“Chris, you don’t need that,” says Donna.
He gives her a look.
“Please,” she says, “let me help. I know it’s hard.”
Chris nods and puts the chocolate bar back.
“So what’s in it for Mackie?” asks Donna. “What’s the connection with the graveyard? Why protect it if he’s not a priest?”
Chris shrugs. “Perhaps it’s just a way of getting to Ventham? Perhaps there’s another connection between them. Have we looked at Dr. Mackie’s patient lists? You never know.”
He then picks up a cereal bar.
“That’s even worse than a chocolate bar,” says Donna. “Even more sugar.”
He puts it back down. He’s going to be forced to eat a piece of fruit at this rate.
“He’s dodgy as hell,” says Chris. “All we’re missing is his motive.”
Donna’s phone buzzes and she reads a message. She purses her lips and looks up at Chris.
“It’s Elizabeth. She wonders if we might like to pop over this evening?”
“I think that might have to wait,” says Chris. “Tell her we’re busy solving two murders.”
Donna continues to scroll through the message. “She says she has something for us. I quote, ‘Please do not read another file until you have seenwhat we have found. Also there will be sherry. See you at eight.’” She puts down her phone and looks at her boss.
“Well?” she asks.
Well? Chris slowly strokes his stubble, considering the Thursday Murder Club. He has to face it, he likes them. He’s happy drinking their tea, eating their cake, and chatting off the record. He likes their rolling hills and their big sky. Was he being taken advantage of? Well, almost certainly, but for now, he was getting plenty in return. Would this all look very bad if it came out? Yes, but it wouldn’t. And if it did, why not just take Elizabeth into his disciplinary hearing and let her work her magic?
Eventually he looks up at Donna, who has her eyebrows raised waiting for an answer.
“I’m a reluctant yes.”
76.
Now, we can do this one of two ways,” says Elizabeth. “You can kick up a fuss and curse us to the heavens, and we can all waste a lot of time. Or you can just accept what has happened and we can enjoy our sherry and get on with this. Your choice.”
Chris cannot speak for a moment. He looks at the four of them, then to the air, then to the floor. Looking for words that don’t come. He holds the flat of a palm in the air in front of him, in an effort to pause reality for the briefest of moments. But no luck.
“You...” he begins slowly, “you... dug up a body?”
“Well, technicallywedidn’t dig it up,” says Ibrahim.
“But a body was dug up, yes?” says Chris.
Elizabeth and Joyce nod. Elizabeth takes a sip of her sherry.
“That’s the long and short of it,” confirms Joyce.
“And you then performed a forensic analysis on the bones?”
“Well, again, not us personally. And only on some of them,” says Ibrahim.
“Oh, that’s fine, then. Just a few?” Chris’s voice is raised, and Donna realizes it’s the first time she’s experienced this. “Then I wish you all a good evening. Nothing to see here.”
“I knew you’d get melodramatic,” says Elizabeth. “Can we just get this over with, and move on to business?”
