by S G Read
'Hi Ben, where are you?'
'Minton. Charlie’s brakes have gone and it is down to me to pay for the repair as usual.'
'Have you enough to pay for it?'
'I still have a few dollars but I am using up my supply of twenty pound notes, to get rid of them.'
'What the dud ones?'
'Don’t tell everyone, I’m going to use them to pay for the petrol on the way, if we ever get going! What do we need to bring?'
'A sleeping bag is all, there’s plenty of room here!' Stevey answered, a little disappointed.
'Okay Stevey, we’ll see you when we get there!'
'Okay Ben, see you later!'
Stevey took the time to get a drink before he walked back out to where the others were still working.
'Are they on their way?' Stuart asked when Stevey reappeared from the house.
'Charlie’s brakes have gone and he is fixing them. When they are done they will be on their way, it should give us time to find out what secrets this bed is hiding.'
They worked on but it was hard work. Pat forced them to stop for lunch but as soon as it was eaten, they were out there working. Later in the afternoon they discovered the secret of the untended bed. A single grave stone, set right in the middle. An expensive granite stone with "Rex my one and only love, rest in peace" carved on it. They stopped and looked at it for some time.
'So she did have someone!' Stuart concluded.
'How did you get us out of that jungle?' Stevey asked. 'Look at the size of the grave!'
Stuart looked at the grave and smiled, realising his mistake. 'So, he was a midget!' He replied, causing Stevey to throw a dislodged weed at him.
Ben sat watching for Charlie to return with the new brake pads but as Charlie had to go on the bus to get them, it was going to be a long wait. Still he sat and watched the bus stop. Every bus which came along drew his attention but as soon as he saw the number on the bus, his interest faded and he returned to his comic. Another bus came and he looked up long enough to make out the number, then he looked back to his comic. An hour passed and as the time passed boys arrived. Each one had a sleeping bag which was dumped at the bottom of the stairs and the boys found their own spot to sit in Ben’s room. Ben explained to the first two what was going on and they in turn relayed it to the newcomers. Now everyone was watching for the number seventeen A. There had been no sign of a number seventeen A at all and it worried Ben. Suddenly he saw a bus coming, followed by another, both had seventeen A on them.
'Isn’t that just typical!' He said with a lot of feeling. 'The one time you want a bus to be on time and it is so late the next one catches it up!'
'Normal for my bus.' Simon sighed. 'Still it’s here now.'
They all watched as the busses both passed the stop.
'What!' Ben screamed. 'He has to be on one of those busses!'
All eyes watched the two busses, then one stopped, way past the bus stop and Charlie jumped off before it had stopped. The comic Ben was reading had barely landed on the bed, before he was on his way down the stairs with the rest of them following. They all gathered round the little turquoise van. Willing hands helped as Charlie worked on the brakes. It was not a hard task but Charlie was not the world’s best mechanic, he just could not afford to pay anyone else to do it. He struggled and cursed as he worked but eventually the brake pads were replaced.
'Right, you lot get ready to go while I test drive it!' Charlie ordered and drove off.
The boys gathered outside, waiting for him to come back but there was no sign of him. Ben was gobsmacked when he saw Charlie walking towards him an hour later.
'You didn’t crash it did you?' He asked in disbelief, when Charlie reached where they all sat.
'No I didn’t crash it!' Charlie retorted. 'If you must know I ran out of Petrol.'
He collected his empty petrol can and held his hand out for some money.
'I paid for the brake pads and the bus fare!' Ben said indignantly.
'Well if you want to get to Devon, you will have to pay for the petrol as well!' Charlie replied.
Ben gave him a twenty pound note. Simon smiled and had to bite his lower lip, to stop from saying anything. Charlie walked off with the empty can, heading for a garage to fill it.
'Was that a dud one?' Simon asked when Charlie was no longer close enough to hear.
'Yes.' Ben answered. 'So we might see him again or we might not!'
