The Team and the Move (Team books Book 3)

by S G Read

  The four of them sat and talked on the lawn about things in general without going to deep into some things. Stuart told Wendy about Dan the gardener and the big garden full of vegetables, which he was willing to sell to help out his pension. Wendy liked fresh vegetables but did point out that she was willing to pay a proper price for them, especially as this Dan sounded hard up.

  When the picnic ended they carried everything back to the house and put the plates and utensils in the dishwasher. Inside the trio started to plan their next move in their little war. Even Jenny wanted them caught, after Willie had manhandled her. She still had not figured out that he had hit her, she still thought she had banged her head on something, just before he came upon her. They went indoors, wandered about for a while, then went up stairs and played snooker, passing ideas about as they played. If they were worth a second thought they made note of the idea, if not they dismissed the idea.

  'We could keep watch again and go in through that window before he comes back!' Stuart said with little confidence.

  'We could.' Stevey replied. 'But that window must be quite high in the cellar or it would be below the ground like that other one.'

  'What about that other one?' Stuart replied. 'There might be a way in through there!'

  'And if we got in we could use the ladder from round the back to go down and back up.' Jenny declared.

  'What ladder?' Stuart asked.

  'Some detective you are.' Jenny replied. 'When you look down from the big house, look on the back wall, about 2 metres up.'

  'We’ll go there tomorrow at the same time we did today!' Stuart exclaimed. 'He might go out again tomorrow and we can get some vegetables while we are there for mum. It can be our reason for going!'

  With that settled they started to play in earnest and became children again for a little while. Snooker was replaced by pool, not that Stevey’s great, great aunt Agatha had included anything as vulgar as pool balls but with the reds as one set, the colours made the next set, with the exception of the black which was still used as the winning ball, or losing as happened several times when it was potted at the wrong time. The afternoon flew by and soon David reappeared from his first day at his new office, and he was in charge!

  'What’s all this about picnics without me?' He asked with his head thrust through the open door.

  'Very tasty it was too dad.' Stuart replied, and hid behind the snooker table where David could not reach him.

  'You’ll have to come this side to play your shot sometime.' David warned.

  When it was Stuart’s turn he took it from where he stood but missed badly, he shrugged and gave up. David carried him out of the room squealing. Stevey and Jenny carried on, as though nothing had happened, Jenny taking Stuart’s turn when it came up. When the game was over they started a new one, without waiting for Stuart to return.

  'So what’s going down young Stuart?' David asked when things had calmed down.

  'Well we haven’t got the bad guys yet but we are watching their every move from a safe distance.'

  'Sounds good to me.' David replied. 'Can I see how safe a distance?'

  'Sure can dad.' Stuart replied immediately. 'You can meet Dan the gardener at the same time if he’s about.'

  They found the other two and they were only too willing to stop playing and walk up to the big house with David. Wendy went along for the walk as well. They showed the two grown ups the way to the road and up to the big house garden. Without hesitation, they walked down the drive to the big house. David and Wendy followed, interested to see this big garden. Despite it being late Dan was there lifting potatoes on to sacking to dry. They walked past the big house as far as Dan, to introduce him to David and Wendy.

  'Hello Dan, this is my mum and dad.' Stuart said when they reached him.

  'Hello master Stuart.' Dan straightened up and wiped his hands on the back of his trousers before shaking hands with David.

  'I’m David, this is Wendy.' David explained as he shook Dan’s hand. 'You’re working late.'

  'Just off to the pub.' Dan replied. 'They were short of spuds.'

  'Don’t let us keep you from your pint.' David said with a smile. 'Are you sure you don’t mind the children coming over here.'

  'I’m glad of the company and they’re no trouble. Are you going to show them the house master Stuart?'

  'Yes but we won’t go in, I don’t know if they are up to it.' Stuart replied with a big smile.

  Dan winked and gave him a knowing smile, before carrying on with his work. The five walked back to the house.

  'This is Gordon Hall, named after the family that had it built and owned it for a long time. It now belongs to a Scottish family but they keep well away from it.' Stuart explained.

  'Why?' Wendy asked. 'Because of a so called ghost.'

  'You know about the ghost?' Jenny asked.

  'I heard about it in the shops.' Wendy replied. 'Where do you watch the car breakers from?' She asked more interested in their safety, than the ghost.

  'There.' Jenny replied and pointed to the east wing.

  'If my geography is correct that is the east wing, the one which is supposed to be haunted.' Wendy replied.

  'Anyone here believe in ghosts?' David joked.

  The three children held up their hands.

  'You’re joking!' David exclaimed.

  'Seeing is believing dad.' Stuart replied.

  'Well more like feeling is believing.' Jenny quipped. 'As we haven’t actually seen it yet.'

  'Good point Jenny.' Stuart replied. 'That is why we won’t go in there when you are with us.'

  'Phooey.' Wendy exclaimed. 'If we meet a ghost, I’ll shake his hand!'

  'Okay mum, we have to walk round the front and go in through the cellar.' Stuart replied and led the way round to the little shed where the key was kept. Now with the keys marked it was easy to open the back door and the door to the east wing corridor.

