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Short Fat Stubby Finger Stories PRESENTS:

Episode 27

Joseph, Mary and Martin looked at the barn with trepidation after the oddities they had encountered in the farmhouse.   Was it haunted?’  They wondered.   ‘Did ghosts of dead witches and their victims roam eerily inside and around the perimeter of the huge monstrosity that faced them.  Would evil lurk inside there on a greater scale than the house had reeked of?’

   The barn was old, its original construction taking place somewhere between three or four hundred years ago.   In some circumstances it would have been viewed with nostalgia and interest by all who came across it, but time and previous owners had not been kind to it.   Built during, or in celebration of, the Gothic era with its tall, half-rounded design, it now displayed signs of age in a physical way as more and more modern patches of repairs and additions appeared on its roof and walls; repairs that now gave it a garish, unkempt and unloved look.   It was a strange, ugly, abnormal reconstruction that reminded Joseph of the creature created by Doctor Frankenstein.   There was something distasteful about the structure,  that set their nerves on edge, but they couldn’t explain just how it affected them.

   “It’s certainly not the type of building that would attract a lot of visitors looking for architecture of yore, I should imagine.”   Martin said with a laugh.

   “Unless they were druids or Gothics.”  Joseph said in agreement,   “It certainly wasn’t repaired with any respect to its historical importance or accuracy.”

   “I think it looks lonely, isolated and reeking of days of hard work and glory.”   Rosetta stated unexpectedly,    “This is a good sign.   There are probably a thousand memories hidden in the bowels of this barn.   I think my father would have adored this place.   It would have been perfect for his mood and thought necessities while he was still working on his findings.  They would help him retain his memories of the dig, keep them free from distraction, and that would help him complete the jigsaw in his mind.   All the bits and pieces he knew about Rangor would come together and present to him the full picture in these conditions.   Once that had happened he would know that he could move on to his next project, but not before that time.   Perhaps he did find a very good hiding place here.  He certainly would not have taken risks with the statue or any other treasures he had rescued from their unmarked grave.”

   Joseph and Martin looked at each other for a moment and could not stop the smile that appeared on their faces, but they were not laughing at her, they were simply glad that she seemed to be becoming her old self once again, and that was exactly how Rosetta took their smiles.

   “And find it we shall?”   Joseph stated, and Martin immediately agreed, which, in turn gave Rosetta reason to engage in an impetuous group hug.

   “Thank you both,”  she said with joy in her voice, “for giving me the hope and strength that I need to get through this.”

   “Well, Rosetta, you seem to have a good grip on your father’s thinking process.   It may become very handy as we conduct the search.   You might pick up on something that we don’t.   And on that thought I feel that we had better go in.”   Joseph suggested.  “Are you ready Martin?”

    Martin, who had assumed a position closest to door handle, began twisting the ancient ring pull handle on the left hand door.   The door opened immediately and he began moving it towards the wall.   The door hinges had appeared to have been oiled recently as no squeaking and squealing screamed out in the quiet country air as had been the case with the front door to the farm house … all was going to plan, he thought.   However, the door soon became heavier than Martin had expected and it required some help from Joseph to open it far enough for them to see inside.   And when they did, they couldn’t believe how dark it was in the barn.

   They ventured inside and conducted a quick search for the light switch they expected to find located just inside the entrance on one of the two sides of the back wall, however the light proved to be too limited to allow them to travel more than a short distance along the walls before they themselves threatened to disappear into the darkness.

   “I’m afraid we are going to need to open both doors fully to get enough light in here, old chap.”   Martin said, stating the obvious,   “I expect that there are lights inside the barn, but it’s possibly a catch twenty two situation … we will probably need some light inside the barn to find the switches, and if we can’t get the light increased, we may possibly not be able to locate the switches to turn them on to get that light.   I presume those wires running from the house are power cables, but whether or not they are, the sun is coming in too low at this stage to co-operate with us for our lighting needs with just the one door open.  

   “Roger, Dodger,”   Joseph said, emulating Martin’s occasional foray into old school speech, “I’ll get a handle on that, Old Bean.”   And with that Joseph began pulling on the other door, but having seen how Martin had eventually struggled with the left hand door Joseph assumed that the same amount of vigour would be required for the one on the right and prepared himself to pull even harder on the door in the beginning, in order to obtain more momentum.

   Joseph gave an almighty initial tug on the handle of the large wooden door and began to move towards his destination with all the speed he could muster.    And as he moved, his face clearly displaying his determination to get the door to the wall quickly, and without needing help, his mind was readying itself for the expected weight change as had happened to Martin.   But to his surprise the door sprung forward as if somebody was pushing outwards from inside the barn at the same time as he was pulling.  The door moved with so much speed Joseph lost his balance and fell backwards onto Rosetta and they both fell heavily to the ground, and at exactly the same moment a loud crashing sound could be heard coming from inside the barn. 

