THE HOUSE AT SEA’S END

but Ted, Craig and Steve squash into Ruth’s tiny officeand Ruth tells them briefly about the discovery of the film. The team are still employed by the university on their erosion survey but Ruth feels she needs to keep them updated as they were the ones that found the bodies in the first place. She has agreed with Nelson that she won’t go into any detail, will just say that new evidence has emerged. She can’t say how the film was found, either, though naturally the archaeologists are intrigued. Ted, in particular, keeps asking very awkward questions. ‘How come this film has turned up after seventy-odd years? Who were the men anyway? That Dieter bloke said they were German. Have you any idea who killed them?’
    ‘I can’t tell you any more,’ Ruth keeps saying. ‘It’s confidential. The police are still investigating.’
    ‘Are they investigating Dieter’s death?’ asks Ted. ‘Looks pretty suspicious to me.’
    ‘I really can’t say.’
    Craig comes to her rescue by asking about Operation Lucifer. With relief, Ruth describes the explosive trail laid along the North Norfolk coast, the fire ships, the barrels of gun cotton.
    ‘We’ll get down there this morning and have another look around,’ says Ted. ‘We’ve still got a few miles of coast to go.’
    ‘Well, be careful,’ says Ruth. ‘Some of the explosives may still be primed.’
    Her whole life, she thinks, as the door closes behind the three men, seems suddenly to be full of unexploded bombs. Sure enough, before the Field Team have clumped to the end of the corridor, Phil appears, smiling engagingly.
    ‘Can I have a word, Ruth?’
    ‘I’ve got a tutorial in an hour.’
    ‘It’ll only take a minute.’
    Phil sits opposite, crinkling his eyes in what Shona probably tells him is an attractive way.
    ‘What about that snow, eh? Shona and I took the boys sledging. Great fun.’
    ‘It must have been.’
    ‘What was New Road like? Must have been hellish, out there in the back of beyond.’
    ‘The snow was fairly deep on Saturday. It had cleared by this morning.’
    ‘Shona tells me you’ve been making some exciting discoveries.’
    Ruth curses herself for telling Shona about the lighthouse trip. She’d only done it because she wanted Shona to babysit.
    ‘Yes. We’ve found some new evidence about the bodies found at Broughton Sea’s End.’
    Phil cocks his head on one side, inviting her to say more.
    ‘I’m not sure how much I can tell you,’ says Ruth awkwardly. ‘It’s a police matter.’
    ‘Oh, come on, Ruth. I’m your head of department.’
    This is true. But it’s also true that Ruth is now seconded to the Serious Crimes Unit, part of the police team. She has a foot in both camps and the ground between has suddenly become a minefield.
    ‘Dieter Eckhart, poor chap.’ Phil ducks his head piously. ‘He said the bodies were German.’
    ‘Yes, we’re pretty sure that they were German soldiers. The oxygen isotope analysis points that way.’
    ‘Do you know how they were killed?’
    ‘They were shot.’
    Phil’s eyes widen. ‘By the British?’
    ‘We have a statement to that effect.’
    ‘A statement? From whom?’
    ‘I don’t think I can say.’
    Phil changes tack. ‘What about Eckhart’s death? There are a lot of rumours floating around.’
    ‘The police are investigating.’
    ‘Do they think it was murder?’
    ‘I can’t say.’
    ‘They do then.’
    Ruth says nothing, and after loitering maddeningly for a few minutes Phil drifts away.
    Monday is a busy teaching day for Ruth. She has another tutorial at two. She has a quick sandwich in the canteen and escapes to her office to prepare, treading warily as she passes Phil’s open door. She doesn’t want to get trapped into giving anything else away.
    She is just finishing her sandwich and reading about bone disease in preparation for her students, when the phone rings. It’s Craig. He and Ted have found a boat on the beach just beyond Broughton. It looks old. Could it be one of the fire ships she was mentioning? Does she want to come and have a look?
    Ruth does want to, very much. She longs to escape from the university and do some real archaeology, examine a piece of evidence, feel the sun and wind on her face. But even if she leaves straight after her tutorial she still won’t be backin time to pick up Kate at five. Sandra probably wouldn’t mind keeping her an hour longer, or maybe Tatjana would go and pick her up? Tatjana’s conference has