~~~~~
five
The Thursday after Easter ~ afternoon
Moggy’s bedroom
Holly, Ryan and Moggy were sat in Moggy’s bedroom, trying to come up with a plan A plan to get real proof that Vic, brother or half brother of Edna and ‘boyfriend’ of Anna Smarna was also the quad bike rider who was responsible for running over Moggy.
Ryan was lounging on Moggy’s bed, slowly making his way through a plate of assorted biscuits. Holly was staring out the window, making landscapes, dragons and cupcakes out of the passing clouds. Moggy was trawling the Internet on his desktop PC, one finger style…
Bored with eating almost the entire plate of biscuits, Ryan threw one of the last two at Holly. “Look out, Holls. This one’s got your name on it!”
Holly tipped her head to one side and the biscuit struck the window and broke in two. “Oh crumbs!” laughed Ryan, pointing out that had it been a chocolate-covered biscuit, it would have remained in one piece. Holly picked up the broken biscuit and placed it back on the plate. “We really do need a plan, a good plan,” she said.
Ryan yawned. “Plans are fine, if you know what you want to do.” He shrugged then rolled onto his side and leaned over the edge of the bed, peering underneath it. “’Ere Moggs, what’s this?” Ryan stretched an arm under the bed and picked up a thin gold-coloured coin.
“Well found!” Moggy smiled and took the coin. “I’d forgotten all about this, thought I’d lost it.” He grinned then said to Ryan, “you can have it if you like. It’s not a very lucky coin, I found it in the Gallows Tree or near the tree on the day I got run over…”
Holly turned from the window, “what did you just say?”
“I found it, that coin, the day I got run over.”
Ryan flipped the coin into the air with his thumb; “mine now, Moggs said I can have it.”
Suddenly Holly’s hand darted out and grabbed the coin mid air. “Not so fast, Ryan.” She looked at the coin, rubbed it between her finger and thumb then bit it with her teeth.
“I can get more biscuits, if you’re hungry.” Moggy looked at Holly; “I don’t think there’s going to be any chocolate inside, too thin.”
“Nah,” Ryan snatched the coin back from Holly, “If you bite it you can tell if it is real or not.” He bit the coin. “Hope you haven’t been dribbling on this, Holls.”
Holly snatched the coin back again from Ryan and told Moggy to look up ancient coins on the Internet. Moggy tapped away at his keyboard as Holly and Ryan looked on. The coin could be Roman, Greek or Saxon or Celtic.
“There are hundreds of sites,” said Moggy, pointing at the screen. “Take ages to work out what it is.”
“Lets take it down to the museum and see if they know. It might be worth something,” suggested Holly. Ryan agreed and was already pulling his hoodie on and taking the coin back from Holly.
Moggy stood up and stretched. “I’ll see if my gran will drop us down in her car.” He opened the bedroom door, leaned over the stair rail and called down to the living room.
~~~
Twenty minutes later, Holly, Ryan and Moggy were standing at the enquiry desk of the county museum explaining they had a coin that may be Roman or just ancient and possibly worth something.
The lady at the enquiry desk smiled, “you’re in luck,” she said, “today is our ‘Open Expert’ day. It’s a chance for people to bring in their heirlooms and see if they are worth anything.” She paused and smiled. “Been a bit slow so far; one moth-eaten teddy, three vases and a box of broken china, oh and some imported Chinese horse brasses. I expect they’ll be glad to see your coin, especially if it is ancient. Just go through the double doors over there. You’ll see our expert sat at a table.”
On the other side of the double doors, in a small well-lit room, a man in a brown jacket was sat at a cheap-looking table eating a sandwich. Behind him, a slightly better dressed man was packing away some equipment.
Holly, Ryan and Moggy stood in the doorway, unmoving. Ryan and Moggy nudged each other. “It’s your coin Moggs,” said Ryan, “you talk to him.” Moggy complained he was nervous and that Ryan should do it. Ryan glowered at Moggy, “suppose it turns out to be plastic?”
