by Adam Melrose
Matt walked over to get himself a drink of water, he managed the heavy jug without issue; but on lifting the cup, his tremor caused it to spill.
‘Damn it.’
Leaving the cup, Matt walked out onto the balcony. He breathed in slowly and did some breathing exercises to help calm himself back down. It took more doing this time than before, but he was still back in control soon enough. Once he felt calmer, Matt lent over the balcony and gazed over the lake. He wished to God they had never taken on this case.
They do say no good deed goes unpunished, he thought to himself. In truth they should never have taken this case, there was a clear verdict from a well investigated death. It was obvious the police and the other official bodies had all done a thorough job. They should have gently refused. Still, there was no use crying over spilt milk; they had taken the case, and it had been a perfect storm of situations that had got them where they were. A well-meaning, decent man in Max, a decent bunch of supportive friends in Matt and the rest of the team, and a very strong-minded determined wife and widow in Bella; who was understandably consumed with grief and paranoia.
Matt had let Bella push them too far with this; way more than he would ever have allowed any other client to get away with. No one was specifically in the wrong, it had come from a well-meaning place, but it had to stop now. They could all have been killed. There and then Matt resolved to get the case back on an official footing, and bring it to a close one way or another. As he came to this decision, Max approached him and rested his hand on Matt’s shoulder.
‘You OK boss?’
‘No.’
Matt took a couple of breaths of fresh air in whilst working out how to best phrase the following few sentences to Max.
‘I’m sorry, but we need to bring this case to a close. I…we have allowed Bella too much involvement in this, and too much control. It’s come from a good place, but it nearly got us killed. Because of this personal connection, we have dropped our professional checks and balances; we have to correct that now.’
‘But…’ Max began to talk; Matt stopped him.
‘That’s just it, no more buts. Do you understand how close to death we all came in that portal?
‘Of course I do, but we are so close to getting somewhere.’
‘But we’re not though are we, not remotely. My head is spinning, I can’t even remember how many days we have been on this case, and we don’t have one single shred of substantial evidence to show for our efforts. Yes we have found plenty of circumstantial evidence, but that’s all. I hate to say it, but sometimes the truth stays hidden and there is nothing we can do about it. It’s totally crap, but there it is; it’s certainly not worth dying for.’
‘I know but what about Bella?’
‘We tell her as gently as we can, that despite what we’ve found, there is nothing more to be done. We will refund her all her money; the business can afford to take the hit. When she wakes up and comes to join us, I will tell her it’s over.’
‘Two more days boss, that’s all we are asking. We have a slightly different plan. Come and hear it.’
Matt followed Max into the Operations Room, all the while displaying a less than happy look on his face. They waited a moment for Norton to come back into the room before the meeting commenced. The team explained to Matt that they thought instead of looking into historic events from over a year ago, they should change things up a little, and try and get some fresh information from one of Evo’s trusted members of staff. The whole team agreed, Evo was the most likely candidate to ultimately be behind Pete’s death, though if it had been intentional, whether he would have been directly responsible was debateable.
Matt listened to their plan to work on a key member of Evo’s staff, and to try and get them to somehow incriminate him. The plan was that once the team had enough solid information to incriminate Evo; they would hand it all over to a trustworthy police officer other than Stimpson. As the team elaborated on their plan, Matt relaxed. It was never going to work, at best it was a long shot, so he went along with it. They would feel he had let them win. Once they found no one was going to dare to talk to them, he would then find it easier to bring the final curtain down on this dangerous farce, and head home. First though, he knew he would have to play-act a bit. Not something he wanted to do; but he would on this occasion and live with the guilt if it got them all safely home.
The lives of his colleagues… his friends were far more important to him than finding out who killed a man who was already a long time dead. The living were more important.
Bella appeared and joined them for the second half of the meeting, she was well rested and despite her close brush with death seemed surprisingly buoyant.
Norton continued leading the explanation; this plan appeared to be his idea. Matt interrupted. ‘Who in Evo’s employ do you think you are going to be able to trick into sharing any damning information?’
Norton suddenly looked serious, ‘Eva.’
Matt looked appalled, ‘His housekeeper…you’re mad.’
Norton shook his head, ‘No, I think it will work.’
‘But she knows us all, she met us all at dinner that night at Nalebury, she will know what we are up to; there isn’t a hope in hell’s chance she is suddenly going to share any damning information she may have about her boss’s involvement with Pete’s death. If she hasn’t told the police anything, she won’t tell us.’
‘No you’re right,’ said Norton, that’s why I don’t propose that it be one of us. In fact, I think there is only one person on this planet who might be able to lean on her sense of duty and decency. The dead man’s wife.’
Matt looked horrified, ‘Bella… Are you seriously suggesting we send Bella in, after what has just happened; seriously, what is wrong with you these days? You’ve been odd this whole case, get your act together pronto, or you and I are properly going to fall out. I’m not even sure why we are having this conversation.’
Norton didn’t seem to be phased – that in itself seemed odd to Matt.
