by SL Beaumont
James pushed his hand through his long fringe and groaned. “God.” He stomped out of Andy’s hotel room to his own, directly opposite, to get his phone.
“What were you doing out with Amber anyway?” Andy called through the open doors. “You know that girl’s trouble.”
“Rescuing her,” James called, finding his phone under a pile of clothes on the floor of his room. He was met with Andy’s incredulous look as he walked back across the slightly shabby hotel hallway.
“No, really. I was here chilling, while you were out with Anna, when I got a frantic call from Amber, totally freaking out. Could I come and get her from some club in Covent Garden. She was in trouble. What could I do?”
“You’re a regular knight in shining armour,” Andy replied.
“Well when I got there, she was really wasted. She reckoned that someone had spiked her drink. So I took her back to her hotel, deposited her with their manager and came back here. But,” he broke off groaning. “Shit, man, this just gets worse.” He held up his phone to show Andy more photos posted online of him helping Amber into a cab at the club and then out of the cab at her hotel and a video of the two of them disappearing through the front doors. “I bet there are none of me returning here alone.”
“Probably not, dude. There’s no story in that,” Andy agreed.
James sat down. “I think I may need to pop up to Oxford before tonight’s gig,” he said. “Damage control.”
Chapter 4
Monday 5th December
Oxford
“The original feud involved a treasure map,” Michael said. Stephanie stared at him. “Your great-grandfather and James’s great-grandfather apparently discovered a treasure map in an old trunk when they were teenagers. They spent several years trying to find the hidden treasure before they had a major falling out—over a woman, according to David’s memoir.”
Across the table Eric glanced at his watch and snorted. “What? Pirate treasure?”
Michael flushed an embarrassed red. “Probably not pirates, more likely smugglers’ loot.”
Stephanie nodded. “Could be possible. The area around Carlswick was a haven for smugglers back in the day. There are all sorts of stories of daring escapes from the customs men and of the villagers helping the smugglers to hide their contraband.”
Eric looked at his watch again and with a sigh pushed his chair back and stood up. “Well, I’ll leave you two to your fairy tales. Glad you’re feeling a bit better, Steph,” he said.
She smiled up at him. “Thanks, Eric, I appreciate your support this morning. You’d better email the details of that essay.”
“Sure thing. Take care.”
Michael frowned as Eric walked away. “What happened this morning, Steph?”
* * *
As soon as the door of the bookstore banged shut Eric pulled out his mobile and scrolled through the address book before settling on a number. The call was answered immediately.
“It’s all going to plan. She trusts me.” He listened and nodded. “Okay, but after this we’re even.” He ended the call, pocketed his phone and turning up his collar started walking back to New College.
* * *
Stephanie sighed and showed Michael the photo of James on her phone. Michael looked a little stricken. “You okay?” he said. “That won’t be real, you know. James is nuts about you.”
She nodded. “So what happened to the treasure map?” she asked, changing the subject.
“When they fell out, they ripped it in two and took half each, so that neither could find the treasure without the other. David, it would appear, found your family’s half of the map.”
“Where did he leave it?” she asked.
“That’s the thing. He left some obscure clue that said ‘the map will be protected by the remaining two’,” Michael said, signalling speech marks in the air with his fingers as he spoke.
Stephanie felt a slow grin spreading across her face, which matched the one plastered across Michael’s. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Well, if you’re thinking that we have a little project to occupy us over the Christmas break, then I am,” he replied. “There’s one other thing.” He leaned forward. Stephanie mirrored his movement, so that they had their heads together. “I’ve been keeping an eye on the Knox Antiques website.”
“Have you now?” Stephanie said, giving him a mock-stern look.
“And, after months of inactivity, there has been an online sale. A rather large one,” he said.
“How?” she started to ask, but then held up her hand. “Actually, best I don’t know. But I would hate to see your Oxford education ruined because of your sideline in hacking.”
“I think we should take a quick trip to London and visit Knox’s shop. Maybe someone is still running it in his absence. It might give us a clue as to where he’s hiding out,” Michael suggested, ignoring her comment.
“Nah, the police will be checking those leads,” Stephanie replied.
“After a couple of months? They will have moved onto other things,” Michael answered. “We can ask James to get us a key to the store, now that he’s back in the country.”
“You’ve thought all this through, haven’t you?
Michael grinned. “You haven’t asked who.”
“Who? What do ya mean?”
“Who made the online purchase?”
Stephanie sighed. “Okay—you win. Who?”
“None other than Dr Margot Pierce, you know, the woman you met at the National Gallery,” he said. “Remember her? She was doing deals with Alex over the summer. But this transaction appears to be a personal one and not on behalf of the Gallery.”
Stephanie was surprised. “Yeah, I remember her. I asked her how you establish the provenance of a painting and she was such a snooty bitch. Just how much money are we talking about?”
“Several hundred thousand pounds,” Michael replied.
“No way. Where would she get money like that?”