The boys laughed at the prospect, until Simon added. 'But if he gets caught we can’t get to Devon!'
'Don’t worry, it’s one of the good duds.' Ben assured him.
Charlie filled the can then tried to get on a bus to save time but the driver told him to get back off or leave the can behind and Charlie had to walk all the way back to the van. It was another hour before he came back with the van, full of petrol but he was hungry. While the boys worked out where they were going to sit Charlie had something to eat and drink. He also needed a long rest but the boys were not going to let him have that! They pestered him until he condescended to start for Devon. They drove away, with a wave to Ben’s mother, singing happily. Mrs. Davis, knowing what Charlie was like with money gave Ben money for a travel lodge if ‘Charles’ grew too tired to drive.
The three at Apsford chose to finish clearing the bed, while they were waiting for the others to arrive but when they finished, there was still no sign of the others. Stevey telephoned Ben.
'Minton 27334.' a woman’s voice answered.
'Hello Mrs. Davis.' Stevey replied politely. 'Have they left yet?'
'They left an hour ago but it is quite a long journey. I gave them some money to use at a travel lodge, if Charles gets too tired to drive.' Mrs. Davis replied. 'I do hope your mother doesn’t mind them all descending on her like this!'
'No, mum is glad of the company!' Stevey assured her.
'Your nose will get bigger!' Pat called from the kitchen.
Stevey chose to ignore her. 'We’ll leave the front light on so they can see where to come, when they get here. Good night Mrs. Davis.'
He walked into the kitchen, with its large inglenook fireplace. The fire was not lit, as there was a fairly new electric cooker, by the door.
'They are on their way at last but they might stop at a travel lodge if Charles gets tired.' Stevey advised the other two.
'Oh it’s my Charles.' Stuart replied. 'She’s so stuck up, I wonder if she knows what Ben and Charlie get up to?'
'She’d have pulmonary infarction if she found out.' Stevey replied.
It caused both the others to laugh, as these were words dredged up from the dictionary, during their last games of hangman.
'So what do they get up to?' Pat asked when she stopped laughing.
'Stu knows, don’t you Stu.' Stevey replied.
They both looked toward the seat he was sitting in, it was now empty!
The little van turned onto the M25 and stopped, and started, stopped and started. It took two hours to get as far as the M3 turn and Ben navigated Charlie onto the M3, talked him through several turn offs until they were on the M4. Now it was plain sailing and there was no traffic in front of them. Charlie let the speed drift up to a massive sixty miles an hour, with every other vehicle overtaking him and Ben relaxed, his job was over until they neared Devon. They drove for some time with the boys in the back gradually making less and less noise, until there was no noise from the back of the van. Ben was looking out of the window next to him for sometime until he found it hard to see. He noticed that Charlie had not yet turned the van lights on.
'Been eating lots of carrots have we?' he asked but got no answer.
Suddenly the van started to drift onto the hard shoulder causing Ben to look at Charlie. Charlie was asleep at the wheel!
'Wake up Charlie!' Ben screamed and woke everyone in the van.
Charlie jerked awake, which caused the van to swerve across the road and he fought to get it back onto the right side of the road before another car came along. They w
ere alone on the road so the incident went unnoticed by all except the boys in the van. All eyes were now wide open, looking for a travel lodge or something similar. When the spotted one, they stopped and one by one emerged from the little van, stretching and yawning as they did so. They swarmed into the travel lodge. The young night manager did not know what had hit him, rooms were booked and boys argued about who they were going to share with and without Stuart or Stevey there to decide for them, pandemonium broke out. It was down to Sherman to sort it, as Charlie quickly lost interest and sort it Sherman did!
Soon they were all in their designated rooms, some sleeping some talking.
Back in Apsford the waiting lasted until they could no longer keep awake. They left the light on and the front door unlocked, so the travellers could get in when they arrived. They did not know the others had stopped in a travel lodge as no one had thought to telephone them. They were soon in bed asleep, leaving pat to keep watch a little while longer but even she had to give in and go to bed eventually.
