Upon a Dark Night (44 page)

‘The book you keep by the bed.’

‘Kai Lung? I don’t subscribe to everything he says.’

Thirty-five

At the other end of winter, when millions of daffodils were brightening all the approaches to Bath, a visitor came to Harmer House and called on Ada Shaftsbury.

‘Bless your little cotton socks,’ said Ada, with a bear-hug. ‘If it isn’t my mate Rose!’

‘Christine, actually.’

‘I know, petal. I saw it in the papers. You’re looking well, Rose. Did you get your memory back?’

‘In time for Christmas.’ She laughed, so much more relaxed now. ‘I was in Oxford Street looking at the lights, and suddenly I knew I’d been there years ago with my mother. It was amazing, just like the clouds parting. And now I know why I came to Bath. It was to see my father. After Mother’s death I had a difficult time, but I felt closer to my dad than I ever had. I really wanted to see him. Then finding him dead like that, with the shotgun at his side, I blamed myself for neglecting him so long. I just blanked everything out. Anyway, I’ve picked up my life as it was, living in my flat in Fulham and working again.’

‘What are you doing here, then?’

‘Two things. I’ve just been to see that policeman who pulled me out of the crash. I wanted to thank him.’

‘Old gutso? What did he suggest as a thank-you - a jumbo burger and chips?’

‘Oh, Ada.’

‘Say it, blossom. Next to me, he’s a sparrow. What’s the other thing you came for?’

‘To sort out the farmhouse. It’s officially my property now.’

‘Are you selling the farm?’

‘Definitely. I’m having the house demolished first. The solicitor advised it after what happened there.’

‘And all the furniture?’

‘I’ve arranged for one of those house clearance firms to take it all away. I’m meeting them there this afternoon.’ Christine nervously touched her hair, twisting a length of it between her finger and thumb. Her new, confident look softened into something like the diffidence Ada remembered. ‘I’m a bit uncomfortable about going there alone. Would you have the time to come with me?’

Invited to choose a present from the farmhouse, Ada picked an old milking stool, which she said she would rest her feet on while thinking of all the years of honest work it represented.

‘It isn’t much. Don’t you want anything else?’

‘You know me, love. I only ever take what I can carry away. I’d have the kitchen range if I could. I was born in a cottage. Spent the first ten years of my life in a place like this.’

‘You’re welcome to take the range if you want. The clearance people won’t have any use for it.’

‘Can you see Imogen’s face if I had it sent up to Harmer House?’

They decided to light a last fire while waiting for the van. Soon the flames were giving an orange glow to the dark room.

‘Have I got it right?’ Ada asked. ‘Allardyce brought you here to look for some old treasure your dad was supposed to have salted away?’

‘That was only delaying tactics on my part. I made it up, telling him there were hiding places in old cottages.’

‘There wasn’t anything?’

‘Only the Seax, and that was dug up half a century ago.’

‘Two innocent people died for bugger all?’

‘I’m afraid that’s true.’

They watched the flames for a while. Finally Ada said, ‘All this was an open hearth once. In the old days they used to roast on a spit, over an open fire. You can see where they bricked in the space they didn’t need any more.’ She picked up her milking stool by one leg and tapped it firmly against the wall to the right of the range. ‘Hear it? Hollow.

I’ll tell you for nothing, blossom, it’s a perfect place to hide anything. If I had some hot stuff I wanted to salt away - not that I ever do, mind - I’d chip out a couple of bricks and put it in there.’

They both looked at the wall. Each of them spotted the loose bricks at floor level on the left of the range.

‘Well, if you’re not going to look, I am.’

Ada planted her stool by the bricks and lowered herself onto it. She withdrew the bricks with ease and put her hand into the space behind. ‘Wouldn’t it take the cake if there really was…’ Her voice trailed off and she stared at Rose with saucer eyes. She took out her hand and showed something that glinted gold in the fire’s glow.

O
THER
T
ITLES IN THE
S
OHO
C
RIME
S
ERIES

J
ANWILLEM VAN DE
W
ETERING

The Amsterdam Cops: Collected Stories

S
EICH
M
ATSUMOTO
Inspector Imanishi Investigates

J
IM
C
IRNI
The Kiss Off
The Come On
The Big Squeeze

P
ATRICIA
C
ARLON
The Souvenir
The Running Woman
Crime of Silence
The Price of an Orphan
The Unquiet Night
Hush, It’s a Game
Death by Demonstration
Who Are You, Linda Condrick?

