Postby KP Presents » Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:18 am
As we walked through, Colin whispered “I’ll come round and see you tonight.”
“Not tonight – tomorrow,” I said, smiling as I followed Aunt Connie.
“Have a seat,” Mr Hampton said as we went into his office. Sitting at the other side of the desk, he said “I’m not sure there’s a lot more that I can tell you, Connie, apart from what we’ve already released in the police statement.”
“I know – we’ve already spoken to the family,” Aunt Connie said with a smile. “We’re here to give my young assistant here a bit of background to the history of the Green Mask.”
“Your assistant,” he said with a raised eyebrow. “Well, there’s not really a lot to say. The original cases, as I’m sure your aunt has already told you Jenny, the name was given to a robber from about 1987 to 1992, mainly because the victims all mentioned the green balaclava mask he wore. His modus operandi was to enter the house in the early hours of the morning, rouse the children, bind and gag them, and then use them as leverage to get the parents to hand over their valuables.”
“That’s what Aunt Connie said – then he left the families all tied and gagged, and made his escape. Was it always the middle of the night when he struck?”
“It was his preferred time, certainly,” Mr Hampton said as he sat back, “I seem to recall one or two occasions when he broke in during the day, usually when the mother had left the older son or daughter in charge, but mostly during the night.”
“And he always used tape?”
“That’s right – I guess because however effective or ineffective you know it, it is quick, and if you’re woken in the middle of the night by a masked man, fear means you don’t resist too much.”
“So what happened in 1992 to make the robberies stop?”
“They stopped – that’s all. We never caught the perpetrator, and it became a matter of history rather than police investigation. Why they should start up again now, I have no idea.”
“Thanks, Barry,” Aunt Connie said as she stood up and shook his hand. “Jenny, part of your work this afternoon is going to be going through the archives at the office for those past reports. Dave in the computer department will help you use the index search.”
“I’m just hoping this is a one-off,” Mr Hampton said as he escorted us out. “Last thing we need is another thief using kids to get the parents to co-operate. We already have Jay Edwards and the Game Player.”
“Another thing for our hard working police to think over,” Aunt Connie said as we went back to the car. “I’m hungry – let’s grab a sandwich and then I’ll take you to the office. There’s a good place about ten minutes from here.”
We drove down to an arcade of shops, and parked outside a nice looking café. Leaving the car, we walked in and sat down at a table.
“Good afternoon, what can I get… Oh boy, guess my secret’s out now.”
“Mary?”
It was indeed Mary, in a black short sleeved dress with white cuffs and collar, and a white apron around her waist, hanging over her skirt.
“Yeah,” she said as she looked at me and Aunt Connie, “I got the catering business. I’ve already had all the jokes from Eddie, so spare me them.”
“Fair enough,” I said with a smile, “I’ll have a cheese and ham baguette, and a coke.”
“Croque Monsieur and mineral water,” Aunt Connie said with a smile, “and don’t worry – your secret is safe with me.”
“Hey could be worse – wait until you see Alicia,” Mary said with a smile as she scribbled on her pad. “I’ll bring your drinks over in a minute.”
I wish I could say the afternoon was as interesting as the morning, but it wasn’t. The archives were a vast array of bound volumes, but Dave was able to give me a list of reference numbers, so I took that and pulled the volumes out, leafing through and taking notes when I found the reports of the break-ins. I’d managed to find about a dozen before Aunt Connie found me.
“Knocking off time – want me to drop you anywhere?”
“Nah,” I said as I closed the leather bound volume, and looked at my notes, “I’m meeting the girls and going for a pizza with them. I’ve found a dozen reports – eleven night visits, one on a Sunday afternoon, but they all say the same thing.”
“Well, this is part of the job – sifting through the records. Come on – I’ll walk you out.”
Pizza Hut was fairly quiet when I arrived, but Alicia and Cathy were already there. Alicia was wearing a t-shirt and joggers, and Cathy had on a white blouse and knee length grey skirt.
“Hard day at the coal face,” Cathy said as I sat down.
“Different – I saw Colin at the police station, helping with filing and suck like. I thought we weren’t meant to work with our parents?”
“Different schools, different rules,” Alicia said as she stretched her arms out. “I don’t know about you two, but I am starving.”
“So am I,” Mary said as she joined us, “do you know what it’s like to be serving food all day? I just got hungrier and hungrier!”
“So where are you based,” I said as I looked at Cathy.
“You’re the reporter – see if you can find out,” Cathy said with a smile. “Ask Ali instead.”
“No – don’t,” Alicia said as she looked at me, “just don’t. Let’s order and eat.”
“Oh – secrecy,” Mary said, “but I already know, Alicia dear. What’s to stop me telling both of them right now?”
Alicia looked at Cathy and me, and then said “All right – but Cathy has to spill as well.”
