Archie's Battleflat Adventures: The Harriman Mystery (11 page)

“
Lord, Archie. Do you think he wants to kill you too?”
Edward’s voice was horrified.

Archie
nodded slowly, but he refused to be talked out of his quest for the
truth. “I think that I have seen too much.” He turned solemn eyes
on his friend. “I think that if we wait tonight, we will see him
watch the house. If he is watching, we will be safe to leave out of
the front door, go to Mr Harriman’s and get back in time to stop
him getting in again.”

Edward
shivered, wondering just what he had agreed to get involved in.
“What if he isn’t there?”

“
Then we will be really quick and go down the track to the
tavern. It isn’t that far away. We can be there in a couple of
minutes, and back again without being caught.” Archie knew the
tavern was probably locked tight at night, and had no idea how they
were going to get in without being noticed, but didn’t want to
raise that point with Edward.

“
What if the killer is there?” Edward gasped, sitting on the
bed with a heavy thump.

“
He has done with Mr Harriman. As far as I know, he had no
idea that Mr Harriman was holding anything in his hand. If he did,
he most probably already has the clue now, anyway. At least if we
go and take a look ourselves, we will know for sure if the clue is
still there. I doubt the murderer would want to go back and view
the body.”

Edward
admitted that Archie had a point.

“
Alright, so we will go once your dad has gone to bed and we
can be sure that the man is watching the house.” Edward held up one
cautionary hand. “What if we get caught? What do we tell
people?”

Archie
sighed and turned to Edward with a scowl. Sometimes Edward’s logic
was just a little bit irritating. Archie was more apt to jump in
with both feet and ask questions afterward. Edward was more logical
– he liked to think things over before he considered whether he
wanted to take part. Archie knew he was lucky to have got his
friend to agree to go with him so easily.

“
I’ll tell them that I wanted to see Mr Harriman before he was
buried, and didn’t want to tell my mum or dad because I knew they
would try and talk me out of it,” Archie reasoned aloud, impressed
with his own logic.

Edward
considered this for a moment, before quirking his lips and slowly
nodding his head. “It could work.”

“
Archie! Edward!”

“
Race you downstairs,” Archie said, hurtling toward the door.
Jostling with Edward in the doorway, both boys raced toward the
stairs, drawn by the delicious smell of food wafting toward them.
Neither took a moment to glance out of the window.

If they
had, they would have seen the solitary figure, standing with his
back to the thick trunk of the largest tree – watching the
house.

CHAPTER FIVE

“
Archie!”

Archie
snorted, and batted away the annoying hand that was shaking him. He
was blissfully warm, comfortable, and lost in a haze of sleepiness
that held him in a comforting embrace he didn’t want to
break.

“
G’way,” he grumbled, pushing at the relentless hands that
continued to nudge his shoulder.

“
Archie! Do you want to go to the tavern tonight, or
not?”

He
frowned as Edward’s words penetrated his exhaustion. The cold wash
of reality abruptly chased away his contentment, leaving Archie to
sleepily rub his eyes as he sat up to stare at his
friend.

“
You fell asleep,” Edward declared somewhat
accusingly.

“
I’m tired,” Archie grumbled.

Edward
could see the dark shadows beneath his friend’s eyes and felt
guilty for having woken him as instructed. But given what Archie
had wanted to do, he had felt obliged to find out if Archie still
wanted to go ahead with his plans. After all, this was the one and
only night they would get the chance to go. If Mr Harriman was
taken to the church to await burial, they would be done for. It was
going to be difficult enough getting into the tavern. Breaking into
a church was probably breaking all of the ten commandments in one
go, and would undoubtedly get them mentioned in church by the
Vicar, and not in a good way.

“
Do you want to go and get whatever Mr Harriman was holding,
or not?” Although the question was sharp, there was no anger behind
the words. Archie had had quite a difficult few days and couldn’t
be criticised if he wanted to back out of his plans. Edward knew
that if he had been faced with the same set of circumstances, he
would probably still be cowering under the bed. Secretly, he hoped
that Archie
would
change his mind. Now that they were looking at heading out
into the night to see a dead body, the plan didn’t seem such a
sound one.

“
Of course I want to go,” Archie yawned, and slowly pushed the
blankets off his legs. “It’s now or never.” He was aware of the
soft snores of his brothers sound asleep on the bed, and quietly
stood beside Edward.

“
Have you had a look outside?” He wasn’t surprised when Edward
nervously shook his head.

Stifling
another yawn, Archie shuffled along the wall until he was standing
beside the shutter. He jumped and huffed an impatient sigh when
Edward bumped into his back. Shaking his head, the scolding
hovering on his lips was immediately forgotten when his attention
was drawn to the visible outline of a man beneath the tree
opposite.

Although
it was windy out, the clouds had broken enough to allow the moon to
cast the entire area in silver and grey shadow. It was enough to
provide the boys with meagre light so they wouldn’t need a lantern
to guide their way, and risk giving away their whereabouts in the
process. It was also enough to penetrate even the darkest shadows
enough to see what was hidden.

“
Can you see him?” Archie whispered, knowing that Edward could
indeed see the watcher staring at the house by the sudden intake of
breath behind him.

“
Oh Lord, that’s creepy,” Edward gasped directly in his
ear.

“
At least he is there, and not trying to break into the house
again.” Archie knew from general conversation around the table that
his dad had repaired the damage to the window frame earlier that
afternoon, rendering the house safe once more. If the killer wanted
to get into the house tonight, he would have to find another way to
do it.

“
What are you two doing out of bed?”

Archie
gasped at the harsh whisper directly behind them. Unused to having
young siblings in the house, Edward squeaked as he spun
around.

“
Mr Balfour!”

“
Ssshh,” Mr Balfour replied, raising a warning finger to his
lips as he glanced toward the two wriggling bodies in the bed.
Everyone froze as Sammy and Ben wriggled and jostled for several
moments before finally settling back down, at which point everyone
suddenly heaved a sigh of relief and imperceptibly
relaxed.

“
I was just looking to see if the man I saw last night was
there again,” Archie admitted reluctantly, glad of the darkness
that hid his silent squeezing of Edward’s wrist.

“
Is he?” Jack’s voice was sharp as he scowled at his son. He
moved toward the window, only to find Archie directly in his
path.

“
Yes, directly beneath the tree opposite, but keep out of the
window or he will see you. The moon is out tonight, and you can see
his outline a bit more clearly.” Archie saw the surprised look on
his dad’s face and wondered if he had just made a colossal
mistake.

Nevertheless, his dad did as Archie had done and used the
protection of the shutter to glance out of the window.

“
Would you look at that?” Jack whispered, frowning down at the
solitary figure standing beneath the yew tree directly opposite the
house. Turning toward Archie, he scowled deeper than ever before.
“I know it is dark, but does it look like the man you saw in the
spinney?”

Archie
nodded slowly. “The man was tall, and thin. The one under the tree
is the same shape, and the cloak is familiar,” Archie said, nodding
toward the silhouette. “He is definitely the man who tried to break
in last night.”

Jack
turned to stare at the figure while he tried to decide what to do.
He could sneak out of the front door and go and get Georgie, but
that would mean leaving his family unprotected. Given how brutal Mr
Harriman’s murder had been, there was no possibility Jack was going
to leave his family vulnerable, even for a second. If he was
honest, he was surprised that the murderer had the audacity; the
sheer arrogance, to try to break into the village constable’s house
at all, let alone be stupid enough to try again on a second
night.

Turning
toward the boys, he was unsurprised to find them watching him,
waiting for his direction.

“
I think that we have a stupid burglar on our hands. Given he
has already tried to break in once, I need to be ready for his
second attempt.” He glanced toward the window again, unsurprised to
find the figure still standing there. “This time, though, we will
be ready.”

