Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 1806

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The Daily Dormouse.
(aka Bike)
Part 1806
by Angharad

Copyright © 2012 Angharad
All Rights Reserved.
  
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After lunch, I found myself nodding off and to Simon’s credit, he herded everyone out of the room and left me to snooze. I was still quite fragile–my chest hurt if I exerted myself and I tended to get short of breath–SOB in medical parlance, though I’m led to believe it means something different in the colonies.

I woke up about half an hour later to find I’d been draped in a travel rug–how kind of whoever did it. I folded it up and left it on the back of the sofa, put my trainers back on and went in search of my family who seemed to have disappeared without trace.

They hadn’t, they were all the lounge and when they saw me, Trish came running towards me, “Mummy, Bramble fell through the floor.”

“What?” I gasped, we’ve only had the poor creature five minutes.

Simon turned to look at me, “Hi, Babes, feel any better?”

“Yes thank you, what’s happened with the kitten?”

“She appears to have disappeared down here,” he pointed at a hole which had appeared in the floor right against one of the walls.

“Anyone sent for Maureen?” I asked.

“Not ten minutes ago.”

I approached the place in question, wondering how much else might be unsafe. This was the oldest part of the house, including the huge fireplace in which you could almost burn whole trees.

I bent down and could hear a plaintiff mewing from a little distance. I called the kitten but all she did was call back. I knew she’d been fed, so we had an hour or two to rescue her before she’d get very hungry.

“What is it, an old cellar?”

Simon shrugged, “I’ve tried calling Tom, but he’s not answering his mobile. The wine cellar is over the other side of the house and that’s all bricked up.”

“Is it worth checking if there’s any passage way between the wine cellar and here?”

“Seeing as you’re here now, I’ll go and look.”

“I’ll come with you, Dad,” offered Danny, and the two men went off to descend into the depths to see if they could get the kitten back through there. It was ages since I’d played troglodytes and gone down there. I wasn’t that much of a drinker, and the cellar was a creepy place plus you got cobwebs in your hair–or I did–yeuch.

“Couldn’t we put some meat on a hook?” asked Trish.

“Trish, it’s a kitten we’re trying to rescue not catch a shark.”

“Duh duh, duh duh, duh duh duh...” she sang trying to imitate John Williams famous score from the film, Jaws. I nearly laughed out loud–but it would only encourage her.

I sent her off to get the torch from the kitchen and when she came back I knelt down and tried to probe the gap with my hand shining the torch to see the size of it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see properly and when Mima tried to see as well. She nudged my arm and I dropped the torch, which brought further mewing from the kitten.

There was nothing else I could do. Trish tried to feel by shoving her arm through the hole but when Livvie mentioned there might be rats there she soon withdrew it. We’d have to wait until Maureen arrived.

I left Stella to marshal the troops while I went and made some tea–well, we Brits always do this in times of emergency, and when we’re just waiting for the next. Simon and Danny came up from the wine cellar, the former bearing a bottle of wine. “I didn’t know we had any of this down there.”

“What about the kitten?” I asked handing him a mug of tea.

“Oh it’s far too valuable to share with kittens,” he said dismissively.

“No sign of her, Mum,” said Danny.”

Maureen arrived and after grabbing a cuppa she went into the lounge to see what was what. She ummed and ahhed then went down the wine cellar, pulling a stethoscope from her pocket as she went. Simon went as well.

Minutes later, Tom arrived and was shown the hole in his floor. He was as surprised as the rest of us. Then he went down the wine cellar taking the bottle of claret back with him and muttering something about Simon.

The three came back up and agreed they would knock a hole through the wall in the cellar and see if they could rescuer her through that, Maureen would then cement it back up and also repair the hole in the floor.

Over the next hour Maureen sent for one of her workmen and some heavy tools like lump hammers and cold chisels and even a pickaxe and sledge hammer. It looked like we were setting up our own mine.

The banging began–only it wasn’t a bang it was a deep thud, thud thud, which made the whole house jar. I couldn’t do anything–the noise stopped me concentrating on anything and so I took the girls outside and we played ball on the lawn–or they did, I sat and watched.

The thudding stopped and we waited with bated breath, minutes later Danny emerged from the back door with Bramble in his arms. She didn’t seem too distressed by the whole experience, or should that be hole experience?

