Archie's Battleflat Adventures: The Harriman Mystery (17 page)

Archie
shook his head slowly, bolstered by the towering presence of his
father standing beside him.

“
We said we would let you know if he did remember anything,”
Jack replied. He really wanted to throw the aristocrat out on his
ear, but kept his mouth shut in deference to Betsy’s employment at
the big house. The more he thought about the Justice, the more
uncomfortable he became until, of late, he had seriously considered
ordering Betsy to leave her job and find something somewhere else.
He shifted sideways, silently making room for the Justice to leave
by the back door.

Lord
Brentwood quirked his lips in a parody of a smile. Jack’s silent
request for him to leave wasn’t lost on him, nor was the
implication of him leaving by the back door. He wasn’t welcome,
hadn’t been invited and was – politely – being asked to
leave.

“
If there is anything, Archie, you must tell me. I don’t take
kindly to secrets.” Cold menace rang in Lord Brentwood’s
voice.

Archie
felt his dad shift beside him.

“
Neither do I,” Archie replied, tipping his chin up defiantly
as he met the lord’s cold eyes. Archie knew that if it wasn’t for
his dad standing beside him, the lord would have probably drawn
that cruel looking whip sticking out of his boots, and used it on
him. Archie saw the Justice’s fingers clench, and knew the
possibility was being considered. It was gone in an instant, and
the Justice relaxed slightly before pasting a jovial, and very
false, smile on his face.

“
I’ll see you soon, Archie,” he chirruped, nodding briskly to
Jack and Marjorie before disappearing out of the kitchen door. It
wasn’t lost on anyone that he left the kitchen door open behind
him. Jack closed it with a firm thump, before turning to his wife,
who had slumped into a chair beside the table in relief, clearly
shaken by the events that had unfolded in her sitting
room.

“
Thank heavens you came when you did,” she gasped, glancing at
her husband.

“
Joshua told me he saw the man heading this way. I got here as
quick as I could,” Jack said, placing a comforting hand on his
wife’s shoulder as he glanced toward Archie.

“
Cor, he was mad,” Ben declared, taking a seat on the soft. He
had no idea what the last few minutes had been all about, but
wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

“
Are you alright?” Jack asked Archie.

“
He’s been to the mill as well.”

Jack’s
brows rose.

“
Mr Tompkins made an excuse and stopped him from seeing me. I
think that’s why he came here,” Archie added, glancing at his mum
who was still patting her brow in worry.

“
I’ve asked Mr Tompkins to stop him from pestering you,” Jack
admitted, frowning at his son. He knew Archie well enough to know
there was something else. “Come outside a minute, you can give me a
hand with something.”

Archie
didn’t hesitate to follow his dad outside. Once in the gardens, a
fair distance from the house, Jack turned to his son.

“
Well?”

Archie
explained what had happened at Mrs Humble’s house.

“
Sounds odd,” Jack frowned, studying the area around them.
“I’ll ask around and see if she has gone to visit relatives or
something. Is there anything else?”

“
Nope, just that someone was definitely in the house.” It felt
as though floodgates opened up inside him. Although he couldn’t –
wouldn’t, tell his dad about going to the tavern and getting the
clues from Mr Harriman’s corpse, he saw no reason why he shouldn’t
tell his dad about the cloak.

“
The thing is, Dad, the man in the spinney stunk something
awful, but there wasn’t the smell in the house. When I opened the
door to the cupboard to shove the cloth back in, I can’t remember
any smell.”

“
That’s alright, Archie. It is probably Mrs Humble’s cloak,
but I’ll check it out. Meantime, stay safe, Archie. I’ll speak to
Mr Tompkins about you not going out on any more deliveries for
now.”

“
What if Lord Brentwood comes back? He is after something, I
am sure of it,” Archie scowled, staring at the distinguished figure
riding off into the distance toward home.

“
I know he is, but we have to be careful, Archie. Not only is
there mum’s sewing, but Betsy’s job at risk if we get him too
angry. Be careful, and be evasive where he is concerned. Mr
Tompkins is going to cover for you, but for now I think it is best
if you don’t spend too much time out and about. For now, at
least.”

“
Did you find anything out about the tricorn hat?”

Jack
considered his son for a moment. He was still struggling with the
sudden revelation that his son had such a high level of
intelligence for his age, and was inordinately pleased and proud of
him that, throughout everything he had faced over the past few
days, he had remained calm and in control; almost logical in his
approach to what had happened. It humbled Jack more than he could
say.

“
Just that nobody from the village found it.”

“
Which points to the fact that Lord Brentwood got it from
someone else – or had it in the first place.” His eyes met and held
his father’s for several moments.

“
We can’t say anything until we are sure, I know that for a
fact. If we start throwing accusations around, we are going to get
into deep trouble and we cannot afford that.”

Archie
knew that his dad meant more than getting in trouble with the
Justice. Lord Brentwood could sack Betsy and stop sending baskets
of sewing and wages to mum. It would render the family
destitute.

“
Hold your tongue with him, and keep telling him you don’t
know anything else. If you do remember anything, tell me first so
we can decide what to do.”

Archie
nodded, relieved that his dad wasn’t going to push him to relive
the details of Mr Harriman’s murder again. He fingered the coin and
parchment in his pocket guiltily, and for a brief moment he
seriously contemplated telling his dad. Not only did the clues not
make sense, but his dad would have to tell Lord Brentwood, who
would inevitably come back and ask more questions –
again.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Later
that night, as the house settled down around them, Archie and
Edward sat huddled together on the front room floor. The thin
flicker of the candle barely lit the dark shadows in the corners of
the room, but that didn’t matter to either boy as they sat
whispering.

