(aka Bike) Part 1136 by Angharad Copyright © 2010 Angharad
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I consoled Toby for a short while and when he calmed down I asked him who he thought might want to kill or injure him. “Apart from Martina, you mean?” he joked, although I didn’t consider it terribly funny.
He considered a whole pile of criminals he’d caught might like to do it, but very few would have the actual bottle to try it. He admitted he’d not thought of it that way assuming the attempt was connected to the Edwards murder, but he’d give some consideration to it just in case.
Personally, I maintained an open mind, probably because I didn’t have a clue, so suspected most of the six billion people known to inhabit the planet at present, at least that way I’d be right on one occasion.
Essentially, Toby didn’t know any more than I did, so having settled him down, I left and went to go home. I was accosted in the car park by Martina.
“Just what are you after?” she spat at me, “You and your mind reading games.”
“I want to see the person or persons who murdered Reg Edwards brought to justice.”
“Who’s he?”
“My son’s deputy headmaster.”
“Your son’s–you’re not after Toby...?”
“Sweet as Toby is, no, I’m happily married. However, I think sleeping with Ricky hasn’t advanced your cause.”
“What’s it to you, anyhow?”
“It is absolutely nothing to do with me, but I don’t like being glared at by someone who has even less moral high ground than I do.”
“You think you’re so clever don’t you?”
“No, but I’m studying for a PhD so I suppose it makes me brighter than you.”
“Just watch someone doesn’t mark that pretty face of yours.”
“Please don’t make threats at me because you don’t know who you’re messing with. I have the connections to destroy everything and everyone you hold dear.”
“I’d watch that son of yours, he might just meet with an accident.”
This pushed all my buttons at once and I turned quickly and slapped her. It wasn’t that hard but it was enough of a shock to nearly knock her off her feet. “Keep away from me and my family, you drunken slag.” I turned on my heel and walked away before I really hurt her. She called me names and threatened all sorts of retribution but I kept walking and just, kept my temper.
I drove home and it was only when I got there I realised how upset I actually was. I immediately called the superintendent whom I’d met at the hospital and told him what had happened. He cautioned me not to take the law into my own hands and to beware Martina, who was as Latin tempered as her name suggested. He also promised to keep an eye out for her making a complaint, although he doubted she would; he confided that he’d have loved to slap her himself for the grief she’d caused Toby.
I collected the girls myself, seeing as Danny was now home, and on the way home stopped at Reg Edwards house, I wanted Trish to see the site and if I’d missed anything.
I got the other three to wait in the car which I locked, and with Trish firmly holding my hand, I walked briskly round to the back garden and the pond. The stone was now back in its original place and although we removed it, there wasn’t any room under it to secrete anything but perhaps a sheet of paper or equivalent.
“Maybe it’s a marker.” She suggested looking into the pond.
“Marker–like for something in the pond?”
“Yes, or in the garden.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” I’d seen a garden rake leaning up against the wall, so fetched it and began dragging the pond. Nothing except old leaves turned up until I did a place directly under the stone, pulling the rake almost vertically up the side of the fish pond. As I drew the rake up, Trish grabbed the jar–a Kilner type, one of those with a plastic seal and a wire spring to keep it firmly closed. Inside was what looked like a roll of money and something else inside it. We popped it in a plastic bag I happened to have in my pocket and dashed back to the car.
Once safely ensconced in the car, I called our Superintendent again. He was just about to leave and asked me to go straight round to the police HQ with our find. He also cautioned me not to put any more prints on it than I could help.
I asked the girls if they minded, and they all agreed they didn’t, especially for the ice cream I promised them afterwards. A little later, we were at the police HQ and for once the police were nice to me and the girls.
“I should be cross with you, Lady Cameron, you trespassed on a crime scene yet again, and interfered with it.”
“I can always take this to the local paper or TV station, if you’d prefer it.”
“Then I should have to arrest you.”
“Okay, you can have it but I want to see what’s in it.”
“I don’t know about that, as your dabbling so far has caused you to be attacked and one of my officers to become stabbed.”
“That had little or nothing to do with me, Superintendent, I was nearly stabbed too.”
“I’m well aware of that.”
I handed him the bag and its potentially precious contents. He made a short telephone call and a few minutes later, a woman arrived wearing one of those funny all in one things they wear at crime scenes. She produced a plastic tray from a plastic bag and placed the bag with the jar on it. She then removed the jar and opened it–with some difficulty. Inside was a roll of twenty pound notes, which she counted, it was about ten thousand pounds. The bit in the middle was an old 35mm film canister inside which was a pile of diamonds. Even I knew they were worth thousands. The girls who until now had watched in silence gasped at the sparkling contents of the canister.
