‘If I don’t, then that’s just tough, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah, on you and me both, mate. Got the stuff for me tonight then?’
‘Yes and no.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘Well, I’ve got the stuff, you’ll know that from the papers today, but I don’t have it with me. You can tell Harry the price has gone up. I want twenty big ones, not the ten he offered, and I want it tomorrow or the deal’s off.’
‘You’ve a bloody nerve. I’ll tell him, but I expect the answer’s no.’
‘If it’s no, I’ll just find someone else. He’s not the only fish in the sea.’
‘Okay, okay. I’ll see what I can do. Are you still on for tomorrow night too?’
‘Yeah, that one’s much easier. You have the money tomorrow night as I asked and I’ll have the goods. And don’t forget, the windmill at half eleven as arranged, day after tomorrow.’
‘Right. Anything else?’
‘Only that we’re going to have to shift the hideout soon. It’s only a matter of time before the barn gets found out even though it is disused, and I don’t want to lose the factory. So we need a safer place to operate from.’
‘See what I can do. Now let’s get out of here. See you tomorrow night.’
‘Yeah, yeah. See ya.’
The driver of the car hurried back to his vehicle and in a few moments had started up his engine. He drove away quickly, heading off into the country away from the village centre. The van driver paused to light another cigarette before getting back into the van. He waited at the wheel for some minutes before also continuing his journey. The van headed into the village and the peace of the night was once more restored to the countryside.
‘What do you think of that?’ asked Mark when the van had departed and the three youngsters were sitting upright on top of the embankment.
‘Amazing. Looks like we’ve stumbled onto something, but what?’ said his brother.
‘Say Bec, is there a disused barn around here, or a windmill?’
‘Don’t know for sure, but there could be a number of barns that are no longer used. Let me sleep on it.’
‘Good idea,’ the older boy replied. ‘In fact, I suggest we all sleep on it and decide what we’re going to do over breakfast. Let’s go.’
The three youngsters clambered back down the embankment, and in a few minutes the torch lights in the tents were turned off. Archer, who had sensed the need for quiet earlier that night, had kept as silent as the youngsters, and now he nestled down in the girl’s tent, closing his big brown eyes and hoping to catch a few hours of sleep. The two boys lay in their own tent, each looking skywards and contemplating the strange discussion they had heard.
‘Mark, are you awake?’ his brother whispered after a few minutes of silence.
‘Uh-huh,’ came the thoughtful reply. ‘What is it?’
‘Probably nothing, but I can’t help wondering what we’ve stumbled into.’
‘Me too. It certainly sounds like we’ve stumbled across something that needs time to sort it out. I wonder who Harry is?’
‘Harry?’
‘Yes, that was the only name we heard. Harry. Probably their boss.’
‘I’m not so sure. I got the feeling that they weren’t part of a team, more like one of them is working for Harry and the other is just someone they’ve brought in for a job, or whatever.’
‘Could be, but I dunno. There has to be something going on and I think we ought to try and find out as much as possible. But now isn’t the time to sort it out. I need to sleep on it, and then tomorrow, when we have clearer heads, we might just be able to formulate a plan of action.’
‘Yeah, only I was just wondering ...’
‘Wonder all you like, James, but just do it quietly. Some of us need our sleep, and we’ll be much better off talking about this tomorrow, or today as it really is. Now shut up and keep your thoughts to yourself.’
‘Night.’ James turned over and kept his thought to himself.
‘Good night.’ Mark too turned over in his sleeping bag and fought to get to sleep. After several minutes, and having decided his plan of action, he finally succumbed to fatigue and was soon dreaming.
Chapter 9
The dawn arrived and not one of the youngsters stirred. In fact, their exploits of the previous night meant they slept until after nine o’clock. Even Archer was reluctant to rise, which was a blessing to the other occupant of his tent. Eventually the zips on the tents were raised, the flaps opened and the youths prepared breakfast. Mark quickly decided breakfast was not the right place to discuss the events of the previous night and suggested they waited till afterwards to hold their discussions. This was agreed and breakfast was consumed with great pace, as the teenagers could hardly contain their excitement. Finally the meal was over and their discussions began. Mark began by recapping the events of the previous night and then asked the others for suggestions.
