21

Lou headed into the pub, her stomach twisting. She hadn’t had a proper job interview in years. She had no idea what this Professor Cunningham looked like, and she’d never been interviewed in a pub before.

A tall, blond man by the bar stood as she entered. His suit was partly covered by a long dark overcoat. He crossed the crowded pub towards her. “Dr. Fitzgerald?”

She tilted her head. “Are you Professor Cunningham?”

He nodded and held out a hand. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. Although I’m surprised you didn’t cancel after all that happened today.” His voice softened. “I’m sorry to hear about the death of your colleague.”

“Thanks,” she said quietly. She blinked hard. She wouldn’t cry again. Not in front of the bloke she was trying to impress.

“Shall we get a table?”

“Sure.” She followed him across the pub to a relatively quiet corner. She sat and sighed. “Sorry, Professor Cunningham. It’s been a very long day.”

He handed her a menu. “I understand. And please, call me Tobias.”

“Only if you call me Lou,” she replied.

“What happened out there on the lake if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Probably exactly what the news said.” Lou opened the menu. “The boat exploded. I’m not sure why, but I can hazard a guess.”

“Sounds intriguing.”

“Far from it. I’ve been here less than a week. In that time, there has been at least one attempt on my life. Today would make it two. It should have been me on that boat and AJ under the water.” She studied the menu. “Someone doesn’t want me here.”

Tobias glanced up for a second then turned his attention back to the menu. “You really think the boat being destroyed was deliberate? Do you have any idea who would want to hurt you?”

“I can think of someone, yeah.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “It should have been me. Oh, AJ, I’m so sorry.”

Tobias’s hand touched hers for an instant. “I’m sure he doesn’t blame you. So, what do you fancy eating? Unless you’d rather reschedule.”

She shook her head. “No. I’m fine.” Glancing at the menu, she picked the first thing she saw. “Shepherd’s pie, chips, and whatever veg they have.”

“Sounds good. And to drink?”

“Whatever you’re having.”

Tobias rose and carried his menu with him. “Be right back.”

Lou shoved her menu back into the holder on the table and leaned back in her seat. She picked up the beer mat, twisting it over and over in her hand. Around her the hum of conversation continued unabated. Life carried on as normal. But she was, once again, broken.

Tobias came back and set a pint glass in front of her. “Food will be around fifteen minutes. Bitter, OK?”

She rubbed her hand over her eyes. “That’s fine, thank you.”

He sat. “So, why change your mind about the job? When I originally wrote to you, offering you the place sight unseen, you turned me down flat. Most people your age would give their eye teeth to get a professorship so young.”

“My work situation changed. Things have become, shall we say, increasingly difficult. No, to be totally honest with you, difficult doesn’t even begin to cover it. My situation is fast becoming untenable and I don’t mean only because someone wants me dead. Projects I work on get taken away from me just as they get interesting and my theory becomes reality. Someone else gets given first name on my papers. Or I don’t get to write them at all.” She paused. “Sindlesham is one example of that.”

His eyebrows winged up. “That was your work? The paper said Monty Sparrow. His was the other name put about by the board for this position.”

“Case in point.” She sighed. If Monty was also up for this job, then she may as well leave now. “Monty is my boss’s son. He took over at Llaremont.” She picked up her glass and sipped the cold beer. “I spent three years on that project, trying to convince people I wasn’t insane, trying to relate that site to Stonehenge. Then the day we prove my theories correct, I get yanked off the dig for no reason whatsoever, and Monty was given the project instead. I get told to hand over all my notes, files, photos, and then I’m sent up here. And my boss tells me if I publish anything I’m sacked. However, AJ decided that wasn’t fair. He brought all my notes when he arrived and gave them to me. So I finished the paper and sent it off. It comes out Tuesday at least a month before Monty can publish anything.”

Tobias raised an eyebrow. “So basically, you’re sitting here talking to me because you’ll be jobless by the middle of next week.”