   Laughing hysterically, Rosetta and Joseph struggled awkwardly to get back up on their feet, clutching at each other to gain support as they tried rather unsuccessfully to disentangle themselves and had only gotten back to their knees when the sound of Martin’s loud warning arrived at their ears.   They turned their necks to see what he was warning them about and they barely managed to get their bodies back to the ground before the three extremely frightened, loudly screeching, large owls, half blinded by the morning sun, talons outstretched in order to attack anything that got in their way, flew less than three feet over their prone, hand covered, heads.

   “What the hell?”   Joseph asked in shock as he again helped Rosetta to her feet after he was certain that the frightened birds were no longer a danger to them.

   “Barn owls,”   Martin explained, again stating the obvious,  “It seems to be their sleeping quarters.   Something seemed to have fallen inside the barn and frightened them just as you began to open the door.”

   Joseph looked at Martin, his eyes rolled back in disbelief.   “Thank you for that rather superfluous answer, Martin, but, more importantly, what could have fallen?   It certainly couldn’t have been caused by us because we were pulling away from building, not going into to it.   And for that matter, how could your door be so hard to move, and mine moved so easily it felt like somebody was pushing it open from the inside?”

    Martin simply shook his head.   “I’m sorry, but I have no idea.  I will admit it was very strange, though.   Maybe you had more porridge this morning than I did”

  “Right.”

   “Do you think that we will be safe in there, Joseph?”   Rosetta asked nervously.

   “We don’t have much choice, Rosetta – there is every chance your father’s statue is in there.   If there are birds in there, then perhaps there are animals in there as as well.    A cat, fox, squirrels … a hedgehog, perhaps.   We don’t know what fell.   It didn’t have to be anything large that fell to make that much noise.   It all depended what it hit, and being a barn there would be all sorts of things that would make a lot of noise if something fell on it.

   “But how would they get in?”   Rosetta asked, “The door was shut.   Surely a fox or a rabbit couldn’t open a door that size.   Not even Peter Rabbit and his friends are that clever.”

   “They could have been locked in.”   Joseph replied,   ‘The barn would have been open for fresh air when your father and uncle were working in there.   It would have been easy for an animal to have wandered in while they were busy and became locked in when your father retired for the night and locked up as he left.   The doors have probably been shut ever since the night he was attacked.    And even if it was not locked, it certainly was shut when we arrived.”

   “Actually you are probably right about the professor locking up the barn.   I am sure that he would have.”   Martin said in agreement with Joseph.  “Especially if the statue and the other artifacts were inside.   So how come it was unlocked when the police arrived … and why isn’t it locked now.  Do you think that somebody else opened the doors before the police arrived.   Maybe somebody did find the statue and have removed it.”    Martin suggested.

   “Joseph … could that have happened?   Rosetta asked in horror.

   Joseph smiled gently at Rosetta as he replied.    “No, I don’t think so.   At least not the part regarding the removal of the statue.   From the outside it appears to be a very big barn, so one would expect it to be just as large inside.   The thing that we are seeking is also large, so the searchers would not run around all over the place rummaging through milk containers and hay bales, and throwing things around room like you see in films or T.V..   They would be methodical and be careful to look for anything that seemed out of place, or recently disturbed, that was within the size of the statue … as we will.

   I expect that the Punjani did search for it, but may have been disturbed by the arrival of the police and fled.   After all, they have a back up plan that will achieve their goal.”

   “Sorry, Joseph, I do not understand?”  Rosetta’s face was threatening to become teary again as she spoke.

   “Us,”   Joseph replied,   “Remember, Martin’s source indicated that they had searched the barn unsuccessfully.   That doesn’t mean that it’s not here.   It just means that they didn’t find it and they don’t want to bring attention to themselves, which they undoubtedly would in a small village such as this if they were seen here.   On the other hand, you are the professor’s daughter and would be accepted without question.   After all, I should expect that every living soul in he village is aware of your father’s hospitalisation.”    Joseph paused for a second as his eyes were diverted by something he saw near the barn entrance.    “Won’t be a second.”   He said as he walked towards the barn, and before Rosetta or Martin had a chance to react with a question, Joseph had reached his destination and was kneeling down and reaching for something in the grass.

  He retrieved the object of his search, however, as he moved back to where the others were standing they could not make out what he had in his clenched hand until he arrived back at their side and opened it.

