Cherringham--The Secret of Combe Castle (11 page)

“Never could get away with a thing growing up,” said Odysseus ruefully. “Pa’s always one step ahead of me.”

That’s not difficult,
thought Jack, as Odysseus lurched on into his confession.

“So then I explained the whole publicity thing to him –”

“– and I thought — hold on Oswald, the boy might be onto something here –”

“– and we came up with the idea of hiring you!”

Jack watched Odysseus beaming at his little audience, as if waiting for a round of applause.“But that’s not all, hmm? The one thing that was really clever,” Jack said, with a look to Sarah, “was pretending you were a potential buyer, whichever one of you did that, to get this.”

And for the first time, Jack’s words drew genuine looks of confusion.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

He looked at Sarah who had deftly copied the 3D model. Did he have it wrong?

“You had that estate agent create a 3D layout — the floor plan of the entire castle.”

Together, father and son shook their heads.

Then, as if waiting in the wings — because maybe she had been — in walked Edwina, a club-sized torch in her hand.

“That, Mr. Brennan, was me.”

*

Now Jack was as in the dark as the rest of them.

“This stupid old place. The lost treasure malarkey! I thought that if Oswald believed someone with money wanted to buy the place, we could actually put it on the market, get away from this draughty dungeon.”

“You were the mystery buyer?” Sarah said.“Yes. And when we got those threatening notes … God, I thought they were
real
. And I thought maybe now for sure he’d sell.”

“But the treasure …” Oswald said. “I couldn’t leave the treasure.”

“You and that ridiculous ‘treasure.’ You even have our—”

Jack felt that the word ‘stupid’ was about to be said again.

But instead … “dope-riddled son believing in it. Both of you complete nutters, losers, over a non-existent treasure.”

Jack waited a moment.

And then—

“Oh, you know Edwina, I’m not so sure about that …”

And as he expected, all eyes turned to him as he walked over to Sarah and passed her back the iPad.

*

Sarah took the tablet, not at all sure what Jack wanted her to do.

“Okay, Sarah. I’m going to walk back there, at the far end of this … exhibit. Can you move the model, let everyone follow, see where I am on the screen?”

“Sure.”

Jack stepped over a faded velvet rope, past the electric chair, to the back right wall.

“Okay. Going to walk slowly here …”

Sarah felt the FitzHenrys at her elbow, like Pacific Islanders seeing television for the first time.

It was easy to have the model slide along with Jack’s slow steps.

He came to the end of the curved stone wall, where a section jutted out to join the other curved wall of the chamber behind them and the staircase out.

But she quickly saw the problem.

On the model she could see where the section of wall jutted out.

But she also could see that
behind
that section of stone, the curved wall continued, leading to a narrow corridor, hidden, unseen.

And behind that — a small room not much bigger than a cupboard.

“What are we looking at?” Odysseus said.

But Oswald was quicker to catch on.

“Wait a second. Wait … Hang on,” He looked up and Sarah could see Jack standing there, smiling.

“Quite the toy you got here, Sarah. Shows the real dimensions of the place.”

Oswald dashed over to Jack.

“There’s a room behind here. A bloody room!”

“Oh hell,” Edwina said. “Here we go again.”

But Sarah was just as amazed as the Combe Castle proprietor.

A room behind a stone wall
.

“There’s something behind there!” Oswald said, bubbly with excitement.

“I’ll go get a sledge hammer,” Odysseus said.

“No need.”

Sarah walked over to Jack.

This had suddenly become too much fun …

“This,” he touched the stone section, “is, I’m guessing, just a façade.”He reached over to the electric chair, and twisted off a metal buckle that was one loose screw from falling to the floor.

Sarah then watched as he turned to the wall, examined it with his light, feeling around the edge.

He wedged the piece of metal in.

It seemed to Sarah that everyone was holding their breath
.

Me too,
she thought.

Then, with a pop, the section of stone broke free, actually swinging open like a door.

Open sesame,
Sarah thought.

And everyone could see what had to be a room … A room that had not been seen since the sad and untimely day of Basil FitzHenry’s death.

Jack stood back as the three FitzHenrys scrambled to be the first into the tiny chamber, their excited squeals at odds with the distressed look of the rubbery corpses down here.

Until, like a cartoon villain, Oswald came scrambling out again, his hands full of shiny, gold coins.

“It’s gold!” he said, his eyes nearly popping. “Gold! Do you see?”

So, there we are,
Sarah thought.

With some lies, subterfuge and maybe a few things that were even illegal, Oswald FitzHenry finally had his treasure …

Sarah watched her daughter study Jack as he lectured her on how to cook the perfect rib-eye.

“You see, Chloe, once you have the steaks on the high heat, you need to not touch them for four minutes.”

“Make mine five,” Sarah said.

“Right. We have one hold-out who wants a medium. I’ll convert you yet, Sarah …”

She turned back to the living area of Jack’s boat.

