by Jim Eldridge
Jake rapped on the door, at the same time calling, ‘Mr Brigstocke! Hello!’
There was still no answer.
The door swung inwards.
‘Mr Brigstocke?’ said Jake, stepping inside. Then he stopped.
‘What’s the matter?’ asked Lauren.
‘Don’t come in,’ said Jake, his voice shaking.
He tried to stop Lauren, but it was too late. Lauren uttered a sound that was half scream, half groan.
A man was tied to a high-backed wooden chair. He was dead; that was obvious from the lifeless eyes staring out from the pale bloodstained face. But what was worse was the sight of the fingers on the floor by his feet, and the dried blood smearing the wooden chair near his hand, where those fingers had once been.
Chapter 17
Lauren stumbled outside the room and suddenly threw up. Jake knew how she felt; at the sight of Jasper Brigstocke’s dead and mutilated body, he could feel the contents of his own stomach rising up in his throat, but he did his best to keep them down.
‘We have to call the police,’ panted Lauren.
‘No,’ said Jake. ‘Bullen will think we did this, and he’ll lock me up. We have to stay free if we’re going to prove our innocence.’
Lauren shook her head, her face deathly pale.
‘Do you think Pierce Randall did this?’ she asked hoarsely.
‘I don’t know,’ said Jake. ‘All I know is we have to get out of here, and fast.’
A short time later Jake and Lauren were in a café at Marble Arch; their cups of coffee sat on the table, untouched. For both of them, the image of Jasper Brigstocke, tortured to death, filled their minds.
‘We have to get a hold of ourselves,’ Jake whispered. ‘And we have to move fast. Once the police discover Brigstocke’s body and they start checking for fingerprints, they’ll find ours at the shop and they’ll put out a search for us.’
‘How do we stop them?’ asked Lauren. She was still in a state of shock.
‘Just like we said before: we find The Index,’ said Jake. ‘It’s not just the proof about the Order of Malichea, and why all this has been happening, it’s our bargaining tool. Pierce Randall, MI5, everyone will make sure we’re free if we’ve got that.’
‘But we haven’t!’ hissed Lauren. ‘And if Brigstocke had it, then it’s gone! Whoever killed him will have forced him to tell them where it was in the shop, and they’ll have taken it!’
Jake shook his head.
‘I don’t think Brigstocke had it. If he did, he would have told them. Why hold out under torture like that for a book? The fact they did those dreadful things to him means they weren’t getting the answers they wanted. Brigstocke didn’t have it.’
‘So where is it?’ agonised Lauren.
Jake stared into his cup of coffee, at the dark liquid, the touches of froth on the side. Think, he urged himself. Think! The de Courcey family were given The Index for safe keeping after Glastonbury was destroyed. Where would they have put it? In plain sight, in the library? Or would they have hidden it somewhere? The book was precious, very precious. They wouldn’t have taken a chance on leaving it in the library for anyone to see.
Suddenly a thought struck him. Something Guy had said when they’d been in the cell at the police station.
He looked at Lauren, his eyes suddenly alive, agitated.
‘I think I know what happened to The Index!’ he said.
Lauren studied him, a doubtful expression on her face.
‘You’re sure this isn’t just coming out of desperation, Jake?’
‘No.’ He leant towards her. ‘Guy told me his family backed the wrong side in the Civil War, so they supported King Charles I and his cavaliers.’
‘Yes.’ Lauren nodded. ‘So?’
‘Well, it’s common knowledge that Catholics sided with the cavaliers. And we know that a de Courcey ancestor headed up the Order of Malichea at Glastonbury in the 1500s. So what does this tell us about the de Courcey family?’
Lauren thought about it.
‘That the de Courceys were Catholics,’ she said.
‘And wealthy Catholic families in the time of Henry VIII, certainly later Henry, and when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne, often kept their religion secret to avoid persecution and having their wealth taken from them,’ said Jake.
Lauren stared at Jake, and now her face looked as excited as his.
‘And wealthy Catholic families had special hiding places in their houses to keep items of their religion.’
