20. Plot Holes

20

Plot Holes

Barney was standing among the trees a little off the main path down through the campsite, holding a tree branch which he had stripped of leaves. As Josie arrived, he held up a hand, waving her back.

‘Don’t come too close,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how big it is. It’s down there, in among the roots of that tree.’

The hole was a dark hollow in the shadow of a towering pine which had tilted slightly, perhaps damaged in a storm long-ago. A couple of feet wide, the hole sloped steeply into the earth. As Barney poked at the edges with a stick, a lump of sod broke away from one side, widening it by a few inches.

‘I was just having a wander about and I spotted it,’ Barney said. ‘Don’t remember seeing it before.’

‘Could it be a badger set or a fox den? Maybe a rabbit warren?’ Josie, wanting to be hopeful, knew she was wrong even as she offered the suggestions. The angle of the hole, plus the lack of any material removed nearby, made it clear that nothing had dug it out. Some subterranean space had been covered over, and the tree roots had gradually unearthed it.

‘It goes right down,’ Barney said, leaning forwards and poking the stick inside. It went in five or six feet, but Josie put up a hand to stop him as he inched closer, trying to find some kind of bottom.

‘Careful,’ she said. ‘It could go right under our feet for all we know.’

The ground felt solid enough, but if the cave or whatever was this close to the surface, they could be standing on its roof. Any sudden movement and it might collapse.

‘I’m sure it wasn’t there before,’ Barney said. ‘I was clearing the brambles around here a couple of days ago and I don’t remember seeing it.’

‘We need to cordon it off,’ Josie said.

‘There’s a bit of rope left over from the swing,’ Barney said. ‘I’ll go and grab it.’

As he hurried off through the trees, Josie stared at the hole in the ground. Just the look of it, the way the ground had crumbled around the entrance, gave her a bad feeling. How big was it? How far back did it go under their feet?’

She had an instinctive sense that this was bad news. At the very least, they had to fill it in, make sure no kids playing hide and seek came across it and decided to climb inside. Who could tell how deep it was?

Barney came back with the rope. Together, they strung it around the trees nearby, giving the hole a wide berth.

‘I think it’s best if we keep this quiet for now,’ Josie said. ‘Don’t tell anyone outside the park. I’ll get Tiffany to have look online, see if we can find out what it might be.’

‘I’m sure it’s not very big,’ he said, but from the way he gave an uncertain shrug followed by a sheepish grin and a shake of his head, Josie could tell he was just as worried.

She headed back up to the reception cabin, where Tiffany was talking with Hilda. The flowers had been unloaded, the planter boxes set out in neat rows along the front of the cabin. Josie looked around, feeling a pang of disappointment when she didn’t spot Robinson anywhere nearby.

‘He’s already gone,’ Hilda said, giving her a sympathetic smile.

‘Who?’

‘You know who,’ Hilda said, as Tiffany rolled her eyes and scoffed. ‘Robinson. He had to go. He said he’s got some event up in London this evening, so he had to go over to Plymouth to catch the train.’

‘I had to … go too,’ Josie muttered.

‘Don’t worry, he’ll be back in a few days,’ Tiffany said with a chirpy grin. ‘Don’t look so glum.’

‘It’s not that,’ Josie said. ‘We … Barney … found something in the woods.’

‘If it’s a corpse, we can just roll it into the sea,’ Hilda said with a chuckle. ‘Same with an abandoned car. Or we could just make it into a horticultural feature.’

‘It’s not a corpse, or an abandoned car,’ Josie said. ‘In fact, I’m not sure what it is. Come on, I’ll show you.’

She led Tiffany and Hilda into the woods. At the sight of the rope, Hilda let out a gasp. ‘Not a hornet’s nest, is it?’

‘I don’t think so, but you never know what might be inside.’

‘Inside what?’

‘There.’ Josie pointed over the rope at the hole in the earth.

‘It’s probably just an animal burrow,’ Tiffany said.

‘That’s what I thought, but what animal round here burrows something two-feet wide?’

‘Could be a Sasquatch,’ Tiffany said. ‘Or a giant land sloth.’

‘Don’t joke.’

‘It’s probably just a depression caused by the tilt of that tree, or water run-off, something like that.’

Josie looked at Hilda. The older woman was staring at the hole, face grave, seemingly unconvinced by her own words.

‘What if it’s a cave that connects to the sea?’ Tiffany said.

‘Unless you’re talking about some ancient prehistoric sea a hundred yards closer, then we’re much too far off for that.’

‘So, what do you think?’

Hilda rubbed her chin. ‘I think we need to go and have a word with Nat, see if he has any of the land deeds or surveyor’s maps. It could be some old excavation, perhaps an old construction project that was never finished.’

