Chapter 71

At the grave opened on the morning of Ian Ventham’s murder, Bogdan sets up an arc light so the group can examine the extra skeleton found above Sister Margaret’s coffin. Austin climbs down with Ibrahim’s help, while Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, Bogdan and Ibrahim watch.

Austin inspects the bones and, speaking cautiously, says the remains have been buried for a considerable time. When Joyce notes that Sister Margaret’s headstone is dated 1874, Austin rules out the skeleton being that old and estimates the burial as perhaps thirty, forty or fifty years old, depending on the soil.

Ibrahim concludes that someone must have reopened the grave, hidden another body inside, and filled it in again. Elizabeth asks whether the remains might belong to another nun and whether any jewellery or clothing survives, but Austin finds nothing: the body appears to have been stripped bare, suggesting that if this was murder, the killer acted deliberately and carefully.

Austin asks to take some bones away for closer examination in the morning, and Elizabeth agrees. Bogdan asks whether they should now tell the police, but Elizabeth argues that they should wait until Austin can identify more, because police involvement might cut off the club’s access to the evidence.

Bogdan voices concern that their behaviour is not normal and that he may be the one sent to prison if the plan fails. Joyce, Ibrahim and Elizabeth reassure him in their own ways, and Elizabeth says they only want to learn whose remains these are and who buried them. The group agrees to keep the discovery quiet for now, help Austin out of the grave, collect the bones, and return to Joyce’s for tea.