For once Stuart was the first downstairs, expecting to find the others strewn about the downstairs rooms. Instead he had a pistol pushed into his face and the man holding it signalled him to keep quiet by holding a finger up to his lips. Although they were partly covered by the balaclava he was wearing, Stuart got the idea. He did as he was signalled and was led into kitchen. The man, Stuart assumed it was a man but it could easily have been a woman under the balaclava, pointed to a chair and Stuart sat down. The man looked about to make sure no one else was coming down the stairs, then tied Stuart to the chair. He gagged him to keep him quiet, then returned to the doorway to pounce on the next victim. Pat was next through the doorway and when she saw the gun she threw her hands up to her face in disbelief. She was forced to sit in the chair next to Stuart and tied securely. Stevey came downstairs soon after.
'Are they here ye-?' He asked as he turned the corner. He stopped in mid sentence when he saw the gun and the other two tied to their respective chairs. 'I take it you are the local bad guy.' Stevey said by way of a greeting, sounding unimpressed but underneath he was quaking. 'Well you’re a bit early, we haven’t found the money yet!'
'I’ll find it given the time.' The man with the gun replied and now Stuart knew it was a man and he recognised the voice from somewhere but for the life of him he could not remember where it was.
'I take it that chair is for me?' Stevey asked.
'It is.' The man replied.
'Well before I go quietly will you answer one thing?'
'I have got a pistol!' The man warned.
'I know and there is no one about to hear the shots apart from the gardener.' Stevey pointed out the window and the man with the pistol made the mistake of looking where Stevey pointed. When he looked back Stevey was gone and he took off in pursuit but Stevey had played hide and seek in the house many times, to while away the time and knew lots of hiding places. By the time the man looked for him he was no where in sight. The man cursed and started to search for him, making sure he could not get back to free the others, by locking the kitchen door and slipping the key into his pocket. Stevey was already in his hiding place but silently rueing the fact that they had sealed up all the secret doorways. When the man passed where he was hiding Stevey moved and hid somewhere else but the man heard him move and followed. He passed him again and this time Stevey moved quietly but a squeaky floorboard gave him away. The cat and mouse game went on until Stevey had the pistol thrust in his face once more and was frog marched to the kitchen. The man unlocked the door, marched Stevey over and tied him up but did not bother to gag him. By now Stuart had one arm free, he slid it back into the rope to make it look like it was still tied up but the man checked and retied it. This time he tied it tighter! At the same time he removed his gag.
'Now I need a progress report.' The man said, sitting on the edge of the table. 'Where have you looked and where haven’t you looked! As I mean to be the one to find the money and I mean to be the one who is going to keep it!'
He looked from one to the other, before his gaze settled on Stuart.
'Don’t look at me, we didn’t get anywhere, apart from that stuff from the attic which we were going to sell and you set fire to!' Stuart said morosely.
'You found my passageways though, didn’t you?'
'They are not your passageways!' Stevey cried. 'They’re mine now!'
'Not for long I’ll wager.' The man in the balaclava replied.
‘We only found them after the firemen had hosed down the walls.' Stuart replied. 'How did you expect to gain from burning the house down?'
'I seriously thought you had found it when I had failed, I expected you to carry it outside to save it from the flames, only for me to swoop and take it from you!'
'Big mistake, Dumbo!' Stuart replied.
'I’ll repeat I am the one with the pistol.' The man pointed out.
'Well, we have had dealings with men like you before and let’s say letting us walk away is not on the top of your list.' Stuart explained, he was playing for time, as the others had to be on their way, he thought they should have been here by now.
Chapter 17
The boys in the travel lodge overslept and only the maid wanting to clean their rooms disturbed them. They had breakfast in the complex, then had to squeeze back into the little van and were on their way again. They all wanted to get there now, to see the house Stevey had inherited but they still had some way to go. They chatted and told jokes as the travelled, to take their minds off the cramped conditions. Ben was in the front watching Charlie like a hawk, a repeat of last night, was one thing he did not want to happen.
