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With an easy open and shut case Detective Inspector Davis was put in charge of the case, rather than bringing in a detective from the county`s serious crime squad. He was sitting opposite Rob with a Detective Sergeant Simms assisting him.
“You are charged with the wilful murder of Mrs Penelope Ryman and also the suspected murder of her two daughters, do you have anything to say Mr Hinds.” Davis asked; he hoped that they could tidy this case up before the weekend so that he could get down to a spot of gardening; his lawn now had more weeds than grass in it.
Rob sat there stunned, for this was the first he had known about the death of Mrs Ryman. For twenty seconds he sat there trying to take everything in, the disappearance of the Rymans, the attack on him and now the murder of Mrs Ryman, he then looked up at Inspector Davis who was quickly becoming annoyed by the delay in Rob`s answer to the charges brought against him.
“How did Mrs Ryman die, when did it happen?” Rob asked.
Inspector Davis then pushed across a photograph of the murder scene at the Ryman house, it showed Rob and the murdered woman surrounded with blood, it also showed the murder weapon. Rob was almost sick when he looked at the photograph.
“Inspector, I did not murder Mrs Ryman, I had no reason to do such a thing, for one thing I liked her; she was ok. I was only in Lower Boulding because my fiancée asked me to come down; she said that there was something odd happening in the village. When I got there I found that nobody was home, I assumed they were away for the day, but I became worried primarily because I couldn`t contact my fiancée on her mobile phone, that and the fact that she was away from home for so long a time. On Friday morning, I decided to go to the local police station to fill out a missing person’s report. Your constable at the front desk will verify that, and a Mrs Jenkins will verify that I arrived in Lower Boulding on Thursday morning looking for them, but without having any luck.” Rob paused here for a moment to collect his thoughts and this allowed Davis to step in.
“Mrs Jenkins can only tell us that she first saw you at the Ryman household on Thursday morning, she cannot know that you didn`t arrive much earlier and had something to do with the disappearance of the dead woman`s two daughters, can she Mr Hinds?” Davis asked pointedly.
“No Inspector she cannot know the actual time of my arrival but she did see Mrs Ryman and Cassie leave in two cars late Tuesday night.” Rob argued.
“But who was driving the two cars, did you have a friend with you late Tuesday night, a friend who didn`t mind getting his hands very dirty. Are the two sisters still alive, Mr Hinds?” Davis asked forcefully.
“Inspector if you will call the MI6 offices in London and ask to speak to Sir Willoughby Brown, he will vouch for me. He will verify that I only returned to the UK on late Tuesday night, and that I asked him personally for temporary leave on Wednesday night, I was in the MI6 offices all that day, my colleagues will testify that I never left the office even for lunch.” Rob said desperately. Rob`s people had an office in the MI6 building and shared many of its non-operational staff, but they were not attached to it in any way operationally.
Rob knew that Christina and Cassie needed him free to look for them, they didn`t need him sitting on his ass in a police station cell. Davis assurance took a bit of a hit here after listening to Rob, when he saw the other weakening slightly Rob pushed ahead with his defence.
Look, Inspector I will come clean and tell you what I was doing last night. The note from my fiancée mentioned a Mr Bourbon, the new owner of the manor house as being behind the strange things that her happening in Lower Boulding, so I made a call on him earlier in the day and I didn`t like what I saw.” Rob didn`t mention being hypnotised or he would be ridiculed and thrown back into the cells.
“I decide to make a covert call on the manor house and got there just after midnight. I found the back door open and the door to the cellar was also open. As my only reason for being there was to seek out the Ryman family, I reasoned that if they were being detained in the house against their will then the cellar was as likely a place to start my search. I went down into the cellar, but before I had much of a chance to look for them I was knocked out. If you look here on my chin you can still see the bruise Inspector.” Rob said gently fingering the sore spot on his face.
“I didn`t wake up until one hour ago, I did not kill my fiancée`s mother or do anything else. I need you to return with me to the manor house with a search warrant, so that we can conduct a proper search of the house and its grounds.”
Davis looked round at his sergeant who could only shrug his shoulders, he wasn`t much help at all.
“Mr Hinds you are a murder suspect, so I would appreciate it if you didn`t tell me what you require. Instead, you will answer my questions. Now we have read the note that your fiancée left for you and although it does mention some weird happenings in Lower Boulding it doesn`t mention anyone by name.” Davis pointed out.
