The day had changed while we were in with Cooper: the rain had spent itself and a hot, benevolent sun was already drying the roads. The trees on the shoulder were glittering with leftover raindrops, and when we got out of the car the air smelled new, washed clean, vital with wet earth and leaves. Cassie pulled off her sweater and tied it around her waist.
The archaeologists were spread out across the bottom half of the site, doing energetic things with mattocks and shovels and wheelbarrows. Their jackets were thrown over rocks and some of the guys had stripped off their T-shirts, and-presumably in reaction to yesterday's shock and hush-they were all in a giddy mood. A boom box was pumping out the Scissor Sisters at full volume, and they were singing along, in between mattock blows; one girl was using her shovel as a microphone. Three of them were having a water fight, shrieking and dodging with bottles and a hose.
Mel heaved a full wheelbarrow up the side of a huge heap of earth, caught it expertly on her thigh while she changed her grip to empty it out. On her way back down, she got a hoseful of water in the face. "You bastards!" she screamed, dropping the wheelbarrow and chasing after the little redheaded girl holding the hose. The redhead shrieked and ran, but she caught a foot in the coils; Mel grabbed her in a headlock and they wrestled for the hose, laughing and spluttering, wide arcs of water flying everywhere.
"Ah, deadly," one of the guys called. "Lesbo action."
"Where's the camera?"
"Here, is that a hickey on your neck?" the redhead shouted. "Lads, Mel's got a hickey!" A burst of congratulatory whoops and laughter.
"Fuck off," Mel yelled, bright red and grinning.
Mark called something sharp at them all and they shouted back, cheekily-"Ooo, touchy!"-and drifted back to work, shaking sparkling fans of water out of their hair. I felt a sudden, unexpected surge of envy, for the unselfconscious freedom of their shouting and tussling, the satisfying arc and thud of the mattocks, their muddy clothes left to dry in the sun as they worked; for the loose-limbed, efficient assurance of it all. "Not a bad way to make a living," Cassie said, tipping her head back and smiling a private little smile up at the sky.
The archaeologists had spotted us; one by one they lowered their tools and looked up, shielding their eyes against the sun with bare forearms. We picked our way across to Mark under their collective, startled gaze. Mel stood up out of a trench, puzzled, swiping hair off her face and leaving a muddy streak; Damien, kneeling among his protective phalanx of girls, still looked woebegone and faintly bedraggled, but Sean the sculptor perked up when he saw us, and waved his shovel. Mark leaned on his mattock like some taciturn old mountainy man, squinting at us inscrutably.
"Yeah?"
"We'd like a word with you," I said.
"We're working. Can it not wait till lunch?"
"No. Bring your things; we're going back to headquarters."
His jaw tightened and for a moment I thought he was going to argue, but then he tossed down the mattock, wiped his face with his T-shirt and headed off up the hill. "Bye," I said to the archaeologists, as we followed him. Not even Sean answered.
In the car Mark pulled out his tobacco packet. "No smoking," I said.
"What the fuck?" he demanded. "You both smoke. I saw you yesterday."
"Department cars count as workplaces. It's illegal to smoke in them." I wasn't even making this up; it takes a committee to come up with something that ludicrous.
"Ah, what the hell, Ryan, let him have a cigarette," Cassie said. She added in a nicely judged undertone, "It'll save us having to take him out for a smoke break for a few hours." I caught Mark's startled glance in the rearview mirror. "Can I have a rollie?" she asked him, twisting round to lean between the seats.
"How long is this going to take?" he said.
"That depends," I told him.
"On
"We'll get to that. Settle down and have your smoke before I change my mind."
"How's the dig going?" Cassie asked sociably.
One corner of Mark's mouth twisted sourly. "How do you think? We've got four weeks to do a year's work. We've been using
"And that's not a good thing?" I said.
He glared at me. "Do we look like the fucking Time Team?"
The Time Team is a bunch of TV archaeologists with manic haircuts and an obsession with digging up entire medieval monasteries in three days. I wasn't sure how to answer this one, given that as far as I was concerned Mark and his buddies did in fact look exactly like the fucking Time Team. Cassie turned on the radio; Mark lit up and blew a noisy, disgusted stream of smoke out of the window. It was obviously going to be a long day.
