SPOILERS!!!
Ruth finds herself dragged to the Ivor March’s case. Phil, her former boss, who has been the archaelogist in the case, comes to see her in Cambridge. He tells her that he has had a card with a drawing of Ivor March, and in the message he is told that Ruth Galloway should have supervised the digging because she is worth ten times his expertise.
Ruth calls Nelson about the card, and he goes to see her. In his investigation he has learnt that Chrissy Martin, the woman running the writing retreat which Ruth stayed at recently, is Ivor’s ex-wife. Ruth had liked Chrissy, and she is surprised that during the week she was there Chrissy did not mention anything about Ivor, especially as the trial was taking place. Nelson wants to know if Ruth can identify Chrissy’s handwriting, and Ruth shows her a little note that Chrissy gave her with a present, and they can tell that the writing is the same as in the card.
Like Judy, Clough is a DI, but unlike her, he has moved out of Norfolk and has his own team. Dave is now in Cambridge, and he and Nelson go to see Chrissy Martin. Faced with the evidence, Chrissy admits to writing the card. She says that she and Ivor had an open marriage, and when he showed real interest in Chandal, she thought it was fairer to separate. Chrissy and Chandal are still friends, and Chrissy wrote the note for Chandal because she thought that the police would identify her writing. Then she says that both she and Chandal believe that Ivor did not kill any of those women, and the fact that his DNA was found on the bodies does not mean anything.
When Dave and Nelson leave the place, they find a note from John, the gardener, asking them to meet him at a pub because they have so much to tell them. When they go to meet the man, he says that he has been working at the writing retreat for eighteen years. At first there were four of them: Ivor and Chrissy, and Bob and Leonard. Chrissy did all the work – cleaning and general houskeeping – and the men run the retreat. Things were good but when Chrissy had a miscarriage, things changed. It was then that Lisa came alone. Lisa was Bob’s girlfriend, and all types of secrets started. John says that the three men – Ivor, Bob and Leonard – started to go out at night in a van, called themselves the lantern men after a Norfolk legend, picked up girls, who stayed at the the retreat for some time, and then Chrissy got rid of them by taking them to the station. John also says that there was once a Eastern European girl, very young, who Bob or Leonard brought her after finding her lost in the marshes. The girl stayed for six months, and just one day she vanished, and when John asked after her, neither Chrissy nor Igor told her anything. After that, Ivor left to be with Chandal, Lisa married Leonard, and Bog also went.
Then Nelson gets a call from Ivor’s solicitor, and then he calls Ruth. Apparently, Ivor is ready to tell them where the two other women are buried, but his only condition is that Ruth runs the digging and comes to see him. Ruth is a bit apprehensive, but she agrees to do it. She and Frank have a row about it because he thinks that it is not safe, but Ruth knows it is because the request comes from Nelson and that means spending time with him. We know that Ruth does not really love Frank, and she is with him because he is nice and good company, but Ruth is still in love with Nelson. I think that is unfair to Frank, but it is true that Ruth once told him that she was in love with someone else. If he returned and insisted, he did it, knowing that there was someone else.
Ruth and Nelson go to see Ivor, and Ruth feels horrified because Ivor seems to know too much about her. He even seems to know about her and Nelson, and maybe that is because Ruth, who liked Chrissy greatly, confided in her. Ivor keeps his word and tells them that the bodies are in the garden of a pub he used to frequent, so Ruth agrees to start the digging the following day.
That evening when Phil Trent is returning home on his bicycle, he is attacked by someone. The man has a knife, but then Cathbad, who is on his way to the soup kitchen where he volunteers, appears, scaring the attacker away. Yet, after the stress of being attacked Phil has a heart attack, Cathbad calls an ambulance, and he is now recovering in intensive care. Judy, who calls Nelson, tells him about the attack, and she explains that the attacker stole his backpack where he had his laptop. Judy and Nelson thinks that this is more than a random robbery.
The following day Ruth arrives early to start the digging in the pub garden. The vegetation she sees there leads her to think that there are human remains there. Judy is there because Nelson has gone to the hospital where Phil is kept in an induced coma, and Cathbad has come to help. The team starts digging and they soon find two bodies which seem to be of two women, and then Cathbad finds a third body. When Nelson appears, Ruth tells him and she says that they will have the results of the analyses in a few days.
Another interesting thing is that Lisa, the woman who John, the gardener, told Nelson and Dave had been part of the writing retreat years ago, is around. It is Ailsa Britain, the woman who runs the community centre and Nelson talked to. Ailsa also knew some of the missing women.
It is clear that Ivor is the killer, but did he act on his own? What about the men who were his friends years ago… the men who, according to John, were the lantern men? And what about Chandal, Chrissy and Lisa? Are they involved somehow?
My Reading Journal 