“You are correct Inspector, and I`m sorry, unfortunately I`m still feeling a bit worse for wear after what I went through last night. Look maybe Christina didn`t mention Bourbon by name but Mrs Jenkins certainly did, and she said that Mrs Ryman had a bee in her bonnet about the man.” Rob said persuasively. He desperately need to convince the inspector of his innocence, and for the inspector to release him, the thought of Christina in the hands of a Satanist filled him with horror.
“You are quite right Mr Hinds, she said as much in her statement. In fact I was very impressed with her as a witness, for it still isn`t all that long ago that she saw her dead friend, and also all of her friend`s blood all over the kitchen. Ok Mr Hinds I will speak to your boss, but that doesn`t mean that I believe your story. In fact Davis was impressed by Rob, and in truth didn`t see him as a drunken killer; even if the evidence said he was indeed one. The first interview was over.
Unfortunately, although Davis called the MI6 offices he couldn`t get in contact with Sir Willoughby Brown, as he was at an important conference with the Prime Minister. This delay meant that Rob had to spend a troubled night in the cells; his sleep was broken when he had a nightmare in which he dreamed of Christina being lashed down to an altar amid a satanic mass. He woke just as Bourbon approached her with a long and very sharp knife, Rob`s body was covered in sweat and further sleep was made impossible by his fear of re-joining his nightmare at the place where he had left it.
The next morning Davis was finally able to contact Sir Willoughby Brown, who verified everything that Rob had said, and also vouched for him as a person of integrity, who he personally would trust with his life. If, Hinds said he was innocent then Davis could believe him. Sir Willoughby Brown then asked to speak to Rob personally; Davis was initially reluctant to agree to this request until Sir Willoughby Brown pointed out that Rob should be cut a certain amount of slack, for he had just returned to the UK after a dangerous mission where his life had been in constant danger. On this one occasion Sir Willoughby Brown had exaggerated a little, but it was true of Rob`s earlier missions. Davis relented, but only because he respected the service and what it had achieved in the difficult opening years of the twenty first century. He had Rob brought to his office and allowed him to speak to Sir Willoughby Brown in private. Alone, Rob told his chief the full unabridged story of what had taken place in the manor house, although he didn`t mention the apparition in the temple, for he didn`t want his chief to think that his agent was losing his marbles.
“Thought you were safe in the UK didn`t you Rob, I hope that you have learnt a valuable lesson, nowadays nowhere is safe. I agree that keeping quiet about the satanic temple was the correct thing to do for the moment, but you need to get out of that police station and back to work. If you haven`t been released by tomorrow morning I will pull a few strings and get you out of there.” Sir Willoughby Brown told him. This cheered Rob up, for he was desperate to get on the trail of Christina and her young sister.
As it worked out Davis decided that the Sir Willoughby Brown`s testimonial of Rob was e
nough for him to at least collect a search warrant for the manor house. Unfortunately as it was Sunday, it took the inspector some time to get one, and it was late in the afternoon by the time that he was actually on the way. He took a squad of men to the estate, and as a favour to the service, he also allowed Rob Hinds to accompany them; they turned up at the gates to find them unlocked, for three of Bourbon`s employees were just about to leave for their homes at the end of a long day.
“Is Mr Bourbon at home?” Davis asked of one of two women there, Mrs Braceweather, who was the cook at the manor house.
“No sir, earlier this morning Mr Bourbon and his friends all went away on a trip, even his daughter isn`t at home at the moment. And don`t ask me where they have all gone to because I don`t know, cause he tends to be a bit secretive.” The woman said in a rush. Her only desire was to be away to tend to her own house, not to be talking with the local constabulary about parking tickets or the like.
“Do any of you have a key to the place, to save us from having to break into the manor house?” Davis then enquired. Davis`s question was answered by an elderly man in overalls.
“I do sir, but I don`t know whether we ought to hand it over to you, do you have a search warrant?” The man asked, he was the head gardener and worked outside with a team of two other men. Davis showed the man his search warrant.
“Who are you sir?” Davis asked of the man.
“I`m Ted Jervis, the head gardener, and this lady is Mildred Braceweather, Mr Bourbon`s cook.” The gardener said looking at the search warrant.
“I suppose I had better give him the keys Mildred.” The man said looking across at the cook who just stood there scowling, but she finally agreed that they should hand over the bunch of keys so that she could then head off home.