‘Not just items,’ Jake reminded her. ‘They even hid their priests.’
‘Priest’s holes!’ nodded Lauren. ‘Hidden chambers.’ Then her face clouded over. ‘But surely, such a hiding place at de Courcey Hall would have been discovered by now, after all these years.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Jake. ‘And who’s likely to know if such a place was discovered, and what happened to the stuff that was in it?’
‘You’re thinking Gemma and Dan Hayward?’ queried Lauren.
Jake nodded. ‘I am.’
Lauren frowned.
‘It’s a long shot,’ she said.
‘Everything about this business has always been a long shot,’ said Jake.
‘And if The Index had turned up, Gemma and Dan would have seen it. Especially Gemma. She’s got a real nose for finding things out.’
‘Yes, but she wouldn’t know what The Index was. We do! We know what we’re looking for!’ said Jake. ‘We have to talk to Gemma!’
Chapter 18
Jake checked his watch as they left the café.
‘Half past six,’ he said.
‘We can’t go back to our flat,’ said Lauren. ‘If the police have found Brigstocke’s body and put out a search for us, that’ll be the first place they’ll look.’
‘I suggest we head back to Sevenoaks,’ agreed Jake. ‘We’ll go and see Gemma and see what she can tell us, if anything. Then we’ll stay at a hotel near there for the night.’
‘And the priest’s hole?’
‘We’ll go to de Courcey Hall first thing tomorrow morning and start looking for it.’
‘That won’t be easy. It’s National Trust, remember. They’re not going to let us start poking around.’
‘They might if Gemma’s able to give us some information about where it might be, and the Trust don’t know about it.’
Lauren looked doubtful.
‘There’s a lot of ifs there,’ she pointed out. ‘If there is a priest’s hole. If Gemma tells us where it is. If the National Trust let us look for it.’
‘You got any better suggestions?’
‘No,’ she admitted.
Jake and Lauren arrived at the caravan park on the edge of Sevenoaks at eight. They followed the driveways until they came to South Avenue, and number 36. They rang the bell and Dan Hayward opened the door.
‘Hi,’ he said. ‘I didn’t expect to see you two.’
‘We didn’t expect to be back here,’ said Jake. ‘Is Gemma in?’
Dan shook his head, and they could see he was worried.
‘Soon after you left, I had a text from her to say she was going to London to see that firm of lawyers I told you about, Pierce Randall.’
‘She actually went to see them?’
Dan nodded. ‘Then she texted me again about six to say she’d just seen a lawyer there called Sue Clark, and she was staying up in London overnight and not to worry.’
‘But you haven’t spoken to her?’
‘No, just texts. I tried phoning her, but I keep getting her voicemail.’ He looked at them, concern written all over his face. ‘What’s she up to?’
‘Doing what she said she would, by the sound of it: getting hold of a hotshot lawyer to sue the de Courceys.’
‘Which she could find difficult,’ added Lauren. ‘Pierce Randall are also Guy de Courcey’s solicitors.’
Dan looked even more worried.
‘I don’t get any of this,’ he said.
‘I think
we ought to tell him what’s going on,’ Lauren said to Jake. ‘If Gemma’s got herself involved with Pierce Randall, he has a right to know what’s behind it.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Dan, a new note of urgency in his voice. ‘What’s going on? Is it dangerous?’
‘Can we come in and talk?’ Lauren asked.
Dan nodded.
‘Sure. Mum’s out seeing a friend of hers,’ he said. ‘There’s just me here.’
‘Good,’ said Lauren.
Inside, the trailer was big and comfortable. Jake was aware that it looked larger and a lot tidier than his and Lauren’s flat.
Dan offered them coffee, and while he made it, Jake and Lauren took turns to fill him in on the situation they found themselves in: starting right back with the ancient Order of Malichea, the hidden library, and the shooting of Alex Munro, and Jake and Guy finding themselves in a police cell. They didn’t tell him about finding Jasper Brigstocke’s mutilated body, deciding that would only send him into a panic about Gemma’s safety.
They finished by telling him that the book everyone, including them, was looking for was The Index, the list of where all the secret books were hidden.