‘It looks like we’ve got lots of bits of information and we need to put them all in order before we decide what to do next.’
‘Okay. Who’s got a pen and paper? Let’s write some of it down.’
‘I have in the tent,’ offered James.
‘Right then, you’d better get it,’ replied his brother, now definitely controlling the meeting. James disappeared into the tent and returned a moment later.
‘Fire away.’
‘Well, first we know there’s a man named Harry. He sounds like a very important bloke and the driver of the van obviously works for him.’ Rebecca was keen to join in the discussion and agreed that Harry was a key person in whatever was happening.
‘Right, and the car driver?’
‘I reckon he’s just being used to do something, because they’re paying him,’ James added as he made notes.
‘Yes, although I think he’s got something private going on with the van driver,’ Mark added. ‘You see, the stuff he was supposed to have had last night was for Harry, but then he’s meeting this guy tonight somewhere, and I think the car driver was being paid directly by the van driver, if I remember correctly.’
‘Yes, I got that feeling too,’ said Rebecca. ‘And there are some goods which I reckon the car driver won’t be getting hold of till tonight. Now what time were they meeting tomorrow?’
‘Half eleven,’ muttered James, still writing notes. ‘I remember that because I wondered at the time if they meant morning or night.’
‘An interesting thought,’ continued Mark. ‘If it was in the morning, then why meet tonight unless he’s doing a job, or whatever, tonight? And half eleven at night is a bit early if he’s got to do a burglary first. I reckon he’s actually going to get the goods today, or more likely this evening.’
‘Okay then,’ added James as he finished taking notes. ‘Any other observations?’
‘Yes,’ said Rebecca after a short pause. ‘If he wanted twenty grand for something he already had, well that’s a lot of money, so whatever it is must be very valuable.’
‘That’s a good point. Note it down, James.’
‘And one other thing. Someone mentioned a barn, and using it as a hideout. They didn’t say what for, but they are going to move it.’
‘Might be useful. Oh,’ continued Mark, ‘and I seem to remember them saying it was disused. So they could use it for anything, I guess.’
‘I’ll bet it’s stolen goods,’ added James.
‘Could be, but we can’t be sure.’ His brother was not one to rush to conclusions and there was, as yet, little evidence of what the conversation was really about. ‘I have a suggestion to make. See what you think. We obviously can’t find out much about Harry, and we didn’t get the plate numbers of the vehicles because it was too dark. I also suspect we might have difficulty finding a disused barn, unless someone happens to know of one. But I think we might have more luck with the windmill, if it’s round here. So I suggest we go and look at the Ordnance Survey map for this area and note down any windmills and
then visit them. I know we were going to the ActionDome today, but I guess that can wait. After all, something’s going to happen tomorrow and I, for one, am curious to find out what.’
‘Good idea.’ James was often supportive of his brother’s ideas, especially when it came to planning events. ‘There’s one other thing we’ve forgotten.’
‘What’s that?’ Mark looked at his brother as he tried to outguess him.
‘Nothing to do with what we’ve seen, but we did leave Bec’s computer on last night. So we ought to go and check everything’s okay.’
‘Damn. I wanted to check it out yesterday evening. There should be stuff on it that will be interesting to us.’ Mark continued to be obtuse on the subject.
‘Stuff. What do you mean?’ Rebecca was determined to know what Mark was doing.
‘I’m hoping Cyclops has downloaded some stuff from Father’s machine. I want to know what he’s working on at the moment, that’s all.’
‘Oh. Why?’
‘Only so I can break the earth shattering news to him that his machine’s not very secure. He doesn’t believe that anyone would want to hack into his PC and steal the stuff he’s working on. I just want to show him that it’s easy to do it, because otherwise he’ll come a cropper one day.’