   “My god,”   Martin exclaimed. “the keys to the barn, I assume?”

   “I expect so,”   Joseph replied,    “Let us test that theory.”

   Joseph placed the well worn, ancient bronze key into the keyhole of the door-lock and twisted it.   The small click as the lock moved convinced them that they had indeed found the keys the barn.   “They must have dropped them when the police arrived.   Well, anybody attempting to get in will have difficulty gaining entry to the barn if we lock it when we leave.   These doors are solid and I doubt that anybody can pick these locks with a hair thingee.”

   “Do you mean a bobby pin? ”   Rosetta asked with a giggle.

   “Yes, that’s the chappie.   Anyway, whatever happened on the night your father was attacked, and whatever made the noise inside the barn a moment ago, are now both relics of time.   How and why they happened probably doesn’t matter because we, more-than-likely, are never going to know what really happened.    And I very much doubt that it is important that we do.   Come on, you two.  It’s time for us to do what we came here for … let’s finish opening these doors and find Rosetta’s daddy’s missing mummy.”

   Martin smiled, and nodded his head in agreement as he and Joseph simultaneously moved to their respective positions, and once again began to move the now, unexpectedly, equally heavy doors until they were both pressed hard against the barn walls.   The light from the sun began flooding through the barn almost from one end to the other … and  six or seconds after they had began for the second time to open the doors, the trio took the first few steps inside the barn to begin their search for the statue.

   The barn was definitely as large and as high as it had been viewed from the outside – however the reason for the unexpected height of the building was easily explained once they realised there were stairs at various points around the building leading up to a loft that ran around the complete interior of the barn without break.

    Situated around three and a bit yards above ground level, the huge storage area, made from the same heavy duty timber that had been used for the doors, and supported by huge wooden pylons, extended from each of the four walls by roughly a quarter of the width of the barn.

   From ground level they could not make out many of the stored items that resided there, other than scattered bales of hay, but they noted that there were quiet a few block and tackle pulley systems spread round the room and assumed that the loft was constantly used as a storage area, or at least it had been in the past.

   As they slowly made their way down the long corridor trying to make sense of what was what in the barn proper; what had been used on the farm over its many years of operation, and what were more recent additions the professor had set up, they found that had an unexpected problem.   The brightness inside the barn was proving inconsistent.   The illumination was made up of what sunlight was allowed in through the open doors, and shafts of light that penetrated through the ever-increasing array of holes appearing in the ancient tile and thatch roof.

   However, as they made their way into the bowels of the barn it began to  became darker, and harder to see.    The biggest problem being whenever the incoming sunlight struck a large obstacle such as the rusty old tractor that sat in the middle of the barn it would create a larger, darker, shadow to cover the area behind it  

   Then, as they moved even closer to the back wall, they struck a new problem as the constantly rising sun shifted on its axis and the sunlight  unexpectedly began reflecting on something at the back of the barn.   And at this angle they were now being blinded by the light in front of them and the darkness that surrounded them.  Suddenly Martin began to curse loudly as he tripped over an abandoned rake and fell onto a stack of empty forty four-gallon drums which had been hidden in the shadowy world they had now entered, and the stack collapsed on impact, making enough noise to wake the dead.   “Damn, I knew we should have searched harder for the internal lights,” he grumbled,   “This is getting dangerous … I could have been injured badly just now”

   “We spent nearly ten minutes searching for them without success,” Joseph quickly pointed out in a half-hearted effort to refrain from laughing aloud at Martin’s discomfort.   “The sun is still rising so the light in here should improve shortly.   We are almost at the end of the building.   If it gets too hard to see anything when we get to the back wall we will go back and take a better look for the switch.   You have a torch in the car I assume, so we can check the entire wall of the entrance.”

   “Damn, why didn’t we think of that in the first place?”   Martin lamented as he rubbed his legs. “It could have saved my life … or at least my legs.  God that hurts.”

   “Shhhhh!   You’re like a little child, Martin.   Get over it.”   Rosetta I heard something just before you crashed into the containers.   Did either of you hear it?”

   “How could you hear anything over that din?    Martin demanded sourly in an attempt to cover his embarrassment at Rosetta’s chiding as much as the actual fall itself.

   “I heard something just before you fell over.” Rosetta replied somewhat huffily.

   “Well, I’m sorry, but I didn’t hear anything.    How about you, Joseph?   Did you hear anything?”

   Joseph grinned at Martin’s obvious embarrassment.   “No,” he replied, doing his best to refrain from laughing,   “I was too interested in the loft.   I could have sworn that I saw something move up there just before you fell.”

   “Perhaps that is what I heard.” Rosetta suggested.