‘Do you really think so?’

Hilda forced a smile. ‘I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. You’re not planning to open for a few weeks, anyway, are you? Plenty of time to sort it out.’

Josie glanced at Tiffany, who gave a dramatic shrug.

‘Perhaps when we dig out the verge for those flowers, we should save some of the soil, in case we need to fill it in?’

Hilda patted Tiffany on the shoulder. ‘There’s a good, practical idea. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. Shall we go and have a cup of tea? Or better still, an ice cream down in the village?’

‘This could be serious,’ Tiffany said with a smile. ‘I don’t think anything less than fudge cake topped with ice cream will be sufficient to get us through this. We’ll need a full team briefing, too. We can take Lindsay, Geoffrey and Barney.’

‘Somehow I get the impression you aren’t taking this seriously,’ Josie said.

‘It’s probably the site of ancient pirate treasure,’ Tiffany said.

Hilda forced a smile, but when Josie looked at her, her friend quickly looked away, as though she didn’t quite share Tiffany’s flippancy after all.

‘So, I suppose this is as good a time as ever,’ Lindsay said, patting Geoffrey’s hand as they sat facing the others across the little table in the Sunset Harbour Coffee and Fudge Company. Several large slices of fudge cake loaded with ice cream sat between them, like concrete tank barricades on a beachhead topped with foam. ‘We’ve decided that we’re going to get married.’

Tiffany let out a squeal of delight, so sudden that one of the old ladies behind the counter jumped, hitting her head on a hanging saucepan.

‘How lovely,’ Hilda said. ‘Congratulations to you both.’

‘That’s wonderful,’ Josie added.

‘We’d like to have the ceremony at the campsite, in the clearing where we first met,’ Geoffrey said. ‘On Midsummer’s night.’

‘Is that safe?’ Tiffany asked. ‘Isn’t that when ghosts and stuff come out?’

‘Only in fairy tales,’ Geoffrey said.

‘Well, if there really is a St. Michael out there in the cove, perhaps he’ll give us his blessing.’

‘I’m sure it’ll be lovely.’

Lindsay smiled, then suddenly burst into tears. As Geoffrey consoled her, Josie snatched a serviette out of a holder on the adjacent table, while Tiffany jumped up to grab a box of tissues off the countertop. Hilda, meanwhile, took advantage of the distraction to scoop a lump of Lindsay’s ice cream onto her own plate.

‘What?’ she said, shrugging at Josie. ‘They gave her loads more than me.’

Josie just rolled her eyes and turned back to Lindsay as Tiffany thrust the box of tissues into her hands.

‘My family are going to come,’ Lindsay said. ‘My two daughters, my mother and father, and my brother. We’re working through what happened, and they’ve decided to forgive me. They’re all going to stay at the campsite for the week. I’ve told them all about the trees, the beach, the views … they’re so excited.’

‘We’d better get a move on and get it ready then,’ Tiffany said, lifting her coffee. ‘The clock’s ticking, so bottoms up.’

It seemed like something of a paradox that what was technically nothing would play so much on her mind, but Josie couldn’t keep the hole out of her head. She wanted to believe Hilda, that it was just a run-off channel or the remains of an old excavation project that had never come to anything, but from the way her friend had looked, she knew Hilda wasn’t convinced either.

Wanting to take her mind off things, she let them all have the afternoon off, and they decamped to the pub for a couple of drinks. The sky was clear, the air warm, so they took a table out in the beer garden. Josie offered to go and get the drinks, while Hilda agreed to accompany her.

Inside, The Horse and Buoy was more of a museum than a pub, historical artefacts displayed on shelves alongside dusty black-and-white photographs of the parish in times gone by. Fishing images and relics dominated, but there was also place for several old farming photographs of horse-drawn ploughs, ancient threshing machines. Josie found herself staring at a picture of a stone tower on a clifftop, set dramatically against a backdrop of the English Channel. When she turned to Hilda, her friend was staring at her.

‘You know what that is, don’t you?’

Josie turned back to look at the picture. Had it been a little shorter, it could have been a church, but it was a simple stone design, too tall to be practical as somewhere to live or worship, a functional building perhaps, no windows, no obvious features other than its narrow shape.

‘It’s a pumping tower,’ Hilda said. ‘They used to be everywhere around here, but the few that are left are derelict now.’

‘Pumping tower. You mean for a—’ Josie’s breath caught. ‘That isn’t what I think it is, is it?’

Hilda grimaced. ‘I’m afraid so. I really didn’t want to say anything because … well, I have my reasons. But that hole … the problem we have could be bigger—much bigger than you think. Around here … this is mining country.’