Shadows 02 Celtic Shadows

by K C West

  “England, too. Am I right in thinking that you’d enjoy that kind of a holiday?”

  “You know me.” She laughed. It was a tight little giggle, the laugh itself lost in whatever or wherever her thoughts were. “I’m a sucker for seeing what’s around the next bend in the road or footpath. Preferably footpaths. They were the highways of our ancestors.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Uh oh, you’re thinking Amazons again.”

  “No, I wasn’t. Not this time.”

  It suddenly began to rain, heavily, and we dashed to our vehicle. We had parked in a secluded grove, surrounded by trees, rocks, and thick, moist ferns. The heated air inside the Rover reeked of rich, dark soil and fragrant wild herbs. Kim and I listened to the drumming rain overhead and slid closer together.

  “This is cozy.” I stroked her thigh.

  “That it is.”

  “The rear seats fold down, you know, if you want to get more comfortable.” I tried to give her a loving smile that wasn’t too obvious.

  She sighed. “I’m afraid this body isn’t as limber as it once was. Besides, we really should get back to the inn and load this material into the laptop.”

  I imitated her sigh, exaggerating it. “Poor old thing. I guess you’re right.” I glanced out the rain-drenched window. “You’ll just have to give me a rain check.”

  With a snort, she started the Rover. “Funny, PJ. Very funny.”

  *

  We had an early supper and retired to our room. Kim worked on the computer and I stretched out on the bed, reading some Welsh history that we had downloaded and printed out earlier.

  The afternoon activities must have tired me more than I realized. After several minutes of reading and rereading the blurring lines of type, I gave up and dozed. The sound of muffled voices woke me. I sat up and discovered Kim and Arwel in the doorway, whispering. Kim took a bundle of clothing and some boots from the young woman and thanked her. When she turned in my direction, she seemed startled, but made a quick recovery.

  “Ah, you’re awake.”

  “What’s happening? What have you got there?”

  She picked up several papers from the desk where her laptop usually sat. “Your father sent these.” She handed me what appeared to be photos of an older, very thin man who had gray hair and a mustache.

  “Morrison?”

  She nodded.

  “Then who the hell is the guy we talked to?”

  “That’s what I’m going to find out.” She pulled out her daypack and stuffed the dark clothing into it. “There wasn’t any answer when I called the estate.”

  “Wait just a minute, here.” I blinked and shook my head to clear the cobwebs from my sleep-filled mind. “If you think you’re going to sneak off into the night like some kind of commando, without me, think again.”

  “After what your dad said about - ”

  “No, no, no. Uh uh. We are in this together, Kimberly Elizabeth Blair.” She tried a series of stern expressions on me, but I cut her off. “Don’t even try that with me. I’m going with you, and that’s final.”

  “Damn it.” She handed me a set of oversized camouflage pants and a matching shirt. “Arwel rounded these up for us. I guess she figured you’d never listen to me. Please, I want to search that estate, but not if it puts you in harm’s way. Your father is wondering about this fake Morrison, too. He’s thinking maybe there’s a connection to the missing chieftain.”

  “And I’m sure he doesn’t intend you to go sneaking around the estate by yourself.”

  “Maybe not.”

  “So, that’s all the more reason I should go along to help you solve this mystery and keep you out of trouble.”

  “Keep me out of trouble? That’s a good one.” She put her arms around my waist and kissed the top of my head. I let my cheek rest against her chest. Her heart was racing. “All right, but a quick in and out. Just fact-finding, that’s all.”

  I giggled, inhaling the faint scent of mango body wash from her skin. “Captain Kim and her sidekick, Corporal Curtis. What a team we’ll make.”

  Chapter 8

  “I was gung-ho at first, but now I’m not so comfortable with this,” PJ said, as we each pulled on the British Army camouflage suits and smeared black goo on our faces. We looked like commandos about to storm the bastion. In a way, we were. Maybe not commandos, but we were preparing to raid an enemy stronghold, and that was reason enough for me to have a case of the jitters. Apparently my partner, despite her earlier bravado, was also nervous.

