by Wendy Gill
Charlie and Jackson went over to the trunk and Charlie took hold of the body under the arms and Jackson took the legs. They lifted the man out of the trunk and laid him on the floor. Blood was on both Charlie’s and Jackson’s sleeves.
“What do you think?” Charlie asked Jackson.
“Not good, it looks like he has lost a lot of blood. It would be better if we took him to our place where I can set about getting those bullets out of him. He will need to rest once the bullets are out. We need to keep him still,” Jackson said.
“We will have to use the connecting doors, we cannot risk taking him outside, you never know who is watching,” Charlie said.
“Have you got the keys Clarence?”
“They are in the kitchen.”
“Better go and get them,” Charlie told him. Then going over to the curtain that hung behind the desk he pulled it back.
The two uninvited guests had done the same but all they saw was a very tiny sink with a single drainer.
Jackson went and stood at the side of the window and kept a lookout just in case the uninvited guests should happen to return.
Mr Grundy reappeared with a bunch of keys and handed them to Charlie who selected one of the keys and vanished from sight behind the curtain once again.
They heard his footsteps running up a staircase and then the sound of doors opening. A few seconds later they heard footsteps descending.
Charlie threw Mr Grundy the keys and took hold of the inert body under the arms while Jackson moved from his sentry duty at the window and took up the legs.
Charlie, moving backwards went first, heading for the tiny sink. After entering the little alcove, Charlie, the body and then Jackson, all vanished.
Ella not wanting to miss anything followed in their wake.
The stairway was very narrow and Charlie, halfway up dropped the unfortunate body and Jackson only just managed to stop them all from tumbling back down.
“Damn it man, if this poor sod survives this, he will deserve to live. He will have the constitution of a horse, watch what you are doing,” Jackson snapped.
“If you could keep his legs off the stairs, we might have a better chance,” Charlie replied.
It was dark in the stairwell; the only light came from the open doors at the top of the stairs.
Mr Grundy had closed and locked the door to the stairwell and pulled the curtain back in place and the little kitchenette was hidden from sight. Locking the workshop door, he had made his way back into his house.
He locked his front door behind him and headed upstairs to his first-floor landing. His bulk, taking exception to the unexpected exercise, left him panting and gasping for breath when he reached the top of the stairs. He went into Ella’s bedroom and saw the door to the wardrobe open. The hanging clothes were pulled to one side to reveal a second open door. This gave access to the stairwell that lead down into the workshop. He waited for the foursome to appear.
It took longer than expected, while ascending the stairwell they had stumbled more than once but Charlie’s back eventually appeared in the doorway, then the body, Jackson and finally Ella.
Ella found herself standing in the wardrobe in her bedroom. Stepping out she closed the stairwell door they had all appeared through and pulled the hanging clothes back across to hide the door. She then closed the wardrobe doors.
It was all very intriguing, and her natural curiosity had to be reined in while she watched Mr Grundy walk to the other side of her bedroom and pull the dressing table away from the wall.
Mr Grundy bent down and opened a small door just about waist high. The body was laid in front of the opening and Charlie bent down and disappeared through the hole in the wall.
Ella saw two hands extend from the other side of the bedroom wall and take hold of the seemingly lifeless body and drag it through the opening with Jackson following.
Ella looked across at Mr Grundy who went over to the hole in the wall, then he bent down and closed the door. Finally, he pushed the dressing table back into position and the connecting hole was once more hidden from sight.
“Leave them to it, Ella. You and I will go shopping. We need some food. By the time we get back they should have some news for us. Shopping will take our minds off all this and if our house is being observed, seeing us stepping out should dispel any thoughts of hidden bodies lying about in here.”
“Was he alive?” she asked.
“I have no idea. I was not going to touch him, nothing I could do for him anyway. I am not a doctor.”
“What shall I call you?”
“My name is Charles Grundy, but your Aunt Fran always called me Mr Grundy.”
“I thought Charlie called you Clarence.”
Mr Grundy looked at the young woman standing by the kitchen door and chuckled.
“That was Jackson, when he found out my name was Charles he said he was not going to call me Charles he’d had enough Charlies in his life, so he christened me Clarence. He said he did not know anybody else called Clarence and the name follows me around.”
“In that case, if it is alright with you I shall carry on calling you Mr Grundy just like Aunt Fran did. I would hate to get my Charlies mixed up,” and they both laughed.
“I think it would be a good idea if I go and clean all that blood up before we set off, don’t you? Whilst the water is boiling, can I ask you about the stairwell in the workshop and the hole in the wall in my bedroom?”
“I insisted that we had the stairwell built so your Aunt Fran could come and go whenever she pleased and she did not have to go outside when it was dark, or the weather was bad. The stairwell has been put to good use over the years,” Mr Grundy told her.
“And the connecting hole through to Charlie’s house?”
