Bay Tree Cottage

by Anna Jacobs

  The man must have been strong, because Emil was no weakling. But even had he expected such a vicious attack, he’d have been no match for this brute.

  With a roar of anger, the man kicked and punched him, sending him hurtling across the living room of the flat. From somewhere in the gallery a woman screamed. Then, as his opponent smashed a chair down on him, Emil heard another scream from closer at hand and a plea to stop.

  He struggled to roll away but the room seemed to waver round him and pain exploded in his side, sending him spinning into darkness.

  Nell and Ginger heard the screams from just outside the street, where they were still keeping watch, and instinctively started running towards the first house in Saffron Lane. Someone sounded to be in trouble.

  Another scream rang out.

  Make that big trouble.

  The door was open and they could see a figure standing just inside the gallery. It could have been either a man or a woman, but the screams had come from there and had sounded more like those of a woman.

  They were close enough to see a big man appear in the doorway of the flat. Ginger dragged Nell out of sight to one side as he ran across the gallery towards the outer door.

  He sent the person who’d screamed tumbling backwards like a human skittle when she tried to bar his way.

  As the man ran away down Saffron Lane, the woman struggled to her feet, sobbing.

  ‘The two of us can cope with one woman,’ Ginger said grimly. ‘Lock that outer door once we’re in, so he can’t return.’

  As Nell used the catch to do this, the woman saw them, shrieked and ran towards the stairs.

  Ginger pounded after her, catching hold of her leg before she’d got halfway up them and keeping hold in spite of being kicked. The woman’s struggles made them both roll down the last few stairs again, by which time Nell was waiting at the bottom to help hold the stranger.

  From the distance came the welcome sound of a police siren and they could hear someone running down the street towards them.

  ‘Open the door!’ the person yelled. ‘It’s me.’

  ‘That’s Abbie. What’s she doing here?’

  They dragged their prisoner to the door and let Abbie in.

  ‘I was worried about Emil,’ she gasped. ‘Where is he?’

  Nell shouted, ‘Leave this one to us and check inside the flat. I think Emil’s been hurt.’

  Abbie was off across the room at once.

  Turning back, Nell yanked away the balaclava from the woman, who was still struggling violently to get away from them. ‘It’s Charlene Brody from the council!’

  ‘I don’t care who it is,’ Ginger panted. ‘She just bit me. If she does it again, I’ll slap her face good and hard.’

  Nell managed to grasp one flailing arm and twist it behind Charlene’s back. She’d seen that done on TV in police shows, and was surprised when it worked. Charlene yelled in pain and stopped struggling. But she continued to sob.

  ‘What do we do with her?’ Ginger panted. ‘I daren’t leave you on your own with her or I’d go and fetch something to tie her up with from my flat.’

  ‘We’ll have to wait till the police arrive.’

  They heard a groan from the flat.

  ‘It sounds as if Emil’s been hurt,’ Nell worried. ‘Who was that brute? Hey, you! What was he looking for?’

  Their captive erupted into hysterics at that, weeping and yelling incoherently. Nell still kept tight hold of the arm. She wasn’t letting the woman get away.

  Charlene Brody might work for the council but that didn’t give her the right to be breaking into people’s houses in the middle of the night. And the guy who’d presumably attacked Emil must have come with her. How had they got in?

  She’d have to trust Abbie to cope with Emil, could only hope he’d be all right.

  Iain and Angus saw the running figure before he saw them. A police car came into view and when he tried to change direction to avoid it, that gave them the opportunity to grab him.

  The car screeched to a halt beside them and a voice ordered them to stop fighting.

  Relieved, they obeyed orders but when they did, their captive rolled to one side and tried to run away. He only got a few yards before a police officer tackled him.

  Shrill screams could be heard faintly in the distance.

  ‘I think there’s another intruder in Number 1,’ Angus said. ‘Can we go and help, Officer?’

  ‘No, sir. I don’t want you getting injured. And you might just run away like he tried to do.’

