‘Because,’ said Clare, ‘hares were sacred in the Iron Age. That’s right, isn’t it, Crabby?’

Crabby nodded. ‘That’s right. But that’s not why I know Beth would never have done it. Sitting and talking with her one day about all the creatures the Druids held sacred, I knew hares were sacred animals and I said so to Beth. She just laughed and said that was right according to Caesar, but he was a Roman and what did they know? She told me hares were one of the most commonly hunted animals among the Celtic peoples. But then she laughed again and said for once maybe the Romans had it right. She didn’t understand how anyone could harm a hare; they were such beautiful, gentle creatures.’

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Speaking to the police had seemed the only possible course of action when she’d phoned this morning to arrange an appointment to see DCI Mark Stone. But now as she sat in Little Blue, rain dribbling down the windscreen, staring up at the looming post-modern monstrosity that was Stroud police station, Clare was beginning to wonder if it was such a good idea after all.

She and Jo had stayed up into the small hours of the night trying to make some sort of sense of what Crabby had told them. At least they now knew how all of that metalwork had found its way to the dig site. And they’d agreed that it must have been sheer opportunism that had drawn the nighthawks to Bailsgrove once the police had first closed it down and then abandoned it. With every newspaper in the country running the story that Beth Kinsella had claimed the site was an Iron Age temple and zero security in place, the dig site had been a sitting duck. Clare hadn’t mentioned it to Jo but she still harboured suspicions that Sheila Foggarty might somehow have been involved in tipping the nighthawks off, though she didn’t think she’d ever be able to prove it.

Beth’s death had ensured that whatever it was that she’d discovered was likely to remain a mystery, and there was nothing to stop the development going ahead. For anyone who wanted to prevent those houses from being built, the timing of Beth’s demise seemed convenient to say the least. If, as Crabby claimed, Beth hadn’t killed herself, there was only one possible alternative: somebody else had. And that meant that anyone who might stand in the way of the development was a potential target. And the moment Clare and the dig team had discovered the evidence for the shrine it had put all of them in harm’s way. So despite her misgivings she knew that she had no choice but to speak to the police.