The de Vere Deception (David Thorne Mysteries Book 1) (18 page)

            Kirk-Halstrom turned to Thorne and said, “I understand you went down to London the day before yesterday and returned yesterday afternoon.” His tone was more of a statement than an inquiry.

            “Yes, I saw a break in the demolition work and I took a couple of days off to buy presents for a friend.”

            Bada stood amid the others and said, “Mr. Thorne, this thing with Freddie is disturbing. I think we all need to talk about the situation. Is there a room close by where we can discuss things?”

            Thorne noticed it was no longer David, but Mr. Thorne. Thorne motioned for the four men to follow, and they went down the corridor to Rainier’s office.

            Once inside the office Thorne said, “We can use this office. Rainier’s out of the country. He left unexpectedly after the meeting and said he won’t be back until next week.”

            Bada sat behind Rainier’s desk, Thorne, Raskin, and Blackstone took chairs, and Kirk-Halstrom went to a far wall, shaking his head. He folded and unfolded his hands. “I don’t understand what’s going on here. What about the rest of you?”

            Blackstone lit a cigarette and repeated Kirk-Halstrom’s previous question. “Where have you been the past two days, Thorne?”

            Thorne said, “I was down to London. I heard about Freddie’s accident this morning. Does anyone know what happened?”

            Raskin shrugged. “It’s too early to tell, and Freddie goes in and out of consciousness. It’s difficult to get information from him as to what happened. I think we have to make a determination as to how we’re going to proceed with the search.” He turned to Thorne. “Have you had any other success in your search?”

            “No,” said Thorne. He noted Raskin’s use of the word ‘other’. Did he know there might be something else hidden besides the documents?

            Bada had been silent, but now spoke. “Gentlemen, I’m not completely assured there is a document as described in the Moldar letter. The wording—at least to me—was ambiguous. The terms
our treasure
and
poesies
could have meant any number of things. We’ve also been unable to find any records of Richard Moldar’s business dealings.”

            Thorne noted he had said,
treasure,
not
treasures
as shown in Moldar’s letter.

            Blackstone began to pace. “I disagree. The letter specifically speaks to the poesies. There are a number of plaques on the landings going up to the Keep. All represent animals, plants, or personages of one kind or the other. There are probably more located in the castle.”

            He turned to Raskin, then to Bada. “You will recall that when we looked at the plaques, the only one that might even come close to resembling poesies—the bouquet—is the one at the first landing”

            Thorne reflected on what Blackstone had just said. The man had been aware of the poesies plaque. He had not looked at it with Thorne, and this was the first time he had mentioned it to Thorne. It appeared Raskin, Bada, and Kirk-Halstrom, may have been aware of it, too.

            “In any case, we’re not making any headway,” Bada said.

            He turned to Thorne. “David, do you—can you—think of any place we haven’t looked, short of tearing down the entire castle?”

            “No,” Thorne said, pleased Bada had returned to calling him David. “My opinion is Moldar would have hidden the documents where they were easily accessible. He might need to get to them in a hurry. A place that might not require a lot of effort and demolition.”

            Kirk-Halstrom was sarcastic. “I wonder how hard you’re looking, Thorne. We’re faced here with a major problem, and you’re running down to London when you’re needed here most.”

            Raskin broke in and said softly, “Now, now, Lionel, I think we have to realize Mr. Thorne hasn’t had a break since he’s been here, and he had no idea such a tragedy would occur. Freddie’s accident was just an unfortunate anomaly.”

            Blackstone dropped his cigarette on the floor and ground it out with his shoe. “I propose we terminate Thorne’s contract. It appears he’s of no use to us here now.”

Chapter 38

The room fell silent, and a chair scraped the stone floor.

            “What about it, David?” Bada asked, trying to diffuse the tension in the room by momentarily ignoring Blackstone’s stunning proposal. “Do you think you can still find the documents?”