“You had better come back with us sir, to show some of my men around the out buildings. We will also require your services Madam.” Davis said to Mrs Mildred Braceweather who looked up at him angrily. “I`ll need you to give us a quick tour of the house.” Davis explained and expected the woman to agree willingly, however Mrs Braceweather didn`t agree, she only wanted to return to her home, not to put in more overtime, overtime which she might not even get paid for. Instead, she crossed her arms and laid into the inspector.
“I`m not here at your beck and call, I`ve got to get my Jack`s dinner on.” She protested. “So you had better get someone else to show you around, because I`m not.” With that, she attempted to force her way by the police officers who were looking on with amusement. Davis threw a scowl at his men that soon took the smiles from their faces, and then he moved to intercept the cook, luckily though help was close to hand.
“It`s alright Inspector, I`ll show you around, there is no one waiting to be fed at my flat, not even the cat, he ran off last month and I haven`t seen him since.” The other woman said. She was a much younger woman and worked as one of the maids. She looked across at Rob and smiled. “I always like to help the police.”
With that, the cook was allowed to leave, and the police convoy moved through the gates and along the driveway to stop in front of the manor house. Rob had been tempted to swear at that delay at the gates, now he was desperate to begin the search for any clue that would lead him to Christina.
Davis had part of his team go with the gardener to search the out buildings while he and the remainder of his party walked towards with house. The inspector opened the door and led the way into the large spacious hall, and then he looked at the maid expectantly. However, it was Rob who had also accompanied this group of officers who took charge.
“I think that you will find the cellar interesting Inspector.” Rob said and indicated the way to the kitchens where the door to the cellar was situated.
“We were never allowed in the cellars, the boss said that he kept a lot of expensive wines down there and didn`t want any getting broke, seems silly, he has a lot of expensive things on the other floors, but didn`t mind us cleaning around them.” The young woman commented.
“Okay sergeant you take the first floor, when I`ve finished in the cellars I will meet you here on the ground floor. Thompson you’re with me, and you too Miss.” He said to the maid. Davis didn`t want the young woman left alone, this was in case she took it upon herself to assist her boss by hiding any evidence that might be about the house. With his orders given and swiftly obeyed by his men, Inspector Davis and Constable Thompson followed Rob through to the kitchen and the cellar door which much to Rob`s consternation they found to be locked.
“He always keeps it locked, we always said it was to stop any of us staff from stealing his precious wine.” The woman said sulkily.
Inspector Davis tried all the keys that the gardener had given him but without any success, and was just about to call it quits and get a locksmith in when Rob moved forward. He pulled out a set of skeleton keys that had been returned to him following his release. Normally Davis would have confiscated such an item, but because of Rob`s status as a member of a government intelligence agency attached to MI6, he had returned not only these to Rob, but all of his other personal items. Rob had deeply appreciated this gesture of confidence in him, as he was technically still under suspicion of murder. Within a minute, he had the door open, and stepping through the doorway flicked on the light switch, which lit up the area around the stairs, but barely reached the two ends of the cellar. They followed him down to the cellar floor with the young woman bringing up the rear.
“It`s a nice sort of place isn`t it.” The young woman remarked, the tone of her voice belying her words. The maid had stopped half way down the flight of stairs to take a good look around the cellar, and she suddenly shivered.
“Oh I went really cold just then; it was just as if the devil himself had walked across my grave.” The maid`s voice wavering just a little.
It wasn`t that it was all that cold in the cellar, it was the atmosphere of the gloomy place that had affected her, she hurried down to join the men as the first signs of an unconscious fear began to eat into her.
The cellar itself didn`t appear all that large for a manor house, with just a few bottles of wine immediately at the bottom of the flight of stairs, certainly not enough to warrant the security of a locked door. Rob was not interested in the wine though, he wanted to head directly for the satanic temple, and he indicated to the Inspector in which direction he wanted to search first.
“Ok Constable Thompson you look around the other end of the cellar while I follow Mr Hinds. The inspector followed after Rob only to stop after a few feet to be met by a blank wall.
“Well Mr Hinds what are we supposed to be looking at?” Davis asked just a little impatiently.
“One moment please, Inspector.” Rob said scratching his head and looking at the blank wall and the stack of empty wine cases set to one side. This is ridiculous Rob thought as he walked across to the only things at this end of the room, the stack of empty wine cases. He carefully took the top one down and revealed the hidden lever.
“This should do it Inspector.” Rob said confidently but adding silently the words, I hope.
The concealed door slid silently across revealing a hidden room within. Rob walked forward and felt for the light switch and finding it illuminated the room.