Daniel was sitting next to Riley, showing him a rubber ball, and then sending it and Riley scurrying to the back of the boat.

“Take care, Daniel. Don’t want Riley knocking into Jack’s stuff …”

“Doubt I have anything of value that Riley hasn’t already knocked over.”

She saw him take a deep sniff of the smoky vapours coming off the steaks.

She had to admit: the smell was amazing. With baked potatoes and the Caesar salad she’d brought over, it was a hearty meal for a chilly night.

“Oh,” he said, “and you really need a cast-iron pan. Nothing cooks like one, conveys the heat perfectly … you get a good char.”

Sarah took a sip of the drink Jack had made for her. An Old Fashioned, her first, a classic cocktail, sweet and powerful.

“Okay,” he said, “time to flip ’em. Here we go.”

And Jack turned three of the steaks, charred sides now up, revealing a dark crust.

“I’ll get the potatoes and the salad,” Sarah said.

“Great,” Jack said.

And soon the steaks were off the stove, and onto a pewter platter for the last bit of Jack’s method — resting.

Who knew steaks had to rest?

But in moments they were all at Jack’s small table, tucking in.

*

Which is when Chloe asked about the castle.

Normally, Sarah didn’t talk much about what she and Jack did.

When that local teacher had been killed, she’d decided just to reassure the kids that those responsible had been found.

And that had been enough for them.

But this ‘case’, featuring the wacky Combe Castle?

It was ‘one for the books’ — and one she had no problem talking about.

“So, Jack,” Chloe said in between bites, “those people planned all that to get you and Mum to find the treasure?”

“Except for Oswald FitzHenry’s wife. She didn’t have a clue.”

“The amazing thing is,” Daniel chimed in, “that you two actually
did
it.”

Sarah smiled at that. She might just be in danger of being a detective first, a mum second, at least in her kids’ eyes.

“Thanks to what your mother, um … found … we could see the hidden room.”

“That’s where,” Sarah said, “old Basil FitzHenry had hidden all the doubloons. But he never told a soul.”

“Wow,” Daniel said. “A real lost treasure.”

Sarah speared a forkful of salad, the balance of lemon, parmesan and garlic perfect.

Nothing like it.

Chloe looked confused though.

“But hang on — isn’t what they did, like …I dunno … illegal?”

Jack took a sip of the wine, a deep red cabernet (courtesy of Oswald) that matched the meal perfectly.

“That it is, Chloe. Reporting false threats, a phony attack. Technically, against the law …”

Now Daniel looked concerned. “Does that mean they won’t get to keep the treasure?”

It had to be disappointing to her son to think of finding all those gold coins then having them snatched away.

Jack looked right at her.

Even this odd mystery had parts that she wasn’t sure he should share with the kids.

But she tilted her wine glass to him as if to say …
go for it.

“We had a chat with Officer Rivers about that, Daniel. True the FitzHenrys had done something they shouldn’t have. But nothing really big; and no one got hurt. Was kind of fun for us, actually. And your mom and I also saw an opportunity to have something good come out of all this … and not just for the FitzHenry clan.”

“Fortunately,” Sarah added, “Alan agreed. No harm — really — no foul.”

“What was the good thing?” Chloe said. “Do we get coins as well?”

Sarah laughed at that.

“No. But with the treasure found, FitzHenry and his wife can finally leave the site that’s gone to ruin.”

“Yup,” Jack added. “They’ve agreed to sell the house and turn the actual ruins over to the Cherringham Historical Society … for free.”

“Cool!” Daniel said.

“And there’s this neighbor, a farmer who couldn’t even get a right of way to his land across the river. They’ve agreed to that as well.”

“Also at no cost.”

“Oh — and they’ve also promised to fund a new lighting system for the village theatre. They’ll even get a plaque for that …”

“‘Funded through the generosity of the FitzHenrys of Cherringham.’”

Chloe looked from Sarah, to Jack.

“You guys are something.”

“Yeah,” Daniel agreed. “You rock!”

“Why, thank you,” Jack said. “And the steaks …?”

Which in every case were gone, with only the picked-clean bones remaining.

“The best …” Sarah said.

And she had to think then …

… what a perfect night, to be on this boat, talking with the kids.

Enjoying Jack, his drinks, his food.

His friendship
.

She had never been sure about returning to the village of her youth. On some days, she still wondered about that post-divorce decision.

But on a night like this?

Nothing could be better …

END

Dylan McCabe — a livewire Irish labourer on a rushed Cherringham building project — has been making noises about the site’s lack of safety. When he’s discovered dead after a fall, it seems that Dylan’s own warnings were all too true. That is … until Jack and Sarah get involved, and suddenly what looks like an accident becomes a case of cold-blooded murder. With a festive Cherringham Christmas just days away, Jack and Sarah set out to find the culprit. But soon they find their own lives being threatened too …

Cherringham — A Cosy Crime Series
A Fatal Fall
by Matthew Costello and Neil Richards

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