Chapter 1
‘Boss, boss, there’s something here.’ Jim has stopped the digger, jumped down, and is standing looking at the earth he has just turned over.
‘What?’
‘Here. I’ve found something.’ He looks back down into the hole he has been making. It is about a metre deep. ‘Look.’
Chris, the site manager, comes over.
‘Shit.’
He squats down and looks into the hole.
‘It’s a skull,’ said Jim.
‘Yes, I can see that. Just what we need. A fucking skull.’
The two men peer into the scrape left by the digger. It is about two metres by two metres. At one edge, set into the mud, part of a skull is just visible. It is lying at an angle, showing the top and back of the head, the shape and size of a human skull. Chris climbs down and with his fingers brushes away some of the loose earth around its edges. The ground is soft and dry.
‘Shit. Let’s just hope that’s all there is. Have you seen anything else?’
‘No, but I haven’t really been looking.’ Jim looks across to some foundations that have been laid a few metres away. ‘Nothing was found on the main site.’
Carefully, reluctant to disturb anything, Chris continues to brush away some of the dirt.
‘Wait’, says Jim. ‘What’s that? He is pointing to a spot about a metre from the skull.
Chris brushes away some more dirt, revealing a dull metal. He starts to unearth what look like the links of a chain. One of the links is loosened and he lifts it, gently pulling on the adjoining links. Pausing, he squats back on his haunches, looking at what he has revealed.
‘We’d better stop there,’ Chris says. ‘They’ll want to call in the experts. I’ll call the Castle office.’
An increase in visitors to Beechridge Castle in Kent over the last decade has made the old car park and entrance inadequate, and after some years of argument with the Council it has been agreed that the main entrance and parking can be moved away from the main buildings to a large field at one side of the Castle grounds. A new ticket office, cafe and visitors’ centre is being constructed at the edge of the field near to the old chapel. Work started a couple of weeks ago and the ground is being cleared and levelled. Near to where Jim is digging other contractors are working, building new foundations on an area that has previously been cleared.
‘Felicity? … Hi, yes, it’s Chris…Yes, all going well … Yes thanks. Just one problem that came up today. We’ve unearthed what looks like a human skull… Yes, and possibly a chain of some sort … I don’t know. We haven’t moved it, it’s still half covered in mud… No I’ve no idea. It could be ancient for all I know. Not on the main site, it’s where the new entrance will be. You’d better come and have a look… Yes, I’m not going anywhere.’
He turns to Jim.
‘She’s coming up now. Can you rope off the area? We need to keep it clear.’
Felicity Carter is the general manager of Beechridge Castle, the most senior member of the management team who is not related to the Fullerton family. The Fullertons have owned and lived in the Castle for nearly three hundred years, but now live in just a small part of the Castle, the rest open to the public. By the time Felicity arrives on the site twenty minutes later the heavy machinery has been moved and an area of a few square metres has been roped off. Chris is waiting for her.
‘There isn’t much to see.’ He removes a piece of tarpaulin which has been loosely fixed over the hole where the skull has been found, and Felicity kneels down and looks into the hole. The back of the skull is clearly visible, and just where it emerges from the soil is what could be a dent in the bone.
‘I guess it could be human.’
She turns to look at the chain. A few links are resting on the top of the soil where Chris has brushed away the earth, but it isn’t clear whether they are attached to anything below. The links are each about two centimetres across, fashioned out of dull metal.
‘This could be anything, needs cleaning up, but probably nothing. We’ll have to call in the experts. And I suppose the police; but it won’t be recent, this area hasn’t been disturbed for years. If it is old, we have a good relationship with a local archaeological society. A few things have been found in the Castle grounds over the years but we have never dug in this field before. It’s not very deep. Not a proper burial. But quite close to the chapel. I’m surprised it hasn’t been found before. This field must have been ploughed over at some time.’
‘Just a bit too deep I expect,’ says Chris.
‘If it is old I want to get them onto it as soon as possible, minimise delay to the building work.’
She looks around, taking in the rest of the site where contractors are still working.
‘Remind me, what is this bit?’
Chris turns toward where she is looking.
‘That’s the main building. This is just the hut where tickets are checked as punters come through the new entrance. We can carry on with the rest of the work, and put this section on hold. We were only going to clear this bit while we had the equipment here.’
‘OK. Can you put up a tent and a more substantial rope, make sure no one interferes? There will be local interest I expect; if it is old we might even make a feature of it. But for now we’ll leave it to the experts.’