The Stone Circle: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 11

by Elly Griffiths

  She needs to talk to Cathbad. He’d understand all this stuff and he’d also understand why Ruth is considering trekking all the way across the country to look at some old stones. It’s a pilgrimage of sorts and pilgrimages are not meant to be easy. She looks at the time in the right-hand corner of the screen. Nine o’clock. Not too late to ring. She’s not surprised that Cathbad’s mobile goes unanswered (he’s very concerned about harmful vibrations and usually leaves it switched off, much to Judy’s irritation) but when she tries the landline Judy tells her that he’s still out at his meditation class. She sounds rather stressed and so Ruth doesn’t stay on the line to chat. She looks at her Fitbit. Only two thousand steps today. She’s felt rather twitchy ever since Shona asked her to become her ‘Fitbit friend’ which means she can see how many steps Ruth achieves each day. The app even gives you your rankings at the end of the week and Shona always wins. Ruth walks around the room a few times before giving up.

  She goes upstairs to check on Kate (stairs give you extra points) and finds her fast asleep with her head on her cuddly chimpanzee. Flint, who is obviously back from his wanderings, is lying at the foot of the bed. He blinks at Ruth but doesn’t get up. Ruth goes to her own room and stares out over the marshes. There are tiny lights glimmering at the point where the land meets the sea. Phosphorescence. Will-o-the-wisps. Marsh lights. Cathbad would say that they are the ghosts of drowned children but there is also the legend of Jack O’Lantern, the miserable blacksmith forced to wander between heaven and earth, his path illuminated only by a spark of hellfire concealed in a turnip. The devil really does have all the best tricks as well as the best tunes. Ruth pulls the curtains and goes downstairs to bolt the door.

  *

  Nelson and Michelle sit in bed, watching an episode of Breaking Bad on Nelson’s laptop. It’s only half past nine, Laura is still out, but they both feel like it’s the middle of the night. Michelle has been silent for about ten minutes. Perhaps she’s asleep.

  ‘Michelle,’ says Nelson. She doesn’t answer but he continues anyway. On screen a body floats in a swimming pool. ‘I’ve been thinking,’ says Nelson. ‘We should tell the girls. About Katie. I should tell them, I mean.’

  He looks at Michelle. She’s not asleep, in fact she is staring at him intently. The dark roots make her blonde hair almost brown. She looks different, more serious somehow.

  ‘Why tell them now?’ she says.

  ‘They’ll know one day. You’ve been great to let me see Katie but, as she grows up, it’s going to be harder to keep them apart. Also, I don’t know, after last summer – all you and Laura went through – I don’t think we should have secrets.’

  Another silence and then Michelle says, ‘Do you think I should tell them about Tim?’

  When Michelle told him about the affair with Tim, Nelson hadn’t felt in a position to take the moral high ground. And it had been such a strange time, they were all really just happy to be alive and the thought of the baby had sustained them. Even when Nelson had thought that George might be Tim’s, he couldn’t view his birth as anything other than a good thing, cosmically speaking, something bright to set against the darkness. Of course, there is jealousy and anger there too. Nelson hates the thought of Michelle sleeping with another man. He hates the thought of Ruth sleeping with another man, come to think of it. But Michelle has lived with jealousy over Katie for seven years.

  ‘I don’t think you should say anything about Tim,’ he says at last. ‘It’s not as if he’s . . .’

  ‘Alive,’ says Michelle.

  ‘No,’ says Nelson. ‘What good would it do?’

  ‘It might make me feel better,’ says Michelle.

  ‘Do you feel bad then?’ says Nelson.

  ‘Oh, Harry,’ says Michelle, and he thinks she’s near to tears. ‘Of course I feel bad. I had an affair with Tim and now he’s dead. He died because of me. I feel guilty all the time.’

  ‘I feel guilty too,’ says Nelson. But he doesn’t say what for.

  ‘But I’m happy as well,’ says Michelle. ‘Because of George. He’s a miracle baby. Remember what that midwife called him? A menopausal miracle. I love him so much.’

  Nelson wants to ask if she still loves him but George is a safer subject.

  ‘He’s a little cracker,’ he says. ‘I’ll tell the girls at the weekend.’

