‘Why would someone do this?’ he asked as they picked up the final pieces.
‘How, is more my worry. You have a copy, thank heavens, but how did it happen? Haven’t you realised? Someone has been able to get in again!’
‘This place is definitely creepy. It’s like a huge radio transmitter that broadcasts all that happens here.’ Rosemary remembered then the conversation with Huw.
‘Did you go to the shop this morning?’ she asked.
‘No,’ he said after a pause. ‘No, not this morning. I’d promised to go and see the typist early, to go through the book with her, make sure she hadn’t left in any errors. Why?’
‘Huw knows that you are leaving next week. He was told by someone in the shop, this morning.’ Larry stared at her, then as she began to say, ‘Someone is listening,’ he cut off the words before they could be said, by a sudden and rather fierce kiss.
From his pocket he took a notebook. On the first page he wrote:
‘I agree, darling, but we’ll say nothing. I’m going to catch this bastard, right?’
‘I’m frightened,’ Rosemary wrote in reply. ‘What else could he have overheard?’
‘Only that I love you and I haven’t tried to keep that a secret,’ was the written reply.
Then the notes became more and more silly as they each tried to take the other’s mind off the sensation of being overheard by a stranger. Loving messages and silly messages, then, after a moment when they sat silently, arms around each other, Rosemary forgot the need for silence and said, ‘Does the typist still have your handwritten copy?’
‘It’s in my brief-case in the closet—’ The thought that it, too, could have been damaged made them both get up and hurry to the under-stairs cupboard where they kept the coats.
As they opened the door a strong smell of fresh paint hit them and they looked at the brief-case. Someone had poured paint over the neatly written pages. The copy was ruined.
* * *
They rang for the police and two constables arrived within a very short time. They asked questions about all the neighbours and one of them left them to go and interview each of the cottages.
‘Next door, number three is still empty,’ the constable reported. ‘Next door the other side, at number one, the man has seen nothing that can help. God-’elp, there’s a mess he’s in poor dab. Says he’s sorting out after losing his mam. Pity for him. He needs some help, but insists he’ll manage on his own.’
‘I’ve offered to help him,’ Rosemary said, with a return of guilt over her neglect of him, ‘but I think he’s happier just taking his time and getting things done the way he wants them done.’
When the two policemen eventually left, carrying the ruined brief-case and manuscript, they offered the advice: ‘You should change the locks again.’
‘Is there a possibility we’re being overheard?’ Larry asked and the policeman shook his head doubtfully.
‘Number three’s empty, and number one,’ – he checked on his notebook — ‘Gethyn Lewis, has no telephone. Besides, the telephone engineers have checked regularly and there’s been no further sign of anyone tampering with the lines.’ He pocketed his notebook again and added comfortingly, ‘Go to your beds and rest easy, just make sure everything is locked and bolted. Then tomorrow, change the locks. We’ll look in again and of course, let you know if we have anything to report.’ Did he stare extra steadily at Rosemary, when he said that, or did she imagine it?
They felt reassured and when they were alone again, they forgot their fear that they were being overheard and spoke normally.
‘I’m going out early in the morning,’ Larry told her. ‘Very early, before six. I want to make a phone call to my father and ask him to let me know the minute he receives the manuscript. I want him to make a copy of it.’
‘Why early?’ Rosemary asked. ‘And why not from here?’
‘I – I want to catch Dad at home and the best time will be early morning our time and late at night theirs.’
Rosemary felt that he was, if not lying, then evading telling her the full reason, but the hour was late and the evening had been so confused and alarming that she was too tired to wrestle with another problem.
‘Come to bed,’ she said.
Larry rose before the alarm went off and he turned off the switch and hurriedly dressed in a tracksuit and a dark sweater. On his feet he wore his sneakers, silent and suitable for running if necessary. Rosemary slept on, and he touched her cheek briefly with his lips before going down the dark stairs. He did not use any lights, knowing the house well enough to make coffee and find a cookie without any noise.