  “I know,” I said, pulling on my gloves. “But something fishy is going on in that place. And now that we know the man we spoke with isn’t Lord Morrison, I want some answers.”

  “On the one hand,” PJ said, “it’s breaking and entering. On the other, it’s trying to find out what happened to the real Morrisons.”

  Hearing the indecision in her voice, I tried to offer some comfort. “Your father mentioned they have several homes, so they could be anywhere.”

  “I suppose.” She gave me a lopsided grin. “I love you, but don’t ask me to kiss you with all that crap on your face.”

  I wrinkled my nose at her. “You’re not a picture of loveliness right now, either.”

  We had driven the Rover into a narrow lane and parked it behind some heavy shrubbery about half a mile from the Morrison estate. After two days of steady rain, we needed our Wellies. The only time PJ had worn them before was the morning we milked the cows, so she had no experience walking in them for any distance. The pair that Arwel had found for her was too big. The wide tops thumped against her calves, and the bottoms slurped as the muddy track tugged at her feet.

  Thump, slurp. Thump, slurp.

  “So this is what they mean by the music of the night,” she said. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

  I suggested she fold down the tops of her Wellingtons. “That way they’ll fit your trim legs better.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Blair, but my trim legs do much better in other situations, if you get my drift.” We weren’t using our flashlights, so all I could see of her face was the mischievous gleam in her eyes.

  “Later, dear. You can show me.”

  “Yeah, that’s if we get out of here alive.” She ran up alongside me. Thump, slurp, slurp, thump, slurp, slurp. “We do make beautiful music together.”

  I stopped and took her gloved hand in mine. “Sweetie, you don’t have to go along with this, you know. In fact, I’d prefer you didn’t. You can go back to the Rover and wait for me there.”

  “No way. Where you go, that’s me, babe, right there with you.”

  “What about the threats against you and your dad?”

  “He can handle it. Besides, that has nothing to do with this situation.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because Morrison asked Dad if I would help him with something. The request was legit. It was on his personal crested notepaper.”

  “Humph.” This wasn’t the time to voice my concerns, however.

  We started again.

  Thump, slurp.

  The old stone wall that surrounded much of the estate halted our progress. It was too high to scale, so we followed it up the road, ducking into the ditch a couple of times when we heard cars coming. Luckily for us, the water didn’t top our Wellies.

  “James Bond, where are you when I need you?” PJ whispered. The question sounded like a shout in the dark.

  We paused at the tall, green, sol id-wood gate that served as the back entrance to the estate. I remembered seeing it when we were on our way to Clarach Bay for tea and Queen Anne cakes. I sure hadn’t figured we’d be trying to break into the estate from this side.

  Giving myself a mental shake, I tried the gate latch. As I’d expected, it was secured from the inside. Just beyond the gate, the wall angled right and away from the road. We were at the southwest boundary of the estate’s gardens. A barbed wire fence continued on, separating the public roadway from the private fields.

  “Come on
, but be careful,” I whispered. “You can get a nasty cut from this stuff.”

  With my long legs, I made it easily over the fence. I was too late, though, when I turned to help PJ. She had snagged the crotch of her camouflage pants. “Good thing I’m not a guy,” she muttered. “If I were, there would be extensive damage to my hanging garden.”

  “Shh!” I put a gloved finger in front of my mouth for emphasis.

  She mimicked me. “I’m shh-ing, damn it.”

  A dog barked from a distance, but seconds later, he was on the other side of the wall, barking and growling. Convinced we were about to be discovered, we froze in our tracks, barely allowing ourselves to breathe. After what seemed like an eternity, the dog lost interest and left.

  “If Pup were here, he’d make hamburger out of that mangy mongrel,” PJ whispered. “And speaking of Pup, why didn’t you want to bring him along?”

