Grave Concerns Read Free Page B

hadn’t been for that necklace, we might never have found her,’ said Jeffrey thoughtfully. ‘I was all set to give this patch a miss, as it happens. Didn’t fancy being stung by the nettles.’
    ‘What changed your mind?’ Drew asked him.
    Jeffery cocked his head. ‘Just one of those things,’ he offered non-committally.
    ‘And why were you out there with a metal detector in the first place?’ Drew enquired belatedly. ‘What’s the idea?’
     Jeffrey met his gaze. The strong shoulders and stalwart neck betrayed a life spent as a labourer. Drew had poached him from North Staverton Farm, despite not being able to offer steady work. So far he had dug five graves in the field and trimmed back the hedges on three sides. The railway line formed the upper boundary, with a wire fence maintained by the rail operators to augment the somewhat patchy hedge on that side. The Planning Officer had stipulated a stout boundary wall or fence, but had been persuaded that the six-foot-high hedge of mixed thorn, holly, bramble and briar was thick and prickly enough to keep intruders at bay and conceal the field’s contents from over-sensitive passers-by.
    At sixty-three, Jeffery was apparently philosophical about almost everything. He lived simply, in a stone cottage with few facilities, on a quiet road half a mile out of the village. ‘My granddad was a gravedigger,’ he said, on his first encounter with Drew. ‘Don’t much hold with cremation myself. Burial’s got to be decent, mind. Dignified.’ As far as Drew could now recall, that had been sufficient reference and the post had been offered and accepted with scarcely any further discussion.
    ‘I got thinking,’ Jeffrey explained slowly. ‘It’s the law, you know – once a bit of ground is used as a grave, it mustn’t ever be disturbed again.So it seemed to me, I should just make sure we weren’t missing any treasure. Old coins and the like. See?’
    Den blinked dubiously. ‘But wouldn’t you find any precious objects anyway, when you were digging the graves?’
    Jeffrey cast his gaze over the ten acres, and smiled wryly. ‘Won’t be here to see the whole field filled up,’ he said. ‘It’s a hobby of mine, anyhow,’ he added.
    Drew didn’t pursue it: he was just then trying to concentrate on recovering some of the momentum he felt he’d lost with the WI ladies by sending them a packet of carefully worded leaflets.
       
    In the following days, only moderate local interest was kindled by the finding of the body. The weekly newspaper that morning devoted almost all its space to stories about the dead and injured schoolchildren, but they found a few inches for the Peaceful Repose find at the bottom of an inside page. ‘This has to be good for business,’ Drew commented over breakfast, feeling rather gratified, until Karen pointed something out that made his blood congeal.
    ‘People’ll think it’s all a publicity stunt,’ she said idly. ‘They’ll think you put that body there and then staged a dramatic discovery.’
    He stared at her in horror. ‘They wouldn’t!’ hegasped. ‘That would be ridiculous.’ Scanning the report, he read aloud: Peaceful Repose Funerals opened their “environmental” cemetery three months ago, with a view to offering burials in a natural setting, with little of the ritual or trappings of modern funerals. Funerals cost approximately half the price of more traditional versions. To date, it is understood that five burials have taken place in the cemetery . That’s pretty positive, don’t you think? Nothing to imply devious practices.’ He wiped a dramatic hand across his brow. ‘You had me worried there.’
    ‘Well, they wouldn’t say it, would they?’ she laughed scornfully. ‘But there’ll be jokes going round – you see. If nothing else, Daphne Plant’ll have a go at spreading the poison.’
    ‘Then we’ll have to do all we can to identify this woman, won’t we? If they could work out how she died and