dilemma she had was what to tell him about first: the pool of blood, or her conversation with the estate agent.
Chapter Twenty-nine
The excavation site was completely silent, except for the creaking beneath Thora and Bella’s shoes as they walked through the slag on the pathway. It was as if they were travelling through a deep valley: nothing could be seen of the world around them apart from a clear sky and the faint traces of a street that had disappeared from the surface of the earth a third of a century ago. Thora couldn’t block out the uncomfortable feeling that they were being watched through the broken windows of the empty houses as they walked by. Of course she knew that there was not a living soul here apart from herself and Bella; nevertheless she was plagued by unease. She got goosebumps when a light breeze stirred a loose paper plate lying in front of a little house. The house looked as if it had once been yellow, but the catastrophe that had overwhelmed it had given it a dull green appearance. This decrepit shack looked so sad and neglected that Thora had to stop for a moment and stare at it. It was easy to imagine a dust-covered middle-aged woman standing at the window in her dressing-gown, waiting for life to pick up where it had left off in January 1973. Thora shook off the image. She wasn’t used to letting her imagination lead her astray – it must be the guilt she was feeling over their business in the area. At best, it was immoral. The oppressive silence also played a part. Thora was so unused to it. In the quiet neighbourhood where she lived one could always hear the sound of traffic – even at night an indistinct hum from cars driving down the surrounding streets managed to reach her ears. Here, there was no sound, although the town was just below them and people would barely have gone to bed. Ash and slag clearly swallowed all the noise, even the squeaking of their shoes. It was like watching television with the sound muted. Thora and Bella said nothing on the way to Markus’s childhood home. Their conversation had petered out around the time they reached this street and were met by its silence. Thora even grabbed Bella’s shoulder and pointed when they stopped in front of Markus’s house, instead of telling her they had reached their destination. She realized how ridiculous this was and tried to make up for it by breaking the silence: ‘It’s this one,’ she whispered, even though whispering had not been her intention.
Bella stared silently at the house.‘Come on,’ said Thora, slightly louder now. She clambered over the tape, and Bella followed. ‘This’ll be no problem,’said Thora, more to persuade herself than her secretary. What if the archaeologists turned up, or had set up security cameras to track any unwelcome visitors? No matter how she tried, Thora could not think up any excuse for their presence here. They did have a reason for doing this, but wisdom told Thora that it was a dubious one. The old man would probably stare at the stuff they brought back with the same dull gaze he turned on everything else put in front of him. If they even managed to find what they were looking for.
They came to the door and stood there for a few moments without saying anything, checking to make sure their torches were working just as well as when they had set off a quarter of an hour before.
Bella turned her light on and off for the third time. ‘Are you sure it’s safe?’ she asked, looking at the door. The oak was deeply scarred and appeared to have bent under weight or heat. Large, slender windows on both sides of the doorway were boarded with dented sheets of corrugated iron, remainders of Magnus’s attempts to save his family’s home. ‘I don’t like this, and I don’t understand why I have to go in. I’ll just keep watch, like last time. The house is collapsing.’Bella’s voice was plaintive and she pushed loosely at an iron sheet to back up her fears. As she had no doubt intended, the sheet fell with a dull crash, and she had to step aside to avoid it hitting her. ‘You see,’ she said triumphantly.
‘Don’t be an idiot,’ said Thora. ‘The sheet was put up in an emergency to prevent ash from coming into the house. The house itself is secure, and it isn’t going anywhere.’ Thora didn’t want to go in again, not at all, and wanted Bella there as back-up. She didn’t feel comfortable going down into the dark basement alone; if she had someone with her to talk to she could pretend everything was fine. ‘Let’s go, it’ll be fun once we’re in.’ Thora pushed the door with her foot, and it opened with a faint creak. Dust and soot whirled in the beam from her torch.
‘It must be really dangerous to breathe in this dust,’ said Bella.
‘Since when did you start worrying about that?’ asked Thora. ‘If you wait outside you’ll have several cigarettes, so it’ll probably be a nice rest for your lungs in here.’ She took a few steps into the house, then turned and looked at Bella through the murky air. It was as if she’d jumped inside an old-fashioned coal stove and shut the door. ‘Come on,’ she said, beckoning.
The sturdy secretary frowned, but finally let herself be persuaded, turning on her torch and walking in to join Thora. She put her free hand over her mouth and nose and mumbled something indecipherable into her palm, shooting Thora a look that displayed neither warmth nor admiration. Thora tried to smile appeasingly, which didn’t really work as she didn’t want to open her mouth. She walked carefully in the direction of the basement door, happy to hear Bella following close on her heels. The only light came from their torches, since all the windows were still boarded up tightly. They fumbled their way along the filthy floor, though there wasn’t really anything they could trip over. It appeared that whatever loose items had remained in the house when the police took it over had been pushed to the edges of the room. Thora tried not to dwell on why they had needed to clear space, but it was obvious. They had to get the three bodies out somehow. She was also trying to forget about the hard hat the archaeologist had insisted she put on the first time she’d come here. She quickened her step.
‘Is this the basement door?’asked Bella when Thora stopped. ‘Isn’t it better if I wait here?’ She looked around and coughed. The air hadn’t got any cleaner and Thora knew it would get even worse as they went deeper down, but didn’t dare tell Bella in case that was the last straw that sent her straight for the exit. ‘Then I’d be ready if anything needed to be done up here. For example, I could get help if the floor were to crash down into the basement.’
‘Enough of that talk,’ said Thora, refraining from saying that the floor was more likely to collapse with Bella standing on it. ‘You’re coming with me.’ She opened the door and shone her torch down the stairs. ‘This won’t take us any time at all.’ She stepped onto the landing and set off cautiously down the wooden steps. When she waved the torch around the basement she could see that the police had removed more than just the bodies. Everything from the shelves and the floor was gone. Thora sighed.
‘What?’ asked Bella, who had thankfully followed Thora down. ‘Is something wrong?’ Bella followed Thora’s example and shone her light around the dark cellar.
‘They’ve taken everything,’said Thora. ‘Damn.’
‘Wasn’t that to be expected?’ said Bella. ‘What if the body that belonged to the head was cut up into little pieces and scattered everywhere? The police would want to make sure they had all the evidence.’
‘I doubt that,’ said Thora irritably, walking farther into the basement. ‘The objects were removed because this was an atypical crime scene. No one had been down here for thirty-four years, so there was no way of knowing what belonged to the home and what to the possible murderer.’ She looked around again. ‘They had to take everything with them, if only to be able to examine it under better conditions.’
‘Are we finished, then?’ asked Bella impatiently. ‘You said this would take no time.’
‘No, not at all,’ said Thora. ‘I think there’s a storeroom here somewhere, and the police probably haven’t cleared it out.’ She shone her light on the walls, one after another. ‘Especially not if it’s sealed.’ She walked over to two doors that stood side by side in one corner. ‘If they’d wanted to remove everything from the house there wouldn’t be anything left on the ground floor. There could just as easily be something relevant up there.’
‘I’m not opening those doors,’ said Bella, and coughed again. The dust in the air