‘How do you propose to show him?’
‘I’ll just send him stuff back on Cyclops, and print it on our PC. That should do the trick.’
The youngsters continued their discussions for a few more minutes before deciding it was time to walk down to the farmhouse.
Archer did not relish family meetings, and as the youngsters had begun to hold theirs he had decided to take his leave of their company and to go off exploring. He was getting to know the field really well now. In the past couple of days he’d spent a good deal of time running around it, sniffing here and sniffing there. He knew of at least half a dozen holes in the ground which gave off the delicious scent of fresh rabbit. It was a game to him to run from hole to hole sniffing the beautiful aroma. He took his bearings from the tents and ran over to the first hole. Sniff. The scent was not as fresh as it had been the previous day, but it was still there. Archer turned and sauntered down the hill to the next hole. Sniff. Archer sniffed again. Beautiful, he thought. The scent from that hole was fresh, as if a rabbit had just emerged from it or disappeared into it. Archer turned and was about to run to his next location when he heard a faint sound coming from inside the hole. The sound was a sort of scratching sound and it was getting louder. Instinctively Archer dropped to the ground and waited.
The noise continued for several seconds. Scratch, scratch, scratch. Then there was a pause before the sound started all over again. Each time it began again it seemed to Archer to be a little closer. After a couple of minutes Archer determined that the sound was almost at ground level, and he braced himself on his hindquarters in a ready to pounce position.
A grey head appeared at the entrance to the hole.
Pure rabbit, thought the dog. Pure, fresh rabbit.
The head popped up and started to turn in Archer’s direction. The dog was in the air and on the way to his quarry when Archer heard a sound that was a bit like ‘Oh-oh’. The head disappeared from view a fraction of a second before the canine reached the entrance to the hole. Gnashing teeth narrowly missed their purchase on the fur of the burrowing animal. Disappointed with his failure, and disgusted that it had been such a close run thing, Archer barked down the hole twice before lying on top of it as if to prevent the creature from returning to the surface.
After a few minutes, and realising the rabbit was not coming back, Archer picked himself up, shook himself down and continued on to the next hole. At each of the next four holes he sniffed briefly but didn’t pause before passing on to the next one. Finally Archer, with his tail between his legs, sulked his way back to the youngsters. Their meeting was clearly over and they looked about ready to go somewhere.
‘Look at poor old Archer,’ James quipped as he saw the approaching dog.
‘Looks to me like a case of the rabbit that got away. When will he learn that he’s not going to catch one of them?’
Archer looked up at the older boy and his big brown eyes seemed to say, ‘If only you knew how close I came to it this morning.’
The three youngsters and Archer walked down through the field in which their tents were pitched and continued on down through the lower field to the farmhouse. They were taking off muddy boots at the front door when the girl’s father appeared.
‘Rebecca, I’ve got a favour to ask you,’ he said with a somewhat harassed look on his face.
‘What is it?’ The girl was clearly used to being asked favours and was equally clearly not in a mood for favours this morning.
‘Tom hasn’t turned up again. He phoned and said his back was hurting. So I can’t open up the camp shop and still get the farm work done. Would you mind doing the shop for an hour this morning?’
The girl looked at the boys as if seeking a way out. She knew she had duties to perform round the farm and her father was really very good with her, giving her lots of time away to herself and only asking favours when they were really necessary.
‘Uncle Jack,’ began Mark earnestly, ‘could we help out too? We’ve got some plans to make and if you don’t mind us being in the shop we could do that while it’s open.’
‘I don’t mind at all. It’s a very good idea of yours, Mark. Now let’s see, could you open up for an hour in, say, fifteen minutes?’
‘Okay, Dad, seeing as it’s you.’ The girl, relieved she was not going to be left out of any planning, gave her father a hug. ‘And don’t you overdo things while Tom’s away. Don’t want you on your back as well.’
