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but only just. The base was still resting on it. On the other hand, it’s hard to know how much it had been disturbed before we came along.’
    â€˜What would you say if you had to come down one side or the other?’
    â€˜More likely than not they all came together, all in the box. There was a bit of china nearer the top – must have been a hundred and fifty years old.’
    Thornhill nodded. ‘I’d better have a look at where you found it.’
    â€˜Can’t it wait till the morning?’ George said.
    Yes, Thornhill thought, it almost certainly could. But the decision had nothing to do with George.
    â€˜I’d prefer to have a look tonight, sir. You never know.’
    George screwed up his mouth. ‘You’ll need a torch. It’s as black as pitch out there.’
    â€˜I’ve got a torch in the car.’
    â€˜Still, there’s no need for me to stay, is there?’
    â€˜No, sir.’
    â€˜I’ll push off then. Evans will lock up after you.’
    Thornhill watched as George got up. ‘I shall have to take away the box and its contents. I’ll leave you a receipt, of course.’
    â€˜By all means.’
    â€˜And where can I find you in case I need to get in touch with you this evening?’
    George stuffed the file into his already bulging briefcase. ‘Why should you want to do that?’
    â€˜I probably shan’t,’ Thornhill said.
    George stared across the room at him. The building contractor’s eyes were a very pale and cloudy blue. ‘As you like.’ He scribbled something on a business card and passed the card to Thornhill. ‘That’s my home phone number. You’ve finished in here, I take it?’
    Thornhill nodded.
    â€˜Good. Then if you take away your bones, I can at least lock up the office. Then all Evans need do is lock the gate to the road.’
    â€˜Do you have a night watchman?’ Thornhill asked automatically.
    â€˜Yes – but he spends most of his time on the other side of the site. There’s an old warehouse – that’s where we keep anything worth stealing. Evans will introduce you if you want.’
    Thornhill wrote a receipt. George drummed his fingers against the surface of his desk. Evans stood by the door, his weight evenly balanced on his two legs and his face expressionless. It was impossible to tell whether he minded George’s habit of treating him like a well-trained dog. Thornhill gave George the receipt and picked up the box.
    Suddenly Evans cocked his head. ‘Someone’s banging out there. On the gate. I think.’
    â€˜It may be Doctor Bayswater,’ Thornhill said. ‘I asked him to meet me here.’
    â€˜A doctor? For that?’ George grinned, revealing a mouth crowded with jagged yellow teeth. ‘Bit late for a doctor, isn’t it?’
    â€˜The wicket’s on the latch,’ Evans said. ‘I’d better let him in.’
    â€˜Come on.’ George herded Thornhill out of the room. ‘You can talk to him in the yard.’
    It had started to rain again. Evans was standing with the doctor just inside the gate. Bayswater was hunched under a big umbrella and carrying a black bag. George muttered something which might have been a greeting as he slipped through the wicket gate to the street beyond.
    â€˜What have you got, then?’ Bayswater said. He was a stooping man in late middle age. ‘Bones, they told me. Personally, I don’t see why they couldn’t have waited until the morning.’
    â€˜Is there somewhere we can go with a light?’ Thornhill said to Evans.
    The man nodded. ‘The passage outside the site office is the only place. Unless you want to come over to the warehouse.’
    â€˜The nearer the better,’ said Bayswater. ‘I hope this isn’t going to take long. I’ve got calls to make.’
    Evans took them inside. Thornhill put the box on the floor under the