“My god, a hidden room, how on earth did you ever find it Mr Hinds? Davis asked impressed by the feat.
“Well the door was already open on my earlier visit Inspector.” Rob replied.
He walked in and was relieved to find that the air although cool was not icy cold as on his last visit. It had been stripped of most of its ancient statues and regalia though. However, the Pentagram was still there in the middle of the floor as was the large marble altar set at the far end of the room. There were also the many painted astrological symbols that adorned the walls, although they were purely there as decoration. The light from the single bulb hanging from the ceiling was again casting shadows but thankfully the statues weren`t there to give the shadows that semblance of life.
??
?My god what is this place?” Davis exclaimed when he entered the room.
“You should have seen it last night Inspector, you are in a Satanic temple, even with many of the statues gone you can still feel the evil that has permeated its walls over time.” Rob said shivering. Whether it was from a cold draught finding its way through to the room, or something else he didn`t want to even ponder upon the matter.
“Fair gives me the creeps, no wonder he wanted us kept clear of the cellar.” The young woman said moving back out of the temple, something in the room made her afraid, that and the thought of what might have gone on down here while she had been working in the rooms above. She made up her mind never to return to the manor house after today. Just then, a call came from Constable Thompson who was searching at the other end of the cellar.
“Sir I think I might be on to something at this end of the cellar.” Rob took one last look at the empty temple and left with Davis to answer the constable`s call.
“This old wine rack has been moved forward enough times to leave its mark on the floor Sir, and there is some sort of a lever behind it. Thompson put his arm through the empty racks and pulled at the lever, the wall and the wine rack began to move forward revealing the hidden room. Seeing the slide bolt, he pulled it across and opened the door to reveal a darkened room.
“Here this might light the way Sir.” Thompson said flicking the light switch down, the light inside the room came on to reveal the three empty cots.
“Good work Thompson.” Davis said to a happy constable, but then he hadn`t been inside of the temple. “I’m sorry Mr Hinds; it appears you are innocent after all.” Davis looked at the cots and their untidy heaps of bedclothes.
“It seems as if the three Ryman women were kept confined here until this morning. Mrs Ryman was killed to discredit you long enough for them to move the two younger women to a different location.” Davis thought for a moment. “And that Satanic temple brings to mind a possible reason, but it would mean that the man must be mad, for him to believe in such things in the twenty first century?” Davis looked at Rob, seeking for another reason, but Rob just nodded in agreement.
“Well, Sir.” Davis said his attitude completely different from what it was just a short while ago. “There is already a call out for the two sisters, I`ll put out another call out for Bourbon.”
“Thank you Inspector, there doesn`t appear to be ...” Rob broke off here and walked to the nearest of the cots that was sat in the right hand corner of the room. There scratched into the wall were three words and some numbers, the name Christina Ryman, the word help and the first four numbers of Rob`s mobile phone.
“They must have been interrupted before they could finish the message.” Davis said. “But at least we now know that she was here, and that she was alive.” Rob smiled; yes, he thought she is still alive, of that I am certain.
Davis led the way out of the cellar and up onto the ground floor. His sergeant met them as they entered the room that he thought was probably Bourbon`s office, he had just been about to start looking through Bourbon`s papers in a small bureau.
“Sergeant, please have forensics check the two secret rooms that we found in the cellar, and have a man on duty in the kitchen to stop any of the staff from wandering on down there.” Davis ordered.
“Two secret rooms’ you say sir?” Simms asked, and when told of their finds looked incredulously at his superior and then across at Rob.
“It seems that we owe you an apology Mr Hinds, but you must admit, you were set up beautifully by Bourbon.” Simms said by way of an apology.
“I think that you may have phrased that slightly different Sergeant, for the death of Mrs Hinds was hardly beautiful, and neither is the fact that her two daughters are still missing, but I will accept your apology.” Rob said rather annoyed, as too was Davis who glared across at his sergeant.
Sergeant Simms blushed as he apologised once again, and it was just then that something on the wall above the bureau caught Rob`s eye.
“This picture of Bourbon standing in front of a house, do you happen to know where the house is?” Rob asked the young woman. However, it was the gardener who answered his question; he had just walked in with the police officers who had been searching the out buildings.