  ‘I shan’t run away. I’m the owner of Dennings.’

  ‘Ah. So you say.’

  ‘There’s a man recovering from a serious operation in Number 1. We have to check that he’s all right.’

  ‘It sounded like a woman screaming, not a man.’

  ‘Sorry. I’m going to find out.’ Angus took off, afraid Nell might have gone against his wishes and got involved. He found one of the police officers running beside him.

  ‘Go back,’ yelled the officer.

  ‘Not if someone’s hurting my wife.’

  Fear for Nell seemed to add speed to Angus’s feet and he took the lead.

  When Abbie ran into the flat, she found Emil lying on the floor, groaning and clutching his side. She didn’t wait to ask what was wrong, could see that he was in severe pain, so pulled out her phone and rang for an emergency ambulance. Then she knelt beside him, all the time keeping an eye on the door in case another intruder came in.

  ‘What can I do to help you, Emil?’

  ‘Nothing. He hit old wound. Going to be sick. Pain bad.’

  She managed to hold him in a position to vomit on the floor, then pulled him gently to one side and dived towards the kitchen sink to moisten some sheets of kitchen roll and bring them back to help him wipe his mouth.

  After that she could only hold him in her arms till a police officer walked in and knelt beside them.

  Emil explained in halting phrases that he’d been hit in a place where he had a weakness from a recent major operation.

  And all the time Abbie cradled him against her, willing him to be all right, praying that the damage wasn’t serious.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Angus saw Nell as soon as he entered Number 1. She was keeping a wary watch on a woman who seemed to be having hysterics. It took him only a minute to realise who the woman was, and by that time the police officer was insisting on his attention, asking what the hell was going on.

  It was Nell who answered. ‘This is Charlene Brody, who works for the council. She and a man broke into this house tonight. She doesn’t have a key or permission to come here, but she’s been trying to get in for a while, even though the heritage specialists are dealing with our finds.’

  Someone called from the flat, ‘We have an injured man here, sir. An ambulance has been called but I’m checking that it’s on its way.’

  The officer moved across the room to the door of the flat.

  Angus followed him and saw Abbie holding Emil. ‘That’s Emil Kinnaird,’ he told the officer. ‘He and his father are involved in opening a museum upstairs in what used to be a secret communications room in the war. He does have a key to this house and permission to come and go here.’

  Ginger had let go of Charlene, who tried to get to her feet, but the police officer was the only one who reached out to help her.

  She flinched away from him so violently she fell backwards, lying on the ground again and wailing even more loudly.

  ‘I think she’s having a total mental breakdown,’ Ginger told him softly. ‘She probably needs medical attention, too.’

  An ambulance pulled into the street and Ginger went to the door to beckon to the paramedics.

  They came inside and were about to go towards Charlene when the officer pointed to the door of the flat. ‘I think the man in the back room needs checking first.’

  Within minutes they’d fetched a stretcher and lifted Emil on to it, and were wheeling him out to
the ambulance. One paused to run a quick check on Charlene and nodded to the police officer. ‘You were right. Hysterics. She can wait for attention.’

  That set off more incoherent shouts and rolling about.

  Abbie followed the paramedics outside. ‘I’m going with him to the hospital.’

  ‘You can follow in your car.’

  ‘I don’t have a car here,’ she lied. ‘Can’t I come in the ambulance?’

  He hesitated. ‘Only close relatives are allowed to do that.’

  She didn’t even hesitate. ‘Well, I’m his fiancée. That’s surely close enough.’

  Emil managed a faint smile and didn’t contradict her, sighing and closing his eyes.

  She sat on a little pull-down seat at the rear of the ambulance, watching him.

  He reached out his hand and she took it, holding it all the way to the hospital.

  Only when they had wheeled him away to be seen by a doctor did she think to pull out her phone and ring her sister to tell Keziah what was happening and ask her to keep Louis with her.

