It was the day after his meeting with Ferguson and were it not for the fact that the chapel and the monastery were very much on his mind, he might not have noticed, early that morning, that the key was missing. Throughout breakfast he kept wondering about it. He decided that before going up to the house to have his usual meeting with Jamie, he would stop at the chapel first.
Arriving at the oak door, he was surprised to see it was open. He went inside, careful not to make any sound. Directly across from him, on the other side of the wellhead, his back to Kingston, was a man in a plaid shirt, shining a flashlight on the wall, running his hand over the plaster.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Kingston barked.
The man spun round. It was Jack Harris.
‘Christ! You scared the shit out of me, Lawrence.’
‘What are doing here, Jack?’
Jack passed a tongue nervously over his lips. ‘Just trying to help,’ he mumbled.
‘How?’
‘Well—you know—trying to find out how those coins got in here. Seeing if there’s another way in.You got me curious, that’s all.’
‘How did you get in here? It’s supposed to be locked.’
Jack’s eyes flickered slightly. ‘It was open, I swear.’
Kingston was about to mention the missing key but decided that it would be tantamount to an accusation. ‘Who else knows about this place?’ he asked.
‘You mean other than the crew who were here when we discovered it?’
‘Yes, who else?’
‘Well—nobody, as far as I know.’
The two of them walked out of the chapel, Kingston up to the house, Jack to the vegetable garden, where most of the crew was presently working.
The door to Jamie’s office was open. Kingston peeked in and saw her at the computer. He gave a gentle tap on the door. ‘Ready when you are, boss,’he said.
Jamie swivelled on her chair. ‘Come in, Lawrence, I’m just about done here.’
He waited while she typed in a couple more entries of whatever it was she was working on. It looked like a table of some kind.
‘Okay, done,’ she said, turning the computer off. ‘Let’s go see how the vegetable garden’s coming along.’
Outside, the sun had just come out and it had the makings of a beautiful day.
‘Just ran into Jack, up at the chapel,’ Kingston said, as they walked across the top lawn.
‘Really? What was he doing there? I thought the place was locked up.’
‘It was but the key’s missing from the rack in the cottage. Jack swore he knew nothing about it. Said that the door was open.’
‘Hmm.’
Kingston went on to tell her about their conversation, that he thought Jack was lying through his teeth.
‘I didn’t think it worth mentioning, Lawrence, but over the last couple of weeks or so, it seems like Jack has gone out of his way to be nice to me. When he was first hired, I got the distinct impression that he was trying to avoid me. I recall I told you at the time that he was a bit too macho for my liking. I put it down to resentment, the fact that a woman could have inherited such a large estate—even more so, an American woman.’
‘Yes, I remember.’
‘Well, of late, he’s done a complete flip-flop. He couldn’t be nicer. Often, he’ll stop by the office to chat at the end of the day.’
‘Well, I’m pleased to hear that. He’s doing a good job, I must say.’
‘At one of those friendly little chats, he asked me if I could loan him some money. I should have told you, I suppose, but I didn’t think much of it at the time.’
‘Really? When was this?’
‘Three or four days ago. Said he’d got behind on his credit cards and some other debts. For a guy who’s usually so sure of himself, he was very nervous.’
‘What did you tell him?’
‘I was actually considering it until I asked how much he had in mind. When he told me two thousand pounds, I was shocked. I thought he was talking about fifty or a hundred pounds—that sort of thing.’
‘That’s serious money. I don’t like the sound of it at all. In any case, he should have come to me first.’
‘I think you’d better sit down and talk with him, Lawrence. Find out what’s going on.’
‘I will, Jamie. First thing tomorrow.’
The high brick wall of the vegetable garden came into view ‘There’s something I don’t like about that man,’ she said.
‘He may be hard to replace but if that’s what we have to do, we will.’
When Kingston got back to the cottage at seven o’clock that night, the letter was on the hall table. Post forwarded to him was usually held at the house. But now and then China or Eric would drop off letters—almost always bills. The front door was only locked at night.