Blind to the bones
( Ben Cooper and Diane Fry - 4 )
Stephen Booth
Blind To The Bones By Stephen Booth
It’s nearly May Day and deep in the Dark Peak lies the village of Withens. Not a tranquil place but one troubled by theft, vandalism, strange disappearances and now murder. A young man is killed — battered to death and left high on the desolate moors for the crows to find.
Ben Cooper, part of the investigating team, meets an impenetrable wall of silence from the man’s relatives who form Withens’ oldest family. The Oxleys are descendants of the first workers who tunnelled beneath the Peak. They stick to their own area, pass on secret knowledge through the generations, and guard their traditions from ovitsidcrs.
Detective Diane Frv is in Withens on other business — looking into the disappearance of Emma Renshaw. The student vanished into thin air two years ago, but her parents are convinced she is still alive and act accordingly… which doesn’t help Fry in her efforts to re-open the case folio-wing an ominous discovery in remote countryside.
But there are other secrets in Withens and more violence to come… The past is stretching its shallow over the present, not just for the inhabitants of Withens but for Cooper antl Frv as well.
;
Stephen Booth was born in the Lancashire mill town of Burnley, and has remained rooted to the Pennines during his career as a newspaper journalist. He is well known as a breeder of Toggenburg Goats and includes amontj his other interests
O
folklore, the Internet — and walking in the hills of the Peak District, in which his novels are set. Blintl to the Bones is the follow-up to the stunning psychological thrillers Blood on the Tongue, Dancing with the Virgins and Black Dog.
He lives with his wife LttsJuiJn a former Georgian dower llnHB^i^^^mBpghamshire.
Up-to-date news of Stephen’s latest ““ŤSiblications and appearances can be found is website: www.slephenbooth.com
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BLIND TO THE BONES
By the same author
Black Dog
Dancing with the Virgins Blood on the Tongue
I
STEPHEN BOOTH
Blind to the Bones
kiarperCollmsPublisbers
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The tjles characters
and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the^or’s imagination
Any resemblance to actual persons, living oijia(j events Or
localities is entirely coincident;
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I
For Tom Jefferson
I’m grateful to John and Von Morley, and members of Black Pig, for their help during the writing of this book. Although the Border Rats are fictional, the Border tradition exists in many parts of Britain. For a taste of the real thing visit: http://members.aol.com/BlackPigl/BLACKPIG.html
1
Friday
As soon as he opened the door, he could hear the screaming. It ripped through the damp air and shrieked in the yews. It echoed from the gravestones and died against the walls. It was like the sound of an animal, dying in pain. Yet this sound was human.
With every breath he took, Derek Alton seemed to draw the noise into his own lungs with the air, until something like an answering scream came from deep inside him. The asthmatic wheeze of his inflamed air passages was so high pitched that his ears couldn’t locate its direction, but identified it as a noise that came from the air around him. The pain in his upper chest told him where that noise came from.
And Alton knew where the screaming came from, too.
With shaking fingers, he brushed some of the dust from his sleeve. The exertion had made his collar stick to the back of his neck, and a few strands of hair had fallen over his forehead, where they lay like barbed wire on his skin. He rubbed at a fresh scratch on his knuckles, but managed only to smear a streak of blood across the back of his hand. He could taste dust in his mouth, too - old dust, the debris of years, stirred into the air by a random act of violence.
The screaming reminded Alton of the shriek of agony he had once heard from a rat, when a terrier had flushed it from its nest in a barn and its back had been broken under a farmer’s spade. The dying rat had squealed with its last strength, as its legs kicked and its pale claws clutched and uncoiled in the dry earth.
Now he waited, expecting to hear other noises. At first, there was only the stirring of the breeze in the yews and the drip of
rainwater from the ivy on the church walls. But gradually he began to distinguish something else - a rhythmic thudding. It reverberated inside a room some distance away, well beyond the first houses on the road into Withens. It was like a ritual drumbeat, folding over on itself and creating multiple layers of sound. He shivered as he recognized the undertones of menace, which spoke of imminent death.
Then there was a burst of laughter somewhere in the village, followed by the slam of a door. A female voice shouted something that Alton couldn’t make out. It was just one sentence, half a dozen words, and then the voice had gone. Further away, a ewe called to its lambs on the slopes of Withens Moor, where the hefted flocks still roamed their territories on the heather and peat bog. Alton had seen Withens Moor. He had seen Black Hill and Hey Moss, too. And he knew the moors themselves were dying.