            Thorne struggled to keep his composure. “I think we have to examine every area in a thorough manner before we sign off on it. That’s what I’m doing now.” He stared at Blackstone before adding in a sarcastic manner, “Maybe you have suggestions, Sir.”

            Blackstone cleared his throat and said, “We retained you over a month ago and—well, I don’t see any results that would justify your continuing on this—”

            Raskin said, “I don’t think we have to make any hasty judgments here . . . What are your thoughts, Mr. Thorne?” Raskin, Blackstone, and Kirk-Halstrom were all looking at him, waiting for him to respond. Bada was looking down and rubbing his palms together.

            “I don’t know what you expect of me,” Thorne said to no one in particular. “I don’t feel I have to make excuses. After all, we have a large facility to examine. I’m not even a quarter of the way through the entire building. As I’ve said, I’m following a strict procedure and keeping track of where I’ve searched. There could well be another poesies representation in the castle. We just haven’t reached that area yet.”

            Bada asked, “How much longer before you complete the search, David?”

            Thorne shrugged. “I’m still working on the second floor of the castle proper. I’ve yet to investigate the Keep in detail except to examine the rubbings of the plaques. As I’ve said, most of the rubbings of the plaques were faint.”

            Raskin turned to Bada. “What do you think, Gil? “Do you think Freddie may have found the documents?”

            Bada shook his head. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask him about anything in the ambulance on the way to hospital. He was incoherent and in and out of consciousness at the time due to the sedatives. The hospital has confirmed he still is.”

            Thorne’s cell phone rang, and he ignored it. Bada said, “That’s all right, David. Why don’t you take your call.”

            The voice on the other end was the Clerk of Works. He said, “Sorry to bother you, Mr. Thorne, but Inspector Hammersmith is back and would like to speak with you in your office.”

            Thorne stood and said, “That’s the Inspector investigating Freddie’s accident. Could you excuse me for a few minutes?” He turned at the door and said, “I think all of you need to decide what you want to do.”

            The inspector was waiting outside the door to Thorne’s office. He said, “I’m sorry to bother you again so soon. I know I said I would come back this afternoon, but I realize I have to do other things first. Do you mind? I have some things I need to ask you.”

Chapter 39

Once inside the office, Thorne invited Hammersmith to sit as he busied himself straightening paper on his desk while trying to think of why the Inspector had returned so quickly. He knew the man had done what most detectives would do when given information by a suspect. They would check out the information as soon as possible. Obviously, Hammersmith had unearthed the information he needed.

            Hammersmith took out his notebook and looked at it. “Mr. Thorne, you recall you said you flew over to Antwerp in the afternoon. The flight on Brussels Airlines left at 5:30 P.M. That would be from Gatwick. You returned from Antwerp the following day around midday on British Airways. However—” He looked up from his notebook and wrinkled his brow. ”There were no British Airway flights from Antwerp to Gatwick after ten o’clock in the morning that particular day. How do you explain that?”

            Thorne shrugged and said, “All I know is I left London from Gatwick in the afternoon, and I returned around midday the following day to Heathrow. Then I caught a shuttle from Heathrow over to Gatwick and picked up the car I had parked there the previous day.

            “Oh,” said Hammersmith, “I had thought you would have returned to Gatwick. Your return flight brought you to Heathrow then?”

            “That’s correct.”

            Thorne suppressed a smile. He knew Hammersmith knew the flight had returned to Heathrow Airport. He had probably checked all the flights to and from Antwerp both days at both airports. It was just a ploy to try and trip up a possible suspect. Sharp—a sharp investigator.

            Hammersmith sat back in his chair and smiled pleasantly. “Mr. Thorne, I have to be honest with you. I’ve checked your story thoroughly, and I feel you didn’t have anything to do with Mr. Hollister’s accident. I’ve asked around and it appears you and Mr. Hollister had a cordial relationship.”

            He arose from the chair and stood in front of the desk, looking down at Thorne. “That said, I wonder if you might help me. Could you come with me to the Keep?”