“
Are you going to fetch the villagers?” Archie asked, feeling
his carefully made plans to go the tavern break into tiny
pieces.

Jack considered the possibility for a moment. There was
nothing to say that the man watching the house hadn’t been put
there by Lord Brentwood to keep an eye on Archie. After all, he was
the only one who had seen the murderer up close. It was unlikely
that Lord Brentwood would go to the time, trouble or expense but,
just because Lord Brentwood hadn’t said anything to Jack about it,
didn’t mean it wasn’t possible. The more he considered it, the more
he realised that Archie was probably right. The man beneath the
tree probably
was
the murderer.

“
No. I think we will sit and wait, and see what he does. He
was scared off last night.” He clapped a hand on Archie’s shoulder
proudly. “Tonight, he doesn’t know that we will be waiting for
him.”

“
What are we going to do?”

“
I think that I’ll keep an eye on him. When he approaches the
house, I will be ready to pop outside and go and have a little word
with him. If he ends up in the tavern cellar, then so be
it.”

Archie’s
eyes grew wide. “The tavern cellar?” His eyes flew to Edward, who
groaned softly. Thinking fast on his feet, Archie’s turned back to
his dad. “Isn’t that where Mr Harriman is?”

Jack
scowled down at Archie. In reality, most prisoners were kept in the
tavern cellar until a cart could be prepared to take them to gaol.
But, given the cellar was now occupied with the murderer’s victim,
it didn’t seem appropriate to put the murderer of the dead person
in there too.

“
Quite right, Archie,” Jack coughed, uncomfortably. “I’ll have
to take him over to Leicester at first light. Right now though, the
man doesn’t know we are watching him. If he doesn’t approach the
house, we’ll leave it. Tomorrow, I’ll talk to the men, and we will
set a trap for his visit tomorrow night.” He made no mention of
telling the Justice of the possible murderer’s whereabouts. After
all, it could just be a very inept burglar. But, as it appeared at
that moment, it looked as though the murder knew exactly where
Archie was, and wasn’t prepared to leave until he had silenced his
witness.

Over the
course of yesterday, Jack had spoken to enough men in the village
to know that almost everyone considered there something was strange
about Lord Brentwood, and didn’t trust him as they ought to.
Careful questioning had confirmed that nobody had found a tricorn
hat like the Justice had claimed, and that left Jack with a lot of
questions that right now, he was unable to answer. It was down to
him, as constable of the parish, to bring this matter to a
conclusion by himself, and if that meant he had to arrest the
Justice of the Peace, then so be it.

Archie
glanced at Edward, who lifted his brows in silent query. Archie
read the silent question. Was Archie still planning to go through
with visiting the tavern? Archie nodded imperceptibly and
immediately felt guilty that they weren’t going to take his father
into their confidence about their plans. But, it was only because
Archie didn’t want to get his dad into trouble. If his dad found
the piece of paper and didn’t tell the Justice, he could get into
serious trouble, especially as constable for the village. If Archie
found the piece of paper, he could claim he had no idea how
important it was, or something like it, and would probably only get
a stern ticking off. If the piece of paper was still in Mr
Harriman’s hand.

“
Right then, boys, I suggest you go off to bed now, and leave
this to me,” Jack said, heading toward his own room to collect his
shirt. The room was chilly without any clothing on, and it was
going to be a long night, he just knew it.

“
Can’t we sleep downstairs?” Archie asked, glancing at Sammy
and Ben who lay sprawled in sleepy abandon across the wide bed. “I
won’t be able to sleep with you standing on guard like
that.”

The
cottage was only three bedroomed. His parents had one bedroom, his
sisters shared a bed in the second room, and Archie and his
brothers shared a bed in this room. There was nowhere else to sleep
except for either the sitting room downstairs, or the front
room.