The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths (4 page)

She grits her teeth. He is not going to be whimsical about this find. Phil has always been rather sceptical about Erik the Viking and his views on ritual landscape. For the Iron Age people the henge was already ancient, probably as much of a mystery to them as it is to us. Did they bury this body in the mud to symbolise the beginning of this mystic landscape? Or was the victim ritually killed to appease the water spirits? If Ruth can prove a link between the body and the henge, then the whole area becomes significant. Saltmarsh could become a major archaeological site.

By lunchtime she thinks that the weather is improving slightly. She goes out as far as the gate and the rain is soft and friendly on her face. It is ridiculous really, because the trench will have filled with water and she can do no real work on her own, but she makes up her mind to walk to the site. It’s not far, maybe a mile away, and the exercise will do her good. She tells herself this briskly as she puts on the sou’wester and waders she’d bought for a dig in the Outer Hebrides, puts a torch in her pocket and shrugs her rucksack onto her back. She’s just going for a look, that’s all. A nice brisk walk before it gets dark. Better than sitting at home wondering and eating biscuits.

At first it is quite pleasant. She is walking with her back to the wind and the sou’wester keeps her nice and dry. In her pocket she has the very same ordnance survey map that they used on the henge dig. Looking at it earlier, she saw the henge marked in yellow, with green stickers where other pieces of prehistoric wood were found. They seemed to form a line radiating out from the henge and Erik thought at the time that they might have been part of a path, or causeway. Could the path be leading to Ruth’s bones?

Rather than following the road to the car park, Ruth strikes out west, keeping to a path intended for bird watchers. As long as she sticks to the path she will be fine.

The marsh lies on either side of her, huge clumps of reed and mile upon mile of windswept grass. The ground looks solid enough but she knows from experience that it is full of hidden pools, treacherous and deep. When the tide comes in, the sea will come halfway up the marsh, covering the ground swiftly and silently. It was here that Peter was marooned all those years ago, stuck between the tidal and the freshwater marshes, lying on his face in the muddy water, clinging to a piece of driftwood while Erik crept towards him across the mudflats shouting words of encouragement in Norwegian.

Ruth plods along the path. It is very narrow here and the mist means that she can only see a few yards in front of her.

She doesn’t want to be lured onto the marsh. The rain falls steadily and the sky is heavy and grey. Once, she disturbs a flock of snipe, who rise zigzagging crazily into the air, but otherwise she is quite alone. She hums as she walks, thinking of Erik and Peter and of the enchanted summer on the Saltmarsh. She thinks of the druids who came and camped out by the henge. Erik had been on their side, she remembers. After all, he had said, this is what it was built for, not for scientific study in a museum. But the university, which was sponsoring the dig, had wanted the timbers moved. They were being eroded by the tide, they had argued, they needed to be moved for their own safety. ‘But they were meant to be eroded,’ Erik had argued. ‘Life and death, ebb and flow, that’s what it’s all about.’

But Erik had lost and the timbers were removed, slowly and painstakingly, to the university laboratory. Now Ruth feels a stab of regret for the timber circle that had lain buried in the sand for two thousand years. It belongs here, she thought, wading through muddy puddles, hands deep in her pockets. What the Sand gets, the Sand keeps forever.

At last she can see the hide where Nelson ordered Clough to bag up the litter. She can even see the car park, deserted now of course. The ground is firmer here and she walks quickly despite being out of breath (she really must start going to the gym in January). The police tape is still fluttering in the breeze and Ruth, ducking underneath it, thinks of Nelson, his eagerness, his disappointment when the bones did not turn out to be those

of Lucy Downey. He was an odd man, she thought, brusque and unfriendly, but it seemed as if he had really cared about that little girl.

As she suspected, the trench is now almost entirely filled with water. This is the major problem with excavating marshy, tidal sites. In archaeology, it is essential to get a ‘context’, a clear view of where something is discovered.

With sites like this, the very ground is changing beneath your feet. Ruth takes out her beaker and starts to scoop away some of the water. She cannot hope to empty the trench but she just wants to see if there is anything else visible in the soil. Phil has promised to send a team from the university to excavate properly but she wants to see it first. This is her discovery.

