“Another hunch, I’m afraid, Inspector; no real proof.”
“Hunches have been good friends to me in the past Professor. Let’s hear it.”
“When I went in to collect my car up at Minton’s garage, there was something not quite right.”
“We know about you stumbling on him trying to get away with the treasure; we found the rest in the safe. We turned the place over quite thoroughly,” said the Inspector.
“No, it wasn’t the gold or anything. It’s just that when I first went there a while back to get the Morgan fixed, there were two inspection pits. Then the other day when I was there, there was only one.”
“Couldn’t you be mistaken?” Inspector Fletcher asked.
“No; I remember distinctly. The first time he had a Bentley over one and got Katie to drive her Morgan over the other. Then this last time, a blue Railton was on the only remaining pit, and he looked under the Jag with one of those sliding trollies.”
Inspector Fletcher stood up.
“Bruce Ansell. I’m the one with a hunch now, Professor. I wonder if those two had a falling out over the treasure. I thought it a bit odd that they had a joint account for Ansell’s share of the reward money. I’d stake my pension on it, Sergeant Jones. Get the boys to dig up that pit and we’ll find out if I’m right.”
He just stopped himself from clapping Ralph on the shoulder.
“We need to celebrate. The tea in the canteen is pretty rough but they have steak pie on the menu and to hell with my diet and the doctor’s advice. This is on me.”
Ralph made his excuses and explained that Katie would be back with the car in just a few minutes and that they had arranged to meet with Bob Wyman.
“All of this is off the record, Professor. I know you’ll be discrete, but that Bob Wyman is quite a sleuth in his own right.”
“I’ll say nothing about any of this, Inspector. We’ll just stick to sailboats and the Devon countryside. Oh, by the way, I’m almost positive that the revolver that Joe Minton shot me with was an Enfield MK 1; we had them in the Royal Navy Reserve. They pack a nasty punch; I can vouch for that.” They all laughed.
***
Ralph had only been back on his feet for a couple of days, but insisted that he was fine. He wanted to go to Sherracombe Ford to observe the dig that Mary Richardson had told them about. Katie had fussed at him and only agreed to go if he let her drive him in the Morgan.
The dig turned out to be more fun than either of them had expected. Mary was true to her word, and Katie had the honour of finding the first coin of the day. Ralph had joked that she might want to hide it in her pocket as it could be worth a bit. She settled for having her photo taken, and Mary promised to put it in the next month’s newsletter.
That evening Katie had a call from her cousin in Australia who worked for Fairfax Media as a reporter on the Sydney Morning Herald. She had talked about a headline story they were running where a crate of gold and silver had been found by the customs officials in Shanghai. It was from a container ship that had arrived from Brisbane. She told Katie that The British Museum had flown one of their curators over to check out the haul and that he had confirmed that part of it contained gold coins that were Roman dating from 350 AD; and that it also contained silver platters and bowls. She said that the police had linked it to a Toyota truck that they found in Sydney, and that they believed it was one that had been shipped from England a couple of months earlier.
When Katie told Ralph, he had agreed to leave it to the police. His guess had been that it was all tied to Bruce Ansell and Joe Minton. He told her that he felt that they had done their bit. Katie could not have agreed more.
Cynthia called them at the cottage later that week to wish them bon voyage and to tell them that the British Museum’s initial valuation of what the police had recovered from the garage was 2 million pounds. She said that it would likely turn out to be the largest find in the UK since the MildenHall discovery. She had heard from her friend Michelle Willows that the Museum planned to give Ralph a 25,000 pound reward for his part in its recovery.
When she rang off, Ralph and Katie talked about the reward and decided that they would split the money between the Exmoor National Park and the North Devon Archaeological Society.
Samantha Tulle had gone to France and the cottage was all theirs for three glorious weeks. They spent their days walking the cliff path, Katie rode her horse, Majestic, and Ralph went out on daily runs on Gypsy Lady. His shoulder had taken longer than anticipated to mend, but Bob Wyman had been happy enough to crew for him until he could handle her again on his own. It was about as perfect a way to wind down from all of the previous weeks’ drama as they could have hoped for.
***
They packed up and made the cottage secure before they drove down to Bridport Marina. Gypsy Lady was ready to sail in the Round Britain and Ireland Race and everything was set. It was raining, and rather than sit around on the boat all evening, they decided to go to the Arts Centre in Bridport. The film was an old classic with Katie’s favourite actors, Humphrey Bogart and Walter Houston. Treasures of the Sierra Madre.
