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relationship seemed on the verge of teetering into something else but, somehow, it hadn’t happened. Frank had gone back to America and they had corresponded for a while. There was even some talk of Ruth going to visit Frank in Seattle. But, again, the talk had come to nothing. Something—Kate? her work? Nelson?—kept holding Ruth back. But now he was coming to see her. Well, strictly speaking, he was coming to see the airfields, but hadn’t he said ‘I’ve been thinking a lot about you’ and‘it would be great to meet up’? Ruth continues to stare at the screen.
    As she does so, another email pings up. This one says: ‘Soil analysis: results’. Ruth reads quickly and reaches for her phone. Then she stops. She can hear her students scuffling outside. She hasn’t got time for a proper conversation. She’ll ring Nelson later. She closes her laptop and composes her face into a welcoming smile.
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    Nelson and Clough are in the middle of yet another field. This time the landscape is clearly in transition. The earth has been gouged and dissected. The grass has vanished under huge mounds of sand and cement. Work has definitely restarted at Devil’s Hollow. In fact, thinks Nelson, it’s no longer even a hollow. It’s now a square of churned-up soil. A sign by the gate tells non-existent passers-by that a luxury development of beachfront apartments is being created by Spens and Co. There’s no sign of the apartments yet but, if you look hard, you can just see the sea glimmering through the few remaining trees. Otherwise, it could be any building site anywhere in the country.
    The digger stands, vibrating gently, in the middle of the field and next to it stands Barry West, looking unhelpful. He’s clearly longing to get back to work (and to the sandwiches in his cab).
    â€˜This must be quite some job,’ says Nelson.
    Barry says nothing. He looks exactly as he did on the day that the body was discovered. In fact he seems to be wearing exactly the same clothes.
    â€˜When did work start up again?’ asks Nelson.
    â€˜As soon as you lot finished messing around. A few weeks ago.’
    Nelson decides to ignore the description of police forensic work as ‘messing around’. ‘Much more to do?’ he asks.
    â€˜I’m nearly done. Building work starts next week.’
    â€˜I want to talk to you about the day the plane was discovered,’ says Nelson. ‘Do you remember that day?’
    â€˜Not going to forget it, am I? Bleeding dead body looking out at me.’
    â€˜I wanted to ask you about earlier in the day, before you found the plane. Did anyone come to the field asking about the building work?’
    Barry looks at them under lowered brows. Ruth once told Nelson that most Europeans have four per cent Neanderthal DNA but clearly this is only an average.
    â€˜Yeah,’ he says at last. ‘Posh bloke. Long hair.’
    Nelson and Clough look at each other. ‘Do you remember what he said?’
    â€˜Was asking about the houses. How many there would be. That sort of thing. I told him that I only drove the digger.’
    â€˜Did he say anything else that you remember?’
    â€˜He said something about engine parts. I didn’t know what he was going on about. I thought he was talking about the digger. A lot of these posh types like to pretend that they know about machinery. Mr Spens is the same.’
    But what if Chaz wasn’t just pretending to be Bob the Builder? thinks Nelson as he and Clough walk back to hiscar. What if Chaz knew the plane was there all along? After all, he must have played in these fields as a child. What if, in the course of some childish game, he had come across parts of the buried plane? And when he found out about the sale of the land, did he think that if the builders discovered the plane it would halt the development? What if he also calculated that the plane would make more of