Jail Fever by Lexie Conyngham

Author:Lexie Conyngham [Conyngham, Lexie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910926345
Publisher: The Kellas Cat Press
Published: 2017-11-22T22:00:00+00:00

VII

Notwithstanding the fact that she had scarcely spoken to him since the police had appeared, Catriona offered to give Tom a lift, as promised, to the Establishment. He thought of walking, but decided that she would rather he refused, and anyway, he added to himself to justify his perverse argument, the wind was still discussing rain and he had no coat with him.

The police constable had taken a statement from each of them about the last time they had seen Rob and the state in which they had found the tent. Catriona’s statement had been more lengthy than Tom’s, going into details about Rob’s apparent frame of mind and his personal habits relating to whiteboards and car keys. She also explained how they had seen the remains of the note on the whiteboard and assumed that Rob had an assignation of some kind at five o’clock. That set the constable scribbling: it meant that Rob had vanished within a very small window of time.

Tom had wandered off a little, not wishing to seem to be eavesdropping. Surprisingly, Chief Inspector McAlester seemed to take the matter of Rob’s disappearance quite seriously. Tom had always thought that adults, particularly male adults, were considered by the police to have minds of their own and to be free to come and go as they pleased. But the circumstances here at the dig site probably changed that, the abandoned car and the wrecked tent.

He looked around the dig site. He had never been to an archaeological dig before, and was rather disappointed that this one had finished. The little mound looked a bit hacked about, and a small ruined hut had a scarified look, stripped bare of undergrowth, but the fresh green heads of young nettles were growing up secretly amongst the yellow stubble. The field then met a little meandering stream with muddy banks, and beyond that there was scrub-like woodland. It did not look as if the field was used regularly for anything much by Elysian Fields, whose neat dark hedges seemed to have been delivered ready moulded by the metre.

What had the mysterious Alf been doing here seven hundred years ago? Why had he been buried here? It seemed a bleak enough place even now, with the withdrawn presence of the various research establishments. What it must have looked like in 1300 he could easily imagine.

The police offered to leave a constable at the tent until they had finished with it, and to let the Archaeology Department know when they could come and take it down. They wanted to remove Rob’s car themselves for further examination, and Catriona watched it go with some reluctance. It was as if she could not decide for herself whether Rob had been abducted or not, however hard she tried to persuade others. He might, after all, come back and think his car had been stolen.

There was not much more conversation in Catriona’s car on the way to the Establishment. She drove in silence, her mind obviously far away, though she responded readily enough to Tom’s directions.

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