“Oh, you two! At times I feel like I’m your mother!” Holly took the coin from Moggy and strode up to the desk and the sandwich eating man. She thrust out her hand, palm up but fingers closed and said to the man, “can you tell me and my friends anything about this?” She opened her hand revealing the coin.
The man sniffed and glanced up from his sandwich. “If you’ve come to show me another chocolate gold coin, like the last group of kids, I’m not interested.”
Holly tapped the table with the edge of the coin, “sounds real to me,” then she rested it between her thumb and forefinger and flicked it into the air. As it spun upwards, the coin glinted in the light. The man standing behind the seated sandwich eating man turned and watched the coin as it began to fall then reached out his hand and caught it.
“You might not be interested in this one, Arty,” the standing man said, “but I very much am. Go and finish your sandwich in your office, I’ll deal with this one.” The seated man shrugged, stood up, picked up his jacket and disappeared with his sandwich through a door at the back of the room.
Holly, Ryan and Moggy stood staring at the standing man, their mouths wide open, surprised. The man smiled, flicked the coin back up in the air and caught it again.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the troublesome, meddlesome kids... Lets all sit down and have a nice chat.” He moved round to the front of table and motioned for the three friends to sit on the floor while he settled himself on the edge of the table. “I already know your names and who you are. My name, as you may know, is Victor Fimister and I have an, erm, shall we say interest in coins…in particular, Saxon gold coins like this one. Yes it is a Saxon coin and solid gold.” He flicked the coin into the air once more. “So, tell me where or indeed how you came by this…”
“Fell out of a Christmas cracker, didn’t it” said Ryan cockily.
Victor Fimister gave a little laugh. “Very droll.” He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a mobile phone, tapped in a few numbers then looked at Ryan then Moggy then Holly. “Lets get serious, shall we? Another two digits and I will be through to the local police station. I’ll tell them I have caught three children trying to steal a valuable gold coin from the county museum…” He paused and placed the phone on the table. “Tell you what, I’ll give you a fair chance; I’ll spin this coin here on the table and before it stops, you tell me where you found it or I hand you over to the police. Simple, eh?” Fimister spun the coin and as it spun round and round Holly, Ryan and Moggy looked at each other then at the coin and finally at the smirking face of Victor Fimister.
“There you are, Neil!” The tension in the room was suddenly shattered by the voice of Moggy’s gran, bellowing from the double doors behind them. “Time to head back, love. You too, Ryan and Holly”
Instantly Moggy and Holly were on their feet and heading toward Moggy’s waiting gran. Ryan stood up, stretched out his hand and snatched the spinning coin from the table. He put his coin-clenched hand to his lips and gave it a little kiss then ran to join Moggy and Holly. At the door Ryan turned to look back at Victor Fimister and was about to say, laters, sucker when Holly reached out and pulled him by his hood and told him not to push his luck.
~~~~
Later and after a tea of assorted sandwiches, cake and smoothies, provided by Moggy’s gran, the three friends resumed their earlier places back in Moggy’s bedroom: Ryan on the bed, Holly at the window and Moggy randomly cruising web pages. No one had mentioned or spoken of the museum until now.
Holly was first to bring the matter up, “he was a bit creepy, wasn’t he, don’t you think? Flim-mister-man.”
“Not very triff was he, Moggs,” Ryan pushed his head back on the pillow and stared at the ceiling. Moggy swivelled round
on his chair and looked at his two friends.
“Pretty triffically untriff. If not down right sinister.”
Holly gave out a little laugh. “We should call him, Sinister Fimister.”
“Nah,” suggested Ryan, “Sinister Mister Fimister would be better, gotta be respectful!”
“Good one, Ryan,” said Moggy and added, “he seemed quite interested in the coin and in us too.”
“We should have said to him, why did you run Moggy over?” said Ryan sitting up. “Mind you, he didn’t look like the sort of person who would admit to anything, though.”