‘I’m just getting things done, it’s the only option; you know it makes sense.’
Matt’s whole face instantly flashed red, ‘No, absolutely not.’
No one spoke for a moment, Matt had never been unprofessional before, and never with a client present, now he was calling Norton out in front of their client. Matt for his part was desperately trying to keep control. He decided to keep totally quiet for a moment or two.
After a while, it was Bella that spoke, ‘Matt could you and I have a word outside, just us?’
Matt got up and walked slowly outside on to the balcony with Bella. He turned to close the glass doors, as he did so he glared at Norton, before turning round and walking towards the edge of the balcony.
The warm wind blew across Bella’s face and the smell of cut grass filled the air. Somewhere below she could hear the lawn mowers cutting the hotel lawns. Walking along the balcony, she reached the spot where Matt was leaning over the railings. Taking the same position next to him and admiring the view of the lake, she waited a moment before speaking. She did not want Matt to feel pressured.
For his part, Matt had managed to calm himself in the few moments he had had alone. He decided he would speak first.
‘I’m sorry Bella. I’m sorry if that sounded rude or was unprofessional, but we are a business, and I need to take responsibility for everyone’s welfare. Norton had absolutely no right to suggest putting you up for that role. You are a client, not an employee; if you come out into the field with us, you are ultimately my responsibility; you do understand that?’
Bella turned to face him.
‘I do Matt, of course I do. You have all showed me nothing but kindness and support. Not to mention that in the few days you have been investigating the case, you have moved things on more than the police managed to do throughout their whole investigation.’
‘I get how much you want to get to the bottom of this, I honestly do, but do you really want to pu
t your life at risk? Because that is potentially what you would be doing. If someone did murder Pete, and we keep poking about, they may try to kill any or all of us; not to mention the fact, I think they just did.’
‘I understand that, and I have given it a lot of thought. I tried to investigate this on my own long before I came to you guys, and that thought did cross my mind. I decided it was worth the risk, I know Pete would do the same for me, I just know he would. I want to do the same for him. If there was another way, then yes sure, I would consider that first. It’s not like I have a death wish, but we both know there is no other option. Time is fast running out given how long ago Pete died, and we both know the person the housekeeper is most likely to open up to is me.’
Matt pursed his lips and shook his head very slowly.
‘Are you not happy to just let sleeping dogs lie, and just live with the official verdict? You’re adamant you can’t do that?’
‘If there is one thing I can be sure of in life at this current time Matthew Holland, it’s that I can’t leave this particular sleeping dog alone.’
‘If you are sure then Mrs Stone.’
‘I am very sure Mr Holland.’
‘Right then, we had better go and join the others, and formulate a plan; but you absolutely will have to agree to some failsafe measures. No excuses and no arguments.’
Bella stopped Matt, turned to face him and gave him a very reassuring look.
‘I promise I will agree to them. I have no desire to die.’
‘No, me neither.’
They wandered back into the room.
Matt convinced himself that it was best to let them try and get the housekeeper to betray Evo; there was no chance of that. Then everyone would accept they have done their best, and Matt would meet much less resistance when he closed things down.
‘OK, so I have agreed that provided Bella concedes to some terms, that reluctantly I can see that this is our only hope. There is a chance that the housekeeper might open up to Bella; but if at any point things look dangerous, I will pull the plug and we will call it a day, and that will absolutely be the end of it.’
‘Norton, let’s develop your plan. But first a recap. Do we really think Evo is behind this?’
‘It has to be him,’ Joe said, ‘Based simply on the fact he was Pete’s boss, and he owns The Portal. If we are still assuming that is where Pete died, then Evo must be majorly involved. Who else would be so affected by a death there? He is clearly up to something at The Portal that he doesn’t want anyone finding out about. Tourist attraction; utter nonsense. That’s just a front for whatever is really going on there.’
Matt sat back into the sofa and played along.
‘OK, yes good point. Let’s have a couple of avenues of investigation here. Let’s get a couple of people looking into Evo in more detail; what is in his life that matches to The Portal, what is he really up to with it? Then let’s have another couple of you looking into more background on this whole Shadow Tide phenomenon. Hopefully, anything we find out will be of some use or leverage. The last two of us will be close at hand as a protection detail should Bella need us.
Matt wrote the three categories on the whiteboard.
‘OK, investigation of the Shadow Tide; Joe & Max, why don’t you take that one.’
‘Then investigate Evo; Ava and Bruno, you guys take that one.’
Bella interrupted, ‘Sorry, I forgot to give you this earlier. I can’t see how it will be of any use, but I thought it would be better here than at home in a drawer.’ Ava was closest so Bella handed the item to her. It was a second security access card that looked just like the last one. ‘I didn’t know it existed until I found it when I was cleaning the other night. It had fallen down the back of the chair Pete sat in most evenings. It hasn’t glowed or anything, I have no idea if its active.’