“
I don’t want to do it,” Edward declared flatly. “First Mr
Harriman is murdered, then Mrs Humble goes missing. I don’t want to
be the next one. If we go outside again, we are asking for the
murderer to come and find us.”

Even
through the darkness, Archie could see the whites of his friend’s
fear-filled eyes.

“
So what do we do? Sit here and wait for the murderer to come
to us at home, and risk everyone else being murdered?”

“
We don’t know that the murderer is after us,” Edward argued,
sensing his friend’s impatience. “We don’t even know if Mrs Humble
has been murdered.”

Archie
paused, and stared thoughtfully at Edward.

“
What?”

“
We need to know if this map means anything, but can’t do that
with what we have here. We need the other half of the map,” he
explained, putting his thoughts about Mrs Humble to one
side.

“
But we don’t know where it is in Mr Harriman’s house,” Edward
persisted. He was reluctant to not only leave the warmth of the
blankets he now half lay in, but he hated the thought of heading
out into the dark night while there was a killer on the
loose.

“
I’ll go on my own then,” Archie declared. If he was truly
honest, the thought of going outside alone gave him the shivers,
but he didn’t want Edward to know that. There was not only Lord
Brentwood, who was becoming increasingly sinister, but the odd
appearance of the strange man who had accosted him on the way home
the other day. Now there was Mrs Humble’s disappearance on top of
Mr Harriman’s murder, that started everything off in the first
place!

“
Fine!” Edward snapped, watching Archie clamber to his feet
with a growing feeling of impending doom. “What am I to tell your
mum and dad if you aren’t back by morning, and are instead found
lying dead in a ditch somewhere?” He knew he was arguing for no
reason. By the look of the stubborn tilt to his friend’s chin,
there was no chance of Edward winning this particular argument.
Edward sighed, he wished he could win just one squabble with his
best friend – especially this one, when the consequence of being
caught by anyone, was dire.

“
Look on the bright side,” Archie reasoned after several
moments of grumpy silence, while both boys put their boots on. “At
least this time we aren’t going to a dead body.”

Edward
snorted, glaring through the darkness. “You hope! How do you know
Mrs Humble’s body isn’t there?”

Archie
paused and wrinkled his nose up. “Why would anyone put her body in
Mr Harriman’s house”

“
I don’t know,” Edward snapped. “Why would anyone want to
kidnap, or murder, Mrs Humble?”

Archie
shook his head, growing confused by so many questions that he had
no answers for.

“
I know one thing,” he declared flatly. “We aren’t going to
get any answers by sitting here and doing nothing. Mr Harriman had
this coin and map from somewhere, and the more I think about it,
the more I think that Mr Harriman wanted me to have them. He
certainly didn’t want the killer to get them. Whatever he was
murdered for, the coin and map are part of the reason he died. We
owe it to him to get answers.”

“
We have to tell your dad and let him decide what to do,
Archie,” Edward said, worried about being caught.

“
We will – eventually - just not now. He will have to hand it
to Lord Brentwood, or run the risk of ending up in jail. Until we
find out why Lord Brentwood is so desperate to find out what I
know, then we cannot risk him getting hold of it. After all,
he
could be the
murderer.” He sensed rather than saw Edward’s eyes grow round as he
considered the possibility.

Suddenly
making a decision, Archie crept toward the sitting room door,
pausing to listen for several moments. The rhythmic sound of his
dad’s soft snores reassuringly broke the silence. He could feel,
rather than hear, Edward directly behind him and was relieved his
friend was willing, for now at least, to go along with
him.

“
We need to check to see if the man is watching again,” Edward
whispered, heading toward the stairs.

They
stood for several long minutes, waiting for the shadow to separate
from the tree.

“
Do you see anything?” Edward whispered, growing bored with
watching – well, nothing.

“
No, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t there.”

“
But if he
isn’t
there, where could he have gone?”

Archie
shrugged, and shook his head. “Mrs Humble’s house? I don’t know,
Edward, but we cannot let it put us off going to Mr Harriman’s. We
need the other half of the map.” He heard Edward’s loud
sigh.

“
I don’t expect you to come with me if you really don’t want
to, but I am going,” Archie declared, turning away from the window.
He couldn’t ignore the possibility that the man who had been
watching the house had seen the candle his father had left lit in
the middle of the table, and had decided there was no point in
waiting to break in.

“
I can’t let you go alone,” Edward sighed again, wondering how
long his mum and dad were going to be away, and if they were likely
to return before he became the murderer’s next victim. Despite the
risks though, he really couldn’t consider simply sitting in the
front room, waiting for his friend to return. He would go mad with
worry.

Archie
sensed victory and smothered a delighted grin. “Just to Mr
Harriman’s and back.”

“
Mr Harriman’s and back,” Edward repeated fatalistically.
“Then I am going to get some sleep.”

Within
minutes the boys were tip-toeing out of the house, pausing briefly
beside the door to allow their eyes to adjust to the moonlight
outside while they scanned the area around them.

“
God, Archie, we must be barking mad,” Edward whispered,
shivering as the wind whistled around them, grasping his words and
sweeping them away. The branches on the trees around the house
rustled warningly; the tall, willowy shadows dipped and swayed
against the relentless barrage of the encroaching storm.

“
We need to be quick, or we are going to get caught up in
that,” Edward whispered, nodding toward the lumbering black cloud
beginning to overpower the moon’s cheery glow.

“
Let’s go,” Archie said, tugging his friend’s sleeve and
ducking low behind the wall that would lead them around the same
route they took the night before when they visited the cellars of
the tavern. Although this time, they had to head toward the woods
and Mr Harriman’s house rather than around to the
tavern.