After about half an hour, maybe more, she thinks she sees something. A dull, bronze-green gleam in the rich, dark soil. Gently she brushes away soil from its edges. It looks like another torque. Trembling, she takes out her original plan of the site and marks in the new find. A second torque could mean the beginnings of a hoard, a ritual depositing of treasure.

It is definitely another torque, battered and scrunched up as if crushed by a huge hand. But, looking closely, Ruth can see that it is intact. She can see both ends, rounded and smooth compared with the plaited quality of the rest of the metal. Ruth is sure it is from the same period, early to middle Iron Age. Is this a votive hoard? One find looks like chance, two starts to look like a ritual.

She sits back on her heels, her arms aching. It is only then that she realises how dark it has become. She looks at her watch. Four o’clock! The walk can only have taken half-an-hour so she has been squatting here in the mud for nearly two hours. She must be getting back. She straightens up, puts the bag containing the torque in her pocket and pulls up her hood. The rain, which had settled into a fine mist, now suddenly gathers in strength, hitting her in the face as she starts the climb back up towards the path. Ruth puts her head down and ploughs onwards; she has never been stuck on the marsh in the dark and she doesn’t mean to start now.

For about twenty minutes she plods on, head down against the driving rain. Then she stops. She should have reached the gravel path by now. It is almost completely dark, with just a faint phosphorescent gleam coming from the marsh itself. Ruth gets out her torch but its shaky light shows her only flat marshland in all directions. Far off, she can hear the sea roaring as it thunders inland. She tries to get out her map but it is blown back in her face. It is too precious to lose so she packs it away again. She can hear the sea but from which direction? She gets out her compass. She is heading too far to the east. Slowly, trying not to panic, she revolves on the spot until she is facing south, then sets out again.

This time she stops because her foot steps into nothingness.

Literally one minute she is on dry land and the next she has sunk knee-high into the bog. She almost falls on her face but manages to save herself, rocking backwards until she is sitting on the firm ground. With an effort she pulls her leg from the liquid mud. It comes free with a horrible squelching sound but her wader, thank God, stays on. Panting, she takes a step backwards. Firm Ground.

Step forwards. Oozing mud. To the right, more mud. To the left, firmer ground. She starts to edge to the left, her torch held out in front of her.

After a few yards, she falls headlong into a ditch. Putting out her hands to save herself, she encounters icy water. She raises a hand to her lips. Salt. Oh God, she must have wandered right out to the tidal marsh. Scrambling to her feet she wipes mud off her face and checks her compass again. Due east. Has she missed the path altogether? Is she heading straight out to sea? The roaring in her ears is so loud now that she cannot tell if it is the sea or just the wind. Then a wave breaks right over her feet. There is no mistaking it, a freezing, briny-smelling swell of water. She is on the tidal mudflats, possibly at the very spot where Peter called for help all those years ago. But there is no Erik to save her. She will be drowned right here on the desolate marshland with a priceless Iron Age torque in her pocket.

She is sobbing now, her tears mingling with the rain and sea water on her face. Then she hears something so miraculous that she almost discounts it as a mirage. A voice. Calling her. She sees a light, a shaky hand-held light coming towards her. ‘Help!’ she shouts frantically, ‘Help!’

The light comes nearer and a man’s voice shouts. ‘Come this way. Towards me.’ Almost on all fours, she crawls towards the light and the voice. A figure looms out of the mist, a thick-set figure wearing a reflective jacket. A hand reaches out and grabs hers. ‘This way,’ says the voice, ‘this way.’

Clinging on to the yellow waterproof sleeve as if it were a lifebelt, she stumbles along beside the man. He seems familiar somehow but she can’t think about that now. All she can do is follow him as he traces a circuitous path, first left and then right, now into the wind, now away from the wind, through the mudflats. But whatever route he is taking seems a remarkably effective one. Her feet are on firm ground almost all the time, and before too long she can see the blue and white police tape and the car park where a battered Land Rover is waiting.

‘Oh my God.’ She lets go of the man and leans over to catch her breath.

The man steps back, shining his torch into her face.

‘What the hell were you playing at?’ he demands.