Death had been on Derek Alton’s mind all day. He had awoken with a jolt in the early hours of the morning, panicking that he might have disturbed Caroline with one of his bad dreams. But as soon as he opened his eyes and stared at the faint light on the bedroom curtains, he realized that his mind had been banging back and forth like a pendulum, swinging between the distant dualities of darkness and light, winter and spring, death and renewal. He might have been thinking of the end of winter and the first invasion of spring. But, mostly, he was sure he had been thinking of death.
Alton heard footsteps approaching through the aisle of the church. There were no carpets in St Asaph’s, and his visitor was wearing heavy work boots that thumped on the stone flags.
He turned back towards the nave and squinted at the figure moving slowly out of the light to stand beside him. Once they were standing close together, the porch of the church seemed far too small.
Neil Granger was wearing a black leather jacket of the kind that Alton thought of as motorcyclist’s gear, though he knew Neil didn’t have a motorbike, only the old Volkswagen Beetle he used for getting to and from his job at the Lancashir
e Chemicals factory in Glossop. He looked very tired.
‘You might as well go, Neil,’ said Alton. ‘You can’t do any more here tonight.’
Neil had sweat running from his temples into the black smudges on his cheeks. He wiped a hand down the side of his face, spreading
the smudges even more. But he looked at Alton with concern when he heard his wheezing.
‘Are you sure you’re all right?’
‘I’m fine/ said Alton. ‘I just needed some fresh air. And we ought not to do any more until the police have been to take a look.’
‘Don’t hold your breath, then. They might get here next Easter.’
‘I know, I know. But all the same …’
‘You want to do things by the rules.’
Alton sighed. ‘I wish there were still rules for this kind of thing.’
‘You like rules, don’t you? It goes with the job, I suppose.’
‘Well, there are the Ten Commandments.’ But Alton smiled to show that he knew it was a joke.
‘In Withens?’ said Neil.
‘Yes, even in Withens.’
‘I think you’ll find they’ve broken all the tablets of stone.’
A few feet away, a blackbird scuttled into the undergrowth over the horizontal gravestones that lay like fallen monoliths in front of the church. The blackbirds were always the last to go to their roosts in the dusk. They hopped jerkily across the graves in the half-light and rustled hopefully among the dead leaves, searching for insects and larvae. It was enough to make some people nervous of entering the church at this time of night. Even the blackbird had its duality. It was a creature of darkness, as much as of light.
Neil flapped the lapels of his jacket to fan his face. Alton could smell his sweat, and he felt a surge of affection and gratitude towards the young man for taking the trouble to stop by and help. Not many people would have done that. Not in Withens.
‘I appreciate what you’ve done, Neil,’ he said.
But instead of acknowledging Alton’s thanks, Neil turned his face away, staring out into the churchyard.
‘Vicar,’ he said, ‘I’m sorry.’
‘What for?’ said Alton, surprised.
Neil waved a hand vaguely towards the village. ‘Well, all this. It’s not what you expected, is it? Not what you deserve really, I suppose.’
‘I don’t know what you mean, Neil.’
Neil laughed, then coughed as the dust got into his throat. Alton caught the glitter of the rings in his ear and the sheen of his black hair. He wanted to put his hand round the young man’s shoulder and tell him it was all right. Whatever Neil was apologizing for,
it was perfectly all right. But he hesitated, worrying that the gesture might be misinterpreted, then cursing himself for being so cautious. He ought to be able to give forgiveness, if that was what Neil Granger needed. But by the time the reactions had run through his brain, the moment had passed, and it was too late.
In any case, Neil immediately seemed to have forgotten what he had been saying, and his mood changed again.
‘Well, like I said, we’ll tackle the churchyard this weekend.’
‘Yes,’ said Alton. ‘We’ll do that.’
‘I was hoping Philip would help us, but he’s being mardy about it.’
‘Your brother is busy these days. I understand.’
‘Some new business he’s got involved in. I don’t know what he’s up to any more. But we’ll get it sorted between the two of us, eh? Remember, Vicar - death and renewal, winter and spring ‘
‘The darkness and the light.’
‘That’s it. Time for a bit of light on the subject, I reckon.’
Neil turned to look at the vicar then, but Alton could barely see his eyes. They, too, were dark, and they were at the wrong angle to catch the light leaking into the porch from the nave. Alton couldn’t tell what expression was on Neil’s face. But a strange thought ran through his mind. If he had been able to read Neil’s eyes at that moment, he might not have seen any expression at all - only a reflection of the gravestones outside in the churchyard.
‘I’ve got to be up early in the morning, anyway,’ said Neil.
Alton nodded. ‘Do you remember, the year before last ?’
But Neil held up a hand before Alton could finish his question.
‘I don’t even want to think about it,’ he said. ‘Two years ago, Emma should have been there.’
‘Of course. I’m sorry.’
‘It’s all right. I suppose it seems a long time ago now, for most people. I don’t expect everybody to remember.’