  Then she sat and worried. And wondered about herself. Why had she been so reluctant to let a relationship start between her and Emil? Because she was a fool, that’s why. Emil was … special. Yes, that was the word. He even got on with Louis, who kept talking about him and asking when they were going to see him and the toys again.

  She wasn’t going to keep being a fool, though, Abbie decided. Her heart had literally lurched in her chest when she saw Emil curled up on the floor, badly injured.

  Not all men were like her rotten ex. Emil definitely wasn’t.

  One police car stayed at the scene to take statements, while the other took Charlene away.

  After they’d explained what had happened – to the best of their knowledge, anyway – Angus took a police officer out of the house via the secret room and tunnel. At the other end of the tunnel the officer used the keys taken from the male intruder to lock the grille and outer door of the electricity substation. The other officer had driven to meet them there.

  ‘Who’d have thought this was all underneath the road?’ the officer marvelled.

  ‘There’s going to be a small museum in the secret room.’

  ‘I’ll be bringing my kids to see it, then. I served in the army for a while and I take Lest we forget very seriously. I’m making sure they know what they owe to our ancestors. My father lost an uncle in the Second World War. We were lucky. He was our only family casualty.’

  ‘I’m glad for you.’

  Nell was looking exhausted and the officers kindly drove her and Angus back to the big house before going back on duty.

  Angus brought Elise and Stacy up to date on what they knew about this puzzle, after which the two artists got into Stacy’s car and returned to their own houses.

  ‘I never expected this sort of thing to happen here,’ Elise said.

  ‘You won’t be too nervous to sleep from now on?’

  ‘Nah. Too excited tonight, perhaps. And I always keep a poker near my bed. There’s something very reassuring about a poker. I’d better have some hot milk, though, to relax me.’

  ‘You’re amazing.’

  ‘For a woman of my age?’ Elise teased.

  ‘Well, you must admit most women in their seventies don’t take intruders in their stride.’

  ‘Most women in their seventies have had to cope with far worse than intruders, my dear. People forget that and often treat them like children. It makes me and my friends furious.’

  ‘You’re such a good role model for me.’

  Elise chuckled. ‘Nice to be useful still.’

  Iain stayed on at Number 1 with Ginger after everyone else had left, standing at the door to watch them go and staying there looking up at the sky as dawn started to gild the shadowy greyness that still shrouded the grounds. ‘What a night!’

  ‘We came safely through it. I hope Emil is all right.’

  ‘I do too. If anyone had hurt you I wouldn’t have been answerable.’

  ‘I’d have felt the same if anyone had hurt you. But I couldn’t help feeling sorry for that poor woman who had a breakdown, even if she has been a pain in the neck for Angus and Nell.’

  ‘The police were surprisingly gentle with her, weren’t they? Kind, even.’

  ‘Yes. I was glad about that. Whatever it was she’d been trying to do tonight must have been an act of desperation.’

  They heard a car approaching.

  ‘What now?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s only Stacy bringing Elise back. I recognise the sound of her engine.’

  They waved to the two women, who were yawning as they went into their houses.

  As silence fell once more on the little street, Iain said, ‘I shall always look at this street and Bay Tree Cottage with fondness. Wasn’t it lucky we met here?’

  ‘Yes. Very lucky. Do I hear a “but” in what you’re saying?’

  ‘Yes. I’d rather we live in my house once we’re married, though, if you don’t mind, Ginger, love. This flat is a bit small for two.’

  ‘I agree. But I’ve had a happy respite here, found myself, as some might say.’ She reached up to kiss his cheek. ‘As well as finding you.’

  He gave another huge yawn. ‘Let’s go and get some sleep. I’ve no doubt we’ll discover what this was all about later today.’

  Nell rang round in the early afternoon to invite all the occupants of Saffron Lane to tea. ‘We’ve got some explanations for what went on,’ she said. ‘The police have been in touch with Angus, asking questions and supplying some answers. It helps sometimes to be a landowner, even of a small chunk of land like ours, and to come from a noble family, even if you are, as Angus says, just a twig on a lower branch of the family tree.’

