Clare said, ‘I suppose we have to be thankful for small mercies. And I guess it means at least our man in the car park and his friends can’t have had anything to do with the baby burials. If they’d known they were there, surely they would never have run the risk of showing Margaret and me those photos.’

Jo nodded. ‘But what the hell has been going on here, Clare? First Beth kills herself. Then we have a bunch of antiquities dealers planting stuff on the site just to dig it up again.’

Clare said, ‘The only sense I can make of it is that they were hoping to cash in on the publicity the site got from Beth’s death being splashed all over the papers. Everyone in the country knew that this place was meant to be some kind of Celtic temple.’

Jo nodded. ‘I guess. And all to give the stuff they’d ripped off from Lord knows where fake provenance so they could sell them to a bunch of rich dudes who don’t give a damn.’

‘And in the middle of it all we’ve got two murdered babies. You don’t suppose any of this had anything to do with why Beth committed suicide, do you?’

Jo wasn’t sure what Clare was getting at. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I’m not sure I know, really. Maybe the guys with the antiquities were sniffing around before she died. Or maybe if, God forbid, those two burials turn out to be modern, perhaps she knew something about them.’

‘I know you said Stuart Craig thought she was a fruit loop, but do you really think Beth Kinsella could have murdered two babies?’

Clare shook her head. ‘No. Or at least I don’t think so. But what if she’d seen something? Or found out something that she wasn’t meant to know?’

Jo said, ‘You mean what if she didn’t kill herself after all?’

‘Or perhaps she was frightened or being threatened in some way. Maybe that’s what drove her to take her own life.’

Jo took a last slug of her drink. ‘I’m beginning to think ye olde English Cotswolds aren’t quite so idyllic after all.’ She slammed her glass down on the table. ‘Come on. Let’s go inside. This place is starting to give me the creeps.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN