In the Woods

"Damien's one of the ones who found the body," said Mark, while Hunt was catching up. "Gave them a shock."

"Damien what?" said Cassie, writing.

"Donnelly," Hunt said happily, on sure ground at last. "Damien Donnelly."

"And he was with someone when he found the body?"

"Mel Jackson," Mark said. "Melanie."

"Let's go talk to them," I said.

The archaeologists were still sitting around the table in their makeshift canteen. There were fifteen or twenty of them; their faces turned towards the door, intent and synchronized as baby birds', when we came in. They were all young, early twenties, and they were made younger by their grungy-student clothes and by a windblown, outdoorsy innocence that, although I was pretty sure it was illusory, made me think of kibbutzniks and Waltons. The girls wore no makeup and their hair was in plaits or ponytails, tightened to be practical rather than cutesy; the guys had stubble and peeling sunburns. One of them, with a guileless teacher's-nightmare face and a woolly cap, had got bored and started melting stuff onto a broken CD with a lighter flame. The result (bent teaspoon, coins, smoke-packet cellophane, a couple of crisps) was surprisingly pleasing, like one of the less humorless manifestations of modern urban art. There was a food-stained microwave in one corner, and a small inappropriate part of me wanted to suggest that he put the CD in it, to see what would happen.

Cassie and I started to speak at the same time, but I kept going. Officially she was the primary detective, because she was the one who'd said, "We'll have it"; but we have never worked that way, and the rest of the squad had grown used to seeing M amp; R scribbled under "Primary" on the case board, and I had a sudden, stubborn urge to make it clear that I was just as capable of leading this investigation as she was.

"Good morning," I said. Most of them muttered something. Sculptor Boy said loudly and cheerfully, "Good afternoon!"-which, technically, it was-and I wondered which of the girls he was trying to impress. "I'm Detective Ryan, and this is Detective Maddox. As you know, the body of a young girl was found on this site earlier today."

One of the guys let his breath out in a little burst and caught it again. He was in a corner, sandwiched protectively between two of the girls, clutching a big steaming mug in both hands; he had short brown curls and a sweet, frank, freckled boy-band face. I was pretty sure this was Damien Donnelly. The others seemed subdued (except for Sculptor Boy) but not traumatized, but he was white under the freckles and holding the mug way too hard.

"We'll need to talk to each of you," I said. "Please don't leave the site until we have. We may not have a chance to get to all of you for a while, so please bear with us if we need you to stay a bit late."

"Are we, like, suspects?" said Sculptor Boy.

"No," I said, "but we need to find out if you have any relevant information."

"Ahhh," he said, disappointed, and slumped back in his chair. He started to melt a square of chocolate onto the CD, caught Cassie's eye and put the lighter away. I envied him: I have often wanted to be one of those people who can take anything, the more horrific the better, as a deeply cool adventure.

"One other thing," I said. "Reporters will probably start arriving at any minute. Do not talk to them. Seriously. Telling them anything, even something that seems insignificant, could damage our whole case. We'll leave you our cards, in case at any point you think of anything we should know. Any questions?"

"What if they offer us, like, millions?" Sculptor Boy wanted to know.

* * *

The finds shed was less impressive than I'd expected. In spite of what Mark had said about taking away the valuable stuff, I think my mental image had included gold cups and skeletons and pieces of eight. Instead there were two chairs, a wide desk spread with sheets of drawing paper, and an incredible quantity of what appeared to be broken pottery, stuffed into plastic bags and crammed onto those perforated DIY metal shelves.

"Finds," said Hunt, flapping a hand at the shelves. "I suppose…Well, no, maybe some other time. Some very nice jettons and clothing hooks."

"We'd love to see them another day, Dr. Hunt," I said. "Could you give us about ten minutes and then send Damien Donnelly in to us?"

"Damien," said Hunt, and wandered off. Cassie shut the door behind him. I said, "How on earth does he run a whole excavation?" and started clearing away the drawings: fine, delicately shaded pencil sketches of an old coin, from various angles. The coin itself, sharply bent on one side and patchy with encrustations of earth, sat in the middle of the desk in a Ziploc bag. I found space for them on top of a filing cabinet.

"By hiring people like that Mark guy," Cassie said. "I bet he's plenty organized. What was with the hair clip?"

I squared off the edges of the drawings. "I think Jamie Rowan was wearing one that matched that description."