  ‘I’ll help you,’ says Michelle. ‘I’ll tell them that I’m happy for Katie to be in our lives.’

  She is rewarded for this generosity by falling into a deep sleep but Nelson stays awake for a long time.

  Chapter 21

  Maddie’s article appears in the Chronicle the next morning.

  The man found dead at the Canada Industrial Estate is confirmed to be John Mostyn, 70, of Allenby Avenue, King’s Lynn. His death is being treated as suspicious. Mostyn was one of the main suspects in the disappearance of twelve-year-old Margaret Lacey in 1981. Margaret was last seen at a street party held to celebrate the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer. Despite an extensive police investigation, opened again in 1991, no trace of Margaret was ever found. But, last month, archaeologists excavating a site near Holme in north Norfolk found human remains which were later confirmed to be those of the missing child.

  Margaret’s parents Karen and Bob Lacey never gave up hope that their daughter would be found. Bob died of testicular cancer in 2014 but Karen still lives in the house that she once shared with Margaret and her siblings, Annie and Luke. She said that the discovery of Margaret’s remains would allow them to grieve at last. ‘It’s been hard,’ she said, ‘in some ways time has stood still since Margaret left us. I still think of her as that twelve-year-old girl who loved dancing and ponies and dressing up. Now we’ll be able to bury Margaret and have a place to remember her. Maybe our family can finally find some peace.’ Margaret’s funeral is set to take place on Monday 7th March at St Bernadette’s Church, King’s Lynn.

  The discovery of Margaret’s bones has sparked a major police investigation led by DCI Harry Nelson, the detective who led the hunt for four-year-old Scarlet Henderson in 2008. Scarlet’s body was found buried on marshy ground near Holme. No one was ever tried for her murder. Police wouldn’t confirm a link between Margaret Lacey and John Mostyn but they admitted that they are still interviewing suspects in connection with Margaret’s abduction and death.

  ‘Did we?’ says Nelson. ‘Did we admit that?’

  ‘I love the word “admit”,’ says Judy, who is looking slightly rattled. ‘No, but Maddie saw me leaving the school after talking to Carol Dunne and she must have realised that the investigation is still ongoing.’

  ‘The girl’s a pro,’ says Clough. ‘She’s even managed to get a quote from Karen Lacey.’

  ‘She’s got all the tricks,’ says Nelson. ‘Like saying “no one was ever tried” for Scarlet’s murder. That’s because the man was dead, for God’s sake. She makes it sound like we never solved the case.’

  ‘No mention of Lucy,’ says Clough, ‘who we did find.’

  ‘That’s because it’s still all about Scarlet for Maddie,’ says Judy.

  ‘She’s given a date for the funeral,’ says Tanya. ‘I didn’t think that was set yet. Have Forensics finished with the remains?’

  ‘They said they would release them to the undertaker today,’ says Nelson. ‘Maddie must have some inside knowledge.’

  ‘St Bernadette’s,’ says Clough. ‘That’s the Catholic church, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes,’ says Judy. ‘Remember, the family are Catholic. I don’t think they go to church much though.’

  ‘We should all go to the funeral,’ says Nelson. ‘It would be good if we could have some involvement, just to show that the relationship with the police is good. Judy, could you approach the parents? Maybe suggest that someone does a reading?’

  ‘They like Clough best,’ says Judy. ‘They think he’s in charge.’

  ‘Christ, I don’t want to do a reading,’ says Clough.

  Nelson looks
back at the article which has upset him more than he cares to admit. ‘She makes the link between Margaret and Scarlet,’ he says, ‘not overtly, but she says Holme for both of them when Scarlet was really found nearer Titchwell.’

  ‘Is there a possibility that Scarlet’s killer could have murdered Margaret?’ says Judy. ‘It was twenty years earlier but there was Lucy in between. And it is a similar location.’

  ‘He wasn’t living in Norfolk in 1981,’ says Nelson. ‘I checked. He was in the Shetlands or some such place.’

  ‘The letters make the link too,’ says Judy. ‘If Mostyn did write the new letters he seems to be deliberately invoking the previous ones.’

