Chapter 24
Neil’s small team of diggers had found another statue buried inside the confines of the chapel.
It had been broken into three pieces, but when Neil reassembled them, it produced something that looked like a large lizard.
Once he’d studied it for a while, he decided it was a salamander, a creature used in medieval imagery to represent faith over passion and associated with rebirth and immortality.
The little collection of carvings was growing by the day.
But it was the discovery of the masonry in the woods that excited him the most. Annabel had called him because she’d found another reference to a holy well near Neston that was a focus for local pilgrimage in the medieval period.
After the Reformation, all trace of its existence had been erased.
But Neil nursed a hope that he was about to bring it back into the light again.
He squatted down to examine the stones that still bore the filigree marks of the newly removed ivy, then very carefully began to tear at the remaining vegetation that still clung stubbornly to the stones.
It wasn’t easy to budge, so he decided to leave it for the time being until he could muster some help from the students who were working in the chapel.
As he straightened up, he placed a hand in the small of his back, fearing that his years of digging crouched down in strange places and positions hadn’t been good for his muscles. He put his trowel away in his pocket and was about to return to the chapel when he heard voices nearby.
‘I love this place. I’m not selling it.’
Neil recognised the speaker at once as Helen Jones. He couldn’t hear the reply, but the voice was low and male.
Helen spoke again. ‘I don’t care about that thing. It’s been taken away, and once the work’s finished, we won’t even know it was there.’ She paused. ‘I don’t believe in ghosts.’
The man’s voice rose a few decibels. ‘I really don’t like the house. You should never have bought it without my say-so.’
‘I told you I’d found the ideal place and you said go ahead. You said you trusted me.’
His voice softened. ‘I’m putting it on the market. We’ll find somewhere else. Somewhere nearer Tradmouth – or Millicombe. You’d like Millicombe.’
‘I don’t want anywhere else. This is perfect. Besides, who’d want to buy it after that thing was found in the wall?’
‘Well, I’m selling even if we have to drop the price. I want to get away from here. It’s cursed. I’m calling the estate agent.’
‘No.’ The word was almost a cry of pain.
Neil heard the cracking of twigs as footsteps hurried away. He decided to break cover, and when he caught sight of Helen standing in the trees nearby, she was alone.
‘All right, Helen?’
When she turned to face him, he saw that her eyes were glassy with unshed tears.
‘I’m fine,’ she said with a brave smile.
But he could tell that she was anything but.
‘What did Jim Baker witness that was so bad?’
The question had been on Wesley’s mind too. During the drive to Morbay, he could think of little else. ‘We only have Dale Gadson’s word for it that he saw anything, and anyway he said that Baker claimed it was a drug-induced hallucination. And don’t forget those two like a drink.’
‘In vino veritas, Wes.’
‘Not like you to lapse into Latin, Gerry.’
‘It’s one of the few phrases I know. In wine is truth. When Baker was checked out before, we found he had no convictions, but I’ll ask someone to dig a bit deeper to see whether his name’s ever cropped up in any investigation.’
‘You think we should treat him as a suspect?’
‘He had a row with Sue Potter, and by Gadson’s admission, he’s an angry man. He’s also obsessed with vicious animals.’
‘Mythical ones. Just like Aleric Donnal was.’
‘Gadson can’t be sure of the timings for Friday night, so Baker could easily have made it to Belsham. I don’t think we can eliminate him from our enquiries just yet.’
‘Is it likely that he’d hold a grudge against Sue Potter for that long?
As far as we know, she’s had nothing to do with him for months, and she wasn’t the only neighbour he fell out with.
I can see him lashing out and killing her during an argument, but this murder seems well planned. Why kill her now?’
‘That’s what we need to find out. And don’t forget that weird note she received. The animal that attacks other animals.’
‘ “The lanzani is a cruel beast who attacks any animal not of its own kind. Not even the bold lion is safe from its implacable hatred.” ’ Wesley remembered the words verbatim. ‘The illustration was photocopied from a medieval manuscript, though, not drawn in Baker’s style at all.’
‘That particular image is available online, so anyone could have made a copy. Even so, I’d like to see whether Baker’s prints are on it.’
‘His prints aren’t on record.’
‘Shouldn’t be a problem. We can always haul him in for questioning on suspicion of Sue Potter’s murder and take them then,’ said Gerry with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.