  The house was very quiet, too quiet. They walked to the room they used to watch the car breakers from and showed them the note book full of notes and the telescope.

  'I didn’t know you had a telescope.' Wendy said as she looked through it.

  'It was in the plane when we crashed and it sort of followed me home.' Stuart admitted. 'Without it, we might still be in the jungle!'

  'Then we will treat it with the respect it deserves.' Wendy replied.

  Just after she stopped speaking the crying started. Wendy looked from one to the other, to see who was missing but they were all there.

  'Is this a Minton trick?' She asked and walked straight up to the room.

  'Don’t go in mum.' Stuart urged but it did no good.

  Wendy opened the door and a surge of cold passed through her. She froze, dropped the telescope on the floor and stood there frozen to the spot, unable to move.

  'That was Tim mum.' Stuart explained as he walked up to where she stood. 'I don’t believe it, you didn’t run or faint.'

  Wendy quickly recovered from the shock, turned and looked at him, then looked down at the telescope. 'But I did drop your telescope.' She bent down and picked it up, as she lifted it the front lens fell out.

  'I don’t believe it!' Stevey exclaimed. 'It survived the plane crash and all we did to it, the helicopter firing at us and it breaks with a little fall like that!'

  'Who’s Tim?' David asked.

  'The ghost dad.' Stuart replied with both Jenny and Stevey nodding in agreement.

  'Oh come on, who here believes in ghosts?' David asked again.

  This time there were three children with hands up and one woman. David looked at Wendy, Shrugged his shoulders and put his hand up.

  'That is the coldest feeling I have ever had!' Wendy exclaimed.

  'Isn’t it just.' Jenny replied. 'I thought my insides were going to freeze.'

  'I think mine have.' Wendy replied. 'Murderers and ghosts, what ever will you find next!'

  Stuart smiled. 'At least Dan is fairly normal.'

  'How do you
mean fairly normal?' David asked.

  'He knows Tim and sometimes comes in to talk with him but he can’t get him to stay long enough to help him.' Stuart answered. 'He was the gardener here when Tim was living here but Tim just disappeared one day without trace. They blamed it on the gypsies stealing him away.'

  'Tomorrow I will buy you a new telescope and I will get this one repaired but from now on, this one goes over the mantle piece, as a reminder to us of your incredible journey.' Wendy declared.

  Willie picked up the telephone.

  'Willie Bowyer speaking.' He said without thinking.

  'You are supposed to be Robbie, thick head.' Silas exclaimed. 'If I was the law I would be on my way to the car breakers by now.'

  'Sorry boss.'

  'Don’t be sorry, get it right. We are on schedule but I don’t want any last minute hiccups, in the form of two nosy little boys. Seen any sign of the little brats?'

  'Yes, they came over when I went out for groceries.' Willie replied.

  'And I supposed you had the door wedged open so you could get back in!?'

  'No I made it work off the telly control. If I want the door to open I just push channel twelve, any thing else, it just ignores.'

  'Well done. So they were over but didn’t see anything.' Silas concluded.

  'That’s about the size of it boss, are we going to do anything about them?' Willie asked, hopefully.

  'Oh yes. Keep an eye on them and let me know where they are watching you from, it couldn’t have been luck that they came over just after you went out!'

  'You’re clever boss, I would never have worked that out.' Willie said patronisingly.

  'Well you watch them and let me know what you find and we’ll plan a little surprise for them!' Silas replied. 'And don’t let me down Willie, it’s your neck as well!'

  From then on when Willie was not printing more forged money, he climbed on to the roof of the house and watched the house he knew the two boys lived. He saw them come out and disappear through the trees but the parents were with them, then he saw them walk into the garden of the house next door. There he knew he could watch more closely and climbed down from the roof to look out a back window. When he saw them go into the old house, he watched the nearest window, in fact the only window they could really watch him from and caught a flash of reflected light from the telescope. Now he knew where they watched him from. He might have gone over there after them but for the grown ups with them.

  'Patience Willie, patience. You time will come!' He whispered from his vantage spot.

  'They used to blame the Gypsies for everything those days.' David scoffed. 'When the culprit was usually found a lot closer to home!'

  With no telescope to look across at the car breakers, the five of them walked back down the stairs.

  'This is a big house!' Wendy exclaimed.

  'I am going to buy it one day!' Stevey declared. 'When I’m older and richer.'

  'What about the ghost- No don’t tell me you are going to invite the others here for a sleep over without telling them about the ghost!' Wendy guessed.

  'No I’ll tell them about the ghost!' Stevey replied. 'That will make them want to come!'

  'Will it?' David asked.

  'Oh yes.' Jenny answered. 'They’ll probably try to catch it, like in ghostbusters.'

  'You’ll be able to give them some advice.' Stuart advised her. 'As you’ve watched it seven times since you’ve been here!'

  'Eight.' Jenny corrected. 'Sorry about that but Toby wasn’t here.'

  'Eight times.' Stuart echoed.

  'And shall I tell her how many times you two watched it at home and at the cinema?' Wendy asked.

  'I lost count.' Stuart admitted. 'It was a cool film.'

  They walked out into the sunshine, Stuart locked the door to the house and returned the key to the back of the shed door unaware that other eyes were watching.

