The Stone

by Graham Adams

  ‘Gone missing? What’s Tom Pepper got to do with Radio Invicta?’ Edmund asked him.

  ‘Tom owns the station and a load of fishing boats as well in Dover’ Joe answered.

  ‘How did he go missing Joe, and what’s it got to do with us?’ Paul asked.

  ‘Maybe he thinks we know where he is mate!’ Edmund said, and they both laughed.

  ‘No, you got the wrong idea, looks like they got themselves drowned coming back from the station, and I think my dad said their boat capsized in bad weather.’ Joe raised his voice again.

  Pauline was standing with the coffees and looking seriously interested. ‘What do you want Paul and Edmund to do about it Joe?’ She asked.

  ‘Well, my dad told me they are looking for two unattached guys who might like to be DJ’s on the station, and I thought of you two!’ Joe looked at the two friends.

  ‘Look Joe, we don’t know anything about being disc jockeys do we Paul?’ Edmund looked at his friend..

  ‘Don’t worry guys; they’ll train you at it, no problem. They want someone to cover for Christmas.’ Joe looked convincingly at them.

  ‘Hey, Paul, you’re the show biz man, why don’t you give it a shot?’ One of the diners shouted who was sitting at the next table.

  ‘When do you need to know Joe?’ asked Paul, though he was looking at Edmund for his reaction.

  ‘I need to know right now, as I’ve got to tell dad whether or not his mate can come down to Deal from Ashford to arrange an interview for you.’ Joe answered

  ‘I’m up for it mate what about you?’ Paul looked at his best friend, sort of knowing what the answer might be.

  Edmund put his hand in his pocket and put the stone in his hand; he thought for a minute and looked up at Joe. ‘Don’t see why not Paul, let’s go for it.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Paul knew Edmund didn’t make decisions lightly.

  ‘Joe, go and tell your dad to arrange it with that bloke.’ Edmund looked up at Joe, and then his eyes moved over to Pauline who was still standing looking at him, sucking in her lower lip, her dark eyes were looking worried.

  ‘Stay here guys, I’ll be back in a flash!’ Joe ran out of the cafe, and shot in the direction of their shop, that his family lived above.

  Pauline did not look directly at Edmund but she said quietly, ‘it sounds a bit dangerous to me. Are you sure, especially with those poor men disappearing?’

  In a flash, Edmund said. ‘Probably the good thing is that we don’t have anyone to care, or anywhere to go for Christmas. Don’t you think so Paul?’

  ‘I guess so Eddie’ Paul knew what he was doing.

  She turned away and rushed back to the counter, uncannily Edmund knew that she was not really upset, or even cared. Somehow he felt that in a strange way, she may have regretted the treatment he received from her the day before in Canterbury. He never found out for sure, but it felt good anyway.

  He was still thinking about Pauline when Joe burst back into the cafe. ‘It’s all arranged guys. He’ll meet you outside the Brickmakers at eight tonight.’ With that he was gone.

  Paul finished up his coffee and stood up to leave. ‘I’ll see you at the Brickmakers at seven thirty.’

  ‘Better not be late tonight, this could be your break into the big time, with Radio Invicta!’ Edmund said to him.

  ‘For you as well don’t forget.’ Paul was laughing as he left him on his own, at the table.

  There seemed to be a buzz around the tables, as if Edmund was the topic of their conversation, but apart from sideways looks, none of the other customers said anything to him.

  Pauline came over though, this time she looked at him straight. ‘It does sound a bit scary though Edmund, you will be careful won’t you?’

  ‘I don’t suppose anyone would be crying in their beer if anything happened to me, Pauline. Look at this lot for instance.’ He said it quite loud and as he looked around, the rest of them looked away, and pretended to be deep in conversation with each other.

  ‘Well, I care.’ her voice was so soft when she spoke.

  ‘Thanks anyway, Pauline.’ He looked up at her, but she was already on her way back to the counter. ‘Nice try love, but I don’t think you really mean it.’ He thought to himself as he finished his coffee and headed for the exit. No one spoke to him as he left, but he was sure that he wasn’t going to lose any sleep about that.

  As they waited for the Ashford guy to arrive, Paul told Edmund that he had asked Rosalind’s father to tell his agent friend in London where he was going over Christmas, and as soon as the job had finished with Invicta he would go and make contact with him.

  A silver blue Humber Sceptre pulled up alongside them as they waited outside the pub, and the driver indicated to them to get in the back seat. The brown leather seats smelled new and they were designed to wrap around them. The driver pulled away for a short distance and pulled up near the local park where it was quiet, and dark.

  ‘I’m David, and I’m the Managing Director of the Ashford Engineering Company and because of the recent sad situation, we need some emergency cover as Disc Jockeys for the Christmas period.’ He continued with his spiel about the business, then just turned around and offered them the job. Just like that!

  Paul’s eyes lit up, he couldn’t believe it, but Edmund didn’t. ‘Hang on friend; we’ve got a few questions for you first.’ Up till then all the friends could see of their interviewer was the back of his head and his eyes reflected in the rear view mirror. David turned around and his heavily bearded face was not a pretty sight.