            “Of course, if you think I could help, I’d be glad to.

            They went to the Keep and stood before the large wooden table. Hammersmith placed his hand on the top of the table and carefully traced his fingers along a fresh hairline crack in the granite tabletop.

            “This is where the pallet landed. The force caused it to catapult over here—” He walked a few feet from the table. “Mr. Hollister had undoubtedly tried to retreat when he saw it falling. Had he remained at the table, he would have been killed instantly. The heavy wooden pallet with the bags of cement catapulted off the table and both hit him full force, breaking a number of ribs on the left side of his body and causing extensive internal injuries.”

            Hammersmith moved adroitly, acting out the impact on Freddie’s body. “Part of the pallet also collided with his left shoulder and neck, breaking his collarbone and dislocating vertebrae in his spinal column. Other internal injuries were extensive.”

            He said dramatically, “ We now know what happened. What we need next is to find out how it happened and possibly who caused the pallet to fall in the first place.” He motioned for Thorne to follow as he started up the steps to the top of the Keep.

            They climbed the long stairs to the top level, eighty feet above the large open interior space of the Keep. Hammersmith went through the door into the guard’s quarters and over to the large open hole where the platform would have normally been.

            “The platform would have been on rails and would have normally been retracted. It was obviously situated over the opening before it fell.”

            The end of a frayed rope was hanging down from another opening in the ceiling. Hammersmith picked up a length of wood and fished for the rope’s end to where he could reach it.

            “Normally, the chain lift would have brought the main platform with the pallets from below and off-loaded the bags of cement here on this level. Obviously they remained on the pallet and were now to be hoisted up with a rope later since they didn’t want to use the chain hoist.

            “Look closely at the end of the rope,” he said giving it to Thorne.

            Thorne examined the frayed end of the rope closely. “It does appear to have an unusually even fray.”

            “More than even,” said the Inspector. “It’s been cut—at least partially. See how even it is on one side? A rope has a natural random fray pattern when it fails. The rope was almost completely cut through and left dangling, but only momentarily. The pallet would still be hanging there, loaded with the bags of cement, were it not due to additional forces “

            “Why momentarily? What other forces?”

            “Aha! Now there’s the interesting part. Look up.”

            Thorne leaned over the large gaping hole in the floor and looked upward. He could see all the way through the floors above to the ceiling of the Queen’s apartment at the top of the Keep.

            Hammersmith said, “You see, on the day of the accident, the stone masons were the only ones working on the top floor.” “The cement bags were being hauled up to prepare mortar to fix or repair, or—”

            “Point,” Thorne said. “The term is point the joints. That’s what they do when they replace new mortar after cleaning out the old, crumbling mortar from the joints.”

            “Whatever,” Hammersmith said. “Everyone confirms that all the workman were up on the top floor, even the hod carrier, who was carrying stone and mixing the mortar for the masons working up there. There must have been at least thirty or so men working up there. I have to admit, I was perplexed at first as to how a rope could be cut partially through and have it fall at such an opportune time. Then I saw that.” He pointed down to the ground floor.

            Thorne leaned and looked down. “And—?” he asked.

            “Look over against the wall. Do you see that large stone?”

            Thorne looked closer and saw a square stone the size of a basketball laying on the floor against the wall.

            Hammersmith said, “On the top floor where the men were working, there are stacks of such stones. What I think happened was that someone knew Mr. Hollister would be working there at the table—as he usually did. They had previously cut the rope most of the way through, just enough to hold the pallet suspended there over the table. Then, when Mr. Hollister moved into position, they pushed or knocked the stone over the edge. The stone, being pushed off the stack, fell onto the pallet holding the cement bags. The impact and additional weight of the stone on the pallet broke the already weakened rope, dropping the pallet and its contents onto the unsuspecting victim below.”

            Thorne was curious. “Have you questioned the men who were working above?”