11

Lou surfaced rapidly. Her heart pounded like a pneumatic drill, her vision blurred and each breath was a struggle as she searched for the boat. She shouldn’t have come. She needed to be somewhere safe, somewhere far away from water.

Something black and pointed surfaced next to her, and she cried out in fear. Then the shark removed its face mask and AJ grinned at her.

“Hi, boss. Did I scare you?”

Lou scowled. “Not funny. Not funny at all.” She moved her arms to stay afloat, trying to calm her shattered nerves. “You’re an idiot, and you’re fired.”

“You can’t fire me.”

“I just did.” She sucked in a deep breath. “I could have drowned.”

AJ laughed. “No, you wouldn’t have. You’re simply being a drama queen. Purely because you had one bad experience when you were a kid, doesn’t mean you’ll drown now.” He did his best to appear contrite and failed miserably. “I’m sorry. Have you found anything down there?”

“Yes. And yes, you are fired. You don’t mess around on a dive. Ever.”

“OK, OK. Don’t get your knickers in a twist.” He rolled his eyes. “I said I’m sorry. What more do you want?”

Lou shook her head and refitted her mask. Glad the camera was attached to her wrist and she hadn’t lost it, she plunged below the surface again. She was aware of AJ diving beside her. Right now, he could make himself useful, but she was serious about firing him—but not yet. She needed him for the next couple of weeks. Besides, she was quitting and, therefore, it didn’t really matter what she did anymore.

This time, she focused her attention on the cottage opposite the church. If she was right, it should be the cottage belonging to Evan’s great-grandparents.

The roof and windows were long gone, but the walls were still intact. There was no door. Her torch illuminated a plaque on the wall by the entrance. Rubbing some of the green gunk off it, she could read the name. Dr. David Close. Definitely the right house. Again the blackened and scorched brick and stonework indicated a massive fire.

Lou swam inside. Another body floated against the far wall. She photographed it, along with the interior of every room. Not much remained in the way of furniture. What little the fire had left, the water had seen to over the intervening years.

Her tank beeped, and she tapped AJ on the shoulder, pointing upwards. He nodded, and they surfaced. Dropping her mouthpiece, Lou swam to the boat and hauled herself over the side. She unclipped the tank and pushed back the hood of her wetsuit.

Covering her face with her hands, she took a moment to sit in silence, trying to process what she’d seen.

After a minute, AJ gazed up. “OK. I’ll say it. There’s a body in that house.”

Lou nodded slowly. “There’s at least four in the church, as well.”

“And a fire. A big one if the church is anything to go by. I mean, look at the height of the burned stone. Way beyond anything you’d expect. I can see why Varian wanted this place checked out. It’s fascinating.”

“Yeah.” She examined her air tank. “This shouldn’t be empty already. Not been diving anywhere nearly long enough.”

“How long have we got for this dig?”

Lou reached down and picked up a new tank and checked it. “Ten days. Nine by the time we have new tanks. Tell me what’s happening at Llaremont?”

“What do you mean?” AJ’s face clouded, and his tone grew cagey.

“At the dig.” Lou glared at him, watching him squirm. “You remember the one in Wales I got kicked off of the day before yesterday.”

“Oh, right. Not much.”

“Don’t give me that,” she snapped. “It’s the biggest find since Tutankhamen’s tomb and you reckon nothing is happening. Just level with me. I deserve that much.”

AJ sighed. “Well, Monty and Clara are cataloguing and photographing and writing the reports. Bill is running around like a headless chicken preparing everything for the TV news cameras, which arrive on Friday. And they are writing an article for History Today.”

Lou deflated as if someone pricked her with a pin. “What? That’s the biggest publication out there.”

“Yeah.” AJ met her gaze for the first time since they got back in the boat. “Monty and Clara are getting co-writes.”

Lou grimaced and cast her gaze downwards. Her stomach clenched and her heart broke. She wouldn’t even get a mention. Years of her life and all that hard work, for nothing.

AJ touched her hand. “But I did pick up everything you asked for and more, including all your notes and files. Monty had already copied them all and shoved them on a flash drive. There was however an unfortunate incident last night before I left.”

She raised an eyebrow as she put the tank down. “Oh?”

“Yeah, there was a massive computer failure. They may have lost several files and stuff. Oh, and the flash drive went missing. Along with all the paper copies of everything.” He winked. “I kinda pressed the wrong button as I shut the thing down, and I might have picked up said flash drive with your stuff. It’s all locked in the boot of my car. I figured you could file instead.”

“Thank you. I could hug you. That’s a brilliant idea. You’re unfired.” Lou gave the remaining three air tanks on the boat the once over. “Once we get back to shore, I need you to hit the local archives here and find out what you can about the fire. Your first port of call should be the local historian, Charlie Bramston.”

“Sure. Where are we staying?”

“With the landowner, Evan Close, in the manor house. There was an incident at the hotel last night. He offered us rooms at his place, and I took them.”

“What sort of incident?” AJ tilted his head, concern flickering in his gaze.

“I was attacked.” Lou moved back the collar of her wetsuit, showing him the steri-strips. “It could have been worse.”

“How? You have stitches.”

“Just trust me on that one. I could be dead, for a start. And they’re steri-strips, not stitches.”

“Worse than dead exists? What did the doctor say? Should you even be diving?”

“I didn’t see one, and you fuss far too much. I’m not letting anyone chase me off this dig. Change your tank for a new one, and let’s go again. I want the entire village mapped and photographed before nightfall. Tomorrow we’ll do Finlay.”

“What’s the rush?”

“We only have ten days and there’s a lot of ground to cover. Once the mapping is done, we can go back and take our time over the interesting bits.” She picked up a fresh tank and slipped it on. “What are you waiting for? Let’s do this. And I want the position of any more bodies noted carefully and photographed in situ.”

“Are you going to call the cops in on this?”

Lou frowned. “Most likely. Let’s see what we find first.” She reattached her face mask and mouthpiece, and slid backwards into the lake.

Slowly they made their way through the village. Each house had its own dark secret, whether it was pictures on the wall or the utter devastation caused by the fire.

AJ tugged open a cupboard and flailed backwards. Bubbles escaped from his mouthpiece. A body wearing a long dress floated towards him, arms outstretched, half of the skull caved in.

Lou pulled him to one side. She turned his face towards her, gaze searching his, asking him silently if he was all right.

He shook his head wildly.

Lou pointed upwards, tugging at his arm.

AJ kept still, then shook his head once more. He gave her a thumbs up and pointed to the body, indicating he should keep going.

Lou nodded, holding up five fingers. What disturbed her wasn’t the bodies. She was used to skeletons in her line of work. What bothered her was the way the majority of them had been tied down. Had they accepted their fate and were determined to die in their homes? Or was it murder?

The really creepy thing was although some of the bodies had evidently been burned, the majority hadn’t. At least two showed signs of blunt force trauma, meaning they were dead before the fire began. And that added murder to the signs of arson.