  Edmund stood on Paul’s foot as if to wake him up. ‘Yes pal, what’s the money you’re offering?’ Paul asked him, in a tone that came straight from a stage play. Meanwhile Edmund thought he would burst out laughing.

  David smiled at Paul unconvincingly, and spelled out the terms. ‘Three weeks working on the station, and then one week off. You will be expected to work up to April, when by then we will know what we are doing with it. We will pay you £45 per week including the week off, that’s £180 cash in hand, each month.

  ‘How do we get there, that is if we accept?’ Edmund asked.

  The beard looked at Edmund. ‘The boat leaves on Monday morning from Whitstable Harbour’

  ‘Like tomorrow morning?’ Edmund asked.

  ‘Yes, if you want the job, you will have to decide now, if it’s yes from you, I will pick you up at Sholden Church at seven tomorrow. So guys what do you say, Yes or no?’ He looked at them unblinking.

  Paul was thinking about the £180 in his hand and was itching to go for it, but Edmund trod on his foot again, harder than before which made him howl.

  ‘Fifty a week and you’re on!’ Edmund said to the beard.

  There was a stony silence as the man’s eyes darkened for a moment and then he smiled and put out his hand.

  ‘You’ve got a deal guys’. He shook Paul’s hand, and then shook Edmund’s hand, and before he let go of it he said, ‘I think I’ve got to watch you, buddy, you’ve got a good friend there Paul.’

  ‘Don’t I know it David?’ Paul laughed as they both disembarked out of the Humber. The car swished away into the distance. ‘Back to his pad in Ashford I expect.’

  ‘When we get back to our pad in Sholden Paul, let’s get an early night, we’ve got a lot to talk about.’ Edmund said seriously.

  They were walking down London Road back to Sholden; it was the first time that Edmund had been down that road since the encounter with the old woman the night before. Edmund instinctively thrust his hands in his pocket, and was tempted to tell Paul about the stone in his hand, but he decided against it.

  ‘I know what you are going to say. It does on the face of it, sound a bit dodgy, but you know us, we can turn this to our advantage, and don’t you think so?’ Paul asked.

  ‘OK I agree we’ve got to go for it. But I don’t trust that Dave. There’s more going on than we know, so we must be on our guard, considering what happened to the last two DJ’s who are still mis
sing don’t forget.’ Edmund shook his head ominously.

  ‘Funny that Dave didn’t speak about them, nor did he mention Tom Pepper by name, He seemed to be in too much of a hurry.’ Paul remarked.

  ‘Maybe we’ll find out more tomorrow. I must tell Winnie to let Sheila know and hold my job, if it all goes tits up at Invicta.’ Edmund said, as they passed Sholden Church.

  13: Our Lives Change

  City of Oxford

  Now that Ellie was clear in her mind exactly what she had inherited, and now she was back at home in Oxford, nice and early, it was time to take stock of everything.

  ‘You’ve got to get used to it Ellie’ she said to herself. ‘All these things are happening for a reason’ she mused. She was finally using what wisdom she had, to not to be overawed with it all, and it wasn’t long before she had a plan.

  First of all she had to be sure whether or not Gary had changed his mind about when he was coming home from Belfast, so she rung his mobile straight away.

  ‘Hi Gary, I’m just checking that you are ringing tonight.’

  ‘Yes, I’ll be ringing you about eight thirty when I get back to the Europa.’ Gary answered.

  ‘Talk to you then love.’ Ellie smiled to herself.

  ‘OK, bye’ Gary closed the line.

  Ellie had dropped Rowena off, and was home by five. After a long hot bath and a quick snack it was still only seven so she decided to take time out and get her head around the paperwork that she’d brought home. She pulled the briefcase off the floor and opened it on the couch. On top there was the file from Brian. It was neatly headed ‘The Breakwaters’. Dividers neatly sectioned it, and she could clearly see that the top section was the financial income, followed by the individual files on all the tenants.

  ‘How efficient Brian was.’ She thought to herself.

  For the time being she just looked at the top section. She scanned the details; rent, ground rent, ancillary charges and management charges and at the bottom the net rent payable to the owner. Counting the other files she counted eight tenants, and by the look of the figures they all paid the same, which made it much easier. ‘Clever Brian, again’ Ellie thought. The bottom line, net rent to her was £1200 per apartment. She mentally calculated that the income she would receive per year was £115,200! There was a small calculator in the case, so she did the maths on it, and she was correct. From that, she calculated what the taxman would take, and in the end it still left her with a cool £70,000 per year.

  ‘That is a lot of shoes!’ She gulped.

  With that figure buzzing around her head she started to think of her options. ‘Do I need to carry on working? If I stop working, what do I do with myself?’ She said out loud. ‘No wait, I’m getting ahead of myself, slow down, and just leave the figures alone for a bit.’

  Ellie’s nature was working in tandem. On one side it was feet on the ground, but on the other hand she always liked to go against the grain and swim against the tide. In other words she remained an individual sometimes to the point of being stubborn.