Holly nodded and stared out the window, lost in thought then slowly she said, “Moggy, try a web search for Saxon gold coins, Trove village. I’m beginning to think this is what PC Grearson, Sinister Mister Fimister and Edna are looking for. If you found one, maybe there are more.”
Moggy tapped away, hit enter and looked at the results; “plenty of sites wanting to buy gold. Hah, there’s even a place here in the village. Oh look, it’s Anna Smarna’s post office and yes, buy your chocolate gold coins here!” Moggy looked up “Wow, you two look at this…”
Ryan and Holly peered over Moggy’s shoulder at the computer screen. Of the thirteen search results, half related to Saxon gold coins and Trove village. Moggy clicked on a link for the local newspaper.
Armed gang steals Saxon gold from County Museum
In a daring lunchtime raid, a gang armed with shotguns burst into the County Museum today and stole a collection of Saxon gold from glass display cases. The collection, on loan from the British Museum, has been valued between 1 and 2 million pounds. But some experts say it could be worth three or four times that.
Moggy returned to the search results and clicked on another link for a national newspaper.
Largest haul of rare Saxon coins stolen
The County Museum in Somersetshire is unlikely ever to be on talking, let alone borrowing terms with the British Museum again, after a collection of Saxon gold coins were stolen last week.
The coins, all bearing the image of King Eadbald of Kent were struck around 620 AD and were the largest collection ever discovered bearing Ealbald’s image. The museum has conservatively valued the collection of 75 coins as being between half and one million pounds but some private collectors say the value could be several times that amount.
Also stolen at the same time was an extremely rare Saxon gold helmet – one of only two so far discovered. It is thought to be potentially more valuable than the coins.
Moggy clicked back to the results page again. “These are all archived pieces. It looks like the robbery was over twenty years ago… I can’t see anything recent.” He clicked on more results. “Here’s some more…”
Museum gang jailed
The gang responsible for the robbery of the Saxon gold haul from Somersetshire County Museum was today jailed for 15 years. However, the gang leader will serve longer, following an attempted escape before the gang’s trial.
Ryan yawned and flopped back onto the bed; “what happened to the coins then? And how much is Moggy’s worth?”
Moggy continued to look through online newspaper archives. After a minute or so Holly sat down next to him and began to scribble down some notes. Ten minutes later she turned to Ryan and said, “this is some story!”
Ryan sat up, “I’m waiting then.” Moggy sat down next to him on the bed, telling him to listen up.
Holly gave a little cough and began; “The British Museum, well actually before that…someone found a load of Saxon gold in a field somewhere and it ended up in the British Museum in London. The British Museum then agreed to lend all this, the coins and a helmet for an exhibition the County Museum was doing. Oh, this was about twenty, twenty-five years ago.”
Ryan shrugged, ancient history.
Holly continued; “The gold coins and helmet were put on display in the County Museum and, on the very first day of being on display, an armed gang raided the museum and made off with them! Right, get ready for this. They hid out at Phiskers Farm for a week, it must have been an empty farmhouse back then too, but perhaps not so much of a ruin. Anyway, they were discovered. There was a shoot out and one of the gang died.” Holly paused, then said slowly, “The gold coins and the helmet were never recovered…”
Suddenly interested, Ryan sat up straight. “They never found the gold?”
Holly shook her head. “One of the archive reports says the coins and helmet may have gone out of the country or been melted down. There were three robbers: one shot and killed by the police, one died in prison and the other served his time and was released last year.”
Ryan asked Moggy for the coin and held it up to the light to study it. “How much did you say it was worth?”
Holly cleared her throat and said, “well, on one site it showed a single King Eadbald coin, like this one, that sold for about ten or twenty thousand…pounds….”
Ryan let out a low whistle and rubbed the coin between his palms, “lets find the rest! Now!”
