Chapter 5: Tom Pulls Them Out

TUESDAY

The next day Tom arrived at Gerry’s house at quarter to eight. There was only one policeman keeping an eye on the house. He welcomed Tom, showed him the kitchen and told him that now he was here, he was off. Tom was to take over from him as officer in charge of the scene.

After he had gone, Tom had a wander round to check all was secure, then he made himself a coffee. Half an hour later the pathologist and his team arrived. Tom introduced himself and was asked if he was the crane operator too.

When he said he was, the pathologist told him he was just going to get suited up, then he wanted to be lowered down the well for a quick look at what was needed.

‘I’ll go and get the cage ready for you.’ Tom said. He went and started the crane up in the field. Then he hooked the cage the farmer had lent him onto the hook. He tied a rope on it as well, just to be sure it couldn’t unhook itself if it caught anywhere.

He had had an idea last night and had stopped off at the garage on the way to buy two small cans of aerosol paint. A red and a yellow. He took the lid off the well and lowered the cage down the well until the rope went slack.

Then he raised the cage about a foot. He got out of the crane and went over to the well. He sprayed the cable red from level with the top of the brickwork upwards about three feet.

Then he brought the cage up until he saw the top just appearing over the well surround. He lowered it down again a couple of feet. Then he got out and sprayed the cable yellow from the hook up as far as he could reach. He lowered the cage down a bit further until the yellow had just disappeared from view. Going back to the well he sprayed yellow from where he had left off, up higher still.

Now he could lower the cage down and stop as soon as the red on the cable came level with the top of the brickwork and know that the cage was suspended one foot off the bottom. Coming up, he didn’t have to slow down until the yellow showed above the well.

All done he lifted the cage up so the bottom of it was level with the top of the brickwork. When the pathologist came out, Tom showed him the crumbling brickwork. ‘If we had a pair of builder’s trestles set up each side of the well with builders planks across to cover a foot over the opening he explained, the cage could stop level with it as it is now. Then you could just step out or in.’

‘Then because the cage would only be going up and down, I wouldn’t have to waste a lot of time lining it up with the well each time before lowering it.’ ‘That’s a great idea,’ he said, ‘As soon as you can, get the crane hire firm to deliver what you need.’ ‘We will need a system to let me know when whoever is down the well is ready to come up too,’ Tom said.

‘Whenever anyone is down the well,’ the pathologist told him, ‘They will be filming what they are doing and will be in constant touch with someone on the ground near the well. If you work out a signal between you and the person on the ground, that should solve that.’

‘Ok can you take me down now?’ ‘I’ll bring the cage down on the ground to you,’ Tom told him. He returned to the crane and lifted the cage higher, then over and away from the well and down onto the ground.

The pathologist climbed into the cage with his torch and held onto the bars. Tom lifted it carefully, swung it slowly over above the well and after some careful adjustment, once he was sure he was in line, he lowered it down the well. As the red on the cable appeared from the cranes jib, he slowed down and as the red on the cable reached the top of the brickwork he came to a gentle stop.

The pathologist in the cage had felt himself dropping quite quickly, then he slowed to a smooth stop twelve inches above the bottom. He was very impressed. He shone his torch all round and studied what he could see of the bodies beneath him.

He measured the diameter of the well and poked at the sides to discover it was soft rock. Then being a ‘Star Trek’ fan, he said, ‘Beam me up Scotty,’ to his assistant on the other end of his walkie talkie. He gave the signal he and Tom had agreed on, his two arms with open palms stretched above his head pointing to the sky.

Tom started the lift, speeding up once underway. As soon as the yellow on the cable appeared he slowed down and by the time the cage appeared, it was moving quite slow. He brought it up a few feet above, then swung it to the side and put it down on the ground.

Whilst he had been waiting, Tom had rung the hire firm who promised to have his order delivered within two hours.

Other members of the team had been setting up a tent ready to put anything they recovered from the well into somewhere dry. The pathologist told his electrician what lighting he wanted setting up down the well. He got all his stuff together and got suited up.

He went over to Tom and explained what he was going to do. ‘I need you to stop the cage at a point that my shoulders are about ten feet above the bottom, whilst I secure some lights to the walls.’ he told him. ‘No problem.’ Tom told him.’

Tom measured the distance from the cranes jib to the top of the well. It was eighteen feet. So now he knew all he needed to do was to stop lowering when the bottom of his red paint was halfway between the Jib and the well top.

The electrician loaded his tools and equipment into the cage and climbed in behind it. Tom lifted the cage, positioned it over the well, and lowered it down. As soon as the red paint showed past the jib, he slowed down and stopped when it was halfway between the jib and the well. The electrician found himself at the perfect height and set to installing his lighting.

His colleague up above lowered a supply cable down to him. Then when he was finished, so that it didn’t snag on the cage, he pinned the cable to the well wall every ten feet on the way up. He had arranged suitable stops with Tom.

Just after he had got out of the cage and was connecting up to the generator, the hire firm arrived with the trestles and long planks. Tom set it all up so there was now a platform twelve feet long and five feet wide at the side of the well. It was six inches higher than the well wall and protruded over the well a foot.

Once he had it all secured in place, he put the cage back up above the well and positioned it carefully. From then on, all he would have to do was raise and lower it.

He had also remembered to order a flat stepped step ladder. He fixed it securely to the platform for everyone to get up and down.

‘Ok,’ the pathologist announced, ‘We’re ready to start removing the bodies. It’s four o’clock so we’ll knock off now and make a start on that in the morning.’ After they had gone, Tom rang the station. A relief constable was despatched to guard the property.

Once he arrived, Tom showed him round and went home. He texted Danny to let him know progress then rang Amelia and suggested meeting up for a drink. They met up later at a pub near Amelia’s flat. It was a lovely evening, so they sat out in the beer garden. It ran down to the canal, so as they chatted an occasional canal barge would tie up or set sail. Some just sailed slowly past.

‘That must be a very relaxing holiday.’ Amelia said. ‘Yes, I suppose so.’ Tom said, ‘Perhaps we could try it one day.’ Amelia reached over and squeezed his hand. ‘That would be lovely.’ she said. Tom made a mental note to look up boat hire.

Amelia was thinking, ‘He’s talking about having a holiday with me.’ Her heart was fluttering. She thought back to Danny’s text last Friday morning. ‘Hi, it had said, I haven’t forgotten her, I’m still looking into Linda’s disappearance. Her parents haven’t heard from her either.’

‘But that’s not why I’m texting, he had added. I have a friend called Tom. He’s really nice but very shy. I’ve arranged to go to McDonalds in town with him tonight at seven o’clock. If you wanted to, you could wander past and see if you liked him. If you don’t want to or don’t like what you see, no problem.’