Alton smiled. ‘Jonah had bad luck. He became the symbol of somebody who brings disaster down on others. When sailors had bad luck at sea, they believed it was because they had a Jonah on board.’
‘That’s sounds rather superstitious of you, sir.’
‘I’m afraid superstition is difficult to avoid in these parts. It seeps into the bones.’
‘And why should you think yourself a Jonah?’
‘Why? Neil Granger dies a horrible death shortly after leaving me. And now I find there’s some other poor soul lying dead in my churchyard, and has been there for years. I disturbed their bones with my interfering. I must have walked over them many times. Neil must have almost walked over them when he left here that night. He walked over those bones on his way to his death, and he didn’t even see them.’
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Alton shivered. Cooper wondered whether he should offer some reassuring words about the body being merely the vessel, and the spirit going on to better things. But he decided it wouldn’t be appropriate. A doctor to check the vicar over would be more the thing.
‘I have to ask you this … We’ve found human remains in your churchyard. Do you have any idea whose they might be?’
‘None at all/ said Alton, raising shocked eyes to Cooper. ‘Surely they must have been in the ground long before I came here?’
‘We don’t know that yet. A body can be reduced to a skeleton quite quickly, depending on the conditions.’
‘Oh, I don’t think I want to know that,’ said Alton. ‘I wish you hadn’t told me.’
‘I’m sorry to distress you, sir. But, obviously, if there’s anything at all you can think of that would help us identify this person, it would be very helpful.’
‘Of course. But just at the moment, you know …’
‘I understand. We’ll need you to come in and make a statement some time. But in the meanwhile, someone has contacted your wife, and she’s on her way over.’
Till be all right in a little while. I’m not used to this kind of shock. Even in Withens. You want a statement from me? I don’t know what I can tell you, though.’
‘Was there anything that made you choose to clear that particular part of the churchyard today?’ said Cooper.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I just wondered … It’s one the oldest parts, isn’t it? The gravestones there all date from the nineteenth century. There are no recent burials, so it’s not as if they’re graves that living relatives are likely to want to visit. If there were a priority for these things, I’d have guessed you’d go for the most recent graves first. It must be distressing for relatives to find their loved ones’ graves overgrown and untidy. But not in that area.’ ‘Yes, you’re right,’ said Alton. That would make sense. But I wasn’t thinking logically. It was those old gravestones that made me curious. The small ones, with only initials and a year. Did you notice those?’ ‘Yes, though you can hardly see them.’
‘Exactly/ said Alton. They’re already anonymous enough, and so small that I thought it was a shame to see them disappear altogether. I thought they were the ones that needed the light most of all.’
‘You wanted to bring light?’
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‘Yes, that’s what I wanted.’
‘Whoever buried a body there wouldn’t have expected that,’ said Cooper. ‘I’m sure they thought that corner was the most neglected and forgotten. They gambled on the body not being found for quite a while, maybe never.’
‘If I’d managed to get help, though,’ said Alton, ‘I would have cleared the whole churchyard.’
‘But no one would help you.’
‘No. Well, no one except Neil.’
‘Neil? Neil Granger?’
‘He was going to give me a hand. He was a good lad.’
‘But he never got the chance.’
‘No.’
‘Mr Alton, did anybody know that Neil Granger was going to help you clear the churchyard?’
‘I have no idea,’ said Alton.
‘Think about it for a while.’
‘Well, my wife, Caroline. I mentioned it to her, because I was rather pleased that someone had volunteered.’
‘Neil did volunteer? You didn’t persuade him to do it? Or offer to pay him?’
‘Oh, no. If I could have afforded to pay someone, I would have done it. But Neil volunteered. He heard me complaining about it one day, and I told him how much I was struggling on my own. I think he took pity on me. But I was very grateful.’
‘Did you tell anyone else but your wife?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Of course, we don’t know who Neil himself might have mentioned it to,’ said Cooper.
‘I did tell the churchwardens,’ said Alton. ‘I’d been a bit cross with them for not supporting me more than they did, and I thought it might make them feel guilty. It was wrong of me, I suppose, to feel that way.’