Getting out of the house without a sound was more difficult and he pulled faces in the dark as he eased the bolts on the back door and went out into the chill pre-dawn. He closed the door after him, turning the key in the lock and pocketing the key.
He didn’t make for the car, but crossed the back garden and went to the door of number three, the house owned by the Hughes’s, and reputedly empty. Opening a window was simple, a long thin blade moved the round catch with ease and he climbed over the sill and stepped down inside the living room.
He risked an occasional flick of the torch and made his way through the silent room and into the hallway. The rooms seemed empty of any other presence, but he had to make sure.
Passing the bathroom, he moved cautiously along the landing towards the front room. The atmosphere in the house was musty and distinctively eerie, it had been empty for weeks and the air was stale. He imagined the dust rising as he walked on the neglected carpets, and hoped he wouldn’t ruin his meticulous caution with a sneeze.
He began to gain a little night sight after turning off the torch he carried, standing on the landing in the darkness and listening for any sound. Once he was certain there was no one else there, he would begin to search, but for what, he wasn’t really clear. He began to move again, cautiously, taking small steps and all the time listening for a giveaway sound to suggest he wasn’t alone. As he passed the bathroom door, a sudden intake of breath alerted him but not in time. Hands grabbed him and pulled him down. Strong hands, covering his mouth so he couldn’t shout out.
He struggled, but the man had been well prepared and soon Larry was on the floor, his face pressed into the dusty carpet, with his assailant sitting on his back. His arms were held tightly and he was unable to move.
‘Now, Mister Larry Madison-Jones,’ said Huw, his accent unmistakable. ‘Why don’t you tell me what you’re looking for?’
‘Huw? You sonofabitch! What in hell’s this for? I’m doing the same as you, you damned fool, trying to find out who’s upsetting Rosemary.’
Huw released him and he stood, breathing fast in his anger, waiting for Huw to speak.
‘I came in here after the police had gone,’ Huw said. ‘Rosemary is convinced someone is listening to her and I believe her.’
‘You thought this house, being empty, was a likely place for someone to hide? I had the same idea.’
‘Have you found anything?’
‘Hardly! I was jumped on before I’d started to search!’
‘We’d better search together, although I doubt you’ll find anything. I’ve looked everywhere. There’s no sign of any electronic equipment.’
‘Hell, I didn’t even know what I was looking for! I just hoped to come upon something suspicious.’
‘Something the police missed.’
‘I suppose it does sound kinda crazy, but I must do something. Rosemary’s being scared half out of her wits here and I have to go back home soon. I can’t leave her in this situation.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘Talk to my father for a start, tell him I’ll be delayed for a while. I’m going into town, calling on Rosemary’s friend, Sally, to ask if I can telephone America from her place. A damned cheek I know, but, in case we’re right about being overheard, I don’t want to use Rosemary’s phone.’
‘Come on, you can use ours.’ Hu
w switched on his torch and after a less than thorough look in all the rooms, they went out, closing the window as well as they could.
They walked across the backs of the houses to the end one and there, Larry spoke to his father. Unashamedly, Huw listened to the conversation. It was something about a parcel which Larry had posted home. The final remark was, ‘Dad, I won’t be coming next week after all. It’s going to take longer than I expected.’ Larry thanked Huw and gave him money to cover the cost of the call, then prepared to leave.
‘I still want to talk to Sally,’ he said. ‘Rosemary has other friends but since Megan’s gone away, it’s Sally she confides in. If I go now I’ll be able to see her without Rosemary being any the wiser. I want to ask her to make sure that if I’m delayed or have to go away overnight, that Rosemary isn’t left alone in the house.’ Huw watched him go and he was frowning.
‘But,’ he muttered to himself, ‘she’s alone now, isn’t she?’ He went out to stand in the shadows of the trees, prepared to watch number two until dawn broke and lights began to show in the five cottages.
