Miss Williams looked worried. ‘Well, she’s meeting someone, I think. She wouldn’t say.’

‘Who?’

‘A man, I think.’

‘A man. Okay,’ I said. ‘Do you know him? Has he ever been to the house to see her?’

‘No. I’ve never seen him.’

‘Local?’

She shrugged.

‘He’s phoned the house? You ever talked to him?’

‘No. He always calls on her mobile or she phones him on hers. They were on the phone this morning.’

‘What’s wrong, Miss Williams? Are you all right?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve been worried about it all day. Look, I don’t want to get her in any trouble, but … I don’t know. I phoned her from work and told her not to go out – not in this weather – but she was adamant about it. We had a bit of an argument. Looks like she might get stuck out there now.’ She looked up at the sky.

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