‘But I do remember,’ said Alton. ‘And there are her parents, of course.’
‘Oh, her parents remember,’ said Neil.
Because of the failing light, Alton could see little beyond the wall of the churchyard now, except the streetlights in Withens. He was sure it wasn’t Caroline’s voice he had heard in the village earlier. Perhaps it had been Fran Oxley, or even Lorraine, or one of the other members of the Oxley family.
But it definitely wasn’t Caroline - she would never laugh like that, or shout so loudly in public. At this moment, Caroline would be walking past the Old Rectory, averting her eyes from the house and garden until she could turn into the crescent and reach their bungalow.
Somewhere in the darkness beyond the streetlights was Waterloo Terrace, where the Oxleys lived. Alton could picture the eight brick cottages, tightly packed like a row of soldiers, standing shoulder to shoulder against the larger stone buildings that clustered around them.
Derek Alton and Neil Granger stood in the church porch a few moments longer, listening to the noises from the village. The screaming faded, then grew louder again.
‘Does that sound like a rat to you?’ said Neil.
‘Yes, it does.’
Neil nodded. ‘OK, then.’
He rubbed at his face as he began to walk away down the flagged path. His clothes rustled like the sound of the blackbird in the dead leaves. Alton lifted his head for a second to look towards the village. And when he turned back, he found that Neil had already disappeared into the darkness beyond the yew trees.
Later, Derek Alton would have a lot to regret. He would be sorry that he hadn’t watched Neil Granger leave, and hadn’t observed the moment when the young man passed out of his sight. Perhaps he could have called Neil back and said something that might have changed his mind. But he hadn’t. Alton had been too distracted by the noise coming from the village, and too absorbed in his own concerns. He would feel guilty for that, too.
But most of all, Derek Alton would regret not saying goodbye.
There were ten more dead bodies to collect that night. Others had probably died underground, or had been trapped deep in the spaces between the stone arches and the hillside behind them. But Sandy Norton wasn’t satisfied.
‘We’re going to have to put more poison down,’ he said. ‘The buggers are breeding like, well ‘
‘Rats?’
‘Yeah.’
Norton shone his torch into the mouth of the middle portal. It was one of the nineteenth-century tunnels, the old westbound line, which wasn’t used for anything these days. The railway track
had long since been ripped up, and the tunnel abandoned. The arched walls glistened with water, and a small stream ran into a stone conduit near his feet. Just beyond the limit of his torch beam, there were shadowy, scurrying movements on the dirt floor.
‘It makes you wonder what they find to eat,’ said his mate, Jeff Cade, as he took off his rubber gloves and put them away in a pocket of his overalls. ‘I mean, aren’t they supposed to live near people? You’re never more than six feet away from a rat, and all that? But there are no houses around here any more.’
Norton laughed. ‘That’s no problem. Look up there, where the old station and platforms used to be. You see that car park and the picnic area, right? Well, that’s like a drive-in McDonald’s as far as these little buggers are concerned. Just think - there’s all the food
that people leave on the grass when they’ve been having their picnics, and all the bits of sandwiches and chocolate bars, and God knows what, that they chuck out of their car windows. There’s thousands of people coming past here, especially at the weekend, ever since they turned the old railway line into a footpath.’
‘It’s called the Longdendale Trail. I know.’
‘And then there’s the road up there - the A628. Have you ever seen how much stuff lorry drivers bung out of their cabs? You can’t walk along the roadside up there without getting splattered with lumps of flying pork pie and pasties. It’s disgusting. Particularly when they have tomato sauce. I hate tomato sauce. But it means there’s waste food lying all along the roadside. Not to mention the cafes in the lay-bys. The bins are overflowing with rubbish up there sometimes.’
‘I suppose you’re right.’
‘No, there might not be people living here any more. But the whole world comes by to feed the rats in Longdendale.’
‘It’s a good job they can’t get to the cables in the other tunnel. They can gnaw their way through anything, given time, can rats.’
‘We need some more poison, anyway,’ said Norton.
A few yards away, in the old eastbound tunnel, a pair of four hundred thousand volt cables ran through a concrete trough. The cables entered the tunnel three miles away at Dunford Bridge, carrying a section of the National Grid between Yorkshire and Manchester. As they emerged again at Woodhead, they ran past a relay room, then up into a series of giant pylons that marched down the valley towards Manchester. The abandoned Woodhead
tunnels had saved the moors from being covered in pylons lor those three miles.
Sandy Norton had often admired the quality of the stonework in the tunnel arches, which had survived in good condition for more than a hundred and fifty years. But their present use was one the navvies who built the tunnels couldn’t have imagined as they hacked their way through the hill with their pickaxes and gunpowder.
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