   “Most likely it was just a cat or a bird,” Martin suggested, his tone still a tad sharp.

   “No.   It was bigger than that,”   Joseph stated adamantly,   “I think that I’ll go up and have a closer look.   There are some stairs somewhere close by … I saw them earlier.   We do need more spread-out light across the room, don’t we.   The reflection from whatever it is that the sun is shining on at the back of the room is making it extremely hard to see anything but the light itself.    If I move into the darker area for a minute, I may get a better view from a different angle.”

   “Please be careful, Joseph.   I don’t want you hurting yourself like Martin.”   Rosetta warned, her concern augmented by the tone in her voice.

   Martin merely discharged a disbelieving growl at her words, but Joseph promised he would ne careful as he slowly began to merge into the extreme darkness that still existed from the middle of the barn to the right hand wall, almost disappearing from sight as he did so, but he was instantly rewarded.   “Amazing.”   His bodiless voice exclaimed from out of the darkness,   “There’s the stairs.   I can see them quite clearly from here.  Come on, you two.”

   Joseph moved quickly past his friends and walked to a spot under the loft, and Rosetta and Martin were right behind him … and they quickly understood what was going on.   Under the loft the reflection was very much subdued by the huge column that supported it, the bales of hay, and the many other things spread along the walkway that blocked a huge proportion of the light entering the area.    Although it was a lot darker under the loft it was still reasonably  The stairs could now be seen a mere ten yards away from where they were now standing.   A second later Joseph and Martin emerged from under the loft right beside the stairs and began the climb to the loft.   

   Rosetta, however, had no intention going up into the loft.   She had already begun to feel more than a little nervous in the murky conditions.   Now, to be alone downstairs while the boys had gone up to face god-knows-what in the loft,  and the thought of something lurking in the darkness above her or behind her, was too much for her.

   “I will go back and see if I can find the light switch before Martin breaks his neck falling off the loft,” she volunteered,    “Give me your keys, Martin, and I will get the torch and start the search.”

   Martin grinned as he threw her the keys and Rosetta immediately took off towards the open doors before anybody could stop her.   But before she had travelled too far, something rustled in the shadows beside her, and in her jittery state of mind Rosetta moved even faster, her feet cruising just below running level and barely saw the rugby football shaped thing that momentarily blocked the sun about five or six feet from the ground.

   A stiff breeze was blowing outside the barn as she arrived at the opening to the barn, and she assumed it must have been a pigeon or a crow that she had seen, and gave it no more thought.    But as Rosetta’s eyes adjusted to the normality of full sunlight she realised that the right-hand door that Joseph had moved was no longer fully open, it had somehow moved itself forward and covered some of the entrance from the sun.   However, it only required to be moved a short distance to be effective again.  She attempted to push the door, expecting little would come out of her attempt, and had expected to call out to the boys for help, but was surprised to find the door moved very easily and she soon had it parallel with the outside wall once again.   It had been so easy to move she guessed the breeze that had been blowing as she had emerged from the barn, but had since subsided, had been responsible for moving the door in the first place.   And perhaps even turning and giving her some help as she could not remember if it had been blowing when she moved the door.    Rosetta shook her head in amazement at her own prowess and with a wry smile on her face she headed off to Martin’s car to get the torch to help her in her search for the errant light switch.  

   And as she moved away from the barn she failed to see the strange, disheveled figure that emerged from behind the door that lay against the wall of the barn, did not see him let go of the ring pull on the door, and she certainly did not see him as he ran quickly along the front of the building and around the corner and enter the barn through an entry point known to him alone.

********    

In the short time that Joseph and Martin had been unknowingly exploring the barn with the one door not fully open, the rising sun had moved to a position in the sky where the bright rays were now pointing in a direct line with the open doors, albeit at an acute angle.   And now, because the door had been moved, the strong light that was entering at an angle could only, albeit almost, fully highlight one side of the barn … and the contrast was staggering.  

   At first, the two men, now moving slowly along the loft, were forced to stop and shield their eyes from the increased strength of the light.   And when they finally adjusted to the new environment they were in awe of what they now saw.

   For the first time they began to see the barn for its true worth.   The entire wall on the far side of the huge building, the side where the strange, disheveled figure had somehow gained access, had gone from dark to pitch-black.   The only light permitted in the dark and foreboding area was provided by the shafts of light that broke though the scattered holes in the roof; sharp slivers of light that produced an eerie and unnerving impression to the casual observer.  

