Page 53 of The Girl in the Grave
‘Whose grave was that? Did you notice? Have you looked?’
‘Yes, I did, it belongs to Vincent Naylor. He died in 1945; now I can’t be a hundred per cent positive but I’m pretty sure there has never been flowers laid there either.’
Josh was trying to figure out what it meant: was there some connection between the graves and the killer?
‘Barry, I’m on my way. Can you try and keep an eye on both graves until I get there? I need them to be searched by CSI.’
‘Well I’ll try, but they’re a bit of a distance away from each other and there’s only one of me.’
‘Go back to the monument: that was only two days ago. If you see him then walk away, don’t approach him and try not to look at him. Whoever it is they’reextremely dangerous.’
‘You don’t need to tell me that. Any funny business and I’ll smack him across the back of the head with my spade.’
Josh smiled and ended the call feeling hopeful. There was some connection to the cemetery; perhaps everything led back to there. He wanted a full search of the area conducted and the dogs brought back. He shouted to Sam.
‘I have to go to the cemetery. Can you stay here and coordinate the search, please?’
‘What are you going there for?’
‘Barry has come up with some vital information, and I need to go speak to him now.’
‘Yes, Josh, be careful. What if it’s him?’
As he climbed inside the van he wondered if Sam had a point: Barry could well be the man they were looking for. Life would be easier if it was Barry, he thought. He had access to the graves, the experience. He also had a wife and an alibi, not that they were concrete evidence. He didn’t care, though, he was pretty confident he could handle Barry if he turned all psychopathic on him.
Josh knew without a shadow of a doubt he’d risk his own life to save Beth’s.
Seventy-Four
The sun had disappeared behind a huge, dark cloud as Josh arrived at the cemetery gates. Never had the place looked so foreboding, which kind of matched his mood. He knew something big was going to happen and he was praying that it was good and that he wasn’t too late to help both Annie and Beth. He drove slowly up the hill. The cemetery was deserted but for Barry hovering around by the huge stone monument in the distance. Parking, Josh jumped out of the van and walked towards him. He studied his face: could it be him, could Barry be responsible for the devastation that had been wreaked on this normally tranquil village?
‘Thank the Lord you’re here, I’m not a wuss or anything but I’ve been scaring myself shitless waiting for you to arrive. The place is dead, there’s no one around but I keep hearing noises and looking over my shoulder in case he’s creeping up on me.’
Barry’s face was ashen, and he was acting all jittery: not the behaviour of a cold calculated killer.
‘Thank you, I’ve asked for patrols to come. But there’s another job on at the moment the local officers are tied up with; backup is on its way from Barrow.’
Barry looked at him. ‘Barrow, Jesus Christ, let’s hope we don’t need them in the next ten minutes then or we’ve had it. I’ve spoken to Jason, I told you it wasn’t him. He ran because he was scared, but has promised he’ll come to the station with me tomorrow.’
Josh nodded, then walked towards the monument and bent down to look at the flowers. They were wrapped in pale pink paper with a layer of plastic wrapping and didn’t look like the kind of flowers you picked up in the supermarket. At least that narrowed it down a little: they could check the local florists, but it would all take time. If they could identify where the flowers came from then maybe they would be able to find some better CCTV evidence of the guy who had bought them.
‘Have you ever noticed him hanging around other places in here? Is there anywhere else he could go, are there any old buildings that you might have forgotten about when we were looking the other day? I’ve finally been sent a plan of the cemetery that I requested days ago and had a brief look. What about the crypts, could he access them?’
Barry’s mouth dropped open and his face turned even paler than it already was as he let out a groan.
‘The crypts and mausoleums in the old part of the cemetery, well yes, but there’s no way anyone could get inside them. I’m so sorry. I never go down there. It didn’t enter my head.’
Josh felt a spark of hope fire inside his chest.
Barry continued. ‘They’ve been sealed off for years, they’re not safe. We don’t go down there to be honest because it’s so overgrown and dangerous.’
‘I need you to take me there now.’
Barry nodded. He followed Josh to the van, and they got inside. He directed him along the paths which got narrower and more overgrown as they drove towards the old part that was out of bounds.
‘They’re just along there, but you’ll have to walk from here.’
Barry led the way, but Josh paused. The grass was flattened on one side by something heavy like a car or van. ‘Do you ever drive down here?’