  Willie took notes just as the boys had took notes, just to make sure he did not forget anything and annoy Silas. He had no idea how this would help but Silas would come up with an idea and the two boys would be in trouble. He saw that the girl was with them but did not add it to his notes, as he was watching the two boys. He did not mention that there were two grownups with them either, as they did not matter. When the boys returned to their house, he returned to the cellar to see if the ink was dry on the notes he had printed earlier, then he started printing more notes and packing up the dry ones out of those he had printed earlier. He had already printed official looking wrappers for the notes and when the notes were counted he wrapped them in thousand pound blocks. They were then sealed in plastic to look like a twenty four pack of books before he put them in a wooden tea chest. When the tea chest was three quarters full he covered the money with cling film before putting a layer of old books, sealed in plastic, on top of them. It was Silas’ idea, the books were going out to Africa, to the poor there, after a little stopover in France, where the tea chests would be emptied of the money. Silas had been going over to France regularly with a box of old books bought from jumble sales, he was going to use them to replace the money, before the tea chests continued their journey. While the books went on their way Silas would be otherwise engaged, he had someone waiting to buy the forged money from him at a reasonable price. Far better than trying to pass it all over counters himself and risking getting caught. The tea chests were sealed for the journey and x-rays would show just packets of what would look like books.

  Back at the new house the three children sat and talked.

  'Should we leave well alone?' Stuart asked. 'After all it was nothing to do with us and Willie did us a favour killing Lenny Mole!'

  'You don’t mean that, do you?' Jenny replied quickly.

  'Just asking. Up until now I have done it my way and now we can’t even go to the police!' Stuart exclaimed. 'Anyone else got any ideas? I’m fresh out!'

  The silence which followed was a long one.

  'When he goes out next I say we break the little window, grab a load of money and let it be like a paper chase back to the house with a note saying look in the hidden cellar!' Stevey said eventually.

  'What rub the police’s nose in it so they’re wound up when they arrive?' Stuart asked, but it was a rhetorical question. 'I like it but we must make sure they know it is funny money!'

  'A note saying "this money is forged" might do the trick.' Jenny suggested. 'But we must make sure no one is caught. He is not a nice man, I would rather be dead than his prisoner but as he took me prisoner before, it must have been for a reason!' She shivered at the thought.

  'So we keep watch and when he goes off again we rush over there and get the goods via the little window.' Stevey concluded.

  'Almost.' Stuart replied. 'We need someone watching while we go in and if we do it right we can be close by and just wait for the signal to go in at speed.'

  Jenny turned to face Stuart. 'And I suppose I am the one in the house watching from a safe distance!' She accused.

  'It makes sense.' Stevey agreed. 'You can’t run too fast yet!'

  'I reckon I am okay now and I am willing to risk it!' Jenny shot back, then she looked at the two boys. 'Look I know you are trying to protect me but I can pull my weight.'

  The two boys said nothing.

  'I see. We take a vote on it and guess who gets outvoted!' She complained.

  'A fair vote can go any way.' Stuart replied.

  'And pigs might fly.' Jenny scoffed. 'All right, I’ll be the look out but make sure I have enough change for the telephone up the road before we start in case it all goes pear shaped.'

  'Democracy at work.' Stuart replied. 'I would let you have my new mobile but it conked out.'

  'Only because you slid it down the bannister.' Stevey retorted.

  'It was supposed to stop at the bottom, not fly through the ruddy air and hit the book case.' Stuart replied.

  'Who’s not rich and spoilt?' Jenny chided, but with a smile.

  'I know it was silly now,
don’t I.' Stuart declared. 'But I couldn’t come clean with mum and dad could I.'

  'It would have been under guarantee!' Jenny pointed out. 'And now at least I wouldn’t have to leg it up the road to a smelly phone box. I don’t understand people, in London they pee in the lifts and the telephone boxes. Out here they still pee in the telephone boxes!'

  'I suppose it is a case of, when you’ve got to go?' Stevey replied.

  'But there are a few trees to go behind!' Jenny scolded.

  'Not if you are drunk and can’t even climb the gate.' Stevey retorted. 'I’ve been with my dad when he’s gone into a telephone box, I thought he was making a call as he picked up the thing you talk into but when I saw him doing his flies up when he came out, I knew better, and there were toilets just up the road!'

  Jenny bit he lip and said no more, she knew she had hit a nerve, one she had not meant to hit. She wanted to say that her father would never do anything like that but now was not the time.

  It was all arranged, tomorrow they would start watching, with the idea of exposing them once and for all. With that settled and who was doing what, they reverted to children and played, much to Wendy’s pleasure. Later in the day, she took them shopping for a new telescope and put the other one in for repair. The new telescope was a lot better than the old one and Jenny looked forward to using it.

  Morning came and Willie walked carefully up the stairs in the old ram shackled house in the car breakers, to see when his audience arrived. He settled down in the back bedroom with his own telescope and watched the window that the children used to watch him from. If all went well he would have the best part of a day to have fun and torment his prisoners before he had to take the money on its journey. He would be spoilt for choice but he was determined to get the full set!