Chapter 51
The Old Chest
Even though he had been prepared for its contents having little value, it created some anguish, contemplating that it had nothing but newspapers.
In those few seconds that Mortimer had glared down at its contents, looking as if it had been one of the saddest things that he had encountered, Bryson had made the decision that he would do everything that he could possibly do to acquire something of value there.
The next day, they met in the evening, at the library.
“Well, it’s another ‘dead end’!” Merton groaned. “Why did your uncle, or whoever left it, leave it locked, with that junk in it?”
“Perhaps it was the best place to put it!” Mortimer replied.
“It must have had some importance ...!” Merton pleaded, putting out his hand, and touching part of a newspaper.
“Let’s take a close look at the ‘junk’!”
Mortimer lifted the chest, and placed it near the end of the table. Then he tipped its contents over the floor, until it was empty.
It seemed just to have newspapers in it. But Bryson gradually recognized the covers of some books. They were in bad condition, but in good condition for the length of time that they had been there.
Bryson grasped a newspaper, noticing that Merton and Mortimer were waiting for him to do so. Then he gently cleaned away its dust and loose bits, and placed it down on the table. He turned pages, and lightly brushed them.
The contents were only the things that he had already seen there, but he wanted to confirm it.
“Do you think that they were your uncle’s?” Mortimer spoke, sitting silently, observing things.
“I don’t know. I cannot tell how old they are, but I’ll check to see what year they have ...”
Some of them were really old looking. And he found the tattered remains of the top of one, and glared at its faint print. “They’re from the nineteenth century!”
“So they’re not your uncle’s.”
Bryson picked up another, and flattened it out on the table, in front of him. And he started reading the headline, and he saw that it was a local newspaper, covering that region.
Then he caught sight of something familiar. In a column, at its edge, it mentioned Grovnor, and it gave a vivid description of a death in the district.
And the rest of the newspaper proved to be empty of anything else of interest.
He considered if they were worth anything as collector’s items – rare items! – even though most were in poor condition.
Another newspaper’s unusual looks grabbed his attention. Not because it was a different paper, but it was because it was from a different time. Its date showed that they had printed it fifteen years before the other.
It was apparent that someone had gone to considerable lengths to collect them. He had not realized that they had collected newspapers then. However, were they there because of their value?
He held up the newspaper, and handed it to Mortimer.
“Look! This is around fifteen years older than the other ...”
Merton and Mortimer observed the two papers, comparing them.
When he started searching through another, he realized that he had been wrong – they were not collector’s items! – the front page gave a breathtaking account of the police finding the bodies of some women in a wood in Grovnor, claiming that they had died of freight. It was identical to a legend that he had heard about the place. Yet what astonished him the most (with his reactions grabbing Merton and Mortimer’s attention) was that the wood that they had found them in was part of the castle’s grounds.
“What have you found?” Merton grunted, as he tried to grab his attention.
“I’m not sure,” he replied, glaring down at the other newspapers. “These are not collector’s items!”
“What?”
“Someone has kept them because they’ve accounts of deaths in them!”
“Why?”
“They’ve accounts of deaths, in these woods.”
Bryson held out the newspaper, and Merton and Mortimer read it, looking astonished, with glimmers of surprise at what they saw.
He gave more of them to them, and they sat reading the columns.
As Bryson read more, he was astounded to see that there were accounts with mentions of supernatural disturbances, and transcendent monsters. They had descriptions of immortal things that had plagued generations of people!
Bryson then collected the books that were there, before they reached for them, and placed them in a pile.
He stared at the first, wondering what he was looking at, almost preparing himself for what it held. Its cover had too much deterioration to see what it was.
He forced himself to turn the first pages.
“This has to have something to do with the deaths!” Merton uttered, calming himself, reading a newspaper that Bryson had not seen.
“Incredible!” Merton groaned loudly. “Perhaps we should show this to Inspector Bailey ...”
He stared at it, looking slightly pale.
Bryson started reading a more detailed account of one of the deaths that he had read in one of the newspapers. It had more accounts, but it only had one that had occurred there.
The other books were about the same as it, with other occurrences that were in the newspapers. They had been chosen from different decades. Some were full of stories of ghost sightings and other paranormal phenomena.
“Wait until you read this stuff!” he declared to them, knowing that the books would make them spellbound. “This is full of supernatural sightings, and with the stories that are in the newspapers. And they’re more full descriptions.”
Merton grabbed the books, trying to read their titles at the same time, almost dropping them.