She shook her head. “I’d planned on quitting before he fires me. I intend to do that as soon as I get back to my room tonight. I’m tired of having work I’ve done be credited to someone else. Tired of being told I’m too disabled to dive, to dig. Maybe it’s time I acted my age and tried to enthuse the next generation of archaeologists. Or I go back to my parents’ place in the States and do something totally different.”

“Would you be happy doing something else? From what I’ve read and discovered, you’re one of the best archaeologists in the country, if not the world. You could have any position you wanted.”

She snorted. “Not once my boss has finished smearing me through the mud. Don’t get me wrong. I love field work. It’s just been pointed out to me over and over again that there’s no place in the field for someone like me. People wait for me to make mistakes. To slip up—literally.”

The food arrived, and she inhaled the rising steam. It smelled wonderful.

Tobias smiled at the barmaid. “Thank you.” He turned his attention back to Lou. “I assume by your disability, you mean your leg?”

She unwrapped her knife and fork. “Yeah. I lost it when I was sixteen in a boating accident.”

“However, you’re incredibly good at your job. You hold the world record in swimming. Your leg hasn’t hindered you in any way. Why let it now?”

“You sound like my stepfather.” She shoved the fork into the potato. “He’d say the same thing.”

“He must be right then.”

Lou glanced up at Tobias. “Maybe it’s time for a change. I’d rather go straight into another job, somewhere I’m valued, needed, and my contributions mean something rather than to be given to someone else. However, if that’s not possible, I’ll join the ranks of the unemployed until something else crops up. I’m not a glory hunter, I merely believe in reaping what I sow and rewarding someone for all the hard work they put in. Whether that’s in the field, or in an essay, or a research project.”

He held her gaze, something flickering in his eyes. “The academic term starts on October third. You’d spend term time lecturing, holidays in the field or running summer classes. There is the chance of doing field trips with the students in their final year. Four weeks paid vacation outside of term time. Some lab work. You’d be expected to file and publish at least one paper a year.”

Her heart leapt. “I can do that.”

“How much notice do you need to give?”

She shrugged. “None if he fires me, which he probably will. Or none if I quit first.” She sucked in a deep breath. “Forgive me. Rule number one, never slag your current boss off to a prospective one.”

A slight smile crossed Tobias’s lips as he studied her over his fork. “Tell me about Llaremont.”

Between mouthfuls, Lou told him about her theory connecting that site and Stonehenge and the way it had panned out.

“Interesting.”

“That’s one word for it. And I’m literally proving it when I get sent here to the back of beyond to investigate something the police are now handling and probably should have been from the start.” She paused. “Sorry. No offense meant for calling this place the back of beyond.”

“None taken. I can see why you’re upset.”

“Thing is, none of this current project here adds up.”

“Which bit exactly?”

Lou swallowed her mouthful and picked up her glass. “There are bodies under Dark Lake, in the houses, the church. Or there were. Last night everything was destroyed. Bar one house, which contained a shed load of wires and explosives which hadn’t detonated, along with a fresh body. Today, while I’m out there gathering evidence to prove all this, AJ dies. Someone is desperately trying to cover something up. And yes, I have given all I have to the police.”

The waitress came over and picked up their empty plates. “Can I get you any dessert?”

Tobias nodded. “Apple pie and custard, please. Lou?”

“The same.”

Lou leaned back in her seat and set her empty glass on the table.

“Can I get you another?”

She shook her head. “No, but I’d love a coffee, please.”

Tobias smiled. “Sure. Be back in a minute.”

Left to herself, Lou withdrew her phone from her bag and checked her messages. There was one from Jim, demanding she call him as soon as possible. One from her parents saying virtually the same thing word for word. And one from Varian. That one she deleted without reading. She didn’t want his condescending platitudes which would turn, as always, into an ultimatum.