“Now then, how would a middle-aged deputy headmaster, earning forty thousand a year manage to acquire such a fortune?” asked the super.
“I have no idea, but then, do we know it was his, or was it just a convenient place to stash the loot, of which he may or may not have been aware?”
“Good question. Our lab people will do a toothcomb job on it all and see if there’s anything outstanding in the area which could relate to this. Thank you for your persistence, although I would caution you to keep away from the house and the pond from now on. In fact, if you go there again without police permission, I’ll have you arrested.”
“I don’t think I have to, do I?”
“Probably not–and you, young lady,” he addressed Sherlock Watts, aged six: “If you’re looking for a career, the police can be a very interesting job, and we could do with someone of your perspicacity.”
“What does that mean, Mummy?”
“You’re a smart arse, why?”
“I take after you, don’t I Mummy–you’re Perspex too?”
“Absolutely, you can see straight through me,” I replied and the superintendent nearly choked laughing. I kept my word and we went to a nearby cafe and they all had ice-cream sundaes.
Comments
Intruiging
This case gets more intriguing by the day!
Theft --> Bullying --> Murder --> Attempted murder --> Diamond smuggling?
Presumably, the fact the items were still present could mean one of two things:
a) the perpetrator wanted them, and Reg was in the way;
b) they were planted by the perpetrator
Option (b) seems more likely, as evidenced by the fact they were still there when Cathy and Trish visited after school the following day. But considering it's a crime scene, Portsmouth Plod don't seem to be doing a very good job of either (a) searching for evidence or (b) guarding the place. Maybe the diamonds will have caught their attention - now it's probably a crime that's going to generate headlines, so you can probably bet there'll soon be a lot more officers working on the case.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Looks like
Cathy is doing what Cathy does best. Creating more enemies.
I wouldn't be surprised if Martina wasn't involved is this whole thing somewhere along the line, Probably as a mole to keep tabs on Toby's investigations. Bad guys are certainly going to be incensed, now that the loot/payoff is in police hands.
Keep up the good work
poppykin
With friends like Martina
who needs enemies? Hmm; I wouldn't trust her further than I could throw her - in fact, not even that far. Now, is she the diamond smuggler/knife attacker/murderer/attempted murderer?
S.
That Had to Be a Big Jar
This is a lot of fun. I'm trying to visualise a jar with 500 twenty pound notes. That's a bunch of paper, thicker than War and Peace. I guess the jar must have been in a hole in the side of the concrete wall. Good thing the pond didn't have a filter system or the hiding place would have been easily visible. I don't think there's a man around who could roll up 500 twenty pound notes or wrap them around a film cannister. I'll bet they were mostly 100 pound notes. Does the UK have those?
Portia
Portia
Re: That Had to Be a Big Jar
Greetings
In the United Kingdom we have four different values of bank notes, £5, £10, £20 and £50. Each of those values is a different size, so even blind people can work out which notes they have.
The normal size jar is about 4 inch diameter by 6 inch high (10cm x 15cm), at least that's what I remember.
Brian
Bike pt 1136.
The games afoot and Cathy is doing the plods work for them,, But will Martina prove to have Italian Mafia connections?
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
I got the kick out of Trish
figuring out what the stone might mean. she hasn't had time to watch a bunch of spy movies or read spy novels. where'd she get the "marker" idea? Just native intelligence? Now time for cathy to go home and have a domestic scene nursing the baby while discussing solving crimes with Trish and Daddy. Threat against the kids worries me a lot.
Admit it, Ang!
Martina is actually from Sicly. When Don Corleone went missng, he wasn't klled,he simply embarked on a strict diet and a severe course of hormone treatments, hiding in plain sight as the wife of the investigating copper.
Cathy will wake up with a horse's head in her bed one morning....
Well, doesn't she wake up
with the other end some mornings? ya know, the horse's ar-ah, never mind...
Diana
Ten grand,
Ten grand isn't that big a wad of bunce. At 25 (40 years ago)when I finally paid of my first ship after never having taken leave for nearly 10 years. I walked down the gangway with over 5 grand in twenties stuffed in my wallet!!! I had over 2 years leave owing to me. I bought a house for £1200, a car for £60 and just lived off the rest while I studied for 2nd mates then the first 2 years of a degree course.
10 grand would easily fit into a kilner jar with room for a 35mm film and a couple of fists full of diamonds.
I'm much more interested in whats on the film.
Still lovin' it Angie.
Love and hugs.
Beverly.
Money
Tried a post earler, but here's another go.That money would fit easily into a jar. Very easily.Ten grand n UK notes s about the size of a house brick. That is LOOSE notes. Trust me on this one.