  “We don’t know what we’re going to run into on the other side of that wall. He might be more liability than help.”

  “Like me.”

  “I didn’t say that.” I gave her shoulder a squeeze.

  “You didn’t have to. Still, I’d feel a whole lot better if Pup were with us.”

  “I’m afraid it’s just us two commandos.” I moved forward. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

  We followed the wall north, walking between it and a line of giant oaks. The wet ground muffled the sound of our footsteps and we were able to move right along.

  A hoot sounded from a branch right above us. PJ jumped. “What the hell?”

  “Relax, it’s just an owl.”

  “What, you think I don’t know an owl when I hear one?”

  “Shush.”

  “Shush yourself.”

  We continued until the wall right-angled again and headed east. We had found no way to gain entry to the gardens, let alone the house. And to make matters worse, it began to rain steadily.

  “This is not fun,” PJ said.

  “I didn’t say it would be.”

  I was about to call it quits and take my chances face-to-face with Morrison’s impostor, when we came to a low door in the wall. I tried the latch, and it gave under my hand.

  We were in the upper garden. It was very dark, but here inside the wall, I dared not flash my light. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could make out, to our right, the outline of a small outbuilding.

  We made our way toward it and slipped inside. It was filled with garden paraphernalia. Small tools hung from hooks on the walls, and larger ones, including rakes, hoes, shovels, and garden forks, leaned against the sides. A workbench was strewn with empty flowerpots and a trowel. Partially used bags of fertilizer were stacked under the bench. A wheelbarrow leaned, upended, in the corner across from the door.

  We sagged against each other for a moment, taking the opportunity to catch our breath and slow our heart rates. “You okay, sweetie?”

  “Never better.” PJ’s voice was heavy on the sarcasm. “Here I am - heiress to one of the most prestigious companies in the United States - in the midst of trespassing, nearly soaked to the skin after that shower, about to break and enter. All things considered, I guess I’m in great shape.”

  “You were the one who insisted on coming.” I wiped the dirty windowpane with my gloved hand and peered into the blackness. “No one twisted your arm.”

  The clouds parted just long enough for the waning moonlight to illuminate the outline of a stone cottage, probably the home of a chauffeur or grounds keeper, and beyond it, the main house. It appeared massive and forbidding until it disappeared again into the darkness when clouds covered the moon.

  “If you think I’d let you wander alone into enemy territory without my help, you’d better think again.”

  “Help? What help?”

  “Thanks a lot. I don’t know how to handle all that appreciation.”

  “PJ, it’s not that I don’t appreciate your help. It’s just that with you along I have to worry about both of us.”

  “Okay, if I’m such a liability, you just worry about yourself, and let me take care of myself.”

  I turned and took her into my arms. “It’s only because I love you so much, and I can’t bear the thought of you being hurt.”

  “I know. I’m sorry I was grouchy. This just looks so easy on television when the good guys do it.” She squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. “Let’s just agree to take care of each other and ourselves, okay?”

  “Deal.”

  I released PJ and put my hand on the latch. “Time to go. Me first.” Before she had a chance to object, I eased through the opening, stopped immediately, and backed into the shed, shoving her behind me.

  She tripped over a spade, and it clattered to the floor.

  “Jesus,” we both said in a frightened whisper.

  I pulled the door nearly closed and peered through the crack. “If they weren’t aware of our presence before, I’m sure they are now.”

  “You scared the shit out of me,” PJ said against my back. “What happened?”

  “Someone opened the cottage door. Now please, hush up.”

  A bright shaft of light fell across the garden and lit up the shed. The beam illuminated the interior, too, passing like a spotlight through the circle I had wiped clean.

  The dog, barking and growling, was making a beeline for our hiding place.

  “Rex, put a sock in it.” The voice was masculine and irritated. “Get back in here, damn it.” I was sure Rex was not convinced, but at the sound of his master’s gruff tone, he headed back anyway. The fresh cooking smells wafting through the open door probably had something to do with his lack of attention to duty.

