The Locked Room (Ruth Galloway #14)(11)

Ruth decides to change the subject: ‘I went to a school reunion while I was in Eltham. Alison invited me. You remember Ali?’

‘Of course I do.’ Arthur sounds relieved to be on firmer ground. ‘Funny little thing. But she had a good heart. I’ll always remember her coming to Mum’s funeral.’

‘Me too. Well, Alison told me that there was an Eltham Park reunion at the Black Lion in Blackheath.’

‘Nice pub.’

‘Yes. Daniel Breakspeare was there. Do you remember him?’

‘Yes. Your mum always liked Daniel.’

‘She did. Dad, did you ever think of sending me to another school?’

Another pause. ‘Why would we have done that? Simon went to Eltham Park. Everyone went there.’

‘I don’t know. I suppose I was just thinking about secondary schools because of Kate.’

They talk about Kate for a comfortable few minutes, then say goodnight. Ruth suddenly feels the need for a drink. She goes to the kitchen and pours herself a glass of red before sitting down at her laptop.

There are three new emails. The first is something of a surprise.

To: Ruth Galloway

From: Daniel Breakspeare

It was great to see you on Saturday. Maybe it’s old age (!) but I’ve been thinking a lot about school. And about you. Do you ever come to London? It would be good to have lunch one day. And you can tell me more about the mysterious box.

All best

Dxx

Ruth looks at this missive for some time, sipping her wine. Why does Daniel want to see her? Is he just feeling nostalgic? Is it a symptom of age, with or without the jaunty exclamation mark? Is it surprising that he has remembered Ruth’s half-finished tale of the box marked ‘private’? And which should she believe: the more formal ‘all best’ or the D followed by two kisses?

The second email is from Alison.

It was good on Saturday, wasn’t it? So strange to see everyone again. Some people I wouldn’t have recognised but Kelly was unchanged! Daniel seemed very pleased to see you. Asked for your email address afterwards. What would your mum have said??

Hope to see you soon. Maybe next time we could get together with Fatty? Have a Three Amigas reunion??

Lots of love

Ali xx

PS here’s the link to LZ as promised.

The third email is from her colleague David Brown. Subject: Tombland Dig. Ruth knows she should open this but instead she presses the link to enter the Lean Zone.





Chapter 7


Ruth’s day starts with a department meeting. Her predecessor, Phil, avoided group gatherings, preferring to waylay his staff in the canteen, where it was easier to get them to agree with him. Ruth hopes that having monthly meetings will create a sense of camaraderie and teamwork and will also stop the AGM taking what seems like days.

Camaraderie seems thin on the ground today. Bob Bullmore, the anthropology expert, is determined to talk about the new unisex toilets. Fiona Green, Conservation and Bioarchaeology, wants to tell them about her recent paper on gender bias. David Brown, prehistory lecturer and Ruth’s personal irritant, disagrees with both of them. Peter Llewellyn (Cultural Heritage) says nothing. Eventually the meeting draws to a cantankerous close because lectures are starting. David remains behind. He’s very tall and he seems to cast a shadow over the whole room.

‘How was the Tombland skeleton?’ he asks. ‘I sent you an email last night.’

Ruth doesn’t apologise for not responding. She wants to break David of the habit of emailing at all hours of the day and night.

‘It was an interesting find,’ she says. ‘A complete skeleton, probably female, laid out as if for formal burial. I’ve sent off samples for carbon-14 dating and isotope analysis. We might even get DNA.’

‘Unlikely, if it’s an articulated skeleton,’ says David. This is one of the things that annoys Ruth about him. She knows very well that the process of putrefaction can destroy DNA and it seems to work faster with articulated remains. David does not need to point this out to her, the forensics expert.

‘Was there anything else?’ she says.

‘You know I’m on the board of the Friends of Tombland?’

‘Yes.’ Ruth had actually recommended David for the post, because she didn’t have time herself. She feels like reminding him of this.

‘Your friend Janet Meadows is on the board too.’

‘I know.’

‘She wants to put on a plague festival.’

‘A plague festival?’ This must have been what Janet wanted to talk about yesterday.

‘Well, an exhibition about the Norwich plague pits. But it’s nonsense. They haven’t found any plague pits in Norwich.’

‘I thought there was one near the coach park at Blackfriars?’ Ruth suddenly thinks of her school reunion in the Blackheath pub. She read once that the area took its name from plague pits dug there during the Black Death. She doesn’t share this nugget with David, who is still talking about Tombland.

‘Why would anyone bury their dead in the centre of the city? It’s just pandering to the ignorant. Tombs, plague, the Grey Lady, ring-a-ring-a-roses. It’s sensationalising archaeology.’

‘I thought you were keen on plagues.’ It’s one of David’s pet theories that, when the Beaker People came to Britain in the Bronze Age, they brought with them a deadly virus that wiped out the native population.