“I do Sir, or at least I believe I do. It`s in France somewhere, I overheard him speaking about it to one of his weird friends one afternoon. It was some time ago and I was just about to tell him that I had finished off a piece of work that he especially asked me to do, but I waited while he answered a question put to him by a foreign gentleman. The gentleman is now a frequent guest here and he asked a very similar question to your own. Mr Bourbon said that it is his ancestral home and that he had only recently been able to repurchase the property, the necessary funds finally being available. I am told that he has made quite a killing dealing in stocks and shares on the British stock market. He only bought this place quite recently, he decided it suited his needs far better than his London office, and now he uses it whenever he is in England. Lower Boulding may be off the beaten track but even we have the internet.” The gardener smiled at his little joke.
Rob used his mobile phone to photograph the picture and then he took the picture down from the wall; turning it over he looked at the other side of it. On the back were the faded words, Photogravure de Montluçon.
“I think you might have to extend your search Inspector, as I will too.” Rob said contemplating a return to the continent.
The search continued unabated and it was Sergeant Simms who next found something of interest to Rob.
“Look at this list of names in Bourbon’s address book, it is like a page out of who`s who.” Both Davis and Rob moved across to look at the address book.
“Richard Hamilton-Jones, John Murray, Ahmed Abdulla, amongst the richest and most powerful figures in the world. There must be two dozen names in this book and not one of them is not of interest to the paparazzi.” Rob said looking in disbelief at the names contained within the address book. “If Bourbon has his hooks into this sort of person then he is even more dangerous than I thought.” Inspector Davis nodded his agreement.
“You think he might have invited them down for a Bacchanalian orgy and then blackmailed them?” Davis asked.
“Yes Inspector I do, and if I am right then we might also find some evidence in the form of a recording or two to prove it. Sergeant, have you come across a computer in your search.” Rob asked turning to Sergeant Simms.
“I`m afraid not Mr Hinds, he appeared to have taken that with him.” Simms replied sadly.
“Never mind we still might find something in his office in London.” Rob said more in hope than belief.
It was a lowly constable who found what they were all looking for, and when he looked closely at the photograph in his hands he blushed.
“Inspector, I think I might have something here, it was being used as a book mark in the telephone directory.” Constable Parsons said with a smile coming to his face as he handed it to Davis. Rob walked over to look at it.
“My god why on earth did they allow themselves to be photographed while dancing naked, it must be some kind of Satanic festival?” Rob said in disbelief as he looked at the photograph.
“These days’ cameras are so small it would not be too difficult a task to take such a photograph and not be seen.” Davis said in answer to Rob`s question.
“Inspector I will contact my chief and tell him what we have found, then if I am no longer under suspicion I will take my leave of you and return to the continent to seek out the chateau in the photograph.” Rob said looking across at Davis.
“Yes you are free to go Mr Hinds, but are you sure that France is where the Ryman sisters are being taken, they could as easily be staying here in England, with one of their followers’ maybe?” Davis asked.
“I`m not sure of anything Inspector, but I am sure that you will leave no English stone unturned, I`ll keep in contact with you if I may, to exchange information.” Rob
pulled out his wallet and handed a card across to the inspector, it gave his mobile telephone number on it. Davis hesitated just a moment before accepting it, but then he gave his own card to Rob, who smiled and nodded his thanks to the inspector. He then phoned Sir Willoughby Brown and brought him up to date.
“Well Rob this is no longer a private matter, if Bourbon is blackmailing some of the people in his address book then who knows how many secrets are being revealed. I`ll get a couple of our people to search his London office while you check out the French lead. Oh and have Inspector Davis fax me a copy of the address book, and I`ll also get some of the team to discretely check them out. If the press get wind of what you have uncovered down there, they will have a field day. You had better recommend to Davis that he keep a lid on it, until such time as we have solid proof of who amongst the names attended the orgies, and also who amongst them can now be considered a security risk.” Rob told Davis of Sir Willoughby Brown`s concern about the list of names getting out and he agreed. His team were told to keep quiet about what they had discovered in the manor house, and the two employees of Bourbon were also asked to stay silent on the subject. The danger of an innocent party being named as a Satanist could bring about a massive claim for damages against the person responsible for giving the name to the press.
Rob didn`t leave immediately for the continent, he planned to leave first thing in the morning. He returned to the police station where he made use of their photocopier, he made a copy of the contents of the address book and also of the photograph. He then faxed a copy to Sir Willoughby Brown, the copy he had made he retained, he thought that they might come in useful during his search for Christina and her sister. Next, he forced himself to take the time to have a meal at a local restaurant, and after that, he returned to his hotel room where he used his computer to book a ticket for his flight to Paris.