The Deadly Game(26)

Jake did a U-turn and began to head back the way he’d just come, heading straight towards the couple. They stopped and began to look in a shop window as he passed them. Jake headed towards the same café where he’d seen them standing and apparently weighing up the contents of the menu. He went as if he was going to go in, but instead suddenly crossed the road and headed down a narrow cobbled side street, following a side that read ‘Public Toilets’.

The public toilets were in a small block in a little garden-like area at the end of the narrow alley. A wooden bench was near them. Jake went to the bench and sat down on it, and as he did so he was sure he saw a flash of light-blue flared jeans appear at the end of the narrow alleyway, but then disappear out of sight. Jake jumped up and headed back towards the alley. The man with the tie-dye waistcoat was standing there. There was no sign of the woman in the sheepskin coat.

The man hesitated. Jake guessed he was upset at being caught out like this. Then the man hurried towards the toilet block and went into the gents.

Again, it could have been coincidence, there weren’t that many public toilets in Glastonbury, but Jake was sure the man had been following him and had been forced to go into the toilet to avoid blowing his cover.

So where was the woman? Maybe waiting at the far end of the alley, by the cafeteria, ready to pick Jake up and continue following him if he reappeared. Well, he wasn’t going to give her that satisfaction. If she wanted to follow him, she’d have to work a bit harder. Jake crossed the small patch of garden area and headed for another narrow cobbled alley, this one leading towards a Pilgrimage Centre, according to the signpost. Not that it really mattered, Jake reflected. After all, the couple knew Jake and the others were staying at the Grail and Thorn and could pick them up at any time.

Jake wondered who they were, and who they were working for? His instinct was that they were working for Gareth, a pair of MI5 spooks checking that Jake really was in Glastonbury on a quest for King Arthur. Well, they’d be able to report back that Jake had spotted them and given them the slip. Not that he thought they would. After all, they wouldn’t want to look bad to their superiors, and — as Jake had said — they knew where everyone was.

But say they weren’t working for Gareth and MI5? If that was the case, who were they working for?





Chapter 15




When they met up in the pub car park at seven that evening, Jake told the others about the hippie couple, and him giving them the slip. Michelle was dismissive.

‘Maybe he really did want to use the toilet in a hurry,’ she said. ‘Hippies need to pee, too.’

Robert shook his head.

‘I think Jake’s right,’ he said. ‘We always guessed we were going to be watched when we got here.’ He grinned. ‘I just think they got it wrong using that sort of disguise. From Jake’s description, I remember seeing the pair of them in the garden when we arrived and thinking they looked like they were going to a fancy dress party. Not the best outfits to wear if you want to keep a low profile and not be spotted.’

‘Why all the interest in us?’ asked Andy.

‘Because of what we’re looking for,’ said Jake.

Andy shook his head in awe.

‘This must be some very special sort of book,’ he commented.

Michelle looked at her watch. ‘And the sooner we get our hands on it, the better,’ she said.

They pulled into the lay-by by the field at half past seven. No one followed them, and there was no further sign of the hippie couple. Jake wondered if the couple had realised they’d been spotted by Jake and had been pulled off the case. In which case, who had taken their place?

As the others got out of the cars, Robert dialled Weems’s number.

‘Mr Weems,’ said Robert cheerfully. ‘Robert George calling. We met earlier with my friends in a field.’

Then, while Robert continued the conversation, outlining a hypothetical planning situation and asking complicated questions that would require a whole series of long answers, Jake, Michelle, and Andy with Woody in tow, took spades and a trowel from the boot of the car and headed down the narrow track to the place where Woody had got so excited earlier.

‘We’d better be quick,’ said Michelle. ‘Weems is going to get suspicious if Robert talks for too long, and the next thing we’ll have the police on us.’

As before, Jake let the dog sniff at the old oiled book cover, and Woody immediately went straight to the same spot and began barking and turning in a circle.

‘Definitely the place.’ Andy nodded.

Andy pulled Woody to one side, and the two kept watch for anyone approaching, while Jake set to work, digging, with Michelle filming the whole process.