“All right,” Cathy said as the waitress came over, and we gave our orders. Once she had left, she said “I’m working for Mark Williamson at his accountancy office, as a receptionist. Satisfied?”
“I am,” I said with a smile as our drinks came over. “And now, Alicia?”
“All right, all right,” she said as she sat back. “I’m working with Donald Parker.”
“The vet? You’re doing work experience at the vets?”
Alicia nodded, and said “I spent the whole day out at a farm, taking records as he carried out TB tests. Have you any idea what it feels like when a cow backs into you? The only reason I still have feet is because I had steel toe capped wellies on – but I ache all over.”
“Whose idea was that?”
“Grandfather – who else?”
We all had to giggle at that, as our starters arrived.
“Long day,” Dad said as I finally went into the house. I nodded as I slumped into the armchair, Mum bringing me through a drink.
“First day is always the worst,” she said as she handed me the glass, and then sat down. “Where did Connie take you?”
“To see the family who were robbed last night, then Colin’s dad, then the archives to see what I could find out about this masked intruder. I guess I start looking into Lady Holderness tomorrow.”
“Sounds good – Connie said she’ll pick you up at eight.”
The next day and a half I spent in the office, looking through old records and doing web searches about Lord and Lady Holderness between 1989 and today. I did find out a few interesting things – how on ascending to be Lord Holderness in 1989, he became the head of the board at the Red Ribbon Shipping Company. That was a name I recognised from the conversations we had at the time of the attack at Holderness Manor, so I allowed myself a little time to look at the company website.
Bobby’s father is the current chairman of the board, with Lord Holderness as the owner and – Emeritus Chairman, it said on the web site. I only spent a little time on their site, but what I saw was enough to show me just how wealthy the family was.
That was a diversion, however, and I started to look at some of the events Lady Holderness had pointed out to me the other day – in particular, the church hall fire. The blaze had been the result of an electrical fault, and left the building a shell, with the plan at the time to demolish it and not replace it. Lady Holderness had objected to that, and set up a series of charitable events to raise the funds that allowed them to rebuild the hall, keeping as much as the original structure as possible.
One of the things that really intrigued me was that she had organised something called an auction of promises – getting local people to commit to doing some sort of work or perform a duty, in return for a donation. The reason it caught my eye was one of the people making a promise was my late grandfather. He’d agreed to take whoever bid the most on a tour of the Ministry of Defence – and the highest bidder paid a fair amount for it.
Dad was also mentioned – he’d agreed to offer a weekend’s gardening. In fact, quite a few people I recognised had made similar promises – Cathy’s mothers had offered a complete floral display for an event, and a car as well, as one example.
I also started to look into another thing that Lady Holderness had done, back in 1991, in the early days of Comic Relief. It turned out that she had organised a comedy night at Holderness Manor that particular year, and when I looked at the list of acts she had persuaded to take part…
“Oh yes, I remember that night,” she said on the Wednesday evening as I sat with her in our front room, “Do you remember Miranda?”
“I do indeed – you’d somehow got Tony Robinson and Rowan Atkinson to do a five minute Blackadder sketch, using the characters from the third series. I remember, because after the show they spent hours with David discussing the end of the final series.”
“That must have been fascinating,” I said, the tape recorder still going as I said “But how did you manage to get so many world class acts to come and take part? Holderness is not the centre of the show business universe, after all.”
“Oh we had our ways – but mostly gentle persuasion,” Lady Holderness said with a smile. “The real coup was getting the Americans to come over.”
“So I saw – that was amazing.”
“It was,” Granny said, “the group from Saturday Night Live in particular.”
“Well, Lorne Michaels owed Desmond a favour,” Lady Holderness said with an enigmatic smile. “Still, quite a night and it did raise a most astounding amount of money – over ten thousand pounds.”
Smiling, I said “Well, I wonder if it would be possible to discuss another matter with you, Lady Holderness – one I need to switch the tape recorder off for.”
“Now that sounds mildly ominous,” Granny said as I reached down and switched off the recorder. “What is it you want to talk about you don’t want an aural record of?”
“Well, it’s personal, but it relates to another matter I am researching. You read about the break in in Dewcot on the early hours of Monday morning.
“I saw a mention of it in the paper, nothing more,” Lady Holderness said, “why should it concern me?”
“The thief was identified by the mask he was wearing – a green balaclava.”
I saw Granny and Lady Holderness exchange a look, before she said “and naturally, your aunt had you look into the earlier robberies by this person?”
“She did – I recognised a few names, but there was on I recognised that I did not tell her of – a robbery in late 1988, one of the first in fact.”
“Ah – well, I applaud your discretion in that case,” Lady Holderness said quietly, “but yes, that was a few months before we moved here, in our old house.”
She took a deep breath, and said “What would you like to know?”
Last edited by
KP Presents on Thu Mar 20, 2014 2:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.