'We can go somewhere else. Or you can. In fact you could easily go home–you've done your part better than I deserve.'
'Do you want me to go home?'
'It's not for me to say. You've earned the right to decide that for dummy4
yourself, I think.'
She laughed. 'I'm not just a camp-follower any more then?'
'Faith, you know damn well you were never just a camp-follower.'
Audley nerved himself to abase his pride. 'If you want me to say whether I want you to go to the Bull to share a double bed with me in a double room, the answer is 'yes', as you know very well. For me it would be a pleasure–and a privilege.
'And as to that dark side of mine — the answer is 'yes' to that too.
I think there's a KGB man inside me trying to get out. And maybe that's another reason why you should stick around: we can both try to keep him in check now we've spotted him. At least until I can get back to my old job where he doesn't have any chances!'
She put her hand softly on his arm.
'Poor David! Things are complicated enough for you without a KGB girl of your own to watch your KGB man! I haven't even been straight with you, either. I do want to go to the Bull with you very much. I think I'd like to get the Bull out of my system and you into it. And I want to find Schliemann's treasure!'
'Steerforth's treasure now. It'll always be his treasure as well now, whether we find it or not.'
'But David — do you really think you can find it?'
He shrugged. 'The Russians think we can, Faith. And we're the first people to look for it, after all. So given time maybe we can.
Tierney's given us a good start, anyway –better than I expected.'
'He has? Honestly, I couldn't quite see what you were driving at. I mean, it doesn't matter where it was put at first. It's where it ended dummy4
up, and that could be — just anywhere.'
'Oh, no, it couldn't. Your daddy was an extremely resourceful character, but he wasn't a miracle worker.'
'I still don't see—'
'Time, love! Time and trust and opportunity. I haven't been trying to find the treasure so far–I've been trying to find what the limiting factors were.
'He didn't trust Tierney, and if he didn't trust Tierney he didn't trust anyone. So he shifted the treasure from the safe deposit hut by himself. And he did it that same night–he told Tierney it was put away safely next day. But he couldn't drive, so there's a physical limit to where he could manhandle it.
'There was the trolley.'
'Even with the trolley it can't be very far away from the hut. There has to be a
'He'd get the place ready in advance then.'
Audley shook his head.
'I'm betting he didn't know in advance he was going to hijack the cargo. So it had to be a ready-made hiding place, and at the same time somewhere it could stay safely for a long time–twenty-four years, in fact.'
Faith frowned. 'I think you're assuming a lot, David. He could have had a place ready for what's-his-name, the Belgian, to collect the stuff–a hole in the ground would do perfectly.'
'Fortunately holes in the ground are the one thing we don't have to dummy4
worry about. If I thought it was under the ground I wouldn't bother to look — we'd need a regiment of Royal Engineers, mine detectors and God knows what else before we could think of tackling holes in the ground!'
'Well, it's the traditional place for buried treasure, and I still think it's the most obvious place,' said Faith, somewhat nettled. 'I don't see why you're so sure of yourself.'
Audley checked himself from another scornful reply, aware suddenly that he was close to selling the lion's skin before he had killed it.
'It's traditional, Faith,' he conceded seriously. 'But England isn't a desert island. People have an inconvenient habit of noticing large, convenient holes dug in the ground, as quite a few murderers have discovered to their cost. They notice them after they've been filled in, too. In fact there's only one place where a hole isn't suspicious, and that's in a churchyard!'
She turned towards him eagerly, but he cut her off with a shake of the head.
'Unfortunately Newton Chester churchyard is all of three miles from the airfield, on the other side of the village. Too far away to trundle a trolley two or three times without being seen or heard.
And frankly I can't see your father settling down with pick and shovel either, not to that extent: it would have to be a big, deep hole, a grave-sized one. And that takes quite a lot of digging, even if he had time–which I still don't think he had.'
Faith nodded thoughtfully. 'You've made your point, David. But if dummy4
it's not under ground, it's above ground. And that seems even more unlikely–unless it's in that castle Tierney mentioned.'