“Look at this ...!” Mortimer gasped, reading an article. “This has an account of the death of a distinguished MP, Lord Lincoln, who had been a friend of Queen Victoria ...
“His remains were found, beside his dead horses, and coachman, at the side of a lane over there – after they had taken a short cut through this region, one night. The rest of the carriage was later found smashed to pieces and scattered throughout a wide area of open woodland!”
“There’s something in those woods!” Merton resumed.
“This place was so deadly ...” Bryson replied, realizing, by their behavior, that they now believed that something with a lethal nature could exist there.
“We should warn the others ...” Merton warned.
“We can show the evidence to Inspector Bailey!”
“Who wants to do that?” Bryson replied.
Merton stood, and went to the door. He looked about the corridor, to see if any of the others had arrived back.
“You’d better tell him only the basic facts!”
Mortimer picked up and held a book as though it were gold, not daring to damage it in any way, reading the information as fast as possible, as if someone might take it away from him. Yet if the police took the books, what would they possibly do with them? They would think that they were mad if they used them for anything. He had heard of the police supposedly using psychics to help them solve crimes, but they would never accept monsters, many centuries old, as the suspects.
Chapter 52
Rats in the Attic
Inspector Bailey shivered nervously, with his fingers touching his lower lip – until he grew satisfied.
“I’m not so sure that I believe these,” he argued, and marched out of the door.
He hastily left the library to join the others again.
He had checked out the library and was free to go back to the dining room.
Yet he had returned Bryson to reality again, and to face the truth. And that superstitious people could easily have manipulated the stories. The media had always created stories, playing around with normal occurrences. It was their job to do such things. And it sold newspapers!
Mortimer shrugged towards him.
It w
as too easy to miss things.
There could even be something in one of the other walls, at the bottom of a vent.
He would now help the others more.
There were more of them, and they had now spread out, checking all the right places that they came upon.
“I would like to question some of the locals about those legends,” Merton conferred silently to Mortimer, who was still excitedly reading one of the stories in a book. “If we can find the cause of this ...”
“Perhaps that’s a better idea ...” Mortimer replied, looking at Bryson. “I believe some of that legend that you told us – Robert told you – about his ancestor having the castle constructed on this site where something massacred them.”
“Whatever it is, it had to have already existed here!” Merton spoke, startled, recalling the story.
“We may not find out what it is though!” Mortimer replied.
“Did you read this?” Merton asked Bryson, pointing to a newspaper. “It’s about some trappers discovering the remains of two German tourists, in a wood over there.”
“What date does it have?”
“That’s strange!”
“What?”
“It happened in the thirties!” he spoke, glaring at it. “That means that it was left by someone who had lived here just before your uncle ...”
They returned to the books, hardly noticing anything else, completely absorbed in what they were doing, looking as if they did not know whether to laugh or be astounded at the other accounts that the books claimed had happened at other locations about the country.
They were the kinds of books that Bryson had expected to have pictures of people covered with white sheets superimposed over dark places in, with captions saying that they had been famous photographs of ghosts.
Again he considered if science in the twenty-first century and beyond would ever authenticate anything.
The darkness outside made him wonder why such things took place at night. It made people question the truth of them, as people’s imaginations contrived such things in dark places – where people could not properly see or prove that the things were there.
There had to be a logical reason why the disturbances at the castle took place at night. Perhaps it was more like a strange flaw in the fabric of the space-time continuum.
Was there some other dimension aligned with here?
Had it snared the beasts in the wood, trapping them forever, as entities? And had they gone raving mad, over centuries, dwelling on the world in the absence of light?
Chapter 53
The Unknown Motive
The lights illuminated the dining room, in the dimness caused by black clouds menacingly covering the sky.
Bryson sipped his coffee, as though he were suffering from the after-effects of a late night drinking session.
The room was almost empty, besides Inspector Bailey – sitting calmly opposite him.
Bryson had deliberately met him (noticing his routine of going there at specific times).
“What do you think that guy was doing in here?” he finally began, noticing that he was going to grow restless, and would surely leave.
“I don’t have the vaguest idea,” he mumbled, looking as though he missed having a newspaper to read.
“I believe that there’s something in this room!”
“What?”
“Why would he have gone to such lengths to enter the castle, and go straight in here?”
“So you have assumptions that it’s the money then?”
“I think that we should at least check it though!”
“If you wish,” he replied, suddenly seeing the opportunity to do something. “And do you think that my officers should help?”
Bryson firmly nodded, acknowledging his reply.
Inspector Bailey wandered out of the room, and he returned with his policemen.