Matt gave Bella a gentle nod and a smile, ‘Thanks Bella that might come in useful.’ Matt then turned to look at Norton.
‘That leaves you and me as security detail for Bella at all times, to make sure she comes to no harm, OK?’
‘OK boss, yes, happy with that.’
‘Good,’ said Matt, ‘Let’s get to it then.’
Chapter 31
Joe and Max were both grabbing a coffee.
‘OK bro,’ said Joe, ‘Any thoughts on how we do this?’
‘I do actually; fancy a quick trip into Cirencester?’
Joe took a drink before answering.
‘Sure, what are we going to be doing there?’
Max pulled out his phone whilst talking.
‘I want to find a DIY store and put a theory to the test.’
Joe continued to drink his coffee. His brother had always been intuitive and a quick thinker. During their childhood, Joe had learned it was always worthwhile to go with his brother’s ideas.
They finished their coffee, then headed out in the car to Cirencester. At the DIY store, they picked up some length of large rigid plastic pipe, foam, glue and a bucket, and then headed back to the Operations Room. They carried the stuff out onto the balcony and Max began to set things up.
After some considerable time, Max had constructed a rudimentary model of the inside of the portal, complete with the roof collapse. However they tried it; they could not get a large, fast moving volume of water to come out of the end of the model portal, the flow was always drastically reduced; the roof collapse acted like a gigantic baffle.
‘There we go then.’ Max put the bucket down and put all the parts used in his experiment back up against the wall.
‘Was that all about the roof fall? You’re proving it’s fake, and that there is no way the volume of water that struck us could come from behind that pile of bricks. What are you thinking? That it is fake and retracts into the floor?’
‘Yes,’ said Max, ‘I’m thinking something like that, or… at least a variation on that theme.’
‘Do we need to prove this; does that mean you want to go back into The Portal?’
The colour drained from Joe’s cheeks. Going back into that portal was not something that was high on his to do list.
‘Not at the moment,’ said Max, ‘I think we should first get our ducks in a row. Do some research, then present our findings to Matt. There’s no way he is going to sanction another visit to The Portal for safety or legal reasons.’
‘No – not a hope in hell.’
They both wandered back into the Operations Room. They were alone, everyone else was out.
‘So Max what’s the plan, if there is one?’
‘When we met him, Alastor told us to read our history books. I think we should head to the local library in Cirencester and see what we can find on the Shadow Tide phenomena. It will be a good place to start. I would certainly expect to see some reference to it in books, as well as in copies of local newspapers.’
Joe grabbed the keys to the Audi.
‘Sounds like a plan, let’s go.’
About thirty minutes later they were standing outside the library. They paused outside for a moment. Joe motioned to his twin to take the lead.
‘After you guv.’
Max pulled open the door, and they went inside. It was like many local libraries. Clean and warm, but the carpet was not in its first flush of youth. Posters adorned the walls encouraging young people to read; and a notice board contained information about various classes available. The smell of paper and books was lightly present in the air.
They headed over to the reception area.
‘Hi, we have come to do some research on a local mystery if that is possible, though we are not members. Is that OK?’
The librarian assured them it was.
‘What sort of mystery are you interested in? I might be able to point you in the right direction.’
Joe and Max looked at each other for a moment. This would be the first test into the wider local knowledge of the Shadow Tide. A blank expression now would almost answer their question without the need to do any more re
search. They watched the librarian closely as Max asked his question.
‘We were wanting to look up what you have on the Shadow Tide that occurs at that old disused canal tunnel on the outskirts of the town. Do you have anything?’
Without so much as a flinch the librarian said she would lead them to the local history section. They followed her.
She stopped beside a wall of books. Next to it was a computer terminal, and at the far end was a microfiche machine.
‘This is all our local history section here. We have newspaper records on this computer, and the older stuff is over there on the microfiche machine. Do you need me to show you how that works?’
‘Thank you,’ Max said, ‘No, that’s fine thanks, we are both used to using them.’
The librarian smiled, ‘Well I will leave you to it, and if you need anything else, I will be over at my desk.’ She then left them to it.
Joe leant in to whisper to his brother, ‘Well she didn’t look totally surprised by your request did she.’
Max shook his head, ‘No, it didn’t look like the first time she had heard that name. I would have expected her to ask what it was.’
‘Yeah, me too.’
Joe moved over to the computer terminal, glanced at the laminated instruction sheet beside it for searching the library catalogue, and then proceeded to type Shadow Tide into the search box.
‘Here goes nothing.’
He hit the enter button. An hourglass appeared whilst the computer gave some thought to his request.
A moment or two passed, and the screen went blank. Then some green text began to cascade onto the screen in the style of an online simple catalogue. When complete, it provided two entries.
Joe and Max looked at the titles. Two books were listed as clearly referencing the Shadow Tide.
Max noted the book’s location numbers.
‘Well I was genuinely not expecting one result, never mind two. Perhaps there is something in this after all.’
They both headed to the book shelves, and worked from either end. Max came to them first. He took them both down.