  She decided to leave the financial questions alone for now, and concentrate on the other questions she had yet to ask herself. Firstly the person who has left me this inheritance: Who was she? Why did she have the same name as mine? What role did mum and dad play in all this? Did they know her? They certainly had the same name again. Finally the man who gave me the stone, does he have a part in this? Then she remembered.

  Clive Jameson had clearly said that Alex Macduff offered to answer any questions that she might have. ‘That’s it!’ she said out loud, ‘I’ve got to go and see Macduff, he will have all the answers, of course. I’m going to Scotland as soon as I can to get this well and truly sorted!’

  She stood up from the couch and felt a great weight lift from her. She unconsciously held the stone in her hand and felt a surge of something inside her. ‘Power. -Knowledge is power!’ Just at that moment the phone rang.

  ‘Hi sweetie, Gary here.’

  ‘Great to hear your voice darling, how are you? Ellie asked. Gary started to describe his day and the plans for him for the rest of the week, when Ellie asked, ‘what about the weekend, any chance of getting home? I’ve got so much to tell you.’

  ‘Ellie I realise this is difficult for you, and I would feel the same in your place, but I’ve got to hold myself available to the rest of the board for this coming weekend, there is so much planning to do.’ He answered.

  ‘Don’t they realise that you have a life too?’ She pleaded.

  ‘Please don’t be upset darling, I realise that important things are happening to you as well, but please be patient. I must do this and you’ll see it will all turn out for the best for both of us’

  Ellie decided to play down the details of the inheritance for now, as all of that, could only confuse, and possibly increase the tension.

  ‘OK Gary, that’s fine, I do understand, just don’t overdo it darling, I need you back in one piece.’

  She distinctly heard Gary breathe a sigh of relief and the tension between them disappeared.

  ‘Tell you what, I will not stay over next weekend, I’ll come home by next Friday instead, hell or high water. I promise you that.’

  ‘Gary, I’ll let you get some rest in a minute, but I want to tell you quickly that the inheritance is quite complicated and I need to go to Glasgow to see that Macduff fellow who seems to have all the answers. Do you have any objections to me going?’ Ellie asked him.

  ‘Of course not darling, why should I object? I know that this is very important to you, and you must do what you can. If you want to discuss anything whilst you’re up there please ring me anytime.’

  ‘OK darling I’ll speak to you soon. Goodnight and take care of yourself. By the way how are you getting your laundry done?’ Ellie asked.

  ‘The company has taken care of everything. Goodnight my love.’

  ‘Bye Gary’

  ‘Bye Ellie’

  After replacing the receiver, she felt a little guilty not spelling out the full details of the inheritance, but overcame that after she realised all the pressure Gary was under and a body can only take so much. She decided that she would ring Macduff first thing tomorrow and take at least the rest of the week off.

  ‘What can they do, sack me?’ She smiled at her own sardonic comment. She looked at the time, nine fifteen, and just one more thing to do.

  ‘Rowena.’ Ellie said.

  ‘Hi Ellie, what’s up?’ Rowena asked. Ellie told her what she had decided to do over the next few days including, she hoped, a nice break in Scotland. ‘I think it’s great, you seem to be more assertive, now you are a woman of substance.’

  ‘You’ve got it in one Ro.’ Ellie couldn’t stop herself from a giggle.

  ‘Keep in touch! Oh by the way I want to tell you something’ Rowena’s voice seemed to go a little serious.

  ‘What is it Ro, are you alright? It just seems to be all about me at the moment, what am I missing, do tell!’

  ‘Well Ellie, er...’

  ‘Go on.’ Ellie urged.

  ‘Well do you remember that man in the car park in Bath, the one you helped direct his car for him?’

  ‘Do I remember him? That kiss on my hand sent shivers up my spine!’ Ellie admitted.

  ‘Well..er. Well, we are seeing each other, I mean we’re an item, I mean that I love him.’ It all came out in rather a rush on the phone.

  Ellie screamed down the phone, so loud it just about burst Rowena’s eardrums! ‘It’s amazing, it’s wonderful, I love you Ro. I’m so happy for you. He’s gorgeous.’

  Even Rowena didn’t expect such a response from Ellie, and she was delighted by it. ‘Thanks Ellie thanks a lot.’

  As Ellie put the phone down, tears were streaming down her face with happiness for her best friend. It was the best news that she had heard all day.

  As she got ready for bed she was still smiling at Rowena’s news. ‘What a wonderful thing to end the day with.’ Ellie thought to herself.r />
  14: Radio Waves

  The Red Sands Forts

  A very small fishing smack was tied up at the side of the Whitstable harbour wall. There were some stone steps on the quayside to enable Edmund and Paul to get aboard, and they tentatively held onto the rope and jumped into the hold. There was just enough room to sit, facing each other and as soon as they were settled, the little boat’s diesel engine jumped into life. Whitstable harbour was calm and they had no trouble as they headed into the North Sea, but only a few hundred yards into open water, out of the shelter of the harbour, it began to swell. Small at first but soon the little boat was tossing quite violently until it was like a little cork riding the waves.