   But the other side, the side where Martin and Joseph were now standing, exploded in light.   To their surprise the environment within the barn had suddenly changed dramatically.   As they looked up and down the length of the loft that ran on their side of the room for as far as they could see, and then moved their eyes in the same manner in the lit area below where they were standing they were amazed at how much the increased light revealed.

   In the radiant light that now surrounded them, hundreds of shiny, sticky, grey, white and silver spider webs stretched across the room and down towards the waiting floor below; huge, wide, woven webs whose colour was dependent totally on the strength of the light that it currently resided in, or its choice of prey, reached all the way down to the floor in some cases, some webs big enough to trap a man … many occupied by large, black haired monsters whose shiny dark bodies glittered in the bright light, and not one of them took even one of their eight, huge, black eyes off the intruders as they watched them with both interest and mistrust.  

   Lining the edges of the loft, and directly below them on the lower floor, there were dozens of dry, disintegrating hay bales, and boxes that offered no marked indication as to their contents.   However anything stored at the back of both levels still could not be seen as most of them were now bathed in a new shadow created by the stronger light that was entering the room.

   But it was the huge support pillars that held the relics of Trenthamville’s rural history that grabbed their attention.   Wooden wheels, both large and small, rakes, hoes, cross cut saws, leather reins, and many other forms of tools designed for manual labour used on the farm over the past several hundred years were all hung unceremoniously, and unsorted, on the huge wooden pillars that held the roof and walls together: a virtual museum of farm life as it had occurred in the village of Trenthamville for generation after generation.

   And what surprised them the most, the thing that they hadn’t noticed when they were down on the ground level only a short distance from where Martin had tripped on the rake … rows and rows of cow stalls ran all the way to the rear of the barn.   The shadow from the tractor still blocked out one side of the area, but they assumed that there were at least twenty five stalls hidden in the dark which would have given them a possible grand total of fifty.   Some time exhausted strands of straw and few cowpat stains still resided outside the closest stalls, but no sign of the milking apparatus could be seen, and they assumed it to be located somewhere on the other side of the room.

   “I think it has been a long time since they had cows on the farm.”    Joseph remarked.

    “And it looks like nobody has been here for a hundred years either.    Look at the size of those spiders,” Martin offered, as eight huge hairy legs, attached to an equally large black body, continuously created silver threads, each thread three feet long,  only inches from Martin’ head as it moved seemingly through space.

   “They certainly are big.”   Joseph replied, “Do you think that they are  …”

   But before Joseph could finish his sentence, Rosetta, who had just returned from her search for the torch, arrived at the door.   “Oh, Martin.” she called out sweetly, “Do you remember the noise that you couldn’t hear earlier.  Well I found out what it was.”

   “And what was it?”   Martin asked with a laugh, “a chicken or a pigeon?”

   “Neither, Darling … it was the sound of your car being stolen.   Perhaps it was a chicken that took it.   A duck wouldn’t want it … they can fly.”  Rosetta called back with a mocking laugh,   “It certainly was a foul thing for them to do, though.”

   “What!”    Martin cried out loudly as he quickly turned around and ran down the stairs and up to where Rosetta was standing, with Joseph in hot pursuit, both failing to notice the figure emerging from the darkness and heading up the stairs they had just come down..

   When Martin reached the front door he just stared at the space that the car had previously occupied, his mouth wide open in astonishment.   “Well they can’t get too far without the keys,” he noted once he got over the shock and disbelief,   “The tank was pretty low.   I meant to get some at that garage this morning, but I was in too much of a hurry to get here.”

   “Surely whoever stole it can fill the car up with petrol couldn’t they?” Rosetta snapped, still a bit miffed that Martin hadn’t believed her earlier about the noise she had heard.   “If they were smart enough to steal it without the keys surely they would be able to get the petrol cap off.

   “No,” Martin replied, a cocky smile on his face as he pulled a strangely shaped key out of his pocket, “that is one thing that they can’t do.   They need this special key to unlock the cap.   There is a plate in the tube leading to the petrol tank where you place the nozzle of the petrol pump hose.   It cannot move until the key is turned.   If you don’t use the key, the sensor in the nozzle assumes that the tank is full, and refuses to release the petrol into it, even if the cap has been forced off.    It’s a special security device that I had installed.”

   “Very ingenious,” Joseph remarked, even though he had no idea what Martin was alluding to seeing as how he didn’t drive or own a car, nor did he have much interest in them.

   “Thank you.”  Martin replied,   “It’s a pity, however, that the car alarm wasn’t as efficient.   I think that I had better get the police on to it, just in case whoever stole it decides to damage it in spite.”

   “I doubt that is going to happen, Martin.”   Joseph said matter-of-factually.

   “Sorry, Joseph … I’m not quite with you?”

