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three hundred in a child's.'
    'Oh well.' Clough stands up, brushing crumbs from his chinos (like Nelson, he wears plain clothes—very plain in Nelson's case). 'Better get back to the ranch. No peace for the wicked.'
    A cliché, like many of Clough's utterances but as Ruth goes back to work in her trench she finds the phrase reverberating in her mind. No peace for the wicked. Were these bones at peace? Is she now disturbing them? Did something wicked happen here, however many years ago? Did somebody kill this child? And what about the cat?
    No peace for the wicked. Cathbad would say that places retain memories of evil. This site is spooky enough, with its half-ruined Gothic walls, its grandiose arch, the staircases and doors leading to nowhere. Cathbad would also say that Ruth should be careful, disturbing the dead, meddling with the past. But that is her job. She is a forensic archaeologist. It is her job to excavate the body and discover clues from the bones, from the burial, from the very texture of the earth. It is all very straightforward and there is nothing to get excited about.
    Nevertheless, when the light starts to fade and Ted and Trace pack up their tools, Ruth goes with them. Being sensible is one thing; staying on the site after dark is another.

CHAPTER 9
    'So you were resident at the Sacred Heart Children's Home for how long?'
    'Three years. I came when I was thirteen. I left when I was sixteen. Father Hennessey got me an apprenticeship. I owe him everything really.'
    The speaker, a mild-looking man in his forties, looks at Nelson and smiles. Nelson forces himself to smile back. This is the third ex-resident of the children's home who has offered an unsolicited testimonial to the kindness of Father Hennessey. As Clough put it, half an hour ago, 'perhaps the buggers have been brainwashed.'
    While Nelson and Clough are interviewing former residents of the children's home, Detective Constable Judy Johnson, another of Nelson's team, is on her way to interview Sister Immaculata, a nun who used to work at the home and is now in a Southport old people's home. As Nelson hates Southport and Clough hates nuns, it was considered that this visit needed 'a woman's touch'.
    'Mr Davies,' Nelson leans forward, 'during your time at the home was there any ill-treatment of inmates ... sorry, residents.'
    'No, never,' Davies answers. Too quickly? wonders Nelson.
    'No corporal punishment?' asks Clough. 'Quite common in the seventies.'
    'No,' says Davies quietly, 'Father Hennessey believed in kindness.'
    'What about the nuns? The sisters. Could they be strict?'
    Davies considers. 'They could be strict, yes. No physical violence but some of them had sharp tongues. A few were kind. Sister James. Sister Immaculata. But some of the others ... they were good women but not kindly women, if you know what I mean.'
    'So what were the punishments for bad behaviour?' persists Nelson.
    Davies smiles. 'Well, for really bad behaviour you got sent to Father Hennessey but that usually turned out to be more of a treat than anything else. He'd get you to help clear out his cupboards or weed the kitchen garden. Some of my happiest memories of SHCH are of working on that garden.'
    Nelson sighs and changes tack. 'Did you know two children called Black? Martin and Elizabeth Black.'
    Davies frowns. He has an anxious, squashed-looking face at the best of times. Now his face is positively pleated in thought. 'Yes,' he says at last, 'they went missing. It was just after I came to SHCH. Martin was about a year younger than me. He was very clever, I remember.'
    'Do you remember anything about their disappearance?'
    'Well, there was a big to-do at the time. We used to have a free hour at the end of the day and I remember that I'd actually been talking to Martin. There was a craze for collecting football cards and we were filling in our scrapbooks. Elizabeth was there too, playing with some stuffed animal. A dog, I think it was. She took it everywhere with her.