by Amy Cross
***
Addendum – I saw him! My tormentor, my visitor! He appeared briefly in the darkness at the mouth of the tunnel, and for a moment I was able to make out his fearsome shape. He seems to be part man and part beast, and I fancy that I hear him growling.
I am trapped down here. Still, I would not leave, even if I could. I shall break this door down, even if it is the last thing I ever do! And if that beast out there wants to get in the way, it will have to come in here and physically drag me out.
VII
“Jeremy Beecham,” said Doctor Young as he used a pair of tweezers to pick up a small, round piece of metal from next to the skeleton. “Thank God for personalized cufflinks, huh?”
“Never heard of him,” replied Inspector Cavaleri, before turning to Kate. “Does that name mean anything to you?”
Kate shook her head.
“Sure?”
“Of course I'm sure,” Kate replied, trying not to sound annoyed. “Why would it?”
“I doubt it means anything to anyone on the island,” Doctor Young continued, dropping the cufflink into a clear plastic pouch. “I'd estimate that this body has been here for a century, maybe longer.”
“And no-one found it until now?” Cavaleri asked, clearly skeptical. Again, she turned to Kate. “What exactly were you doing poking about up here, anyway?”
“I was...” Kate paused, keen not to admit the truth. The entrance to the underground chamber was just a few meters away, but it was well hidden and she hoped to keep it that way. “I'd been studying the stones,” she continued, “and then I just happened to see the skeleton.”
“And then you called me?”
“Of course.”
“It's not a full skeleton,” Doctor Young continued, pulling away some of the grass to reveal the ribcage and part of the pelvis bone. “It looks like it was literally ripped apart. There's no sign of the rest, although there are a few smaller bone fragments nearby, suggesting that the pelvis and upper leg were shattered.”
“What kind of animal could do that?” Cavaleri asked.
“Animal?” Doctor Young paused, with a faint smile on his lips. “Yes, I suppose it must have been an animal, mustn't it? I honestly don't know enough about the history of Thaxos to say.”
“A wolf?” Kate asked. “A bear, maybe?”
He shrugged.
“I was attacked by something,” she continued. “It wasn't even that far from here.”
“This skeleton is much older,” Doctor Young replied. “It's hard to see how there could be a connection.” He pointed at the shoulder, where one of the bones looked to have been fractured. “This is different, though. I think he damaged his shoulder somehow shortly before he died. There's no evidence of healing, so I imagine that the injury occurred no more than an hour or so before he was attacked.”
Staring down at the skeleton, Kate couldn't help but notice that its fingers seemed to be partially dug into the soil, almost as if it had been trying to save itself from being dragged away. It was facing the direction of the hidden tunnel entrance, almost as if it had been inside.
“Are you sure,” Cavaleri continued, “that these bones are old? If there's any chance that this is a more recent death -”
“Absolutely no doubt,” Doctor Young replied, getting to his feet. “I'll prepare a full report once I get back to the surgery. I can run various tests, and I can also send scans to a few friends back in London, and get their opinion. I also happen to have a spectrometer that should be able to determine the age to within a couple of years.”
“Fancy,” Cavaleri muttered. “How long did you say Doctor Burns is going to be away, again?”
“He was a little unclear on the matter,” Doctor Young replied diplomatically. “I was given to assume that we should not expect him back in the immediate future.”
“Strange that he didn't drop by to see me before he left,” she continued.
“I'm afraid I can't account for his decisions,” Doctor Young added. “All I know is that he came to see me late last night and asked if I could take over his surgery with immediate effect. I was as surprised as anyone else. After all, I wasn't even planning to stay on Thaxos.”
“Something about this feels wrong,” Cavaleri replied, turning to look over at the stones. “Call it gut instinct if you want, but I've been in this job for a long time and I know when I'm not seeing the whole picture. Skeletons don't just go unnoticed for all this time, even out here on the north of the island.”
“So what happens now?” Kate asked, keen to ensure that Cavaleri wouldn't launch a detailed search of the area. “If it's a bunch of old bones -”
“Someone still died here,” Cavaleri pointed out, interrupting her.
“But if -”
“Murder's still murder.”
“This wasn't a murder,” Doctor Young interjected. “This was a wild animal attack.”
“You can't be sure of that.”
“I can,” he continued. “You can see for yourself, in fact. This body was literally torn apart, and there are scratches on the remaining bones that are consistent with them having been stripped of meat. Probably tooth marks. I'd say that the poor guy's lower half was dragged back to a den somewhere.”
“Then we have to find the rest of him,” Cavaleri continued.
“Do you really have the time and resources to scour every inch of this island for the legs of a man who died over a century ago?” Doctor Young asked. “This is something your predecessor's predecessor should have looked into.”
Cavaleri paused, and it was clear that she was finally coming around to his way of thinking.
“Get these bones back to town,” she said finally, “and confirm the age of the skeleton. I guess we all have more important things to be doing. There are enough dangers here today, without digging up things that happened a hundred years in the past.”
“Have you found Fernando?” Kate asked.
Cavaleri turned to her.
“You were looking for him,” she continued. “You seemed worried.”
“He's...” Cavaleri paused. “I'm afraid I can't comment on official police business.”
“I'll have a preliminary report for you tomorrow morning,” Doctor Young told her. “Final results should only take a couple more days, but I'm telling you, this guy died a hundred years ago, and whatever killed him, it sure as hell wasn't a human.”
As they continued to talk, Kate allowed herself to glance in the direction of the grass that covered the tunnel entrance. When she'd found the bones, she'd immediately called Doctor Young, who in turn had called Cavaleri, and it had seemed at first that the tunnel was going to be uncovered; now, however, she was starting to breathe a sigh of relief as she realized that it would remain her secret. Reaching into her pocket, she felt the edges of Beecham's leather-bound diary, and she told herself that she was doing the right thing by keeping back some of the facts. After all, it wasn't as if she could help Beecham now, and the last thing she wanted was to have Cavaleri blundering around in the chamber.
The chamber would remain her little secret for a little longer.
