by Jane Adams
Treven drew back his arm. His aim was straight and true. Hugh fell and lay very still and Treven waited, watching the blood flow from the wound and then cease. When at last he knelt and pulled the weapon free, the ground beneath Hugh’s body had sucked the final life from him. He imagined that it left his imprint on bare ground, earth reddened and nourished by his blood.
Treven lifted the body of his one-time friend and tied it across the saddle bow of Hugh’s mount. He then broke the shaft from the spear, casting it aside. The spearhead itself he cleaned with freshly fallen snow, wiping blood and soot away from the twining patterns that brought the blade to life and gleamed like dulled sunlight against the silver winter.
* * *
From the writings of Abbot Kendryk of Storton Abbey, Year of Grace 878.
That day he came to me, with the precious heirloom of his house wrapped in red cloth. He knelt, this man who knelt before none but his King and laid it at my feet.
“It is best you keep this for me,” he said. No explanation or excuse. He laid the instrument of his judgement at my feet and then left me to make mine. I knew when I unwrapped this weapon, so beautifully wrought, so precious and so deadly, what he had done.
Should I have called him to account for this? I will let those who come after me make their own judgement on that score. But I will say this. I have never had cause to regret my decision, to take this thing from his hands and then to take it to my grave with me. I have ordered that this is to be so and the other things beside, those things of Hugh de Vries that Treven kept and from time to time sold to relieve the suffering of his people. The rest, he gave also into my care. It was his belief that no good could come of handing them down to his sons and to their children and I believe that, at least, was a sound judgement.
For the other, God will examine the hearts of each one of us come that great day when we stand before him and, for my part, I would give more for the heart of Treven of Theadingford than that of Hugh de Vries.
EPILOGUE
Rozlyn arrived home after the raid on Mark Richards’ house to find a message on her phone. Her grandfather had fallen ill. There was little hope of him surviving. Could Rozlyn come at once? It made everything else seem wholly unimportant.
It was three in the morning but by five she had arranged her flight and it seemed the most natural thing in the world for her to call Ethan and ask for a lift to the airport.
Her flight left at nine and, gazing out of the window, glimpsing the patchwork of land below the high, wispy cloud, Rozlyn prayed that she would be in time to say goodbye to this old man that was the last of her family. To wish him safe journey and Godspeed to whatever destination he might be headed.
From up here, Rozlyn thought, it was easy to imagine the web of life and fate stretching across the world and linking all things living and . . . whatever the opposite might be. The web that had brought her into Ethan’s life and Ethan into hers and Mrs Chinowsky and the old man at The Larks. And Donovan Baker. Rozlyn wouldn’t rest until Baker had been found. Silently, she promised the ghost of Charlie Higgins and the living spirit of the Mouse Man that she would find Donovan Baker and see that he paid for what he’d done.
I’ve always lived life from the sidelines, she thought. Never stepped off the edge. Sometime or other, she told herself sternly, you’ve got to commit. Loneliness should not be a vocation. She had friends and she should value them. Some, she knew, would come to the funeral and Rozlyn made up her mind that she should see her grandfather’s end, desperately sad though that was, as a chance for fresh beginnings.
She had new friends too, now, she thought, and she should and would cultivate those as well.
The cloud cover thickened and the view of the ground went from patchy to nothing. For a few minutes she watched the sunlight bouncing off the clouds. Gold and pink and rosy hued and then she turned her attention to the envelope Ethan had given her just before she’d boarded. Inside were notes Ethan had made on the Kendryk scripts. Some he had translated. Others were in their original, incomprehensible form. He’d given Rozlyn what he called a glossary. It appeared to be a dictionary of sorts, though a quick glance told Rozlyn it was all a bit more complicated than that. There seemed to be a half dozen ways of saying ‘I’ for goodness sake. Just as well it was a long flight.
She riffled through until she found an entry that Ethan had already worked on and began to read. “Treven,” Kendryk said, “was a man who knew how to read the land . . .”
And there had been a second phone call. This one on her mobile as they drove to the airport, from Emlyn Reece at the dig site. He’d been trying to reach Rozlyn since the day before.
“We’ve found another murder,” he said. “Only I think you’re a bit late to investigate this one. It was beneath where that poor man’s body was found.”
“You’re kidding me?”
“Oh no, our forensic archaeologist is very excited. The poor chap had been stabbed in the back and then buried face down. That’s usually a sign that he’d committed some crime or other and been shunned by his community. But you know what’s really strange?”
“I couldn’t begin to guess.”
“No. I don’t suppose you could,” Emlyn told her. “But it looks like he’d been killed with a spear.”
THE END
ALSO BY JANE ADAMS
MERROW & CLARKE
Book 1: SAFE
DETECTIVE MIKE CROFT SERIES
Book 1: THE GREENWAY
Book 2: THE SECRETS
Book 3: THEIR FINAL MOMENTS
Book 4: THE LIAR
DETECTIVE RAY FLOWERS SERIES
Book 1: THE APOTHECARY’S DAUGHTER
Book 2: THE UNWILLING SON
Book 3: THE DROWNING MEN
Book 4: THE SISTER’S TWIN
DETECTIVE ROZLYN PRIEST SERIES
Book 1: BURY ME DEEP
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GLOSSARY OF ENGLISH USAGE FOR US READERS
A & E: accident and emergency department in a hospital
Aggro: violent behaviour, aggression
Air raid: an attack in which bombs are dropped from aircraft on ground targets
Allotment: a plot of land rented by an individual for growing fruit, vegetable or flowers
Anorak: nerd (it also means a waterproof jacket)
Artex: textured plaster finish for walls and ceilings
A level: exams taken between 16 and 18
Auld Reekie: Edinburgh
Au pair: live-in childcare helper. Often a young woman.