‘And Guy’s involved?’ asked Dan.
Jake and Lauren nodded.
Dan put their coffees down on the table for them, looking thoughtful.
‘He was a bad one, Guy,’ he said.
‘That’s what your sister said.’
‘She’s right. And you think he’s been abducted? Taken prisoner?’
‘We know he has,’ said Lauren. ‘Like we said, we saw him at de Courcey Hall, being put into an SUV at gunpoint.’
Dan took out his mobile and dialled.
‘This is starting to sound too dangerous,’ he told them. ‘I’m calling Gemma again.’
They all listened as they heard the ringing tone, then the automated voice cutting in telling Dan to leave a message.
‘Hi, Gemma,’ said Dan. ‘It’s Dan. Call me. It’s urgent.’
He hung up and turned back to Jake and Lauren.
‘So, what’s the next move?’ he asked.
‘If we can get our hands on The Index we think it’ll solve this business once and for all. Everyone will stop looking for it.’
‘And you think the de Courceys have it?’
‘Had it,’ corrected Lauren. ‘And we also think they hid it somewhere.’
‘Do you know of any hiding places in the hall?’ asked Jake. ‘You know, a priest’s hole, or somewhere they used to hide religious things?’
Dan thought about it, his brow furrowed.
‘Not that I can think of,’ he said. ‘Everywhere at the hall was opened up just before the old earl handed it over to the National Trust. There were no hidden rooms, no priest’s holes or anything like that.’
Jake felt a crushing sense of disappointment descend on him, like a dead weight. In that one sentence, all his hopes of finding The Index had been destroyed.
‘Mind, there was Platt Castle,’ said Dan thoughtfully.
Jake and Lauren looked questioningly at Dan.
‘Platt Castle?’ asked Lauren.
Dan nodded.
‘It was the de Courcey’s family home before they built de Courcey Hall. It wasn’t very big, not how you usually think of a castle.’
‘Where was it?’
‘The site is only about two miles away from de Courcey Hall. The de Courceys owned all that land around there. The place is derelict now, just a load of broken walls, but there used to be a small chapel in it at one time.’
‘Do you know when it was abandoned and why exactly?’ asked Jake.
‘There’s something about it in one of the visitor guidebooks to de Courcey Hall,’ said Dan. He got up and went to a bookshelf. ‘Mum was given one by the old earl.’ He gave a bitter laugh. ‘Gemma said it was the only thing Mum ever got from the de Courcey family.’
He opened a slim glossy paperback guide, and flicked through the opening pages, before stopping.
‘Here it is,’ he said. Aloud, he read: ‘The original family home of the de Courceys, Platt Castle, was abandoned during the time of Elizabeth I. It is thought that this was to show their good faith to King Henry VIII, so that he wouldn’t accuse them of treason and take their family fortune, which was common practice with Catholic families at the time.’
‘So at the time the abbey at Glastonbury was ransacked when Henry VIII was on the throne and the books from the Order of Malichea given to the de Courcey family, the castle and chapel were still intact and functioning. They didn’t abandon them until years after,’ said Lauren.
‘Which means it’s possible that The Index and the Journal could have been hidden in a secret place inside the chapel at Platt Castle,’ added Jake.
Dan shrugged.
‘It’s possible,’ he said. ‘But how do we find out?’
‘We go there,’ said Jake. ‘You said it wasn’t far away.’
‘Isn’t it a bit late to go exploring?’ asked Lauren. ‘It’ll be dark soon.’
‘It won’t be dark for another hour,’ Jake said. ‘At least we can go and look at the place.’
‘Will it help Gemma stay safe?’ asked Dan.
‘Possibly,’ said Jake.
‘OK,’ said Dan. ‘I’ll go and get my bike.’
‘A bike?’ asked Lauren. ‘How do we get there?’
‘It’s a motorbike,’ clarified Dan. ‘And it’s got a sidecar. We use it for getting the shopping. Cheaper than running a car.’
As Dan left the trailer to go and get his motorbike, Jake turned to Lauren and said, ‘You heard what Dan said about Gemma seeing Sue Clark?’