  ‘How did he know about them?’ says Clough. ‘We never made them public.’

  ‘My guess is the Chronicle,’ says Nelson. ‘Mostyn used to do some photography for them. That place leaks like a sieve.’

  ‘Bloody press,’ says Clough. ‘Who needs them?’

  ‘We do,’ says a voice from the doorway. It’s Super Jo, newspaper in hand. ‘Can I have a word, Harry?’

  *

  Ruth is on her way to the police station, suppressing the faint surge of excitement that always comes with being involved in a case. This is about finding a child’s killer, she tells herself, not about seeing Nelson and being part of the team. Besides, her meeting is with Judy. Nelson might not even be there.

  But, after she has signed in and been escorted to a meeting room, there’s Nelson scowling behind the table and Clough eating a cheese and ham sandwich.

  ‘Judy’s just gone out to get some more sandwiches,’ he says, rather thickly. ‘In case the meeting goes on into lunchtime.’

  Ruth glances at her watch. It’s eleven thirty. She needs to be back at the university at one. ‘What does Judy think about going on the sandwich run?’ she asks.

  ‘We take it in turns,’ says Clough. ‘This is a non-sexist workplace. We’ve got a certificate.’

  ‘This is a non-working workplace at the moment,’ says Nelson. ‘Let’s get on. What have you got for us, Ruth?’

  Ruth gets out her file with Roz’s forensics results and her own notes. Judy comes in and distributes sandwiches and bottles of water. Clough grumbles about the lack of chocolate. Ruth wonders where Tanya is. She usually never misses a strategy meeting.

  ‘Forensic examination of Margaret’s bones found traces of pollen, spores and wildlife—’ she begins.

  Clough interrupts her with a pained expression. ‘Wildlife?’

  ‘When the body was previously buried it would have been consumed by worms and maggots. Insects would have nested in the hair. Traces of their eggs remain. In addition, pollen was found in the nasal cavity. I have a report from an expert palynologist—’

  ‘A what?’ This is Nelson.

  ‘A pollen expert. She traced the pollen found on the remains to this specific area.’ Ruth gets out her map, the three police officers lean over to look.

  ‘That’s basically all of Norfolk,’ says Clough.

  ‘There’s a place called Scarning Fen, near Dereham,’ says Ruth. ‘It’s a very important wildflower reserve because there are some plants there that aren’t found anywhere else in the country. There was moss on the bones that only grows in Scarning Fen.’

  Nelson is frowning at the map. ‘So Margaret was originally buried near Dereham?’

  ‘It looks like it,’ says Ruth. ‘And there were damsel fly eggs too. Scarning Fen is one of the few places in England where you find the red damsel fly.’

  ‘If we go to this fen place,’ says Nelson, ‘do you think you can find where Margaret was buried?’

  ‘I doubt it after all this time,’ says Ruth. ‘Vegetation will have grown so much and the fen is still such a large area. But having a location will help, won’t it?’

  ‘It will help a lot,’ says Nelson. ‘We’ve only really been concentrating on Lynn so far. Now we can find out who has links to this Scarning area. People always choose burial sites for a reason. It has to be somewhere they’re familiar with, maybe a place where they walk their dog or where they camped as a child. Alongside the forensics from the rope, this might help us close in.’

  ‘Have you got the forensics results?’ asks Ruth.

  ‘Tanya’s at the lab. She should be back any minute.’

  ‘That’s her now,’ says Judy. ‘She always hums the Rocky theme when she climbs the stairs.’

  Seconds later, Tanya bursts into the room looking important.

  ‘What have you got?’ says Nelson. ‘Don’t mind Ruth. She’s one of us.’ Ruth keeps her professional face on but she feels her cheeks glowing. One of us. One of the team.

  ‘Mostyn’s DNA is on the bones,’ says Tanya. She pauses for effect. ‘It’s on the stone too, the piece of chalk that was found in the grave. But there’s someone else’s DNA too. The second DNA’s not on the bones but it is on the rope and the gag.’

  ‘So Mostyn’s not the killer,’ says Clough.

  *

  Nelson offers to walk Ruth downstairs. In the incident room she’s surprised to see a cage with two hamsters in it.