Barm: bread roll
Barney: argument
Beaker: glass or cup for holding liquids
Beemer: BMW car or motorcycle
Benefits: social security
Bent: corrupt
Bin: wastebasket (noun), or throw in rubbish (verb)
Biscuit: cookie
Blackpool Lights: gaudy illuminations in a seaside town
Bloke: guy
Blow: cocaine
Blower: telephone
Blues and twos: emergency vehicles
Bob: money
Bobby: policeman
Broadsheet: quality newspaper (New York Times would be a US example)
Brown bread: rhyming slang for dead
Bun: small cake
Bunk: escape, i.e. ‘do a bunk’
Burger bar: hamburger fast-food restaurant
Buy-to-let: buying a house/apartment to rent it out for profit
Charity shop: thrift store
Carrier bag: plastic bag from supermarket
Care home: an institution where old people are cared for
Car park: parking lot
CBeebies: kids TV
Chat-up: flirt, trying to pick up someone with witty banter or compliments
Chemist: pharmacy
Chinwag: conversation
Chippie: fast-food place selling chips and other fried food
Chips: French fries but thicker
CID: Criminal Investigation Department
Civvy Street: civilian life (as opposed to army)
Clock: punch
Cock-up: mess up, make a mistake
Cockney: a native of East London
Common: an area of park land or lower class
Comprehensive school (Comp.): high school
Cop hold of: grab
Copper: police officer
Coverall: coveralls, or boiler suit
CPS: Crown Prosecution Service, decide whether police cases go forward
Childminder: someone who looks after children for money
Council: local government
Dan Dare: hero from Eagle comic
DC: detective constable
Deck: one of the landings on a floor of a tower block
Deck: hit (verb)
Desperate Dan: very strong comic book character
DI: detective inspector
Digestive biscuit: plain cookie
Digs: student lodgings
Do a runner: disappear
Do one: go away
Doc Martens: heavy boots with an air-cushioned sole
Donkey’s years: long time
Drum: house
DS: detective sergeant
ED: emergency department of a hospital
Eagle: boys’ comic
Early dart: to leave work early
Eggy soldiers: strips of toast with a boiled egg
Enforcer: police battering ram
Estate: public/social housing estate (similar to housing projects)
Estate agent: realtor (US)
Falklands War: war between Britain and Argentina in 1982
Fag: cigarette
Father Christmas: Santa Claus
Filth: police (insulting)
Forces: army, navy and air force
FMO: force medical officer
Fried slice: fried bread
Fuzz: police
Garda: Irish police
Gendarmerie: French national police force
Geordie: from Newcastle
Garden centre: a business where plants and gardening equipment are sold
Gob: mouth, can also mean phlegm or spit
GP: general practitioner, a doctor based in the community
Graft: hard work
Gran: grandmother
Hancock: Tony Hancock, English comedian popular in 1950s
Hard nut: tough person
HGV: heavy goods vehicle, truck
HOLMES: UK police computer system used during investigation of major incidents
Home: care home for elderly or sick people
Hoover: vacuum cleaner
I’ll be blowed: expression of surprise
Inne: isn’t he
Interpol: international police organisation
Into care: a child taken away from their family by the social services
Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher, applied to any strong woman
ITU: intensive therapy unit in hospital
Jane Doe: a person whose identity is unknown/anonymous
JCB: a mechanical excavator
Jerry-built: badly made
Jungle: nickname given to migrant camp near Calais
Lad: young man
Lass: young woman
Lift: elevator
Lord Lucan: famous aristocrat who allegedly killed his children’s nanny and disappeared in 1974. Has never been found.
Lorry: truck
Lovely jubbly: said when someone is pleased
Lu
ftwaffe: German air force
M&S: Marks and Spencer, a food and clothes shop
Miss Marple: detective in a series of books by Agatha Christie
MOD: Ministry of Defence
Mobile phone: cell phone
MP: Member of Parliament, politician representing an area
MRSA: A strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Myra Hindley: famous British serial killer
Naff: lame, not good
Naff all: none
National Service: compulsory UK military service, ended in 60s
Net curtains: a type of semi-transparent curtain
NHS: National Health Service, public health service of the UK
Nick: police station (as verb: to arrest)
Nowt: nothing
Nutter: insane person
Nursery: a place which grows plants, shrubs and trees for sale (often wholesale)
O level: exams taken between 14 and 16
Old bag: old woman (insulting)
Old Bill: police
OTT: over the top
Owt: anything
Pants: noun: underwear, adjective: bad/rubbish/terrible
Para: paratrooper
Pay-as-you-go: a cell phone you pay for calls in advance
PC: police constable
Pear-shaped: gone wrong
Petrol: gasoline
Pictures: movie
Pillbox: a concrete building, partly underground, used as an outpost defence
Pillock: fool
Pips: police insignia indicating rank
Piss off: as exclamation, go away (rude), can also mean annoy
Pissing down: raining
Playing field: sports field
Pleb: ordinary person (often insulting)