  She let that sink in, then asked, ‘Have you seen Cutler today? I can’t get through to him.’

  ‘No. Do you want me to knock on his door and give him a message?’ Ginger asked.

  ‘Would you? You’d better ask him to join us. We can hardly leave him out and he hasn’t answered his phone.’

  But as Ginger opened her door to go and see if she could find him, he came out of his house, looking haggard.

  ‘Hey! Just a moment!’ she called.

  He turned to scowl at her. ‘What do you want?’

  ‘You’re not answering your phone. Nell wants us all to go up to tea at the big house so that she can explain what’s been going on.’

  He didn’t even hesitate. ‘Tell her no. I’ve had enough of the Dennings and this damned place. I have an appointment today that’s much more important than listening to them rabbit on about this stupid place. I know what happened to me and I don’t care about what happened to the rest of you. I’m going to find another job somewhere safe.’

  ‘Tell her yourself.’

  He opened the door of his van. ‘Can’t. I don’t have time.’

  She watched open-mouthed as his car pulled away, narrowly missing Iain’s vehicle.

  Iain was standing in the doorway keeping an eye on her and listening. ‘What’s that fool doing now?’

  ‘Who knows? We’re all invited to tea and explanations at the big house but he’s not even taking the time to refuse. He has something much more important to do, apparently.’

  ‘Important to him. He believes the universe revolves around him.’ He tapped his forehead. ‘I think he’s a very strange man.’

  ‘Tell me about it. Good riddance to him, as far as I’m concerned. I hope he does find somewhere else to live. Today’s gathering will be more pleasant without him, that’s for sure. We’ll stroll up, eh?’

  He plonked a kiss on her cheek, as he often did. ‘On condition you hold my hand all the way.’

  Emil woke in hospital a few hours after he’d been carted away in an ambulance to find Abbie sitting beside his bed staring at him.

  ‘How do you feel?’ she asked at once.

  He lay considering this and a faint, floaty feeling suggested they’d given him painkiller
s. He felt his side and touched only flesh. ‘They didn’t have to operate?’

  ‘No. They checked things out and they think you’ll be all right when the bruising goes. It’s not bleeding inside, apparently. What was it caused by originally?’

  ‘Cancer. The surgeon thought he’d got it all, but said I had to go carefully, because it’d involved quite a major bit of work in that area.’

  ‘It’s wonderful what they can do these days. Aren’t you glad you weren’t born a hundred years ago?’

  ‘Yes. Very.’ He reached out and she put her hand in his willingly. ‘It doesn’t seem to worry you that I’ve had cancer. Some people shrink away from me, as if it’s catching.’

  She shrugged. ‘Life gives and takes away. You just have to do your best with what lands on your plate.’ She flushed and added, ‘I’ve been stupid, though, trying to avoid men because one rat hurt me.’

  ‘Understandable. But perhaps you’ll let me get to know you better so that I can prove I’m not a rat. You and Louis. He’s a great little lad.’

  ‘He thinks a lot of you, too.’

  Emil closed his eyes but kept hold of her hand. ‘Where is he?’

  ‘With Keziah.’

  ‘Then can you stay with me a little longer? Till I know when I’m going to be released.’ His smile vanished. ‘That can’t happen soon enough for me. I’ve had enough of hospitals, more than enough.’

  The door to his room opened just then and a nurse came in.

  ‘Oh, good. You’re awake, Mr Kinnaird. How are you feeling?’

  ‘A lot better,’ he said firmly.

  ‘Perhaps you could leave us for a few minutes so that we can check that, Ms Turrell? But don’t go away. We may be able to release Mr Kinnaird if there’s someone at home to keep an eye on him.’

  ‘Fine.’ Abbie left them to it and took the opportunity to phone her sister. ‘Sorry not to have got back to you. I fell asleep.’