Simon called for me to come, and see so with a sense of foreboding, I went down the cellar steps. They’d knocked a hole through the wall at waist height about two feet square, removing about six or eight bricks or stones. My torch was still glowing about twenty five feet away. Simon shone the big lantern torch we have and it appeared we had a large chamber under the house which seemed reasonably dry. Neither he nor Maureen could explain why it had been bricked off, the storage space would be quite useful if difficult to access.

Danny came back having deposited the kitten with the girls and he climbed through and collected my torch. It was quite dusty and given the floor was made of flagstones I was lucky it hadn’t broken.

Maureen and Tom discussed the options–she suggested a surveyor and architect to ensure the safety of the room, and then to tidy it up and perhaps make an external door to the enlarged cellar.

“We could make it a games room,” suggested Simon.

It was certainly big enough to take a billiard table or a table tennis one. It would need artificial lighting and perhaps a window in any door they made–it was going to be quite dark. I left them to discuss it until I heard a yell of disgust.

Danny had gone through the hole in the wall again to look at something he saw against one of the walls. On closer perusal he discovered it was a pile of bones–human ones. That might explain why it had been bricked up but when and by whom?

I stayed to comfort Danny while Simon went up to call the police. Just what we didn’t need.

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Comments

A new cold case

Who will be the detectives?

Ho hum...

Well, we've heard of skeletons in the closet - this family's got skeletons in the cellar!

We may have a medieval murder mystery on our hands - send for Cadfael! :D

(Albeit it's exactly 200 miles and about 870 years between Shrewsbury in 1140ish and modern day Portsmouth [From: Shrewsbury Abbey To: Portsdown Hill Road, Portsmouth], so he's probably a little too far back in time; although Derek Jacobi's [actor who played the monastic detective] closer in both time and space I doubt he'd be any better than Portsmouth Plod at solving the mystery...)


As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

Gadfrey

Now we know what happened to the daughter of the 15th century Lord who lived there. I wonder why he bricked her up down there? Was she with child? OMG, maybe it's her BF?

Maybe, it's a soldier from one of the many revolutions? Oh, the possibilities are multitudinous!

OH, I know, it was a russian spy who tunneled in and got trapped! Yes, I am sure that is it!

Well, maybe I need to be back on my meds.

G

I'm sure it's an

several hundred year old king (or queen) who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

OOOH! Excitement!

Wow! A real body in the basement. How cool! A mystery to solve. A riddle for the ages? Or, just some tawdry affair with a cask of Amontillado?

Hee! Hee! Excitement!

Red MacDonald

A Body?

I know what it is! It is one of Bonzi's attempts to show us humans that he is a real killer! Why else do you think he brings live animals to you? It is so he can kill them in front of you! However, dumb humans that we are, we don't realize that, and praise our cats for being such good hunters and bearers of gifts.

Nice Twist, Bonzi, and you thought no one would notice!

I love this new twist. At least, so far as we know, Cathy, the clan, and the Camerons are not involved.
Hmmmm Ghost cat that prevents Cathy from commiting sideways.....almost identical cat rescued from the animal shelter....and now said cat finds old bones.. I love the themes this could generate, and our beloved Bonzi is capable of it!

Scritch Scratch for Bonzi's and Izzy's ears, and a good tummy rub for both of them.

Don't let someone else talk you out of your dreams. How can we have dreams come true, if we have no dreams?

Katrina Gayle "Stormy" Storm

Funny ....

one of my first thoughts too.

Bones

They need to put in a call to Temperance Brennan in Montreal. This is right down her alley. I'm sure she would love a trip over the pond. She'll have this figured out in no time, at least not more than eight or ten chapters.

Much Love,

Valerie R

Hmmm

Bramble the detective. Suspect the bones have been there for a rather long time but the police are sure to consider the house a crime scene and everyone in it to be suspects. Call the family lawyer too. NOW!

Could it be like ...

... "The Cask of Amontillado" by E A Poe? Now who was walled up alive to die of starvation? And when?

Robi

Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 1806

Question is: how old is Tom's house? Is it made of mortar and brick, or wood? Did Tom buy it from someone, or is it a family heirloom that he inherited?

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

Let the inquisition begin

... no, not that kind of inquisition you silly gits, nobody expects those anyway :P.

I think a coroner or an archaeologist maybe.

Kim

My, so the new kitten has

My, so the new kitten has indeed proved herself usefull by discovering a mystery and perhaps starting a new story arc.

This chapter has Bonzi's paw prints all over it!

Kris

{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}

Oy.

Only one skeleton? At least it's not a closet. (runs and hides.)

SOB - yeah, I understand your acronym... Seems I'm experiencing it as well.

Thank you.
Annette