Lauren nodded.
‘It was about half past four when we found Jasper Brigstocke’s dead body in his shop,’ she said, shuddering at the memory of it. ‘If Gemma didn’t tell Sue Clark about Jasper Brigstocke until just before six, then it couldn’t have been Pierce Randall who tortured and killed him.’
‘Unless they’d already found out about the sale of the books some other way.’
‘Possibly, though I’m starting to think that someone else killed him,’ said Lauren.
‘The Mexicans?’ suggested Jake. ‘They had knives.’
‘Who knows,’ said Lauren. ‘We’ve seen before with these books, there’s nearly always someone else in the picture that we don’t know about.’ She looked nervous as she added, ‘I think there’s someone else at work here, someone really nasty, and we don’t know who they are.’
‘Think they’re watching us?’ asked Jake.
‘I don’t know,’ admitted Lauren. ‘I hope not. Because, if they are, we’re in more danger than we think we are.’
Chapter 19
Dan pulled up the bike in front of a wooden gate set in a high wire fence. The gate marked a gap in a thickly wooded area, but the track from the gate curved and twisted among the trees, so it was impossible to get a real view of what lay behind the fence.
The gate was closed and looked ramshackle, like it hadn’t been opened for many years. Beside it was a battered sign that said: ‘Platt Castle. Private property. No entry.’
‘This is it,’ said Dan. ‘We walk from here.’
As they took off their crash helmets and put them in the sidecar, Dan said, worried, ‘I still haven’t heard from Gemma.’
‘I’m sure she’s OK,’ said Lauren. ‘She seems a very resourceful girl.’
‘She is,’ agreed Dan, but he didn’t seem reassured. ‘Anyway, I texted her to tell her we were coming here, just in case she gets home and wonders where I am.’
Jake and Lauren followed Dan as he climbed over the gate. They made their way along the rough winding track, through a jungle of trees, until they turned a final bend and saw a clearing ahead, and at the far side of the clearing, the outline of the castle.
Castle was too grand a name for it; the building was more the size of an old manor house. Although, when the place had been built, many hundreds of years ago, it wo
uld have been an imposing building. It had thick stone walls; but the tops, where battlements would once have been, were long gone.
They followed Dan to an area at one side of the derelict building.
‘This is the site of the old chapel,’ said Dan.
It was a small area, not much bigger than a large room in a house. All that was left were the flagstones of the floor and the remains of the stone walls. Ivy and weeds had grown up over and through all that was left of the walls. Rubble, broken stones and more weeds were spread across the floor.
‘Where do we start?’ asked Lauren.
‘We tap the floor,’ said Jake. ‘Listening for where it sounds hollow.’
Lauren looked doubtful.
‘Come on,’ encouraged Jake. ‘Let’s start by tapping all over, and see if there’s any difference in the sound.’
With that, Jake picked up a piece of broken rusted metal from the debris lying around, and began to knock it on the flagstones. Lauren copied him, but Jake stopped her.
‘I think we can only do this with one of us,’ he said. ‘It makes it hard to hear if we’re all knocking at the same time.’
‘OK,’ said Lauren. ‘We’ll do the listening while you tap.’
Jake resumed tapping the piece of metal against the flagstones, moving from one flagstone to another. Each time they heard the same dull solid thud.
‘The light’s going,’ said Dan. ‘We might have to come back tomorrow.’
‘Just a bit longer,’ urged Jake.
He banged the piece of metal down on the next flagstone. Once again, there was the same dull thud.
‘I don’t think we’re going to find it,’ said Lauren gloomily. ‘Jake, admit it, this was always going to be a bit of a crazy idea.’
Jake didn’t reply. He moved on to the next flagstone. Once more, there was that same dull solid sound. He moved on to the next and banged the metal bar again . . . and this time he stopped.
‘There!’ he said. ‘Did you hear that?’
‘What?’ asked Lauren.
‘It sounded different,’ said Jake. ‘Listen.’
And he banged the piece of metal on the flagstone again.
Dan frowned.