  ‘Is it bring your pet to work day?’

  ‘They were Mostyn’s,’ says Nelson. ‘We seem to have adopted them. Cloughie’s named them Sonny and Fredo.’

  ‘The Godfather?’

  ‘What else?’

  They walk down the stairs which are rather grand, with ornate banisters, a relic of the time when this was a gracious town house.

  ‘Is this a breakthrough?’ asks Ruth. ‘The forensics?’

  ‘I hope so,’ says Nelson. ‘I had Jo going on at me this morning. Apparently there’s “concern amongst stakeholders” that we’re not making enough progress. There’s an article in the Chronicle today that makes us sound like the Keystone Cops.’

  Nelson often uses these slightly archaic references. Perhaps he watched a lot of black-and-white films as a child. Another thing Ruth will never know about him. She can imagine that Jo would not be happy about the article, which Ruth read online that morning. Ruth has a sneaking admiration for Super Jo, although she would never admit this to Nelson.

  ‘Is it still OK to take Katie out on Saturday?’ asks Nelson, as they reach the bottom of the stairs.

  ‘Yes, of course,’ says Ruth. She has almost given up correcting him about the name. ‘Have you got any plans?’

  ‘I thought I’d take her to Redwings.’

  ‘Good idea. She loves the horses.’

  ‘Rebecca’s coming down on Sunday to see George.’

  They are at the main doors now but Nelson seems to have something else to say.

  ‘I’m going to tell the girls,’ he says, not looking at her. ‘About Katie.’

  ‘Oh.’ Ruth doesn’t know what to say. She always knew that he would tell them one day, of course, but there’s no denying that she’s dreading it. Nelson’s ‘girls’ are grown women, women who will now hate Ruth.

  ‘Good luck,’ she says at last.

  ‘Thanks,’ says Nelson, rather grimly. ‘What are you doing at the weekend?’

  ‘I’m going to Cambridge on Sunday. To see Frank.’

  ‘I hope it keeps fine for you,’ says Nelson.

  He looks like a thundercloud, though, which Ruth can’t help finding slightly comforting.

  Chapter 22

  It’s hard to find the right moment. Early on Saturday morning Nelson checks on the crime scene in Allenby Avenue. The house, surrounded by police tape, looks lonely and innocuous. A uniformed constable yawns on the doorstep, straightening up when he sees Nelson approaching. Nelson rings Judy and asks her to visit Karen and Pete. ‘Ask about the funeral and try to find out whether anyone’s got any links to Scarning Fen.’

  ‘I’m out all day,’ says Judy. ‘I’m not meant to be working this weekend.’

  ‘Sunday then.’

  ‘We’re visiting my parents.’ But she agrees to visit on Sunday morning. Then Nelson drives to the Saltmarsh to collect Katie. Ruth is friendly enough b
ut seems rather distracted. She has a pile of papers on her desk and is obviously planning to catch up on work. After a few brief pleasantries Nelson installs Katie in the back of his car and they drive to Redwings.

  It’s a bitterly cold day but he enjoys walking through the fields with Katie, trying to engage the horses in conversation. He buys her hot chocolate in the café and she takes him to see the pony that she sponsors.

  ‘I had to get a new one,’ she says, pointing to a black and white blob in the distance.

  ‘Did the old one go away for a holiday?’ says Nelson, treading carefully.

  ‘No, it died,’ says Katie. ‘I think I’d like a donkey next.’

  Before they leave, Nelson fills out the adoption forms for a donkey named Wiggins.

  When he gets home, his mother-in-law has arrived, which is the cue for lots of hugs and George-worshipping. Nelson gets on well with Louise, Michelle’s mother, a smart ash-blonde who still works part-time and drives a pink Fiat 500. Seeing Louise, Michelle and Laura together is like watching a time-lapse photograph but, from a distance, the three beautiful women could almost be sisters. Michelle seems energised by her mother’s presence and cooks them all a delicious lunch. In the afternoon Nelson takes George out in his buggy with Bruno cantering along beside them. Coming home, the lights are on in the house and he can see his wife, mother-in-law and daughter drinking Prosecco in front of the television. Is this the last peaceful family day they will have?