* * *
A few hours later, Larry left by the front door and walked across to his car. He got in and started the engine. As he released the hand-brake the car slid forward and he pushed down hard on the foot-brake. He stamped on it urgently, his eyes wide with shock, but it had no effect. The car continued to slide forwards. He pulled up the hand-brake, but it had the unnerving result of turning the car to one side. With slow inevitability, the little Citroen went, almost apologetically, tail-first into the stream.
9
Rosemary heard the sound, hardly a crash, more an extended squeal, a groaning and a shuddering. She looked out of the front window and although the darkness prevented a clear view, she gradually made out the incongruous picture of Larry’s car, sitting up begging like a dog asking for a biscuit, in the flowing water of the stream. She stood transfixed for a moment then she opened the door and ran down to see if Larry was inside it.
She had woken to find him missing and guessed he had gone to make the phone call he had mentioned.
Larry was trying to force open the car door, which was blocked by a small shrub growing out of rocks on the bank of the stream. There was blood on his face but it seemed, by his furious actions, that he was relatively unharmed.
Huw appeared and ran up behind her. He waded through the water to pull at the shrub and ease open the door. Larry fell out, skidded on the sloping bank, teetered on the edge of the stream but was held by Huw before he could slip into the water.
‘Shit!’ Larry said loudly and with feeling.
‘Send for an ambulance, please,’ Rosemary shouted as Richard, Gethyn, then Mrs Priestley came out to see what had occurred.
‘No, it’s all right, I’m not hurt, only angry,’ Larry assured them. He took a handkerchief offered by Mrs Priestley to stem the flow of blood coming from his nose and walked to Rosemary and hugged her.
‘I’m all right,’ he reassured her. ‘I hit my face on the steering wheel and my nose is bleeding, but that’s all.’
‘I suppose it’s useless asking if anyone saw someone snooping around my car?’ he asked. He and Rosemary watched as one by one the others looked at each other and shook their heads.
‘I’m only guessing,’ Larry said angrily, ‘but someone has almost certainly tampered with the brakes.’
‘Why would they?’ Huw asked. ‘It would only have meant a soaking at worst. You were bound to find out as soon as you released the hand-brake. There’s no way you’d have driven into a dangerous situation.’
‘I don’t know Goddammit! I only know someone has been messing with my car and I’m going to find out who!’ He stormed off with an arm still around Rosemary, and when Gethyn asked if he should go for the police, he didn’t even turn around. ‘No, what’s the point?’ he growled.
‘Larry, we must,’ Rosemary urged.
‘Leave it, Rosemary, I want to think,’ he said.
‘Let me bathe your face. Then you can sit quietly and think all you like,’ she said, ‘I’ve some thinking to do too.’
She was surprised to find bruises on his chin and under the left side of his jaw.
‘You must have been thrown around a bit more than you realised, darling,’ she said as she washed away the blood.
‘You look as if you’ve been in a fight!’
‘I have, sort of,’ he said.
‘A fight?’ she said, startled into harsher movements that made him groan. ‘Who with? What happened out there?’
‘I slid down the bank in the car, that’s all. I hit my face on the wheel,’ he repeated.
‘But this bruise under your chin. How could that have happened like you said?’
‘Like I said, a fight – to stop the car from rolling. Me nil the car one I think, don’t you?’
‘Definitely round one to the car,’ she agreed.
He offered no further explanation and Rosemary presumed that was what he had meant when he referred to a fight. He was very shaken and very angry and she didn’t want to press him further.
‘What d’you think of Huw?’ Rosemary asked when she had finished her ministrations.
‘He always seems pleasant and polite, why?’ he asked cautiously.
‘I asked at the shop and no one there can be sure who told him you were leaving. In fact, they thought the information had come from Huw himself.’
‘He couldn’t be behind any of this. It has to be someone who comes in, how else could they have gotten that key from the vase? Huw has never been inside the place. That has to let him out.’