“That was your Aunt Fran’s idea. She thought the world of Charlie and she insisted on having the connecting wall opened and the escape hatch installed as she called it. She said he never knew when he might need it given the line of work he was in. There is a bolt on your side of the connecting door if you feel uncomfortable with it. This is the first time the bolthole has been used since it has been installed. There has never been the need for Charlie to use it thank goodness.”
With a bucket of warm soapy water in one hand, a scrubbing brush and cloth in the other, Ella was about to go out of the front door when Mr Grundy stopped her.
“Better use the stairwell Ella. After all, we do not know if we are being watched, do we? The keys to the stairwell are kept in that top drawer at the side of the sink.”
Ella took possession of the keys and set off to clean up the mess.
First, she cleaned the floor at the base of the trunk, then the floor where the body had been laid. She cast her eye over the rest of the floor but could see no more drops of blood, so she lifted the lid of the trunk and looked inside.
Although there was a certain amount of blood on the floor of the trunk, there was not as much as she had expected to find but, lying there, at the bottom of the trunk was a little black book.
Picking it up carefully she took the clean cloth, dipped it in the water and twisted it as hard as she could to remove most of the water, then taking the damp cloth she wiped the book cover gently to remove the blood that had just caught the corner of the black leather jacket that housed the white note pad.
She was pleased to see that none of the sheets on the note pad had been stained. Placing the book in her dress pocket she took up her scrubbing brush and set to work.
Back in the kitchen Ella said to Mr Grundy, “Look what I found at the bottom of the trunk,” and she held up the little black book.
He held out his hand and she placed the book in it. Mr Grundy put the book in his pocket. “Better not mention this to anyone. I will give it to Charlie.”
“Why Charlie, why should he have it?”
“Because it is an occurrence book, and he is the best one to give it to, Charlie will know what to do with it.”
“What is an occurrence b
ook?”
“It is a book that the police use to make notes in, and then they can refer to it when writing out their report.”
“How do you know that?”
“I have seen Charlie doing it.”
“Charlie has an occurrence book? But that would make him a policeman.”
“Inspector to be precise, Charlie is an inspector of police.”
“Charlie is an inspector of police? And you sent me to get him when we had a dead body in the trunk in your workshop,” Ella was astounded.
“We did not know whether he was dead or not and anyway, Charlie is still the best person to deal with the situation if it turned out to be bad news. Let’s go shopping and I will explain on the way.”
Chapter Four
Mr Grundy started by telling Ella that after Fran and he were married, Fran had gone to work for him in his solicitor’s office, Grundy, Grundy and Grundy, only there was no Grundy and Grundy, only him, Mr Grundy. Fran had told him that it sounded more business like to add the other two Grundy’s on. She said it sounded more like a solicitor’s office.
"Fran was very good in the office and she helped me get a lot of business that I would not normally have had if it had been left up to me.
"Fran was in the office on her own one day when a young woman came into the office saying her brother needed a solicitor urgently. So, Fran, being Fran, put on her coat and went off with the young woman in distress.
"The young woman took Fran to a derelict building and that was the first encounter we had with Jackson. The young woman’s brother was lying on the floor, his head covered in blood and although he was not unconscious he was in a bad state. Fran and the young woman helped him to his feet and between them they half carried, half dragged him back to the office.
“Once he was lying on the couch, he lost consciousness. Fran went to get a bowl of water to bathe the young man’s head and when she came back into the room, the young woman had gone. I returned to the office to find Fran wiping blood off a stranger’s face. I sent her to fetch Charlie. It was the natural thing to do, when in trouble or in need of help, fetch Charlie.”
Mr Grundy went on to tell Ella he was left alone with a strange, funny looking unconscious man bleeding all over his couch, and he was none too happy.
"I am not a brave man and we had no idea who he was or how he came by the bleeding gash on his head. He could have been a murderer for all we knew and there I was, left alone with him on my couch. It was sheer luck the bleeding man was still unconscious when Fran came back with Charlie on her heels. I was never so pleased to see anybody in my life, I can tell you.
"But as it turned out it was an encounter that led to one of the best friendships Fran and I could have had. We all became the very best of friends.
“It was two hours before the stranger finally came to, and when he did, he could not remember a thing.”
Mr Grundy giggled, “Did Charlie tell you the story that he thinks Jackson, for that is who the injured man turned out to be, was kicked off planet mars and he landed on his head in a rubbish dump?”
Ella could not help laughing.
“He did, and Mr Grundy, I have not laughed so much for a long, long time. They are both so funny. I find it hard to believe that Charlie is an inspector of police.”
“In that case, you will find it even harder to believe that Jackson is a doctor.”
“A doctor, Jackson is a doctor? God help his patients.”
“Yes, in a way, he learned his trade during the war. He is a veterinary really, he was posted abroad to look after the horses on the battlefield, but when the doctor out there was killed, Jackson took over looking after the wounded soldiers.”
“So, as well as looking after the horses, Jackson looked after the wounded soldiers?” Ella asked.
"There was nobody else there who had any medical training, so it fell to Jackson to attend to the wounded.
