The old man looked uncertain, and very unhappy. His son looked even unhappier.
Jake let out a deep sigh which made everyone look at him.
‘It’s not here,’ he said, looking into the hole. ‘Looks like our information was wrong. If it was really here, we’d have found it by now.’ He shook his head. ‘Guess we’d better get back to the station and tell the boss the bad news.’
‘What you looking for?’ asked the younger man, curious.
‘Official business,’ said Andy again curtly. ‘Need to know.’
‘So, we’re giving up?’ asked Michelle.
Jake nodded.
‘Guess so,’ he said. ‘We’d better go and file our report — ‘‘Waste of time’’.’
With that, he bent down and picked up the spade and trowel.
‘Aren’t you going to arrest them for threatening us with a shotgun?’ asked Andy.
‘We weren’t threatening!’ said the younger man, repeating: ‘It’s not loaded!’
‘It’s still threatening,’ said Andy coldly.
‘We’ll let it go this time,’ said Jake. He shrugged. ‘To be honest, I can’t be bothered filling in all the paperwork.’
With that, he set off along the track, carrying the tools, aware of the book pushed down the back of his jeans, and hoping the two men hadn’t spotted it. Behind him, he heard Andy tell the two men firmly: ‘You’ve been warned. Do that sort of thing again and you’ll be in court.’
Then Andy and Woody followed Jake, with Michelle bringing up the rear. All the time they walked, Jake was aware of the eyes of the two men on them. As they neared the cars, he whispered under his breath to Andy: ‘Plain-clothes police?’
Andy chuckled.
‘It worked, didn’t it?’
Chapter 16
The whole way on the drive back to the Grail and Thorn, Jake sat clutching the black parcel tightly in his hands and staring at it. They’d found one! It was only small, about the size of a thin paperback, but it was real and solid and in his possession!
‘What are you going to do with it?’ asked Michelle.
‘Do what we said, get it tested in a lab, and then you can do a story on it.’
‘Yes, but before then. What are you going to do with it now?’
‘Put it somewhere very safe,’ said Jake. This was Lauren’s ticket to freedom, and there was no way he was going to let it vanish.
When they got back to the hotel, Jack hurried to the room he shared with Robert, while Robert went off to the bar with Michelle and Andy.
Jake sat on the bed and studied the package. As well as the letter ‘M’, the symbol of Malichea, there was a number on it in Roman numerals, but he couldn’t quite make them out, and he didn’t want to start scraping at it, or do anything that might damage the covering. There was still the problem of potential toxins being inside the book, or even inside the package. He looked at it again. The package was small and closed shut with a knotted leather thong. It looked safe enough, so long as it remained shut.
He looked around the room. Where could he hide it? In his bag? In the bathroom? He dismissed all those options. Those two men, the Watchers, knew they had dug it up. Or, they soon would. Jake was sure they’d come after it. They’d trace them to this hotel. The men were local. They were bound to know someone who worked here. Some money handed over would get them the key to the room. No, Jake couldn’t leave it here.
He went to his bag and took out the small first-aid box he always took with him when he went away. He took off his jacket and shirt, slipped the ancient packet inside a small plastic bag, and then taped the bag to his stomach with surgical tape. Luckily, the package was small, and if he wore his shirt hanging loose outside his trousers, hopefully no one would notice. And, if they did, he hoped they’d be polite enough not to tell him he was developing a pot belly.
He stood up and looked at himself in the mirror. The bulge beneath his shirt didn’t show.
‘Good,’ he murmured to himself, satisfied.
He put his jacket on, and went downstairs.
‘I can’t believe I sat on the phone all that time talking to Weems about planning regulations, and it made no difference!’ said Robert.
Jake, Robert and Michelle were sitting at a table in the pub restaurant, relaxing over a beer after their meal. Andy was out, taking Woody for a late-night walk before they all retired to bed. Robert was still brooding on the fact that he’d kept Weems talking at great length, and the Watchers had still turned up to try and disrupt their dig.
‘I should have said about how the Watchers work in groups,’ admitted Jake. ‘Weems couldn’t protect that book all on his own. It had to be shared.’