Gazing across the pub, she came to a decision. No matter what the outcome of tonight’s meeting, she was resigning as soon as she returned to the manor. Whatever secrets lay beneath the surface of Dark Lake would remain with her and the police. No one else needed to know. The report wouldn’t be published. Her findings would vanish, nothing put to record. It was simply another village drowned to make way for a reservoir. The investigation had cost too much.

Anything else she found out was for her benefit only. To satisfy personal curiosity.

Tobias sat opposite her and slid a mug of coffee across the table to her.

“Thanks.” She watched him sip his second pint.

“You’ve heard the history of the place?” he asked.

“Only a little. Most of the records have been buried, destroyed in the flood, or are impossible to find. Those we did track down are incomplete and don’t match my findings.”

“The whole area was owned by the Close family for generations. Have you met the current owner, Evan Close?”

Lou nodded, choosing to keep how well she knew him to herself. “Yes, our paths have crossed a few times.”

“His great-grandfather was the Abernay doctor back when the village was flooded. His great-great-grandfather was the local squire.”

“Evan mentioned that.”

Tobias raised an eyebrow as the puddings arrived. “Evan? You two are on first name terms?”

Lou’s cheeks heated. “He saved my life, so yeah, we are. It seemed kind of silly to keep calling each other Dr. Fitzgerald and Mr. Close after that.”

“Then maybe it’s my turn to bite my tongue,” he said, picking up his spoon. “How did you put it, never complain about one friend to another.”

Lou shook her head. “No, please, carry on. If my boss is serious about blowing up the church and closing my investigation down, then I want to at least satisfy my own curiosity about the true history of this dam.”

“OK. Both rumour and legend have it that the villagers didn’t want to leave.”

“The news reports told me that much.” She stabbed her pie with her spoon. “They protested in Downing Street.”

“But did the news reports tell you that the people never left?”

“Huh?” Her mind flashed back to the bodies she’d found, tied to pews and chairs or stuck in inner rooms and cupboards under the stairs.

“A huge fire swept through Abernay, lasting three days. No one saw the villagers afterwards. For several weeks before that, they had cut themselves off behind barricades.”

The fire wasn’t news to her, however the fact the village was barricaded off was. “How did the fire start?”

“Under the cover of the fog. There were only a few people who survived it. The Closes for one. Your boss’s family for another and a few others. Maybe fifteen in total.”

“What?” She choked on the pie. She coughed hard and swallowed several mouthfuls of coffee.

“Didn’t he tell you that? Chester Sparrow was Varian’s grandfather. He was the chief architect and stood to benefit the most from the construction of the dam. He also had a large stake in the hydroelectric company the dam feeds.”

Lou inhaled sharply. That explained a lot. Her mind whirled. “So why send me to dig all this up? He must have known all along. Surely…” She paused as she pondered. “No. Not even Varian would stoop that low, would he?”

“What are you thinking?”

“He sends me here, let’s me dig all this up, then he can sack me legitimately. Because if I publish this, it’ll seem like I have an axe to grind.” She sighed. “Damned if I do and damned if I don’t.”

Tobias nodded. “You need a new job.”

“A new life would be better. One far, far away from the Sparrow Foundation.”

“Or maybe he wants you to disprove the rumours and clear his name.”

Lou tilted her head. “Elaborate on these rumours.”

“That all the villagers were murdered. Either burned or buried alive. Or drowned when the waters came. All under the cover of the fog. The Sparrows made their fortune from this dam. Money is a great incentive for murder.”

“What about the Closes?”

“They had to know. They were the only other survivors.”

The back of Lou’s neck prickled. She glanced up to find Evan standing right behind Tobias. A dark scowl covered his face, his blue eyes glinted like ice. Before she could say anything, he spun on his heel and strode from the pub.

Had he known all along?

What kind of a man was she involved with?

Maybe Varian wasn’t behind the attack on her life. She shivered.

“You OK?” Tobias asked.

She nodded, draining the rest of her now cold coffee. “I’m fine.”

“Good, let me get you some more coffee, and we can talk more about the position at the university.”