Page 76 of The Chapel of Bones

‘Well done, Rob. That was quick.’ The DCI thought the young man deserved praise for his efficiency. He scanned the page. ‘There’s a Charles Lanson on the list. He lives in Ilfracombe.’

Wesley’s mouth fell open. ‘Charles Lanson. Carlo Lanzani.’

A grin spread across Gerry’s face. ‘We’d better get him brought in.’

*

The holy well was fully visible now, and its shape was clear. The base was sheltered by what looked like an arch made of skilfully dressed stone. Some of the stones had collapsed, but it hadn’t taken much effort to put them back in place. The masons who’d created the shelter over the natural spring had known what they were doing.

The spring itself had been excavated until the diggers reached the bubbling source, and now, instead of a patch of squelchy ground overgrown with weeds and grass, there was a small clearpool fringed with a semicircle of stone, just as it would have been in the Middle Ages. More offerings had been found: coins and trinkets left by those seeking the saint’s favour. When Neil stood back to admire it, he felt rather pleased with himself.

‘I never thought we’d find anything like this.’ Helen Jones was standing by his side. Her enthusiasm for the discoveries in her extensive garden didn’t appear to have waned.

‘St Julian’s Well. Once known, according to documents I’ve seen, as St Catherine’s Well. Don’t ask me why the name was changed, because I don’t know.’

‘I’m sure you’ll find out.’ She gave him a flirtatious smile.

‘I wouldn’t be too sure. Some things are destined to remain a mystery. Have you persuaded your husband not to put the house on the market?’

She turned her head away, as though it was something she didn’t wish to think about. Neil noticed that when she was pursuing her interest in the dig, she had the look of an excited child. When she was talking to her husband, she almost became a different person.

After a few seconds, she mumbled, ‘He found out that I hadn’t been to the estate agent’s, so he went himself. They’re coming to do a valuation tomorrow.’

‘I can tell you’re not pleased about it.’

‘I want to stay.’

‘Even after finding that body in the wall?’

‘I’ve already told you, it doesn’t bother me. Whatever happened is long in the past – like that skeleton you found buried near the chapel.’

‘I’ve just had word about that from our bone specialist. She’s as sure as she can be that the man was hanged, then a few years later his body was moved and reburied here. In those days they usually buried hanged felons or suicides outside churchyards or at crossroads, so why was he moved to consecrated ground?’

‘Maybe after they hanged him, they found out he was innocent,’ Helen said quietly.

This was something Neil had been wondering about, and the theory seemed to make sense. ‘My fiancée’s looking for any reference in the archives to a hanging, but it’s not an easy task.’

He noticed Helen purse her lips when Annabel was mentioned. His phone began to ring, and he fished it out of one of the many pockets in his favourite digging trousers. It was Annabel herself calling, and he turned away from Helen, who was watching him admiringly. He was becoming a little embarrassed by her apparent devotion, but kept trying to tell himself that it was his imagination.

‘Hi, darling.’ He emphasised the endearment.

‘I’ve been digging around in the muniment room at Fontescue Hall.’

‘With Miles?’ He couldn’t resist the question.

‘Yes. He’s really excited too.’

Neil experienced an unexpected pang of jealousy. ‘So what have you found?’

There was a short silence before she answered. ‘Something very interesting. I think you’re going to love it.’

The team’s efforts were producing results. The staff at a local estate agency had been co-operative and happy to break their working routine to delve into the drawers full of old files kept in their basement. It had taken a while to find the information, but they’d been able to confirm that Timothy Fontescue-Burns had been given the keys to St Julian’s on 26 May 2011, only a day before the borrowed Book of Beasts was due to be returned. As Donnal was by all accounts a fastidious man who was in the habit of returning books on time or even early, it was highly likely that he was killed before Tim took possession, whichmeant there was a twenty-day window, when four people would have been in residence.

Gerry agreed that Aphrodite and Apollo, alias Betsy and Barnaby Chalmers, and Ethelred Bingley were unlikely murderers. Which left Jim Baker and the mysterious Carlo Lanzani.

The results from the knife Neil had found at Sycamore House had come in from the lab. The staining was definitely blood, and the DNA was a match to Aleric Donnal’s.

The evidence was starting to point in one direction, and Wesley was hoping that Charles Lanson would prove to be a profitable line of enquiry when his phone rang, the sudden sound making him jump. He’d almost forgotten that Sue Potter’s sister, Judith Peachy, was still in Tradmouth, so he was surprised to find that the call was from her.