by Mike Crowson
* * *
Steve was yawning and looked a bit bleary-eyed as Alicia came in for breakfast next morning, rubbing her eyes. Of Gill and Manjy there was no sign yet and both Alan and Carol looked decidedly short on sleep too. Only Frank was his well-rested, lively self.
"Morning, boss," said Steve, yawning again.
"Morning," Alicia answered, also yawning.
"Hey, you two look as if you haven't slept," observed a rather sprightly Frank. "Surely the prospect of another visit from the Prof's not that bad?"
"We had a visit last night, that's why we look tired," said Alicia in a low voice, "I don't expect him today, but don't mention that to the others. I'll explain it all to you after breakfast."
"In fact we'll need a full council of war," said Steve.
"Okay. If you say so," Frank told Alicia. "Want me to go on with excavating the passageway?"
"Yes. We'll start with two teams at first while we chat and add a third team later. There's no particular rush and we're making steady progress."
Alicia tried to sound businesslike and actually felt a bit less tired once she had eaten.
Gill and Manjy came in twenty minutes late for breakfast but didn't look nearly as bad as might have been expected. The local men arrived and, with the volunteer labour, got down to work straight away. The University group plus Frank gathered in the Portacabin.
"Okay," said Frank, "Now will somebody fill me in - please." Alicia told him the story of events the previous night. "Thanks for waking me," he remarked.
"There wasn't time," responded Gill, "It all happened so quickly. The question is, what happens next?"
Frank thought it over for a moment and then said, "If I was those two I'd drop the professor's car off back on the Rackwick road. There were two of them. All they had to do was wait until they saw the coast was clear, then drive back with two vehicles. They could dump the car and be home long before anyone else was up and around."
"Good thinking," said Steve. "I bet that's what they did."
"I wonder who they were," murmured Alicia, thinking out loud rather than asking a question.
Again Frank thought about it before answering. "The bird watcher's been around the dig a fair bit. I bet one of the locals knows the guy. Everyone seems to know everyone else on Hoy."
"I could ask at the Post Office when I go to meet the ferry." said Steve. "They'd probably know."
"Right," said Alicia. "Now, about the professor. We don't know anything. If the police don't show up by 11.30 when Steve gets back from the ferry, he can drive to Linksness and go to the hotel. When they find he's missing and the car's gone, the police will start looking. Okay.?"
"Sure," said Frank, and the others nodded in agreement.
"Now we come to the sixty thousand whatever question. Questions. Firstly what do we do about this ring and the talisman? Secondly, where would the professor be likely to have hidden the other five or six rings and whatever else he salvaged?"
"He said he'd hidden them all 'a few seconds in the future'," answered Gill. "The question is how did he do it?"
"No. That's the third question," said Alicia. "We still have to answer the question 'Where?'."
Steve got up. "While you're discussing that particular needle in a potentially worldwide haystack, I've got work to do. I'll talk to Jamie or one of the others before I meet the ferry," he said, and went out, closing the door behind him. Glancing at the blue sky he thought that it looked like being another very pleasant day. He strolled over the field towards the dig. As he walked it occurred to him that nobody had answered question one either.
"Where's the briefcase?" asked Frank.
"I've got it in my room," answered Gill, "I'll go and get it." She got up and left the cabin.
"That's a thought," remarked Alicia. "We looked at it last night, but only by a combination of moonlight and torchlight."
"There may well not be any sort of clue at all. Then again there may be," said Frank. Gill re-entered the cabin carrying the briefcase.
"Here you are." She dumped it down on the table. Frank upended it and then checked the side pockets.
"Here are most of the things you mentioned, including the ring," he said, placing the knife from Alan's story and the ring to one side. "Two books, like you said. There're some papers here you didn't mention. We'll have to look through these later. Some plastic jars - incense you said. Tarot card. A Torch. An airline ticket from Aberdeen to Kirkwall ..... Hello. The stub of an airline to Jerez wherever that is. Some photographs ... Roman remains somewhere. An archaeological magazine. I suppose we'd best go through it later but it's probably just reading matter for the plane trip. That's about it. You knew him better than anyone here, Alicia. Anything here strike you as a clue?"
Alicia said gravely, "I thought I knew him reasonably well. It turns out I didn't know him at all. Clues. He wasn't married and seemed wrapped up in his work. He holidayed in Spain quite a bit. He may even have had a house or something there. Not on the Costas though. I remember he made some pretty derogatory remarks about the big resorts more than once. I don't that's a clue though. Probably not."
"Jerez?" asked Frank, "Isn't that Spain? It's a ticket for an airline called Aviaco for a flight from Madrid to Jerez and a BA flight from Gatwick to Madrid."
"Hereth," said Allan, giving it the Spanish pronunciation, "It's southern Spain where the sherry comes from. It's inland, away from the big resorts, I think. It's probably only leftover from a holiday though."
Frank thought they ought to get to work. "We'd better give some thought to what to do with the ring and amulet while we're working and see if Steve comes up with anything about those other two."
"You all start work," said Alicia. "I'm going to read through these papers in search of inspiration. You take charge for the moment, Frank."
"Okay by me," said Frank, and they all got up to leave. Alicia started with the bundle of papers.
Steve walked up to where the local men were carefully sifting through sand near the floor of the second house.
"Sorry to interrupt," he said, "I just wondered whether you know that bird watcher bloke is that keeps hanging around? I think he's afraid we'll disturb some nest of other."
"Oh aye. I know who you mean, though I don't rightly know a name," said Andy, looking up, "He's an off-comer with plenty of money. He rented Doug MacDonald's place from the start of April to the end of September. Doug has a farm with an old farmhouse on it. You must know it, you have the power line for the computer from there."
"Oh," said Steve and nodded.
"Doug did it up a year or two ago and started renting it out to holidaymakers. The man didn't seem to do much bird watching before you all came though. He seemed more interested in yon stone circle the professor was speaking about yesterday."
One of the others had stopped work and was listening. "Comes to that, where is Professor Harrington?" the man asked, glancing at his watch. "I thought he said he'd be back first thing this morning."
"Probably just sightseeing or something," said Steve. "Alicia's having kittens in there about everything being just right." He nodded vaguely towards the camp. "Anyway, I best be on my way, before I run foul of the boss."
"Aye?" Andy smiled and the men settled back to their work, while Steve walked back across the field enjoying the sunshine.
As he drove out of the field Steve saw the rest of the crowd leaving the cabin and waved to Gill.