“My thoughts exactly. It looks like money laundering to me,” he said.
Chapter 5
Midday, Monday 5th December
James drove the band’s Kombi van through the stone archway which separated the grounds of New College from the outside world. The porter checked his identification and after making a note of his name, directed him towards the car park. James pulled to a stop in an empty parking space. His mobile rang as he switched the ignition off. He tossed his headphones, the latest gift from the record company, onto the passenger seat and retrieved it from his blue leather jacket. The caller ID announced that it was Andy phoning.
“Mate, I’ve just arrived,” he said, looking through the windscreen at the magnificent old stone buildings which made up New College.
“Good,” Andy replied. “But I thought I should let you know that Cam has called a band meeting immediately before sound check tonight and insists that we all must attend.”
“Jeez, what does our esteemed manager want this time?” James asked as his attention was taken by a group of students walking past, their arms full of books.
“I’m guessing that it will be about becoming tabloid fodder.”
James swore. “I would’ve thought that anything that raised our profile would have been good with him.”
“You okay, dude?” Andy said. “You’re sounding very cynical all of a sudden.”
James watched as the students walked up the steps of the building in front of him and disappeared through a sturdy wooden door, which banged shut behind them. “Y’know, I never intended that the band would take the place of uni. I always assumed that I would do them concurrently.”
“I know. But with the success of the single we’ve been so in demand to play festivals and get the album together that none of us have had time to do a lot else,” Andy said. “Hey, you’re not thinking of quitting, are you?”
“God, no. I’m loving the ride. I just never expected it to happen this quickly,” James said.
“Ignore me,” James said, grabbing his jacket, stepping from the van and locking the door. He pulled his wraparound sunglasses over his eyes and gazed around as he started walking toward the quadrangle where Stephanie had been fortunate enough to be assigned a room. “I guess I am feeling a little intimidated by this place. They even dress differently to us here,” he said looking down at his black leather trousers, Chelsea boots, tight grey long-sleeved sweater and the paisley scarf which had been his father’s, wrapped several times around his neck. “I just hope Steph doesn’t think less of me after spending so much time surrounded by academics.”
Andy snorted. “Dude, the girl is crazy about you. Don’t go looking for trouble where there is none.”
“Thanks, mate.” James lowered his voice to a whisper as he entered the quad through a smaller archway, his footsteps echoing off the sandstone buildings surrounding him on all sides. “Gotta go. I’ve got to resist the urge to go running across the manicured lawns,” he said, grinning as he spotted a ‘Keep off the Grass’ sign.
He knocked on Stephanie’s door a few moments later. He leaned against the doorframe and waited. After several seconds the door opened. She broke into a big smile, her eyes taking him in.
“Hey, this is a surprise,” she said, reaching out to pull him into the room.
“I thought these places had rules about this kind of thing,” he asked in a stage whisper, pretending to look nervously up and down the corridor.
Stephanie raised an eyebrow. “And just what sort of thing are we talking about?”
James stepped into the room, kicked the door shut behind him and pulled Stephanie into his arms. “This kind of thing,” he replied, kissing her. “God, I have missed you,” he said, resting his forehead against hers.
“Really? If I believed everything I read, I would say that you had plenty of willing stand-ins,” she replied pulling away.
James grabbed her arm and gently pulled her back to him. “I was set up. It was a publicity stunt for the tour. I wasn’t out with Amber last night.”
“Yeah, right,” she said.
He leaned in to kiss her again. But this time she stepped back out of his reach. “Okay—why don’t you tell me?”
* * *
Just after three pm, Stephanie walked James out to his car. As they rounded the corner hand in hand they encountered Eric coming the other way.
Stephanie smiled at him and introduced James.
“Has he come to confess all?” Eric asked. “I hope you didn’t make it too easy for him, Steph.”
“Excuse me?” James bristled.
“Stephanie was most upset this morning, thanks to you,” Eric replied. “Bit of friendly advice—careful or you will lose her.”
Stephanie glared at Eric.
“If I need advice regarding MY girlfriend, I’ll ask for it,” James said, his lip curled.
Eric shrugged. “It’s your funeral. See ya, Steph.” He continued walking to the quad.
“Who the hell is that?” James snapped.
“One of my tutors,” Stephanie mumbled.
Chapter 6
Saturday 17th December
“Hi, Grandma,” Stephanie called as she parked her wheelie suitcase in the hall and closed the front door with her foot. She gazed fondly around the entrance hall with its oak panelled walls and mosaic tiled floor which led to a wide curving staircase. Her grandmother’s home, Wakefield House, was a two-storeyed red brick manor house on the edge of the village of Carlswick.
“You’re early, dear,” Ellie Cooper exclaimed as she walked into the hallway. Ellie was an elegant woman in her eighties, immaculately groomed with soft white hair brushed off her face.
“You know Michael,” Stephanie grinned as she pulled off her gloves and unwound the red and black striped scarf from around her neck
“Indeed I do,” Ellie agreed with a slight sniff of disapproval. “Is he still driving that old MG?”
