Can You Dig It? (Dead Reckoning series - Part 46)

Continued from Episode 45 (Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand))

The story so far:  Josiah's 'on the rebound' romance with the woman he thought was his old flame, Jeanette DeVille, proved to be with her twin sister, Nenette, and led to him and Archibald being left for dead in the rapidly rising waters of the cellar of Evanley Hall.  Since then, there has been much to occupy the Merkin-under-Heathwood police force, not least the apparent suicide of a young man in the local reservoir (last seen in the company of Precious DeVille - Nenette's supposed daughter) and then the further apparent suicides of Nenette and her 'driver' Hames.  The common denominator in all of these deaths appears to be Precious, who made a surprise reappearance, fetchingly dressed in lingerie, in Archibald's hotel room, a room he thought he had been given as a Secret Santa gift from Josiah.  Now Archibald is missing, along with two operatives from the rival firm of Cadwallader and Carruthers.  CCTV has shown Precious and the men from Cadwallader and Carruthers leaving the hotel in a van, with a body bag and Samantha and the Detectives have separately realised just where she might be heading!  Following a call from Precious, threatening Archibald's life, Josiah  arrived at Evanley Hall, only to encounter an open grave and the flat side of a shovel.  Samantha rushed to Jeannie's cottage to ask her to help and the Detectives, realising where she might have gone, are rushing to stop her doing anything impetuous:

Samantha Knight strode, purposefully, along the driveway leading to Evanley Hall.  Jeannie followed, a little way behind her, with considerably less enthusiasm.  Light was fading fast on this winter’s day and Samantha had to be careful where she trod on the uneven ground.  Jeannie, at her rear, kept up a constant muttered monologue of complaints and dire warnings.
When they reached the Hall, Samantha started to edge her way around to the left, passing the kitchen windows, but stopped when she heard voices.
“Can you hear that?” She hissed at Jeannie.
“Ar, I can ‘ear some bugger spoutin’” Jeanne nodded.
“It’s a girl’s voice.  I think it might be Precious.  There seem to be some lights flickering around there, too”
“If’n we go ‘round that corner, we’re likely to walk straight into ‘em” Jeannie warned, darkly.
“We can’t just stay here though.  We have to do something!”  
“We need to go t’other way ‘round” Jeannie jerked a thumb behind her.
Samantha and Jeannie retraced their steps.  At Jeannie’s insistence, they bent double, in an effort to try to avoid being seen from the windows of the great house.  They made their way, slowly, with Jeannie leading, past the front entrance and across the front garden, to the corner of the Hall where they could then access the rear garden.
“Right, keep schtum” Jeannie whispered, “and keep as close to the ‘All as yer can.  With a bit of luck, if it is ‘er, she won’t see us comin’”
Samantha nodded and the two women edged along, tangling with shrubs and bushes as they went.

* * * *

“Ah, Josiah, you are with us!” Precious said, cheerfully, leaning on her shovel.
Josiah Oakshott coughed and spluttered.  Apart from some of his face, his body was buried in about a foot of soil.  He was lying at the bottom of, what appeared to be, a shallow but professionally dug, grave.
“Wha…What are you doing?” Josiah managed, between coughs.
“Oh, come now, Josiah.  I should have thought that was perfectly obvious” Precious chided, “Rather a good grave, wouldn’t you say?  Frank and Arthur here helped me to dig it”
Two men, who he had previously been unaware of, edged into view on the left-hand side of the grave.
“’Lo Mr. Oakshott” One said, sheepishly, “Sorry about this, an’ all that, only, she’s got a gun, see?”
“’Lo, Mr. Oakshott” The other man edged, forward, nodded, and attempted a cheery little wave.
“Frank does have a point” Precious nodded, “Poor chaps thought I was getting them to dig their own grave!” She laughed, a little too heartily for comfort.
“Where’s Archibald?” Josiah asked.
“Oh, don’t you worry about him.  He’s just having a little nap in the kitchen, over there” Precious grinned.
“He’s all right, Mr. Oakshott, we’ve seen him and everything” Frank added in an apologetic tone.
“Yes, thank you Frank.  That will be all.” Precious snapped.  “Now, Josiah, I’m glad you’re awake and taking notice because it would have been such a shame to have buried you alive and have you sleep through it”
“Bury me?  Alive?  Why?”
“Ah, now that’s the reason why I’m glad you’re back in the land of the living” Precious nodded and chucked another couple of spadefuls of earth into the grave, “Because, you see, all of this would be a bit pointless if you didn’t know why we were doing it, wouldn’t it?  You do follow me, don’t you?”