P
ETER
L
OVESEY
The Vault
The Last Detective
On the Edge
The Reaper
Rough Cider
The False Inspector Dew
Diamond Dust
Diamond Solitaire
The House Sitter
The Summons
Bloodhounds

J
OHN
W
ESTERMANN
Exit Wounds
High Crimes
Sweet Deal

M
AGDALEN
N
ABB
Property of Blood
Death of an Englishman
Some Bitter Taste
The Marshal and the Madwoman
The Marshal and the Murderer
Death in Autumn

C
HERYL
B
ENARD
Moghul Buffet
Qiu XIAOLONG
Death of a Red Heroine
A Loyal Character Dancer

J
. ROBERT
J
ANES
Sandman
Mayhem
Mannequin
Carousel
Kaleidoscope
Dollmaker

A
KIMITSU
T
AKAGI
The Informer
The Tattoo Murder Case

S
TAN
J
ONES
White Sky, Black Ice
Shaman Pass

T
IMOTHY
W
ATTS
Cons
Money Lovers

P
ENELOPE
E
VANS
Freezing

M
ARTIN
L
IMON
Jade Lady Burning
Slicky Boys
Buddha’s Money

C
ARA
B
LACK
Murder in the Marais
Murder in Belleville
Murder in the Sentier
Murder in the Bastille

T
OD
G
OLDBERG
Living Dead Girl

R
EBECCA
P
AWEL
Death of a Nationalist
Law of Return

C
LAIRE
F
RANCIS
A Dark Devotion

Quentin Bates

(Iceland)

Frozen Assets

Cold Comfort

Cheryl Benard

(Pakistan)

Moghul Buffet

James R. Benn

(World War II Europe)

Billy Boyle

The First Wave

Blood Alone

Evil for Evil

Rag & Bone

A Mortal Terror

Cara Black

(Paris, France)

Murder in the Marais

Murder in Belleville

Murder in the Sentier

Murder in the Bastille

Murder in Clichy

Murder in Montmarte

Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis

Murder in the Rue de Paradis

Murder in the Latin Quarter

Murder in the Palais Royale

Murder in Passy

Murder at the Lanterne Rouge

Grace Brophy

(Italy)

The Last Enemy

A Deadly Paradise

Henry Chang

(Chinatown)

Chinatown Beat

Year of the Dog

Red Jade

Colin Cotterill

(Laos)

The Coroner’s Lunch

Thirty-Three Teeth

Disco for the Departed

Anarchy and Old Dogs

Curse of the Pogo Stick

The Merry Misogynist

Love Songs from a Shallow Grave

Slash and Burn

Garry Disher

(Australia)

The Dragon Man

Kittyhawk Down

Snapshot

Chain of Evidence

Blood Moon

Wyatt

David Downing

(World War II Germany)

Zoo Station

Silesian Station

Stettin Station

Potsdam Station

Lehrter Station

Leighton Gage

(Brazil)

Blood of the Wicked

Buried Strangers

Dying Gasp

Every Bitter Thing

A Vine in the Blood

Michael Genelin

(Slovakia)

Siren of the Waters

Dark Dreams

The Magician’s Accomplice

Requiem for a Gypsy

Adrian Hyland

(Australia)

Moonlight Downs

Gunshot Road

Stan Jones

(Alaska)

White Sky, Black Ice

Shaman Pass

Village of the Ghost Bears

Lene Kaaberbøl & Agnete Friis

(Denmark)

The Boy in the Suitcase

Graeme Kent

(Solomon Islands)

Devil-Devil

One Blood

Martin Limón

(South Korea)

Jade Lady Burning

Slicky Boys

Buddha’s Money

The Door to Bitterness

The Wandering Ghost

G.I. Bones

Mr. Kill

Peter Lovesey

(Bath, England)

The Last Detective

The Vault

On the Edge

The Reaper

Rough Cider

The False Inspector Dew

Diamond Dust

Diamond Solitaire

Peter Lovesey (cont.)

The House Sitter

The Summons

Bloodhounds

Upon a Dark Night

The Circle

The Secret Hangman

The Headhunters

Skeleton Hill

Stagestruck

Cop to Corpse

Jassy Mackenzie

(South Africa)

Random Violence

Stolen Lives

The Fallen

Seichō Matsumoto

(Japan)

Inspector Imanishi Investigates

James McClure

(South Africa)

The Steam Pig

The Caterpillar Cop

The Gooseberry Fool

Snake

The Sunday Hangman

The Blood of an Englishman

Jan Merete Weiss

(Italy)

These Dark Things

Magdalen Nabb

(Italy)

Death of an Englishman

Death of a Dutchman

Death in Springtime

Death in Autumn

The Marshal and the Madwoman

The Marshal and the Murderer

The Marshal’s Own Case

The Marshal Makes His Report

The Marshal at the Villa Torrini

Property of Blood

Some Bitter Taste

The Innocent

Vita Nuova

Stuart Neville

(Northern Ireland)

The Ghosts of Belfast

Collusion

Stolen Souls

Eliot Pattison

(Tibet)

Prayer of the Dragon

The Lord of Death

Rebecca Pawel

(1930s Spain)

Death of a Nationalist

Law of Return

The Watcher in the Pine

The Summer Snow

Qiu Xiaolong

(China)

Death of a Red Heroine

A Loyal Character Dancer

When Red is Black

Matt Beynon Rees

(Palestine)

The Collaborator of Bethlehem

A Grave in Gaza