   “Think about it, Martin.   Think where you are.   How far out of town we are.   How far the car was parked from the road … and how it is out of sight of anyone driving along the road?”

   When no reply was forthcoming Joseph assumed comprehension was momentarily evading Martin’s brain and decided to continue his explanation.   For some reason he couldn’t fully understand, Joseph felt it  was necessary to return to the barn with some expediency,  but he also felt it necessary for Martin to be switched on when they did.    

   “The car was parked out of sight from the road, Martin.    We passed nobody on the road on our way here, and I am fairly certain that nobody was following us.   There are no immediate neighbours, at least not like the housing in London.  You can’t see anyone from here, you have to go the right hand side of the barn to see any accommodation, and even then the houses are some distance away.   It’s not like a street in Holland Park or Cambridge.   There are no busy bodies looking out their windows to see who’s coming or going to or from which house.   And we saw no sign of life when we arrived here.   No motor vehicles, no tractor, no horse and carriage parked anywhere.   So how would anybody know that we were here?   Somebody must have been watching us when we arrived – either from one of the properties at the back of the barn using binoculars … or the barn.   Personally, I would give the nod to the barn seeing how quickly they got here.  

   But don’t ask me how they got here in the first place.   Maybe they had motor bikes?   They could have hidden them out of sight in the trees near the entrance.   We would never have seen them when we drove down the lane-way, even if we had been looking for them.  

   Rosetta and Martin stared at Joseph in amazement.    They were in full acceptance that everything he had just said was perfectly feasible,and made perfect sense, but it took several seconds for everything he had said to sink in and understand the full implications of what had been suggested.

   It was Rosetta who comprehended first.   “Do you mean that there really was someone here the whole time we have been here?”   She asked, horrified by the thought of being spied upon, “But who?   Why?    And why did they steal the car?”

   “I really don’t know,”   Joseph replied with a shrug of his shoulders, “but perhaps we may have interrupted someone else searching for the statue.   As far as stealing the car, it is possible that he, or they, needed transport to get back to their own safe-house for one reason or another.   And then there is always the more realistic possibility that they did it simply to stop us from following them should we have seen them as they were  leaving.    They’ll more than likely just abandon it when they reach their destination, or run out of petrol.   Of course this is all pure conjecture, but it is all that I can offer at the moment.”

   “But who was here?”   Rosetta asked in panic, “Surely not the Punjani?   They have promised the antidote for my father if we find it and gave us time to do so.   Will they still do that if they find it first?”

   Rosetta threatened to burst into tears and Joseph quickly wrapped his arms around her giving her a hug for support and comfort before releasing her.   “Perhaps we have a third player in all of this.”  He proposed.   “Somebody else interested in mummies and the gods of years gone by.   You told me that there were collectors who would be interested in the statue.   Perhaps one of them got wind of your father’s find and managed to trace him down here to the farm.   However, if they had found the statue and were trying to move it in a passenger car, then they weren’t going to get very far in Martin’s Mercedes were they?   Not going by the size and weight of it the way you described it to me.   It would need at least two men to carry it, perhaps more, and it is a solid piece according to your father’s description – around six feet tall and therefore inflexible.    In other words it can’t be bent to sit upright, which would mean it would have to be laid lengthwise in any vehicle that transported it, and I don’t think even Martin’s mighty Mercedes would be big enough to have enough room for it and two or three men.    No, either they haven’t found it, or if they have, they can’t move it.    And if it’s just lying somewhere on the ground then we will find it.”

   “Joseph is quite right, Rosetta. ”   Martin added,   “What we must do at the moment is try to recover my vehicle even if it does mean going to the police … or, at the very least, find some transport to get us back to the village.   We still have to find somewhere to stay for the night and we’ll come back here tomorrow with the proper equipment to do a better search.   I’ll give them a tingle straight away.”

   While Martin was on his mobile giving a description of his missing vehicle to the sole constable on duty at the Trenthamville Police Station, Rosetta moved in close to Joseph and wrapped her hands around his, looking up to him with dark soulful eyes.   “Joseph.   Are we on a wild goose chase up here?”  she asked, tears still glistening in her eyes.   “There doesn’t seem to be anything that is of any use to us in the house, or the barn.   Nothing that will help us find the thing that we need to save my father.  Everything seems to be working against us.   First the strange fire in the house, then not being able to find the lights in the barn … and now this.”

   “Don’t give up just yet, Rosetta.   We just need to find the light-switch.  If your father had been working on the statue he would have needed more light in the barn than the natural light provides in there … especially if they were working at night.  When we find where he had been working on the statue, we will have a clearer idea of where we should start looking.”

