time.
He crouched down and took out the little penknife he liked to use when locks got in the way …
Click, click, click — the tumblers inside the lock mechanism dropped.
Always easier second time round, he thought.
He turned the handle on the battered old door, pushed it open — turned on his phone as a flashlight — and went through into the castle.
*
It only took a couple of minutes for Jack to find the old servants’ staircase that led from the cellar up into the main house.
The house was owned by the FitzHenry family. But Jack knew it should be empty.
He bypassed the door that led to the infamous ‘House of Oddities’ — the weird museum that featured heavily on the Cherringham tourist trail …
Once experienced — never forgotten … thought Jack, remembering the case that had first brought him to Combe Castle. And the eccentric owners — Lord and Lady FitzHenry.
When he’d arrived the day before, the caterers had told him that the FitzHenrys had been offered a hotel suite — as well as a generous fee — to evacuate the castle for the duration of the shoot.
Should have the place to myself, thought Jack.
He saw a door at the top of the stone steps. Jack gently pushed it open and looked around.
He was in the back kitchens.
He listened to the house breathing …
Not a sound.
He gently shut the door behind him and headed through into the deserted main house and then into the sitting room. In the far corner of the room, he spotted another door which he guessed led to the Great Hall.
Taking care to stay away from the windows, he walked over to the door and gently tried the handle.
It opened.
Nice and easy … so far …
He walked through — and was back in the room where Zoë had had her attack.
Now to find the flask …
*
But the flask wasn’t there. Jack could see the room had been tidied, swept. Otherwise it looked exactly as it had when he’d left with Zoë that morning.
The cameras had gone — but the dolly and track were still there, plus boxes of equipment, with the floor still showing the bits of coloured tape the actors used to find their marks.
He doubted anyone would have thrown the flask away. Everyone must have seen Zoë with it — her constant companion.
So either it had been stolen — which, in spite of what Gary said, seemed unlikely — or it had been removed deliberately — taken — he believed — by whoever had used it to drug Zoë Harding.
But without the flask it would be impossible to pin the incident on anyone. No prints, no residue of the drug to prove that all these accidents were really a campaign to destroy the young actress.
Jack sat on one of the camera boxes and looked around the room. Somehow, someone had spiked Zoë’s flask. Probably someone who’d been in this very room when they were shooting. For all Jack knew, he’d been looking at the culprit all morning.
But so far Jack had only managed to speak to the prop man and the guy who made the bacon sandwiches.
I’m outta the loop, he thought. Need to find the players and get up close.
But how?
And then he remembered what Gary had said: the crew were down by the river setting up for the night shoot.
If the key crew were going to be anywhere — it would be down there where the production budget was being burned.
He got up from the box and headed back into the house …
12. Many a True Word …
Jack crept slowly along the stone battlements, making sure to keep his head down behind the parapet.
If the guys at One Police Plaza could see me now, he thought. Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur — the real deal!
This was like being in a movie.
No, it was more real than that …
He reached a slit in the ancient stone — designed for firing arrows at the enemy across the river — and peered through.
Nobody on the sliver of grass below — which separated the castle from the black waters of the fast-flowing Thames — would be able to see him up here. But he could see clear
He crouched down and took out the little penknife he liked to use when locks got in the way …
Click, click, click — the tumblers inside the lock mechanism dropped.
Always easier second time round, he thought.
He turned the handle on the battered old door, pushed it open — turned on his phone as a flashlight — and went through into the castle.
*
It only took a couple of minutes for Jack to find the old servants’ staircase that led from the cellar up into the main house.
The house was owned by the FitzHenry family. But Jack knew it should be empty.
He bypassed the door that led to the infamous ‘House of Oddities’ — the weird museum that featured heavily on the Cherringham tourist trail …
Once experienced — never forgotten … thought Jack, remembering the case that had first brought him to Combe Castle. And the eccentric owners — Lord and Lady FitzHenry.
When he’d arrived the day before, the caterers had told him that the FitzHenrys had been offered a hotel suite — as well as a generous fee — to evacuate the castle for the duration of the shoot.
Should have the place to myself, thought Jack.
He saw a door at the top of the stone steps. Jack gently pushed it open and looked around.
He was in the back kitchens.
He listened to the house breathing …
Not a sound.
He gently shut the door behind him and headed through into the deserted main house and then into the sitting room. In the far corner of the room, he spotted another door which he guessed led to the Great Hall.
Taking care to stay away from the windows, he walked over to the door and gently tried the handle.
It opened.
Nice and easy … so far …
He walked through — and was back in the room where Zoë had had her attack.
Now to find the flask …
*
But the flask wasn’t there. Jack could see the room had been tidied, swept. Otherwise it looked exactly as it had when he’d left with Zoë that morning.
The cameras had gone — but the dolly and track were still there, plus boxes of equipment, with the floor still showing the bits of coloured tape the actors used to find their marks.
He doubted anyone would have thrown the flask away. Everyone must have seen Zoë with it — her constant companion.
So either it had been stolen — which, in spite of what Gary said, seemed unlikely — or it had been removed deliberately — taken — he believed — by whoever had used it to drug Zoë Harding.
But without the flask it would be impossible to pin the incident on anyone. No prints, no residue of the drug to prove that all these accidents were really a campaign to destroy the young actress.
Jack sat on one of the camera boxes and looked around the room. Somehow, someone had spiked Zoë’s flask. Probably someone who’d been in this very room when they were shooting. For all Jack knew, he’d been looking at the culprit all morning.
But so far Jack had only managed to speak to the prop man and the guy who made the bacon sandwiches.
I’m outta the loop, he thought. Need to find the players and get up close.
But how?
And then he remembered what Gary had said: the crew were down by the river setting up for the night shoot.
If the key crew were going to be anywhere — it would be down there where the production budget was being burned.
He got up from the box and headed back into the house …
12. Many a True Word …
Jack crept slowly along the stone battlements, making sure to keep his head down behind the parapet.
If the guys at One Police Plaza could see me now, he thought. Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur — the real deal!
This was like being in a movie.
No, it was more real than that …
He reached a slit in the ancient stone — designed for firing arrows at the enemy across the river — and peered through.
Nobody on the sliver of grass below — which separated the castle from the black waters of the fast-flowing Thames — would be able to see him up here. But he could see clear
Similar Books
