Amanda Cadabra and The Hidden Depths Holly Bell (top rated ebook readers .txt) 📖

want me to treat you as less than you are and give you all of the answers, now would you, Inspector? Besides, she wasn’t the family man of business. She was a young solicitor starting out. She knew who the Cardiubarns were and I happened to be the one that, for some reason, created the most alarm. I offered her sufficient funds to send out the letters and to maintain strict confidentiality.’

‘But had the Flamgoynes already got to her? Or was that afterwards?’

‘I am quite sure that, at the time of our meeting, she had had no contact with them. They may have used divination, of course, to attempt to spy on me.’

‘Or you were seen meeting Mrs Fordh.’

‘Regardless, I forgive her,’ Senara uttered magnanimously. ‘The end result was the desired one. The entire parcel of Cardiubarns was disposed of. I expect she used the money I paid her to escape over the border and start a new life elsewhere. I do not begrudge it.’ She picked up a second slice of saffron cake. ‘This is excellent, Amanda. Do tell your friends. My recipe, of course.’

‘That’s odd, Granny, I thought it was Grandpa’s,’ replied her granddaughter, with a gleam.

‘It came to me through your dear grandfather,’ responded Senara smoothly.

‘That’s right, love,’ replied Perran equably, with a wink at Amanda.

That was all the information the grandparents were to give. Shortly thereafter, they said how nice this had been but they were meeting friends, and disappeared.

‘So …,’ commented Amanda, ‘Elizabeth Fordh became Elizabeth Ford. An easy enough adjustment on documentation, I’d have thought. Do you think Ryan knows anything of this?’

‘Probably too young to remember, but if he does know what happened it just may explain his presence here in Sunken Madley. I think we need to pay Mr Ford a visit. At least he’s in the land of the living!’

Chapter 45

Coming Clean

Back on their own plane of existence, on route to their rendezvous, Perran suggested mildly,

‘You could just tell them there are rules — well, guidelines — about how much we can reveal.’

‘Certainly not,’ replied his wife, stoutly. ‘We want them to start relying a bit more on each other and their own intuition. Besides …’

‘Yes, love, you’d rather be thought of as just plain difficult than obedient!’

She beamed affectionately at him. ‘How well you know me.’

***

‘Can I offer you anything?’ asked Ryan, sitting on the sofa opposite his guests.

‘We’re fine, thank you,’ Amanda assured him. ‘Just had tea and cake.’

‘Ah. Good … Listen, I told Detective Constable Nikolaides about my connection with South America. Friend at uni from Lima. Very keen cricketers there, you see, with a long tradition. He invited me to stay with his family and play with the local team. It was a wonderful time … I never …’

‘That’s quite all right, Mr Ford … Ryan,’ relented Trelawney. ‘That matter is now resolved.’

‘Oh … well … glad to hear it … So …?’

‘Ryan,’ said Amanda kindly, ‘we’re hoping that you can help us with something else. It’s something from my past. It would mean a great deal to be able to put that to rest, if possible.’

‘Of course, but I don’t see —’

‘When you were a baby, you lived with your parents in Cornwall, yes?’

Ryan’s eyes widened just a trifle, but he answered calmly,

‘Yes, for a time, I believe so. Too young to remember.’

‘Something happened to my family at that time.’ Ryan looked troubled and, thinking it was misplaced sympathy, Amanda hastened to add,’ Oh I don’t mind at all that it happened to them. They were the most unpleasant people imaginable.’

This frankness took him aback, and he almost smiled. Trelawney gave away his own amusement only by a slight twitch of the lips. He intervened,

‘Ryan, let me assure you, no one is in any trouble. No one is going to be arrested, charged, or accused in any way. We simply need to know what happened regarding the Cardiubarn van going over the cliff. So that the case can be closed, and everyone can be done with it.’

Ford shifted in his seat uneasily.

‘I didn’t know … until about a year ago.’

‘Didn’t you wonder,’ asked Amanda, ‘why your family kept moving?’

‘They used to do a lot of DIY at the weekends on whatever house we were in, improving it. And then they’d tell me we were selling up and going somewhere else. They said it brought in extra money, for holidays and cricket gear and coaching for me. You know? Sort of property development. I came to accept it, I suppose. I always made new friends at the new school through sports and … and then …’

‘Things changed?’ she prompted him gently.

‘Not back then. But about a year ago. A man came to see me. Told me my mother had been responsible for the Cardiubarn murders, said he had proof, but he wouldn’t tell the police, on one condition. All I had to do was watch this village. And send him reports.’

‘And that’s why you bought Madley Towers?’

‘Yes. I asked my mother and she told me what happened all that time ago in Cornwall, and that that was why we’d left and tried to make a new start. Except every now and then there’s be a rumour, a suggestion that that family —’

‘Flamgoyne?’

‘Yes, — that they’d found us. So we’d move. Once I knew, I agreed to the man’s terms. I’m so sorry Amanda. At first, it was just the village but then he told me to watch you too … and I … I saw some odd things, only … hm … I don’t remember now what any of them were. They probably weren’t really odd at all. I was just desperate to have things to report so he wouldn’t … so Mum would be safe.’

‘I understand, Ryan,’ Trelawney assured him. ‘You acted under duress. Just as your mother did. All I need now, and then your family can draw a line under this affair, is to hear from your mother exactly