‘I didn’t tell you, but Huw had the key in his possession, but only for about an hour. I know it’s unlikely he could have one cut in that time, but – oh, I don’t know. All this is beyond me.’
‘What d’you mean, he had possession of the key? When was this?’
‘Remember the day he said he’d seen an owl? It was the day after the light bulb incident and you were late. I was afraid to come in alone and I gave him the key so he could come in and look around first. He just forgot to hand the key back when he’d taken it from the lock. He made up the story about the owl so he could return it without you knowing.’
‘Why without me knowing? Rosemary, you have to tell me everything if we’re to crack this.’
‘I’d been careless and he was saving me a little embarrassment, that’s all. And in the short time he had it, he couldn’t have got a spare made, could he?’
‘He could if he has access to a workshop.’ He looked thoughtful, a frown darkening his face.
‘I’d better get to work,’ she said putting away the first-aid box, ‘although I don’t really feel like leaving you like this.’ She looked at him, lying back against the settee, eyes closed again, his face battered and swollen. ‘What will you do, stay here?’
‘First I have to arrange to get the car pulled out of the water,’ he said.
‘And the door-locks, will you see to them?’
Suddenly he sat up, gestured to her to be quiet, and began to talk about unimportant things while he rapidly wrote a message to her on his note-pad.
‘I’ll take it easy I guess,’ he said. ‘My nose feels like a split water-melon. My head is one fat, excruciating ache. I’ll have a lazy day. The locks can wait, can’t they darling? I’ll be here all day, no one will try to get in. I’ll get around to dealing with them, in a day or so, but there’s no hurry.’
As he talked, he wrote:
‘Don’t say anything important. If you’re right about being overheard, we don’t want to give anything away. We’ll talk in the car.’
Fear returning after a brief respite of forgetfulness, she nodded, her blue eyes showing her trepidation, the half smile for him, demonstrating her bravery.
‘Phone the garage now. I’ll wait to hear what they advise then I’ll have to rush,’ she said, as casually as she was able. ‘Do you need anything from town?’
‘No honey, I just want some res
t.’
‘That you shall have. I won’t phone you ’til this afternoon.’ She kissed him goodbye and he walked with her to the door.
A shout of alarm startled her and for a moment she didn’t know whether to run, or throw herself to the ground. She turned, half crouched and saw Larry running towards her.
‘Keep away from the car! God help me, how could I be such a damned fool!’ His voice so loud, so urgent, plus the look on his damaged face that made him look wild and dangerous, frightened her so much she hardly heard the words. Only when he went to her car, gestured furiously for her to stand back and demanded the keys, did she realise what had frightened him. Her car, parked next to where his had stood, could have been tampered with too.
He took the keys from her trembling hand and opened the door. He looked inside and then sat in the driving seat. He experimentally pushed the brakes, eased the hand-brake and touched them again.
‘The brakes are all right, I think,’ he said. ‘I’ll just take her around the village before you drive off.’
With a fearful premonition of disaster, Rosemary watched as he drove her car up to the main road and towards the village. She saw the top of it above the parapet of the bridge where the road crossed over the stream, then listened as the engine faded in the distance. She sobbed with relief when she saw him returning.
He cut off the engine and as he stepped out, he nodded his satisfaction.
‘Larry, if you’d had any doubts, you shouldn’t have done that!’
‘I don’t think this man wants either of us dead. I just think he wants me out of the way,’ he said with an attempt at a smile, which, on his distorted features, was more of a grimace.
* * *
Rosemary drove to work and at Larry’s insistence, left the car at her garage to be thoroughly checked. It was late when she reached the library and had never felt less like starting work. She was so weary that every bone and muscle in her body ached. She wished Megan were still there, she missed her wisdom and the fun she was able to make out of the ordinary events of their lives.
Search for a Shadow Page 12