  “You keep away from that shed,” the voice said. “There’s poison in there for the rats.” We could hear the man scolding the dog all the way back to the cottage.

  The door slammed shut and all was quiet, except for our breathing.

  PJ gripped my waist. “Did he say rats?”

  “I believe so, yes.”

  She pulled me around to face her. “In here? With us?”

  “Now, calm down.”

  “No.” Her head swiveled from side to side, seeking evidence of furry rodents in each of the four corners. “I don’t want to be in here another second.”

  I put my arm around her. “The fact that there might be rats in here saved us, don’t you see?” She was shaking in spite of my efforts. “And we’re ahead of the game because we know where Rex is, at least for now.”

  “Ye-yeah,” she stuttered. “He’s in a nice warm house, chewing on a fresh bone, and we’re out here in the rain and mud, freezing our asses off with the rats. Pup is looking pretty smart to have stayed at the inn. He’s going to love this story.”

  When I looked at her, I realized that the sudden shower had made her camouflage outfit cling to her body in all the right places. “I don’t suppose it would help if I said you look incredibly sexy in those wet clothes.”

  She made a face. “Nice try, pervert.”

  *

  By taking a wide detour around the cottage, we crept to the south side of the main house. I tried a couple of doors. They were bolted. “If I have it figured correctly, this is about where the basement room should be. We need to get in there to collect samples from that glass coffin.”

  “Yeah, and while we’re at it, I could use a bottle or two of that three-hundred-year-old wine to warm me up.”

  I was relieved to hear PJ regain some of her feistiness.

  She knelt on the soggy ground beside a small basement window. “Over here. I think we can get in, but I need help with this window.”

  She had forced it open partway, but it was stuck. Warped, I thought, from lack of use. We knelt together in the mud and tugged on the window frame until it finally opened, giving a loud creak. We froze as somewhere in the distance, a dog barked.

  “Shit,” PJ hissed, “not again. Rex will want to chew on us for dessert.”

  “Relax, little
one. We’re much too tough for Rex.”

  We remained motionless for several seconds. I was cold and miserable, and I knew PJ felt the same. “Come on,” I said, squeezing her hand.

  “Yeah, yeah, where you go, I go. Remind me again why I’m doing this?”

  “Because you watch too many James Bond movies.”

  I heard a smothered giggle. “You’ve got that right.”

  Chapter 9

  “Are we having fun yet?” Kim and I were crouched in the mud outside the small basement window, making final preparations to climb through. Her quiet acceptance of the damp, cold weather only made me more irritable. As if things weren’t difficult enough, my bladder began to protest.

  “I don’t suppose we could take a bathroom break before we do this?”

  Kim put a gloved finger to her lips and shook her head. “Follow me.”

  I gripped her shoulders. “Don’t you think a smaller person should go first?”

  Ignoring my question, she switched on her flashlight and scanned the basement room. “Damn, I need new batteries.” She withdrew her arm from the window and played with the switch. The light faltered and dimmed but didn’t go out. She shook it and the beam brightened.

  “Looks like a loose connection.”

  “Yeah, but it’ll have to do. You have yours with you, don’t you?”

  “Yep.” I pulled it out of my pocket. The light snapped on bright and steady. “Compared to yours, this is a searchlight.”

  She scowled at me.

  “And since I have the better light, I should go first.” I gave her hip a nudge. “So move over, Rover.”

  “Not so fast. It’s easily ten feet to that stone floor, and with your short legs, you’d never have a chance. I’m going first and that’s final.”

  I bit my lower lip. Damn. I hated it when she was right. I’d huddle here and worry the whole time.

  “Your concern is appreciated.” Kim gave my shoulders a quick squeeze, seeming to read my mind as she often did. She backed in and lowered herself through the narrow opening.

  I leaned in as far as possible, gripping her arms as she hung on to the window ledge.