‘No, I won’t, and thanks.’
The farm had always been a much easier place to handle when Rebecca’s mother had been around. In fact, it had been much harder to manage since she had disappeared the previous summer. At first it had looked like a kidnapping, but there’d never been a ransom demand, and the ensuing investigations by the police had never really progressed very far. The family had always been happy, and there had been no family argument which might have made Mary Hammond want to run away. The police had been as baffled as the husband and daughter, and now, one year later, the investigation had been wound down to a minimal inquiry. Both husband and daughter had suffered greatly. The loss of the mother with no knowledge of what had happened added considerable stress to their lives. Rebecca had tried hard to fill her mother’s shoes and look after the domestic side of the farm. She’d done extremely well and her father was justly grateful and proud of her. Tom, too, had been a tremendous help around the farm and his strength and cheerfulness had helped both of the Hammonds to survive the tragedy that had unfolded around them. It was a matter of fact that Rebecca still believed her mother was alive. She still clung to the hope that one day she would walk back in and everything would be just as it was before her departure, but as the days, weeks and months moved on, that eventuality seemed less and less probable.
The youngsters went indoors and Mark quickly found what he was looking for on the girl’s computer.
‘Bingo. Look, it’s some kind of miniature device and the circuitry is very complicated. These drawings are fantastic. Bec, can we print them off? I’d love a closer look later on.’
‘Sure, but that stuff looks highly secret to me, do you think we should?’
‘The whole point of this is that it is secret, and yet any old Tom, Dick, or Harry...’
‘Or Mark,’ interrupted his brother.
‘Or Mark, could get hold of it. Father has got to learn that fact.’
‘Okay then, but make sure you keep it safe.’
‘Look, it’s got some kind of light-sensitive device attached to it,’ James commented as the printer began to dispense, in hard copy, the complex image on the screen. ‘Definitely worth a closer look.’
‘Definitely.’
While the printer worked, Rebecca went down t
o the lounge to seek out the local Ordnance Survey map.
‘This map should do us,’ she said on returning to the bedroom. ‘It’s the most detailed one we’ve got here and it includes all sorts of buildings, though not barns. We’ll need to do some leg work on that one, I’m afraid.’
James began to unfold the map.
‘Not now, James,’ said Bec. ‘Wait till we’re in the shop. There’s a sort of area behind the counter which you can lay it out on, a reasonably big table that we won’t be using today. We use it for doing teas and things in the height of summer, but we haven’t started that yet.’
James refolded the map and waited till Mark had picked up the half-dozen pages of output from the printer.
‘Looks extremely complicated to me,’ said Rebecca, eyeing the paper that Mark was holding.
‘Yeah, it is, I suppose, but we should be able to break it into simple bits and get an idea of what it’s all about.’
‘If you say so. Now come on, we’ve got to open up.’
The shop was a modest affair. An outbuilding had been converted into a smallish shopping area with a counter a few years previously. There were facilities to make hot meals and drinks, but the equipment was not yet in operation. Behind the counter there was a big table, used to prepare food. The shelves in the shop were packed with all the essential commodities a camper might need, from basic foodstuffs to camping utensils and accessories.
For the next hour the three youngsters were incarcerated behind the counter at the back of the shop. Occasional visitors proved the value of such a shop, although their purchases were minimal. When anyone came into the shop Bec would leave the table, on which was spread the Ordnance Survey map, and stand behind the counter feigning attentiveness towards the customer. The boys located Mainswell and placed a sweet over the centre of the village so they could easily find it again. Then they began to scour the map, moving outwards from the sweet in ever increasing circles. After twenty minutes they had located two windmills. The first was about three miles away in a northerly direction, the second about four miles due east. As predicted by the girl earlier that morning, the map showed no barns, so the boys discussed the best way of locating any barns that were no longer used. They agreed that the lack of easy transport would mean most of their journeys would be on foot, and as such would be time-consuming.
Archer's Mystery At Mainswell Page 7
