David turned his ire on the Californian. ‘No, too damned right it wasn’t, Jo. It wasn’t all Clare’s fault. What the bloody hell were you doing while all this was going on? Clare’s only just started in this game, but I thought you’d know better with your experience. I couldn’t believe what I was watching on the news last night. Not only was Clare standing there happily telling the world we could have a baby killer on the loose and the police don’t seem to care, but there you were chit-chatting with that weirdo in a bed sheet as he chanted some sort of gobbledygook over a dead child.’

He turned towards the window, refusing to look at either woman for fear of what he might do. Exams finished, the scene below was quieter now, with just a few postgrad students ambling to and from the library. Increasingly over the last couple of years he’d found himself wishing he could roll the clock back. Things had seemed so much simpler when he’d been down there among them studying for his doctorate. At least until Stephen had come along. He shook his head, pushing the thought from his mind. ‘I despair. Really I do.’ He turned to face them, depositing himself in his chair, his anger suddenly dissipated. ‘Are you two trying to deliberately sabotage our last hope of keeping the institute afloat? Because that’s what it’s beginning to look like from here. You pair make quite a double act, don’t you?’

Clare said, ‘You can’t blame Jo for any of this, David. You put me in charge of Bailsgrove. It was my decision to allow the news crew onto site.’

Jo chimed in, ‘That’s not fair, Clare. You didn’t have much choice. They invited themselves onto site.’

‘I know, but I could have refused and I didn’t.’

Jo said, ‘You gave it a real good go.’

Clare said, ‘David’s right, Jo. That’s not the point. I’ve already had Paul Marshall yelling down the phone, threatening to sue us.’

David looked on in disbelief. It was news to him.

‘What were we meant to do? Have Neil and some of the team strong-arm Crabby and the news team off-site? David, what do you think the headlines would have looked like then?’ She shook her head. ‘That guy’s a piece of work.’

David said, ‘That guy’s paying our wages. And it’s not only Paul Marshall we’ve got to worry about. What about the police? How do you think they’re going to feel about your little announcement to the world that some of the burials could be modern? And why the hell didn’t I know about that?’