* * * *

“What’s going on, can you see?” Samantha whispered to Jeannie, as she peered around the corner of the building.
“There’s some lights, like you said” Jeannie began, screwing her eyes up to focus better in the dim light, “Lanterns or summat, shoved all ‘round some sort of ‘ole…oh bugger!”
“What’s the matter?”
“It ain’t an ‘ole”
“It isn’t?  What is it, then?”
“It’s a grave!”

* * * *

“I don’t know why you’re doing this!  What have I ever done to you?” Josiah spluttered.
“So glad you’ve asked me that, Josiah” Precious beamed and shovelled some more earth into the hole, “You see, when you and mummy were having loads of fun, all those years ago, you never gave a thought to the outcome, did you now?”
“Outcome, what outcome?” Josiah sneezed as the dust swirled in the hole.
“Why, me, of course!” Precious stopped shovelling and looked at him with her head to one side, “Daddy” She added, sardonically.
“Daddy?  What, me?” Josiah looked astonished, as far as possible, given the limitations of only part of his face being visible.
“Don’t act surprised!” Precious snapped, “You and that bitch knew exactly what you were doing.  Pushing me out for adoption, so I didn’t spoil your happy little lives”
“Look, listen to me,” Josiah said, desperately, “firstly, we didn’t have that sort of relationship…”
“Hah!” Precious shook her head and began to shovel again, enthusiastically.
“And…secondly…if you would stop that for a moment?”
Precious stopped shovelling and looked at him, quizzically.
“And secondly,” Josiah continued, panting somewhat with the exertion of trying to breathe with his chest compressed, “the woman you were living with, the one you called ‘Mama’?  She was not my girlfriend”
“What are you talking about?  Of course she was, you said so yourself when you came crawling around here trying to worm yourself back into her affections”
“Perhaps you didn’t hear then, that time when we were tied up in the cellar and she came down to talk to us, just before you all left us to drown?  Do you remember?  She told me then, that she wasn’t Jeanette…”
“You’re lying to me!” Precious screamed, and started shovelling furiously.

* * * *

“What’s happening?”
“I dunner no, I’ve ‘eard some stuff but we’re too far away” Jeannie muttered and looked thoughtful, “if’n we go along the wall, a bit, get to that corner by the kitchen, I reckon they’re in the kitchen garden”
“Ok” Samantha nodded.  A few more bushes and hedges later, Jeannie cautiously peered around the corner.
“She’s shovelling muck in that ‘ole like nobody’s business” She announced, “And I can ‘ear another voice”
“Whose?”
“Could be yer bloke”
“What, Josiah?”
“Yeah, ‘im.  I reckon it’s comin’ from that ‘ole”
“You mean, she’s got Josiah in that hole, that GRAVE, and she’s shovelling earth on him?” Samantha shrieked, as quietly as it was possible to shriek, under the circumstances.
“Looks that way to me” Jeannie nodded.
“Right!” Samantha grabbed a stout branch from a nearby bush.
“What yer gonna do with that?”
“Put a stop to her, that’s what I’m going to do” Samantha said determinedly.
“What, with that?  But, yer’ll ‘urt ‘er”
“I plan on taking her head off her shoulders” Samantha weighed the branch in her hands and then started to run forward.  She hadn’t gone more than two steps before she fell to the floor, with Jeannie’s arms wrapped around her ankles.
“What the hell are you doing?” Samantha hissed at her.
“Yer canna do it, yer’ll ‘urt ‘er” Jeannie said.
“Of course I’ll bloody hurt her, she’s trying to bury Josiah alive, what do you expect me to do?  And God knows what’s happened to Archibald.  You do remember what she did to your sister, don’t you”
“Leave ‘er to me, I’ll do it” Jeannie stood up, with some difficulty, and helped Samantha to get upright.
“Why the hell should I leave you to do it?  Why don’t you want her hurt?” Samantha was furious, and puzzled.
“I canna see ‘er ‘urt” Jeannie shook her head, and sighed, “I know about Nenette and everything, I know it’s all wrong but…I think…” Jeannie took a deep breath and looked straight at Samantha, “I think she might be me daughter” She said in a small voice.

You can find a lot more from Josiah and Archibald, including the prequel novel to this series, in The Undertakers collection.

Now read Part 47