"Jackson has a couple of medals for his bravery and services on the front line. Anyway, back to our first meeting with Jackson.
"It turned out that Jackson had been called to attend to a patient who had been stabbed but when Jackson got there, the patient was already dead. Nothing he could have done; the wound was fatal. The culprit who had stabbed the patient now had to get rid of the doctor; he did not want any witnesses.
"Jackson was knocked unconscious and taken off in a cart to be dumped in the river but, as the thugs were taking the body out of the cart, they were disturbed by the sound of voices, so the thugs just dropped him, and he landed on the grass verge alongside the riverbank. The two thugs drove off leaving Jackson for dead.
"The young woman that came to the office had been out with her beau at the time, but she should not have been. Her parents had forbidden the young woman to see her young man again, for they did not approve of him. The clandestine meeting was brought to a quick parting of the ways when the young man saw the body lying on the grass verge.
"He took off and left the young woman on her own to deal with the body. When the body moved and groaned, the young woman helped the semiconscious man into the derelict building and you know the rest.
"That is how Fran and I became involved in the matter. As you know in 1800, Glasgow was the first city in Britain to establish a police force. Police stations sprung up all over Scotland and Marchum was fortunate enough to be one of those towns.
"Charlie was an inspector of police based at Marchum and he was put in charge of the case. He solved it eventually, thieves falling out and one stabbing the other, but it took two months for Jackson to remember all the details and at the end of the two months, Charlie and Jackson were firm friends.
"Charlie had taken Jackson back to his house until he recovered his memory and Jackson has been there ever since.
“They both have an odd sense of humour, not everyone can see the funny side of it, especially the women, for some peculiar reason women seem to be offended by it,” concluded Mr Grundy.
“So, it was not really her brother at all?”
“No, she had never seen him before in her life. It was just an excuse she gave to get him some help.”
“Why a solicitor’s office, surely a doctor would have been a better choice?”
“When Charlie eventually tracked her down, she said she thought the injured man would need a solicitor when he regained consciousness, so that is why she chose a solicitor instead of a doctor. She said she knew someone would call a doctor to attend him but not many would think of getting him a solicitor. She is a clever girl, don’t you think?”
“Yes, I do. What happened to her beau, the one that ran off?”
“She refused to see him again much to her parent’s relief, only things did not go quite to plan as they hoped. The young woman in question is somewhat out of the ordinary herself. For one thing she is tall, and she has protruding top, front teeth and she is not that young, in her late twenties, nearly thirty.”
“Why didn’t her parents approve of her beau?” Ella wanted to know.
“Her father is a very wealthy merchant and he had found out that this particular young man was out to find himself a rich wife.”
“You are saying then that he was after her money?”
“I am afraid so. The young woman’s parents had tried on more than one occasion to set her up with a young man whom they thought would be a suitable husband for her, but each time she has told them she will marry whom she wants and will not entertain any of the young men they chose.”
“I feel sorry for the young woman if that be the case,” Ella told him.
“There is no need to feel sorry for her, Ella. She has now found her true love.”
“Has she, how wonderful. Who is he?”
"Charlie found out who the young woman was, and he took Jackson to meet her. Jackson wanted to thank her for helping him in his hour of need and they have been inseparable ever since.
"When Charlie found Blanche, for that is her name, he told her Jackson would like to meet her and t
hank her for what she did for him. Blanche agreed to meet him, but she insisted on meeting Jackson away from her home, she didn’t want her parents to be involved in her latest caper.
“You have seen Jackson, you cannot say he is a strapping fellow and his appearance has much to be desired, but funnily enough they are very well suited. Blanche and Jackson have been together ever since, about eight years.”
“So, Jackson does not work for Charlie?”
“No, Jackson has his own vet’s practice. I do not think it does much trade. For one thing, Jackson has no premises to work from but he does a bit of work for the police, as a doctor, if they cannot get anyone else.”
“Surely Jackson can’t claim to be a doctor if he has not qualified as one. Isn’t it illegal to be calling himself a doctor?”
"Jackson does not call himself a doctor, he calls himself a vet. Word soon got around that he had acted on the battlefield as a doctor. So, anyone in need of medical attention and they have no money to pay for it, they appeal to Jackson. He helps if he can and does not take payment for his services.
"He is kept pretty busy I can tell you, there are a lot of people out there that cannot afford to pay for a doctor. He occasionally gets paid in kind, eggs or a side of pork or the odd cabbage, that sort of thing.
“He is an extremely good person, that is why he and Charlie get on so famously. Charlie is also an extremely good person, he is someone you can trust and depend on and your Aunt Fran loved him like he was her own. In fact, she not only loved Charlie, she loved Jackson and Blanche too. We are a close knit little family.”
“What about you Mr Grundy? Do you love them all too?”
“I do. I do not know what I would have done without them when my Fran died. I feel very lucky to have them as my friends. That is why I said it was a very lucky meeting when Blanche brought Jackson into our lives. We have all been the very best of friends ever since.”