Chapters (28)
‘Not hundreds of years, that’s for sure.’ Kenny tipped his head towards Mrs Barley’s house. ‘Maybe the old dear can shed some light, if you’d care to ask her.’
I didn’t respond. I had no wish to interrogate the old woman about the contents of her roof space. The more things that came to light, the more uneasy I was beginning to feel about her. It was all deeply unsettling.
After Kenny and the boys had left, I kept Jobie in the house, leaving the mummies on the lawn to show Jack.
When he returned, the medic in him was fascinated with their state of decomposition, or rather the lack of it. He knelt down on the grass to get a closer look.
‘The preservation is incredible. They’ve somehow become naturally desiccated. I’ve never seen anything mummified in the flesh before – if you know what I mean.’
‘Yes, it’s all very interesting, I’m sure. But what worries me is how the hell the poor things got there in the first place.’
‘If it hadn’t been for the cloth, I’d have said misadventure. But someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to conceal them. I think we need to ask our Mrs Barley if she knows anything.’
I still felt slightly queasy. I watched as Jack strode back into the house. Moments later he returned, and Mrs Barley came out of her back door. She hobbled down her path, looking flustered as she craned her neck to look over the fence.
‘Oh, my! So these were inside my chimney?’ She cupped her hands round her cheeks in horror, her eyes wide. ‘Oh, how awful. What a shocking thing to find. To think they’ve been up there all these years and I’d no idea. I wonder if the old man who lived in Rose Cottage before us put them up there? He was a strange chap and no mistake. He had to go into a home and they pretty much had to drag him kicking and screaming, from what I heard.’
Jack and I exchanged glances. The old lady appeared genuinely appalled. Maybe she really didn’t know anything after all.
We buried the cats at the bottom of the garden. I felt saddened that someone had probably lost their pets and that the animals had met with such a tragic end. But more than anything, exactly how that end must have been brought about played on my mind.