In Apsford house the robber answered Stuart. 'It is true that after I have what I want there will be another fire and all three of you will perish. The ropes will burn with you and you will be found huddled where I put you to escape the flames!' The man with the pistol said with a hint of sadism in his voice.
'Did you find the cellar then?' Stuart asked.
'What cellar.'
'What you didn’t even find the cellar! What sort of moron are you?' Stuart crowed.
The man hit him with the back of his hand and knocked him and the chair over. He stood the chair back up with Stuart still tied to it. Pat struggled at her bonds without success and tried to speak through the gag.
'Don’t worry woman.' The man with the pistol assured her. 'I am a fully paid up member of the sadists club. There is a lot more where that came from! If you want me to hit you again you little snob, just annoy me again.'
Stuart smiled. Now he knew who it was. 'No it won’t be necessary.' He replied, licking the blood away as it ran from his lip. 'I suppose a tissue is out of the question?'
The man in turn smiled. 'Hoping I might make a mark which will show up at your post-mortem eh? A worthy effort and I commend you but alas, yes a tissue is out of the question. I prefer to let you bleed.'
The boys reached Apsford and they all cheered when Ben saw the sign and told them but they still had to find the house. They stopped and asked a man directions, they followed the directions but were soon lost again. It seemed like they were looking for a needle in a haystack.
'Let’s ask at this house! ‘Simon suggested, with his head pushed up to the wire which separated the front of the van from the back.
Just as Charlie was going to turn into the drive Colin shouted from the back. 'We just passed a sign pointing to Apsford house!'
Charlie jammed on the brakes pushing Simon’s face right into the wire and reversed back to the sign. The arrow did say Apsford House, he turned up and drove in the direction the arrow pointed.
'Next time stop slowly.' Simon asked, rubbing his nose.
The questioning in Apsford house continued for a long time and both boys felt the back of his hand and his fist but the boys held out, not that they could tell him anything anyway, they just did not like being questioned like it. Stuart admitted that they had not found a cellar but the man already knew the house did not ha
ve one. Stevey paled when the man with the pistol threatened to start on his mother. If he had something that he was hiding he would have told but he could tell him no more than he had already. He started straining at his bond ferociously.
'Don’t you touch my mum, you leave her alone!' Stevey hissed his voice quivering with emotion.
'Just tell me and I’ll leave her be.' The man warned, caressing Pat’s face with the pistol barrel.
'We told you all we know!' Stuart shouted.
'Maybe, maybe not. It will be fun finding out but maybe I should take her into the next room to question her!'
Before he could do anything a turquoise van drove up the drive, tooting its horn. The man with the pistol walked quickly to the door and looked out making sure he was not seen by the boys emerging from the van that had parked in the drive. While the others stretched their cramped limbs, one walked up to the door. The man quietly locked the door, returned to his captives and gagged the two boys. The doorbell rang. It rang again and again until the man, holding the pistol at Stevey’s head ungagged and untied him.
'It looks like your friends have arrived. Get rid of them or your mother will stop a bullet.' He hissed.
Stevey massaged his legs back to life while the doorbell rang and rang again. As soon as he was able to, Stevey staggered to the door with the man following. Before Stevey opened the door, he made sure the chain was on. He forced a smile onto his face and opened the door.
'Hi Ben, I see you made it at long last. You can’t come in at the moment, you’ll have to come back later. I have a few problems in here to sort out.'
'Oh.' Ben said taken aback. They had come a long way and were nearly creamed across the motorway but he did not raise his voice, as he would have normally done before they were stranded in the jungle. 'Okay! What sort of problems?'
'The collywobbles sort, see you later.' Stevey replied and closed the door.
'Okay.' Ben said to the closed door and stood there for a few seconds before he walked back to the van. 'We have to come back later, he has a few problems to sort out.'
