Page 18 of The Peculiar Incident at Thistlewick House

Constable Lovett left Thistlewick House happy that Silas Garrod’s death had been an accident.

Noah, he said, had clammed up and not repeated the accusation against Edward.

Besides, the man was overwhelmed with grief and too simple to be a reliable witness.

Everyone knew how devoted the brothers were, so no foul play was suspected.

Mrs Grimmer had confirmed Edward was on the beach when the incident happened, and Edward said nothing about the brothers’ quarrel.

He had no proof the man had been pushed and didn’t think spirit possessions came under the remit of the police.

After a delayed breakfast, he set off for Maude’s house, which was just outside the village boundary, over a mile away from the centre of Thistlewick Tye.

Edward asked for directions from Mr Palmer, who was out looking for Banjo.

The dog apparently had a habit of jumping the back fence and getting out onto the common.

He advised that the cottage could either be accessed from the beach, by heading towards Sheringham and walking through a smaller gap in the cliffs, or by skirting the common and going through the woods.

Edward chose the first option, taking the opportunity to scour the sands for further bones, but the weather had improved, and the cliffs had been stable since the storm.

There was nothing new on the shore and the lapping waves had taken much of the fallen soil away.

As he continued westwards, the height of the cliffs started to decrease and there was another gap, smaller than the Thistlewick Rift, just as Jacob described.

He scrambled up the bank of soil and squinted, seeing an isolated flint building in the distance.

Hopefully, the woman hadn’t started on the gin yet, and would be in a reasonable frame of mind and less likely to attack him.

It was, however, exactly what he intended to use to win her over.

Carl had secured a bottle of mother’s ruin from somewhere, and he had it with him, tucked into his long green overcoat.

He knocked on the low door and Mrs Grimmer opened it a crack, her surprise evident in her startled expression.

‘What do you want?’ It was aggressive and challenging. This wasn’t going to be easy. Perhaps Carl would have been better placed to get information from her, but he was here now.

‘I wanted to thank you for confirming that I was on the beach when Silas fell, and to check you didn’t have any injuries from when I pushed you out the way. What we witnessed last night was extremely unpleasant and I was worried about you.’

She narrowed her eyes and snorted. ‘I’ve seen worse; besides, I’m not the sort of person others usually care about. People will think it odd that you’ve come all this way to see me.’

‘And I’m not the sort of person to care what other people think,’ he countered. ‘Look, I want to ask you some questions and I’ve brought you a gift in exchange for ten minutes of your time.’ He lifted up the bottle.

She stared at it for a few moments and then nodded.

‘May I come in?’

‘No, you may not. This is my house and my refuge. Be quick about your questions and then pass it over.’

She was far from friendly but at least she was willing to talk. Perhaps remaining on the other side of the door might also prevent her from launching another attack.

‘I’ve been told you make a living by collecting things from the shoreline to sell, and I’ve seen you picking up bones and the like.’

‘What of it? There’s no crime in that. I do what I must to survive,’ she snapped.

‘Absolutely, Mrs Grimmer, and I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m here to ask for your help. When we were both caught in that terrible storm last week, a large section of the cliff collapsed and exposed what I believe to be the burial of several people. I’d like to know more about them.’

‘There’s all sorts of bones in those cliffs. People often come to Thistlewick Tye looking for fossils and such. Animals and sea creatures that died thousands of years ago. They like to display the shells and bones in their fancy houses.’

‘Agreed, but these bones are near the top of the cliff, so I don’t believe them to be prehistoric, nor do I expect you to have the answers I seek, but if I could look at them more closely, or any objects you found with them, I might learn when they were buried and why.

You must agree, it’s odd for them not to be in the churchyard.

And we both know you snatched a gold chain from me – a closer examination of it may yield answers. ’

‘Finders, keepers,’ she barked, and tried to pull the door shut, but he’d wedged the toe of his boot in the gap.

‘I’m not after taking it from you. I merely wanted to see it. You can hold it, if you don’t trust me. I wondered if it might offer a clue to who they were: gypsies or foreigners, perhaps.’

‘You’re too late because I’ve sold it.’

Edward sighed. What had he expected? This woman would do anything to fund her drinking habit.

‘Can you at least describe it to me? Was it part of a necklace? Was there any engraving?’

‘It was just a chain,’ she said, and her shoulders shrugged. ‘And I’ve not found anything else near that part of the cliffs. Only bones from people no one remembers. Leave them be.’

He doubted she’d even looked at the chain in any detail. As soon as she’d realised it was gold, she’d have sold it to the first person she met.

‘You’ve lived here all your life, could you at least tell me if this is the only instance of bodies being exposed, and how many skeletons have fallen to the beach?’

‘I only knew it was people when I came across the skulls, and I’ve found four of them, if that’s important to you, but others could easily have been washed out to sea. They’ve been falling from that part of the common for the last couple of months. We had some strong winds back in September.’

She shrugged, clearly not caring about the identity of these people, merely how she could benefit from what she found.

‘Do you still have any of them? Or have you sold them to the rag-and-bone man?’

He knew animal bones were used to make knife handles and other decorative ornaments, for soap making or even ground up as bone meal. Would the desperate woman even care which creature they had come from?

‘I know what people think of me, mister, but I wouldn’t sell human bones.

Most of what I find on the beach, I sell, but people?

That’s different. They were living, breathing men and women once and deserve to be treated with respect.

I take them inland, as far from the destructive devil of the sea as I can, and I bury them…

’ She paused. ‘But I’m not telling you where so you can dig the poor beggars up again.

I’ve told you all I know. I want my gin now. ’

Realising he’d get nothing else from her, he slid his foot from the threshold.

She stuck an arm through the gap and he placed the bottle in her hand. It was snatched back and the door slammed shut. He wondered if it would even last the day.

‘And a very good day to you, too, madam,’ he said to the closed door, and made his way back to Thistlewick House, thinking that the baby living near the forge had displayed its unusual behaviour back in the middle of September.

If nothing else, the timing of these bones falling from the cliffs, and the curious behaviour of the baby, Emma Shaw and Noah Garrod, fitted perfectly.