“We’re looking for something that our visitor might have been trying to take, in this room.”
“It’s more than likely hidden or out of view,” Bryson continued, slightly amusing Inspector Bailey.
Even though there was the chance that he had carried out his mission, which could explain why he had left so fast, and might not have even heard them coming down.
The police went to where they had found an impression of the person’s shoe, at the fireplace.
It could not have been very high up as there had been no signs of him tampering with the seats or anything.
The room was empty looking: with large white walls, hardly any new furniture, and decorated mainly with antiques. Most of the small items were on the table, at the center of the room.
Why had he not just left it until they had gone from the castle though?
To his surprise, he watched Inspector Bailey swiftly leave where he had been, to go over to one of his men. The policemen then grouped about them. And Bryson moved there, and he saw an electronic device in his hand, which he had removed from between the brick spaces at the edge of the fireplace. The policeman had shone a pocket torch into it, trying look behind the bricks.
They viewed it without saying anything.
“It’s a microphone,” Inspector Bailey whispered, at his ear. “That guy has planted a bug in here!”
Bryson instantly shut up, feeling fairly astonished that the killer could be out there listening to them.
In fact, it was incredible! He had believed that he might have been watching them, and he had been listening to them.
The policeman, acknowledging something, carefully placed it back into its place of concealment, and they marched out of the door, and then out of the castle.
At the front of the building, he saw that Inspector Bailey now looked different, and he realized that they could finally have something. If they played their cards right, they could perhaps persuade the person to go somewhere, and trap him.
“What if there are more of those things about?”
Inspector Bailey realized the implications of it.
“Where do you think they would be?”
“The places that we occupied the most,” Bryson replied frankly, wishing that they would just solve the crime.
Two policemen left towards a police car, and Bryson left to go to the library, to warn them.
Everywhere that they occupied was a potential zone that could have the devices. But how good was the device? He had never seen it before, or tested what it could do. Yet if that guy had a van packed full of equipment out there, he could even pick up a good signal from the weakest device. Or receiving equipment nearby, where it could receive a powerful signal? Had that been what he had been doing in the wood?
He could recall devices that had been attached to animals – used to track them – and that they used satellite technology. The device could easily send out signals like a mobile phone.
For some reason, he accepted that they could not track the person listening in. Yet he was sure that the technology existed.
Bryson tried to think of the places near him that could have them, as he approached the library.
Merton and Mortimer were waiting for him.
“You took your time,” Merton explained, with a sudden smile.
“We’ve found something. But I cannot discuss it at the moment!”
Merton wondered why, and dropped his book.
“We’ve looked through it enough ...” Mortimer assured him.
“We’re going to put the equipment up on the top floor!” Mortimer uttered, standing.
“That’s a good idea,” Bryson replied. “I’ll tell you what we have found, once we’re up there.”
Mortimer thought about it, and dismissed it.
Bryson wondered if there was anything up there, as they left to move the equipment.
Chapter 54
The Bugs
Bryson had vivid recollections of his original thoughts of the upper floor, as they entered the room. And he had sneaking suspicions that they were going to be returning there at night.
As the scientists started setting up the equipment, he considered the others’ reactions to them going there.
“What were those policemen doing then?” Merton eventually asked.
“What?” Bryson asked.
“They’re searching the rooms!”
“It must remain a secret ...!”
“Why?” Mortimer asked, trying to see him.
“They searched the dining room, where that intruder had been last night, and they found a bug hidden next to the fireplace.”
“He bugged the dining room?”
“And they believe that that there could be more of them about the castle.”
“So what are they going to do then?” Merton asked.
“I’m not sure yet. But they may be able to catch him! They left it in the dining room, and they’re searching the castle for more.”
“We’d better watch what we talk about down there!”
Bryson noticed that they were already starting to turn silent.
Mortimer looked about him for something, and remembered something. “That camera is still out there!”
Bryson instantly froze! He had forgotten it.
“That’s right,” Merton answered, seeing his expression, “that intruder came through that tunnel last night.”
“He should show up on it!”
“But he went through there twice. Once to enter, and the second to leave.”
“And it would have filmed the reporter, and anyone that might have passed there.”
Merton and Mortimer rushed about setting up their equipment, at the exact positions that they had carefully thought out, and had done before.
“Let’s go and fetch it then,” Mortimer said, once he had finished something.
“It could snow!”
Chapter 55
The Forgotten Camera
The police had affected the others with their behavior, and searching all over the castle. Yet Bryson was positive that they did not suspect what they were doing.
The Lost Treasure Map Series Page 19