Stone looked distinctly unamused. ‘How long is a while, Dr Granski?’

Jo said, ‘Hard to say for sure, but in my professional judgement we’re talking centuries or millennia here, not months.’

Stone said, ‘And you’re certain about that?’

‘As certain as anyone can be.’

Stone looked at Clare. ‘Well, in that case, you’ve just escaped having your dig shut down again by the skin of your teeth.’ As he walked away he turned back and shouted over her shoulder, ‘And if you’d like to avoid it happening again, Mrs Hills, I’d suggest you have a word with your colleague here about her sense of humour. Wasting police time is a criminal offence on this side of the Atlantic.’

Every digger on the site had stopped stock-still. Most of them were standing up, staring. Clare could feel her face flush from top to bottom. She wanted the ground to swallow her up. Why on earth had Jo decided it was a good idea to play verbal tag with a member of the local constabulary in front of the whole team? Mark Stone already had a lowly enough opinion of her without Jo adding to it.

As soon as Stone had climbed into his car, Clare yelled, ‘What are you lot staring at? We’ve got work to do.’

Jo turned to her friend. ‘That was a little rough on them, Clare.’

Clare maintained a studious silence, half afraid of what she might say to her friend.

‘Hey, come on, what’s up?’ Jo reached out to put a hand on Clare’s shoulder, but she brushed it aside.

The Californian pointed in the direction of the burial. ‘This stuff is exciting. I know you, you’d normally be ecstatic about a find like this. We’ve got some sort of deliberate killing on our hands, maybe even a sacrifice.’

Clare closed her eyes and shook her head. ‘Oh, just ignore me, Jo. It’s been a long week. I’m just tired, that’s all.’

‘OK. If you say so.’

Jo sounded unconvinced. But the last thing Clare wanted right now was the third degree in front of the entire dig team. ‘I tell you what, Jo, if you want to help you could finish excavating the baby burial while Malc and I start digging those two pits that Neil found this morning.’