hope your driving has improved since I’ve been away,’ said Eliza with a small grin.
‘While you’re doing that, Ali and I will have to get together and make a list,’ said Toby, ‘We’re going to need a few things and if we buy them all at the same place it may attract attention. All of you will have to make a tour of the countryside, buying bits and pieces from different places, and make sure you use cash. We don’t want to leave any sort of a trail for someone to follow.’
‘Well it looks as though we all have jobs to do. I propose we meet at Mark and Ellen’s place at ten o’clock tonight,’ said Justine.
Brian nodded, ‘We’ve got a long night ahead of us. It’ll take a lot more effort to raise the old lady than it did when we lowered her.’
7
That evening Toby and Suzie Brown drove up the roadway that had once been a narrow, pot-holed lane leading to the farm belonging to the Brown family.
Now, newly erected streetlights showed the road to have been sealed and widened to two lanes, with other feeder roads branching off it at regular intervals. They were part of the new subdivision that Toby’s contractor was now undertaking. To the left and right of the roadway could be seen brand new homes, along with the skeletal outline of others still under construction.
They came to an ancient section of dry stone wall with a freshly painted gate. The gate was open and after turning in they drove past Toby’s former family home and around the back to where a large barn stood. Switching off the truck’s motor, Toby sat staring at the building. Memories came flooding back and it was Suzie’s gentle hand on his arm that brought him back to the present. ‘Come on love,’ she whispered, knowing exactly what he was thinking.
Toby gave his wife a weak smile and opened his door. The barn was where his mother’s murdered body had been found and it was an emotional return for him. The death of his mother was why he had decided to sell his farm buildings and to spend his compensation money creating a sub-division on what had formerly been the family’s apple orchard. Now the sub-divided blocks of land were selling quickly and adding to Toby’s already impressive wealth. Not that any of The Fund’s directors had need of money. Jade Green and her legacy had seen to that.
Suzie Brown noted that the others were already here as they emerged from the well-lit interior of the barn and helped Toby to unload the bulkier equipment that he carried on the back of his truck.
Toby pushed a new wheelbarrow inside and passed Mark Scott on his way out. ‘When she’s gone you’ll be left with a large hole in the floor.’
‘Don’t worry Toby, I’ve already considered that. Workmen will be arriving in a couple of days time to replace the cobbles with a new concrete floor. After that, no one will ever know that she’d been here.’
Mark and Ellen Scott were close friends and former work colleagues of Brian’s. Mark was still employed by Grant and Sons, Solicitors. His firm still did much of the legal work for The Fund.
When Toby realised that he could no longer endure living where his mother had been murdered, the Scott’s had jumped at the chance to purchase the picturesque farm-house and barn.
The equipment was quickly unloaded and moved into the barn which had been lit by temporary flood lights on tripods, their glow concentrating on the centre of the cobbled floor, where a rectangle of white had been spray painted.
‘I came out here after Brian called,’ explained Mark, ‘and worked out where she is from the subsistence. If we start at the outer edges we’ll be able to ease up to her and do as little damage as possible.’
***
For the next few hours the men dug into the earth floor and piled the dirt into the numerous wheel barrows which the women then pushed outside and deposited on a heap beside the barn wall.
‘Don’t load the barrows up with too much or the girls will never be able to move them,’ said Toby as he stripped to the waist.
‘Yes. You don’t want us developing muscles, do you,’ replied Suzie cheekily, as she gave her husband’s torso an appraising glance. He’s still a stud, she thought.
Slowly the men dug a trench down both the longest sides of the rectangle and then extended them slowly toward the centre.
Ali’s shovel struck something that caused a hollow thud, ‘I’ve just hit her.’
‘Go easy,’ said Brian, ‘clear some more of the dirt away.’
Gently Ali used his shovel to clear dirt from the area where he had struck metal, until a bright silver piece of steel appeared. ‘Looks like the rear bumper bar,’ he said.
Now that their object was finally in sight they were better able to gauge where to dig and the work went quicker, although there was still a great deal of work to be done.
The hidden car’s boot and back tyres were slowly revealed before the group broke for a well earned drink.
‘She looks very undignified with her bum stuck up in the air like that,’ commented Mark, as he took a sip from his mug of hot coffee.
‘Well that’s the only way we could get her in there in the time we had available,’ replied Brian. ‘Dig a hole with a sloping side and drive her in.’
‘She looks in pretty good shape for having been ‘planted’ all this time,’ said Toby, ‘I wonder if she’ll work?’
‘She’s a Roller,’ said Suzie confidently, ‘of course she’ll work.’
‘The battery might be a bit ‘iffy,’ said Ali, ‘but that can be fixed. How much fuel was in her?’
‘At least half a tank, if I remember rightly.’
‘Well let’s get back to it. There’s still a lot of dirt to be removed.’
‘Is there any easier way?’ asked Justine as she flexed her tired arms.
‘We could use my old tractor if it’s still working.’
‘It sure is Toby. I took a nephew for a ride on it about a month ago.’
‘Well if we can loosen more of the dirt around her, I might be able to get a chain around the rear axel and we can see if she’ll let us drag her out.’
‘Let’s try that and see how we go.’
***
Two more hours of digging brought almost the entire cabin of the car to light.
‘I think we’re just about there. Let’s try the tractor,’ said Toby.
Mark went out and unlocked a nearby shed. He fired up the old diesel motor and backed the old tractor out, driving it slowly across the yard before turning it around and reversing it into the barn.
‘I hope the neighbours don’t complain about all the noise we’re making,’ said Mark.
The comment came as a small shock to Toby who now realised that there were indeed neighbours nearby, unlike when he had lived here and the closest farm had been a half
