MURDER UNDER THE BRIDGE an addictive crime mystery full of twists by LEWIS ROY

Author:LEWIS, ROY
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books crime, thriller, mystery and suspense
Published: 2021-09-05T00:00:00+00:00

3

Culpeper left Professor Dennis’s room at the same time as Arnold and Jane but he barely spoke, other than to say a brief, gruff goodbye. Arnold watched him walk away to his car, get in and drive out of the narrow street back towards the city centre.

‘If I were to hazard a guess,’ Arnold said, ‘I’d suggest Mr Culpeper has something on his mind.’

Jane nodded. ‘What was it all about?’ she asked. ‘I mean, all that talk about Baillehache and Hagger and so on?’

‘I haven’t the slightest idea.’ Arnold thought back to the professor’s words in the room above, and the impact they had had upon Culpeper. The subdued excitement in the policeman’s bearing and the intensity of his expression had grown significantly as Dennis spoke. Arnold had no idea what lay behind the questions Culpeper had fired at the mediaevalist, but it was clear the answers had great significance for him.

‘Do you think it will be some case he’s involved in?’ Jane asked as they strolled up the hill towards Castle Green.

‘I’m certain of it. When I met Culpeper up at Birley Thore he asked me about drengs but made out it was just a matter of personal interest. After his questioning of Dennis it was so patently nothing of the kind that it must be a police matter. Anyway,’ Arnold concluded, ‘it’s nothing to do with us. When are you going to come up to take a look at the Birley Thore site?’

‘Whenever you say it’s worthwhile.’

Arnold considered for a moment. ‘Leave it with me. Work on the bridge is getting on apace, but I’ll go up to the field site and see what’s happening. Colin Marshall did tell me that Mike Swindon — he’s the mediaeval pottery specialist — is getting impatient to open up the pit they’ve got up there so it might be a good time to come along after that. I don’t know what there’ll be to see, of course,’ he warned.

‘You give me a date, and I’ll come along.’

‘Fine. Well, you’d better leave it with me for a few days, until I get back to you.’

* * *

For the first few days of the following week Arnold was busy at the bridge. The cofferdams had been completed and were being pumped dry; on the Tuesday he was allowed to get down into the first cofferdam and inspect the area carefully. He came out muddied and empty-handed: he had been unable to find any trace of the preceding bridge structure — neither wooden nor stone remains were present.

A close inspection of the bed of the cofferdam demonstrated no evidence of a paved or metalled ford, either. When he clambered out Arnold thought he might make another check and take a closer look at the piers themselves. He climbed down the scaffolding and dropped down into the shallows at the foot of the pier, but he could see there had been a heavy build-up of humic soil against the heavy stone. When he climbed back

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