   “How will we know where he was working?”     Rosetta asked in confusion.

    “You saw all the spiders, right?“

   Rosetta shuddered at the thought of the huge, dark insects.   “Yes,” she replied, “and I wish I hadn’t.”

   “Well, they will help us locate where your father had been working because the webs would have been disturbed in that area.   There’s probably none there at all other than possibly a couple of newbies that had just moved in over the past few days.   But I doubt that would have happened.   I would expect that your father would have kept the area fairly well controlled with sprays and other insect repellent.   I am pretty sure that whatever control system he had used … it is still working.   We just need more light to see where that had taken place.   When we get back to the village we should be able to get some torches and things from the garage and that way we can conduct a thorougher search even if we don’t find the light-switch.   Everything will be alright, you will see.”

   The tears forming in her eyes began to subside as Joseph’s words gave her new hope,  “You are right, Joseph.”   Rosetta’s smile was soft, but her voice was  positive as she spoke,   “I am sorry for being so negative.   It’s just that I love my father so much, and I feel so useless in being able to do whatever is needed to bring him home safely.”   Her eyes still red and teary, Rosetta put her arms around Joseph and rested her head on his shoulder.   “Thank you, Joseph,”   She said so quietly he barely heard the words,  “Thank you for being here.”

   Martin clicked the off button his mobile as he moved back to where Joseph and Rosetta were waiting.   “Well that looks nice and comfy,” he grinned in surprise at the sight of Rosetta embracing Joseph.   “The police are on the lookout for the car.   According to them it shouldn’t be too hard to find.   There’s not a lot of Mercedes Benz in Trentahmville.   Well what now, Joseph, my lad.  We have a bit of a wait on our hands before our taxi arrives, I am afraid.”

   “A taxi?”  Joseph queried. “You found one so quickly.    I never thought it would be that easy.   Well done, you.  Mind you, I hope the driver keeps his word about a long wait.    I really want to check out what it was that I saw in the barn, and that could take some time with that light.”

    “You should have plenty of time, Joseph.   The constable gave me the number of the local service, but it won’t be available until sometime this afternoon – whatever time school finishes for day.   It’s not really a taxi service, it’s just Uber … they’re everywhere these day, but unfortunately taxis aren’t, at least they aren’t in Trenthamville at the moment.   The only full time taxi driver they have is on holidays.   However, Uber doesn’t offer all that much either.   There are only three drivers in total in this area.   Two of them live halfway between Trenthamville and the next village, which they also service … and both of them are too sick to drive at the moment, and the third one doubles up as a school teacher.   So we will have to wait until school is out before he can come out and pick us up.”   

   “The locals are entrepreneurial then, but just not out to make their fortune in a hurry, I gather.”   Joseph responded, a grin on his face,   ‘What did the police say about where you rang from?”

   “Ah, I thought it may be more prudent not to say anything at the moment.   I said that we had just gone for a drive and decided to take a stroll to stretch our legs, take in the countryside, talk to the trees, that sort of thing, and when we returned to where we had parked the car – it was gone.  I told him that we could see a farm just up the road so we had gone there to see if we could get a lift, but there was nobody home.   Then I told him that there was a sign on the entrance to the farm which said ‘Forster Farm’ and we would wait at that sign for the Uber driver.   I also mentioned the predicament we were in to the Uber driver and told him to call when he was about to leave to make sure we hadn’t wandered away out of boredom.   I was hoping he may be able to get here around lunch-time, but I got the impression that that would be impossible.  Playground duties, he said, very important responsibility.”

   “I’m sure that it is, Martin.   I don’t suppose the police could have arranged to pick us up in the circumstances?”   Country hospitality and all that jazz.”   Joseph asked with a grin on his face.

   “Actually I tried that line, but the policeman said that they only had one vehicle and his boss had used it to drive up to London yesterday and had stayed there overnight, but as he was returning to Trenthamville this morning he had been caught up in some kind of traffic jam that was blocking off all traffic at the entrance to the motorway.   He didn’t know when he could expect his boss and the car to arrive back in Trenthamville. 

    “Well, that means we will be here for quite some time, and it’s too far to walk back to the village … so let’s go and check on that barn.   There was definitely something moving up there.”   Joseph grinned excitedly as he spoke, but Rosetta grimaced and hoped with all her might that Joseph had been mistaken in what he thought he had seen.