Stephanie grinned. “Of course. You know how proud he is of the Roadster. Unfortunately it was too cold to have the top down today.” She unbuttoned her overcoat and hung it on the coat stand. “I can never get enough of the view as you come around that final bend into Carlswick and suddenly there are the castle ruins on the hill. It’s magnificent.”
Ellie embraced Stephanie and led her towards the kitchen. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please,” Stephanie replied, her attention taken by the stacks of photos and paintings leaning against one wall. “What are all these? Are you having a clear out?”
“No. I’ve had the sitting room redecorated. The handyman is coming by this afternoon to rehang some of them. I thought you could help me rearrange those ones,” Ellie said, pointing to a large box of smaller framed photos. “There are too many and I need help deciding which ones to put away.”
“Sure,” Stephanie replied. “Have you got a Christmas tree yet? I could decorate that too.”
Ellie smiled. “It’s being delivered this afternoon. I had hoped that you’d want to help.”
“I am so looking forward to spending Christmas in Carlswick. I hope it snows. The only other time I remember coming from New Zealand for Christmas, it rained, like the whole time, no snow.”
“Snow is forecast,” Ellie replied, pouring two steaming cups of coffee from the percolator on the stove, and after adding milk handing one to her granddaughter.
“Fantastic. I see that there is an enormous Christmas tree in the grounds of the castle,” she said, accepting the cup with a smile of thanks. “It would look amazing covered in snow.”
A knock at the door signalled the arrival of the handyman. While Ellie discussed the positioning of the various large paintings, Stephanie took her bag up to her room on the first floor and unpacked. She set up her laptop and books on the little desk under the window and looked outside. It was cold and grey, so unlike the long hot days she had spent here last summer. The cloud had rolled in low and thick so she could only just make out the shapes of the houses in the village. She shivered and pulled a warmer jumper from her little walk-in wardrobe. It got so cold in England in winter. She used to think that winters in Auckland were chilly but they were tropical compared to this.
While the handyman hung the paintings, Stephanie and Ellie unpacked the large box of framed photos and spread them out on the big wooden table in the kitchen. It took a long time. Ellie had a story to tell about the people in each one.
Stephanie held up an old black and white photo of Ellie and her siblings, Sophie and David.
“You were close to your brother and sister, right?” she asked her grandmother.
Ellie sighed and smiled. “I adored Sophie. And David and I became very close after her death. Even after I married, he maintained a room here in the house, as well as his London apartment. Your father will remember him being here when he was growing up.”
“I wish I could have met him,” Stephanie replied.
“He would have adored you. He was really into family history. As he got older he would spend a lot of time in the sitting room rearranging and looking at all of these old photos.”
Stephanie frowned and turned the frame over in her hands before placing it back on the table.
“Grandma, this is going to sound like a strange question, but do you know anything about a treasure map?” she asked.
“Well now, that takes me back a number of years. There was some family legend about one, but once again that was David’s interest not mine,” Ellie replied. “Why do you ask?”
“Do you remember that Michael and I were reading David’s memoir at the library back in the summer?”
Ellie’s soft features creased with a frown. “When all that other business was going on? I remember.”
“Well, in it David mentions the story behind the treasure map and it appears that he found it and then hid it again, in plain sight. He wr
ites what appears to be a riddle to cover up his hiding place,” Stephanie said.
Ellie smiled. “That sounds like David. He and Edward, Sophie’s fiancé, were always into puzzles and riddles and games. What did it say?”
“Something like, ‘The map will be protected by the remaining two’?”
Ellie shook her head. “No idea.”
They sorted the photos into two piles; the ones to display and the ones to store in the attic. Stephanie began to restack those being stored into the box.
“Grandma, these photos have given me an idea. The remaining two could be you and David,” she said. “Can I carefully remove the back of each frame before we put them away?”
“Of course.”
A loud bang from outside startled them both.
“Here’s the tree,” Ellie said, pulling back the net curtain to peer out the window. “Now, I’m not having the one they just dropped,” she said, marching out of the room towards the front door.
Stephanie smiled at her feisty grandmother and carefully picked up the nearest photo. It was of a family group pre-war. She turned it over and carefully twisted the small tacks holding the backing card in place and removed it. Nothing except the photo. She quickly put it back together and placed it in the box. She repeated the process with the next ten frames.
“Not so smart at solving riddles after all are you, Stephanie Cooper,” she murmured aloud.
Loud voices in the hallway brought Stephanie back to reality and she jumped up to help her grandmother.
“Hey you.” A strong arm encircled her waist when she stepped into the hallway.
“Hey yourself,” she replied, twisting around and smiling up at James. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard you’d arrived and I couldn’t stay away,” he said.
“I’m glad,” Stephanie murmured, reaching up on her tiptoes to accept a lingering kiss. “I didn’t think you were back for a few days yet.”