“I was trying to get home. I got lost. Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along.’

‘You’d have drowned, that’s what you would have done.’ Then his voice changes. ‘You’re the girl from the university, aren’t you?’

Ruth looks at him, taking in close-cropped grey hair, blue eyes, official-looking jacket. It is her neighbour, the warden of the bird sanctuary. She smiles. Despite her feminist principles, she quite likes being called a girl.

‘Yes. You’re my neighbour, aren’t you?’

He holds out a hand. ‘David.’

She shakes hands, smiling again at the strangeness of it.

A few moments ago she was clinging on to his sleeve, sobbing hysterically. Now they are behaving as if they have just met at a cocktail party.

‘I’m Ruth. Thanks again for saving me.’

He shrugs. ‘That’s OK. Look, we’d better get you home. My car’s over there.’

In the Land Rover, a blessed oasis of warmth and safety, Ruth feels almost elated. She isn’t dead, she is about to be driven home in comfort and she has the torque in her pocket. She turns to David, who is coaxing the engine into life.

‘How did you know the way back? It was amazing, the way you twisted and turned across the marsh.’

‘I know this place like the back of my hand,’ says David, putting the car into gear. ‘It’s weird. There are wooden posts sunk into the ground. If you follow them, it leads you on a safe path through the marsh. I don’t know who put them there but, whoever did, they knew the land even better than I do.’

Ruth stares at him. ‘Wooden posts …’ she whispers.

Yes. They’re sunk deep into the ground, sometimes half submerged, but if you know where they are they’ll lead you through the treacherous ground, right out to sea.’

Right out to sea. Right out to the henge. Ruth touches the freezer bag in her pocket but says nothing. Her mind is working furiously.

‘What were you doing out on a night like this anyway?’

asks David as they drive along the Saltmarsh Road. The windscreen wipers are almost buckling under the weight of water.

‘We found something. Over by the car park. I wanted to take a second look. I know it was stupid.’

‘You found something? Something old? You’re an archaeologist, aren’t you?’

‘Yes. Some Iron Age bones. I think they might be linked to the henge. Do you remember, ten years ago, when we found the henge?’ She dimly remembers David watching the excavations that summer. How terrible that they haven’t spoken since.

‘Yes,’ he says slowly, “I remember. That chap with a pony tail, he was in charge wasn’t he? He was a good bloke. I had a lot of time for him.’

‘Yes, he is a good bloke.’ Funnily enough, there is something about David that reminds her of Erik. Perhaps it’s the eyes, used to scanning far horizons.

‘So, will there be all sorts of people here again? Druids and students and idiots with cameras?’

Ruth hesitates. She can tell that David thinks the Saltmarsh should be left to him and the birds. How can she say that she hopes there will be a major excavation, almost certainly involving students and idiots with cameras, if not druids.

‘Not necessarily,’ she says at last. ‘It’s very low key at the moment.’

David grunts. ‘The police were here the other day. What were they after?’

Ruth is not sure how much she should say. Eventually she says, ‘It was because of the bones, but when they turned out to be prehistoric they lost interest.’

They have reached Ruth’s blue gate now. David turns to her and smiles for the first time. He has very white teeth.

How old is he she wonders. Forty? Fifty? Like Erik, he has an ageless quality.

‘But you,’ says David, ‘you’re more interested now, aren’t you?’

Ruth grins. ‘Yes I am.’

As she opens her front door, the phone is ringing. She knows, beyond any doubt, that it will be Erik.

‘Ruthie!’ Erik’s singsong voice echoes across the frozen miles from Norway. ‘What’s all this about a find?’

‘Oh Erik,’ says Ruth ecstatically, standing dripping onto the rug. “I think I’ve found your causeway.’

It is dark but she is used to that. She stretches out a hand to see if she can touch the wall and encounters cold stone.

No door. There is a trapdoor in the roof but she never knows when that will open. And sometimes it is worse when it does. No use screaming or crying; she has done this many times before and it never helps. Sometimes, though, she likes to shout just to hear her own voice. It sounds different somehow, like a stranger’s voice. Sometimes it’s almost company, this other voice. They have long talks, sometimes, whispering in the dark.