Holly shook her head, may not be that straight forward. “The robber who was shot was called Grearson...”
“What, as in PC Grearson?” Ryan thought for a moment. “Nah, he’s too young.”
“And still alive,” added Moggy. Uncle or father perhaps,” he suggested.
“Possible, possible,” agreed Holly. “Perhaps his dad? The other two were Pearlson. He died in prison and Marshall. He was the youngest of the three.”
Ryan nodded slowly, thoughtfully. “Where do Edna, Sinister Mister Fimister and policeman Grearson fit in? Is P C Grearson looking for the coins, has he found them?”
“Maybe not,” said Holly. “Why else would Sinister Fimister want to know where Moggy found his coin?”
“There are more coins to be had?” asked Ryan.
Mmm…Holly and Moggy said together.
“I’m guessing, then,” said Moggy looking at his friends, “from the recording on my e-tab…Sinister Fimister is probably the one in charge. At least he seems to be giving the orders… and tonight they are going to be up to something…I think we should get down to the scout hut for their meeting and see what we can find out,” He looked at Ryan and then Holly. Both nodded their agreement.
~~~~~
six
The Thursday after Easter ~ just after 7.00pm
Trove Village Scout Hut
Holly and Ryan crouched down below the window of the scout hut kitchen. It was still light although some dark clouds were starting to drift over. Moggy had remained at home, in his bedroom, because of his arm and leg plaster casts but also to act as co-ordinator.
“What did you do with the bit of paper?” Ryan looked at Holly, “the paper with Moggy’s instructions on…”
Holly unfolded a piece of paper and passed it to Ryan. Moggy had written down an easy-to-follow-even-for-you-Ryan guide on how to set up his e-tab to record, with a small but powerful, plug-in directional microphone and at the same time, give a live feed, like a mobile phone call, back to Moggy.
Ryan attached the microphone, touched and swiped different icons on the e-tab screen then nodded to Holly. She took the end of the pencil-thin microphone and whispered into it, ‘I was once an eagle’. Moments later her mobile phone, set to silent, vibrated in her pocket. She took it out and read the text; ‘hearing you fine, Moggs’. Holly nodded at Ryan and reached up and placed the microphone on the window ledge of the open kitchen window.
Ryan looked pensively at Holly; “are you sure they’ll have their meeting in the kitchen?”
Holly nodded. “Edna loads up the dishwasher during the afternoon and puts it on before she locks up. It gets emptied on a morning. Besides, she had a Brownie meeting, or whatever they call them, earlier. She’ll have extra cleaning up to do. Shih…I hear something. Put your earphone in.”
Holly and Ryan were sharing a set of earphones, one half each. Ryan shook his head, pointed to his earphone and mouthed, ‘nothing’. Holly held a finger to her lips then touched
an icon on the e-tabs screen and slid the volume control up. The voices inside the kitchen became clear. Holly scribbled on the back of Moggy’s note and passed it to Ryan; ‘Edna and PC G?’ Ryan nodded in agreement.
“Do you really need all these windows open, Edna?”
“Have you smelled this cleaning stuff? There’s a reason why it’s cheap, nowt but chemicals! An’ dodgy ones at that, I shouldn’t wonder. I used to get the Brownies to clean up, told them it would count toward their Housework Badge. Then one of the little blighters had a reaction to the cleaning stuff and came out in a rash…”
“I suppose even with the windows open, it is still quite strong stuff. Guess that’s why I’ve never seen any flies in here, Edna. Do you know what his nibs wants this meeting for? I mean he is your brother.”
“Half brother, if you don’t mind. Same father, different mother. Sounds like him coming now.”
The mobile phone in Holly’s pocket vibrated again. She took it out and showed Ryan. The text read, ‘coming in loud & clear. Moggs.’ Ryan nodded and smiled.
“Ah, my compadres. Sister dear and Phillie G. Guess who was in the museum today?”
“You’re not casing it for another job, are you? I can only cover up so much.”