“Let me see.” I grabbed the paper from him. “Is he sure about this?”
“One-hundred percent. Nobby doesn’t make mistakes.”
“Okay.”
“Come on, then. Let the cat see the salmon.”
“Coming right up.”
Around mid-morning, Mrs V popped her head around the door to inform me that Mr Edwards was here to see me.
“Send him in, would you?”
I was a little taken aback when he walked through the door because his white hair was now bright red. He’d clearly been at the hair colouring.
“Thanks for seeing me, Jill.” Rusty ran his fingers through his hair. “What do you think of it?”
“It looks—err—good.”
“I think so too. It’s made me feel twenty years younger.”
“Good for you.”
“I won’t stay long, but I have some good news that I wanted to share with you.”
“What’s that?” As if I didn’t already know.
“I had a visit yesterday from the man who lives across the park.”
“The man you saw at the window, you mean?”
“That’s right. He was accompanied by the woman who shot him.”
“What?” Another Oscar-worthy performance from me.
“Don’t worry. It turns out I’m not a crazy old man after all. I really did see what I thought I saw. Apparently, they’d been rehearsing for a play.”
“But I thought you said the woman in the park wasn’t the same woman you saw doing the shooting?”
“I—err—must have been mistaken about that.”
“Right. I wonder why Mr and Mrs Smart didn’t tell the police they’d been rehearsing for a play.”
“I have no idea.”
“It sounds like there’s something funny going on.”
“I don’t think so. I’m sure it’s all above board.”
“Perhaps I should pay them another visit?”
“No, don’t do that. Better to forget the whole incident. I just thought I’d let you know, and thank you again for all your help.”
“It was my pleasure, Rusty. I’m glad it’s all been cleared up.”
Just as I’d expected, Rusty was far too much of a gentleman to tittle-tattle and tell me that the woman he’d seen wasn’t the man’s wife. Not long after he’d left, Mrs V came through to my office again.
“Jill, now that the Tweaking Manor case is closed, shall I prepare the invoice?”
“No, don’t bother. I’m not going to bill them.”
“Why not?”
“The financial situation over at Tweaking Manor is dire; it looks like they’re going to lose the house. An invoice from me is only going to add to their misery.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. Just mark the case closed, please.”
As soon as she’d left the room, Winky jumped onto my desk.
“Are you insane?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why aren’t you going to invoice the Tweaking woman? You did the work, didn’t you?”
“Yes, the goblet has been found and a man has been arrested for the murder of the butler.”
“And you found the secret vault too, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but that’s no good to Caroline because no one knows the combination. All they have is an old parchment that doesn’t make any sense.”
“Do you have a photo of it?”
“The parchment? Yeah, why?”
“Show it to me.”
“What good would that do?”
“It can’t do any harm, can it?”
“I guess not.” I took out my phone and flipped through the photos. “This is the goblet, that’s the vault, and this is the parchment. You can just about read the legend.”
“Give it here.” He’d snatched the phone before I had chance to object.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” he said.
“What’s obvious?”
“The combination to the vault of course.”
“If you’re talking about those numbers engraved inside the goblet, it isn’t those. We tried them.”
“Of course it isn’t. That’s clearly just a serial number.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“Look at the legend printed on the parchment. The answer is right there in front of you.”
“I’ve read it a thousand times. It just says the first one to unlock the vault will find riches beyond their wildest dreams. How does that help?”
“That’s not what it says.”
“Yes, it is.”
“No, it isn’t. It actually says the first one to unlock the vault.”
“Same difference.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Winky.”
“Look at the goblet again.”
“I’ve seen it a million times. It’s an ugly thing.”
“Look at the engraving.”
“You just said yourself that’s only a serial number.”
“I don’t mean the serial number. I’m talking about the names on the goblet.”
“They’re all the previous owners of Tweaking Manor dating back to when it was first built.”
“Look at the first name on the list.”
“Rudolph Tweaking. What about him?”
“What’s engraved next to his name?”
“His date of birth and death.”
“Bingo!”
“Hold on. Are you saying—?”
“That’s the combination. It’s obvious.”
“It can’t be that simple.” I took the phone back from him. “Someone must have thought of that already.”
“Apparently they didn’t.”
I made a call to Tweaking Manor. Elizabeth Judge answered.
“Hi, Elizabeth, it’s Jill. Look, this is a really long shot and I’m probably wasting your time. I’ve just reread the legend on the parchment, and it occurred to me that it might refer to the first lord of the manor, Rudolph Tweaking.”
“Really?”
“I could be wrong. I probably am, but it might be worth trying his date of birth. Or death. Or both? What do you think?”
“It’s definitely worth a try. I’ll go and do it now.”
“I’ll stay on the phone, shall I?”
“There’s no point, Jill. There’s no reception down in the passageway. I’ll nip down there now and give you a call back.”
“Okay.”
“So?” Winky blew on his claws. “Am I a bona fide genius or what?”
“We’ll soon find out.”
About twenty minutes later, my phone rang.
“Jill, you were right!” Elizabeth gushed. “It was his date of birth. The vault is open.”
“Is there anything inside?”
“It’s full of gold bars. Dozens of them.
