Where the Dead Lie by Harris C. S
Author:Harris, C. S. [Harris, C. S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Historical, Crime
ISBN: 9780698167902
Amazon: B01IAUG7CG
Goodreads: 30363074
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 2017-04-04T07:00:00+00:00
Chapter 32
Sebastian stood with his arms crossed at his chest, one shoulder propped against the warehouseâs rough brick wall as he watched Paul Gibson carefully scrape dirt from the bones slowly emerging from the soft earth of the grave.
âHow long do you think itâs been here?â Sebastian asked.
âHard to say.â Gibson grimaced as he shifted his position in a way that threw his peg leg out to one side. âYou bury a body four feet deep, and it can take two or three years to reduce to a skeleton. But at twelve inches like this? There can be nothing left except bones after six months.â
âSo he could have been killed in early spring?â
âProbably. Although I donât think this was a âhe.ââ
âYou can tell?â
âNot with absolute certainty. But the indications are weâre looking at whatâs left of a young girl. Somewhere between fourteen and sixteen.â
âItâs probably Mary Cartwright,â said Sebastian, and felt something tear deep inside him.
Gibson gently lifted the skull free from the earth and turned it in his hands. âShe was buried facedown.â
âI guess whoever buried her didnât want to look at her face.â He gazed off across the rubbish-strewn field to where Mott Gowan, the parish constable, was supervising a party of volunteers clearing weeds from every suspicious-looking mound and hollow. And he knew a rising tide of frustration and helplessness laced with raw, potent fury. âHow the blazes will we ever identify any of them when all thatâs left is bones?â
Gibson set the skull aside and reached again for his trowel. âWe canât.â
⢠⢠â¢
They found the grave of Rory Inchbald next, buried just six inches beneath the earthen floor of the warehouse.
âBloody hell,â said Sebastian, staring down at the one-legged soldierâs pale, dirt-covered face. âHe didnât know anything. Why kill him?â
Mott Gowan swiped one forearm across his face. âMaybe somebody thought he saw moreân he did that night. Or maybe he wasnât tellinâ us everything he knew.â
âBloody hell,â said Sebastian again and turned away.
⢠⢠â¢
By the time Sir Henry Lovejoy arrived at the shot factory after his morning court sessions, they had uncovered three more skeletons.
The day was clear but blustery and unseasonably cold, and the little magistrate huddled deep into his greatcoat as he stared down at one of the half-uncovered skeletons. âFive graves?â
âSo far,â said Sebastian. âOne body, four skeletons. Gibson says all were probably buried sometime in the last two or three years.â
Lovejoy swung his head to stare at Sebastian. âHow can he know that?â
Gibson knew these things because he buried cadaver parts in his own yard and then studied the effects of the passage of time on flesh and bone. But Sebastian could hardly tell the magistrate that. He chewed on the inside of his cheek. âFrom his experiences in the war, I suppose.â
Lovejoy gave him a hard, steady look. âYes; I suppose.â
Together they watched Constable Gowan supervise the loading of a box of bones onto a waiting cart. Sebastian said, âAny luck yet discovering who owns this place?â
âWeâre making progress. Seems the factory used to belong to a woman named Margery Deighton, who inherited it from an uncle.
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