She looked round the rest of the grave, the stink of decomposition in her nose, sweat cooling on her brow, her fingers shaking, her nails clogged with dirt and God knows what else. Finally she stopped examining the casket’s contents and looked up at Jenny pointing her torch on this horror scene.

‘It’s only Barbara in here,’ Dorothy said, hands on hips. ‘I was wrong.’

256

49

JENNY

‘You look like death warmed up.’

Jenny turned to see Hannah in the kitchen doorway. She came in, switched the kettle on and sat opposite Jenny at the table.

It was already afternoon, Jenny sleeping late after last night. It felt like a fever dream, as if it hadn’t really happened, or happened to someone else in a parallel universe. But the feel of the dirt was still under her nails, the smell of wet earth was still in her nostrils. To Jenny’s amazement Dorothy was downstairs working, arranging a funeral with the husband of an elderly lady who passed away in the night. How could she be functioning, physically and emotionally? Jenny just wanted to curl up and make the world go away.

‘How did it go last night?’ Hannah said.

Jenny waited for Hannah to tell her that she somehow knew her mother and grandmother spent the night desecrating a grave. It had taken them less time to fill the hole back in but it was still hard work, especially clouded by Dorothy’s disappointment about the lack of a second body. The whole escapade was pointless.

She realised she hadn’t answered.

‘How do you mean?’

The kettle clicked off, the rushing boil of water dying away.

‘Speaking to Bradley?’

Jenny switched lanes in her mind, thought for a moment. ‘I didn’t get anything. The police have spoken to him, I presume they have his DNA.’

Hannah began making tea. ‘Just because Peter Longhorn wasn’t the father of Mel’s kid, doesn’t mean he didn’t kill her.’

‘But it makes it less likely.’257

‘I don’t know,’ Hannah said, bringing the mugs over. ‘Maybe he killed her because he found out she was pregnant by someone else.’

‘But he knew she had a boyfriend.’

Hannah shrugged. ‘Who knows what she told him, or what he figured out?’

Jenny looked at the whiteboard. ‘So what now?’

‘I’m heading round to speak to Xander.’

‘Didn’t you find him yesterday?’

Hannah shook her head. ‘No, he was still at the police station. But I tracked down his flatmates.’

‘And?’

‘They might not be guilty, but they knew her, and they’re misogynist arseholes. I flagged them up with Thomas.’

Jenny sipped her tea. ‘Are you sure this is all a good idea? Shouldn’t we leave it to the police?’

Hannah shook her head. ‘I don’t trust the police to do this. I need to keep investigating.’