Wait a Second
I'm old and have CRS, but I can still do math. Five grand of twenties is 250 bills. New bills, which would be the most compact, come in 50 or 100 to the bundle. The old notes and newer notes are thicker than the pages of most books. Two hundred and fifty bills would have to be more than an inch thick. I'm sure there is someone in the banking business out there who can tell us with out guessing how thick a stack of 250 or 500 bills would be. Perhaps 500 bills could be stuffed into a jar, especially if they are new, but they could slightly bent, not rolled. A man's wallet would definitely be impossible to fold in half, much less get into one's pocket. The physics of the wad makes it impossible to roll that many. It can't be done. Try folding a sheet of newsprint in half 10 times. You can't do it. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024.
Portia
Portia
£50 Notes
In England, the current largest banknote commonly circulating is the £50 one, meaning you'd need 200 bills to make 10 grand. I think you could stuff two packets of them into a mayonnaise jar with no troubles. In N. Ireland and Scotland, they apparently have a £100 one, too, which would make the task a little easier, although the bills are a bit larger, and a bit awkward to redeem in England sometimes.
Film Canister
Beverly; You need to re-read that paragraph, There was no film just the canister with diamonds in it! Richard
Richard
Is Ricky 6ft tall, left handed and red/green
color blind? Hmmm. I wonder if any of the Plods are overweight? Then Cathy could take them donuts and then we could say the Plod thickens?
Ah well.
CaroL
CaroL
Perspex
In case anyone missed the joke, Perspex is a UK brand of the acrylic stuff that we in the U.S. know more commonly as Plexiglas or Lucite.
___________________
If a picture is worth 1000 words, this is at least part of my story.
Interesting Loot
Wonder who it belongs too. I wonder if our heroine will
get to keep it if no one claims it.
Kilner Jar
To see a really big version of this picture (2,487 × 1,302 pixels, 640KB) click here.
Thanks A+B: we received another piece in the jigsaw puzzle in today's Bikesode, but I have the feeling we're still a long way off seeing a recognisable picture. The cliffhanger continues.
When I was growing up, my mother used to bottle fruit. The jars used were somewhat different to the Kilner variety in that you purchased disposable metal lids for the jars called Perfit Seals. When the hot fruit and syrup were placed in the sterilised jars, the lids were also sterilised in boiling water, then were held onto the jar by means of a metal screw band. The lids had a sort of rubber seal around the outside. After a few days, the screw bands were removed, and the bottled fruit would remain sealed until you opened it with one of the other attachments on a can opener to prise the lid off.
These were the Agee jars: You can see a photo of them here, and the photo here shows the finished result.
Like many other older culinary skills, bottling fruit seems to be one of those things that's dying out. No one seems to have the time or inclination any more, and I guess with modern transport and storage systems, most fruits are available in the supermarkets nearly the whole year round.
Cathy probably knows all about this stuff: I wonder if she'd be interested in passing preserving and jam-making skills on to her girls—when and if she ever manages to solve this particular mystery.
Preserving Stuff
Bike Resources
Bike Resources
ah the joys of canning fruts
wow, that sure brings back childhood memories & YEA even in the states we had those jars - peaches,pears, plums were the most common we canned. Can tell ya now if you're gonna can a peach, make sure they're Alberta type not redhaven. One yr the alberta's locally were scarce, so mom got hold of 10 crates of red havens. OMG what a mess to do.
Alberta's you stuff them in boiling water for a couple minutes, then dum them in cold. then if you grab em right & squeeze the skin splits right off and the half or quarter them pop the core seed out & pluck em in the jars of sugar water...seal em up like was stated up above & one jar of can'ed peaches
Red Havens tho. only you're gonna get that skin off is with a paring knife or potato peeler, we didnt can that many peaches that yr. hahaha
thanks for one of one of few good memories out of my child :-)
Thank heavens
"Thank heavens for little girls" (To quote Maurice Chevalier).
Sherlock Watts, Jr. Strikes again. :-) Quite interesting, don't you think? You certainly have a way with twisty, turny plots. :-)
Thanks,
Annette
I never thought
of diamond smugglers. I figured it was a drug stash, and he surprised them doing a drop and got whacked up side the head for it.Pick up the coke, and leave the diamonds as payment, and the cash for the runners.
Lets hope
Martina takes heed of Cathy's warning about harming her family..... Obviously she has no idea of what Cathy is capable of when her children are threatened ...
Kirri
Martina sounds nasty
Oh,oh, is this where Danny needs the blue fog ?
Now we have diamond smugglers after Cathy ?
Cefin