The Murder Of 1886

CHAPTER 8

The sky was cloudy. Gwen stood on the porch, breathing in the afternoon air. She relaxed. Hours of sitting and reading made her muscles knot.

The sunlight shone over the vast acres of land surrounding the house. The forest didn't seem as intimidating as it looked in the dark, Gwen noticed. It almost looked inviting. She walked along the path around the house, sticking close to the walls. From here she had a perfect view of everything till they touched the horizon or till the beginning of the forest.

Vines grew along the walls, the dark stones overlapped with greens and reds. Mosses and ferns grew under it, giving a soft texture to the stone. Gwen had to be careful when she walked. Mosses grew over the stones on the path and it was very easy to slip.

She had almost covered one half of the house; she could see the back door leading to the kitchen. But instead of going on and taking shelter under the roof from the glaring sun, Gwen stopped. She enjoyed the peace before she went back to the constant bickering with her friend and speculative nature they seem to have on the murder. Out here, she could pretend she was actually enjoying her holiday. A soft wind blew past her, gentle and caressing.

She didn't know how long she stood there. For a long moment she didn't notice anything but grasses, tall trees and the cloudless sky. She saw a speck in the distance when her eyes moved over the landscape. She checked the wristwatch on her hand and then deciding that she still had sometime until Jane called her for lunch, set out towards the speck she saw.

It took her sometime to get there. Gwen was surprised to note that the grass grew thicker and wilder towards the forest and the land seemed to be sloping downwards though it was not very noticeable. As she fought through the grass, keeping an eye on the speck as it got closer, Gwen couldn't help but feel like an adventurer. She grinned.

Rocks? Gwen thought as she neared. But her breath caught when she got a good look. No, not a rock. Graves. Weeds grew over them and the letters were almost gone. It looked very old. Gwen stood there collecting her thoughts. She had never seen these even from the house. She would've at least seen a glimmer of grey all the times she stood in front of the window. And yet she didn't.

Gwen counted four graves. As she knelt down the nearest grave, she noticed that they were arranged close together with one behind the other in a row. She pushed the weeds aside, wiping the dust from the grave. The letters on it were faint but as she was surprised to find that the letters still stood out a little. They weren't completely faded. Some were just hard to read after so long.

The first word was hard to read but she finally managed to make it out as Arav. The second was harder to read and so Gwen traced a hand over the ridges. She memorized each letter in the order; the first letter was obviously D. Gwen muttered under breath, "D... S...O- ok I can't make that out- V? No, it's a U! Hmm, Z...A. What's DSou..?"

Gwen's jaw dropped. It couldn't be D'Souza, could it? There was no way they were buried out here on their own estate. But from what Gwen had learned from the people in this village, some did bury their own on their own estate. Others buried their dead on the cemetery behind the local chapel dedicated to Saint Mary.

Disbelief clouding her mind, Gwen quickly pushed the weeds from the other graves. The newest among them had the clearest words on them. It could be read quite clearly. And what she read confirmed her suspicion. Arundhathi D'Souza. The script was written in fancy lettering, a quote about life craved into the stone underneath her name. Her years in life, from birth to death were written just beside her name. 1866-1906.

She didn't know what to do. The D'Souzas were buried here, right behind their house. It was shocking. As she sat contemplating on the chances on coincidence, a thought struck her like lightning in a thunderstorm. The villagers must know that the D'Souzas were buried here. And Arundhati, she must have requested to be buried with her family in case she dies. She wondered why no one told her when she asked around on details on the unfortunate family.

"Gwen!"

The shout startled Gwen. Her head shot up just as another cry called her.

"Gwen!"

She turned back, dusting her jeans and walking through the tall grass, back towards the way she had come. Sure enough, Jane was going out of her mind when she finally appeared in front of the house. When Jane saw Gwen, the look on her face was enough to make Gwen falter in her steps. She was very angry. No, angry was no the word to describe Jane. Gwen thought furious would be better. And to be honest Gwen was feeling a bit afraid now.

"Where have you been?!" I spent the last 30 minutes going out of my mind. Do you know how worried I was? What possessed you to – why are you smiling?!" Jane's voice increased with each word till she was literally shouting. Birds flew from the trees behind Gwen at Jane's ending note. Gwen winced.

Gwen didn't know what possessed her to smile at a time like this. Hell, she didn't know why she was on the brink of bursting out in laughter. It was like with one poke she would topple over the edge. Maybe it was because Jane was so funny when she was angry (Not that she would actually say it out loud. She valued her life too much.) Or maybe it was because she found something that could help them find more about the murder. But she didn't voice those thoughts. Instead she worked on calming Jane down.

"I'm sorry Jane. I was just walking around." She tried to look as apologetic as possible.

"Then why didn't you hear my call, hmm? I called you a hundred times. You would've heard if you were near the house."

Gwen had to admit she had a point. She could only give a sorry shrug before she blurted out, "I found something."

So much for discussing it after lunch. Jane was now looking curious though Gwen could still see a hint of anger behind the curious look.

Before she could ask what, Gwen waved her hand and said, "Later. I'm hungry."

A hand cuffed her in the back of the head and Gwen let out an indignant squeak. But she didn't bother asking what for because she knew what exactly it was for.

Maybe she deserved that for scaring Jane.

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Gwen could feel a gaze on her as she innocently ate her lunch. She tried to ignore it as much as she can yet it still made her uncomfortable. If Jane thought making her squirm would make her spill faster, then she was going to be sorely disappointed. She was going to enjoy her meal first before-

"Oh for goodness sake," she began. "I'll tell you what happened. Just calm down."

Jane merely raised her eyebrows. She looked way too smug. Gwen didn't like that. No, she definitely didn't like that. Gwen groaned. But slowly she recited the events of her afternoon, stumbling through the explanation while Jane sat silent, contemplating. When she finally finished, Jane was still silent. There had been no interruptions from Jane and Gwen was dying to know what her friend thought about this. When she finally spoke, Gwen held her breath.

"I think it's another dead end."

Gwen furrowed her eyebrows.

"Why do you think that?" she asked.

"Well, it's not like we can go around asking who buried them. There's no mention of their burial ground anywhere. Besides, like you said some families bury their own on their own property. I can't see anything suspicious in that. The D'Souzas must have wanted to be buried here." Jane answered.

Gwen was desperate. "So you think the graves have nothing to help us?"

Gwen was grasping at straws and both of them knew it. She wanted to make advancement in the investigation and something told her the graves were important.

Jane nodded.

There was nothing more to say and Gwen was quite miserable. They had hit another dead end. Again.

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