   The trio quickly made their way back to the barn, Joseph leading the pack, and he  immediately began heading towards the stairs where he had heard the noise in the loft, but Rosetta suddenly noticed all of the cobwebs that were now exposed in the light and nearly had a heart attack.   “If you don’t mind,” she said, her voice showing signs of dryness as a result of the sight that confronted her,  “I will wait for you here.”   And the tone of her voice assured Joseph and Martin she would not change her mind under any circumstances.   Walking around, where, in her current frame of mind, spiders big enough to devour an entire large human were waiting to devour those foolish enough to make contact with their webs was a boy thing, but it certainly wasn’t one of hers.

   The boys grinned, and set off again for their climb to the loft, but as they arrived at the foot of the first set of stairs, Martin’s phone roared into life.

   “Hello.” he said, and repeated his words several times before addressing Joseph.    “It’s the police.   It must be about the car, but I can’t understand what they are saying.   I’ll have to go outside to take it.”   And with that Martin headed out of the barn as fast as he could.

   Joseph couldn’t wait for Martin to return to begin the search and continued his trip to the third set of steps on his own.   But, in the now increased light, as he arrived at the second set of stairs, he suddenly noticed the cobwebs that were attached to the staircase had been broken.   The dust on the stairs had been disturbed, but it was hard to tell if they were footprints or paw prints.   But somebody, or something, had traversed them in the not too distant past … and this was definitely not the stairs that they had climbed a few minutes a go.   Those stairs were a further fifty or sixty yards further along.

   Joseph was now uncertain about going up into the loft on his own.   It was not that he was frightened, it was more about showing caution.   ‘Should I take the risk and go up by myself, or wait for Martin to return?’  he wondered.    His main worry was that once up there, like at the moment on the ground level where he currently stood, there was a lot of darkness at the back half of the loft.    Extremely dark shadows extruded from the wall for around half the width and length of the loft.   Anything could take refuge there with a good chance of not being seen.   He tried to convince himself that either the professor, or his brother, could have made the imprints and the disturbed the webs, therefore it would be safe to go up.   But his instincts were also cautioning him about putting himself in danger.   The scuff marks weren’t brand new, but they certainly weren’t very old either.   And he still had no idea what he had seen, or how big it had been.   What he had seen was but a fleeting glimpse of a shadowy thing that had moved in the darker area of the loft.   Not a complete full frontal image residing in the brilliance of the sunlight that saturated half the barn.

   Suddenly Martin’s voice penetrated his concentration giving him a start.   Joseph swung around in time to see the tall man standing beside Rosetta so he could communicate with them both at the same time.   “You haven’t moved very far, old boy,”   Martin began, pointing up at the loft above his own head,   “I had expected you to be up around here by now.”

   “I need to show you something.   Was that the police?   Did they find the car?”

   “So it seems.   The constable said he had received a call from the garage attendant that we spoke to this morning to get instructions.   Frank, his name was, had rung to say that he was a bit worried about the car he found parked at the side of his garage.   He normally wouldn’t have seen it because it was out of sight of the counter, however his car arrival alarm had gone off, but no car ever arrived on the driveway.   Curious about why the alarm had gone off he had gone out to see if he could work out what was wrong with it, and found the car parked. with nobody in it.    He had recognised the car from our visit this morning and doubted that we were the kind of people that would abandon an expensive Mercedes Benz on his doorstep.    The car doesn’t appeared damaged inside or outside.   And, strangely enough, there is no indication of how the car was started.   There are no wires hanging loose, no damage to the console and no sign of damage to the hood.   Anyway, its there for us to collect when we get back.”

   “That’s good news, Martin.   Could you come down here for a moment, please.   I would value your opinion on something.”

   “Always willing to offer my opinion.   I’m on my way.”   Martin replied gleefully as he began walking at speed towards where Joseph was waiting.   “Oh, it’s so much better in this light, Joseph.”

   Joseph’s senses suddenly moved into top gear as he watched Martin approaching, though he had no idea why, and began to think that he was becoming a tad paranoid when a sudden, almost, to his mind, unintended, sound made him swing his head upwards giving him barely a nanosecond to call out a warning to Martin, which in turn gave Martin a similar time factor to react by diving under the cover of the loft as a huge gas cylinder crashed down, chipping the ground with its speed driven weight in exactly the same spot Martin had been standing when his auto reflexes reacted to Joseph’s warning.”

   “Are you alright, Martin?”   Rosetta called out as she watched in horror as Martin disappeared behind some hay-bales he had dived over in his effort to avoid the falling cylinder, and she gave a huge sigh of relief when he emerged unscathed.

   “Yes, I’m fine, thank you.   Joseph. what the hell’s going on?”

   “Come on.   There’s someone or something rather large up there.  Whoever, or whatever it is, they caused the cylinder to fall, though it may not have been on purpose.   I think that we are being watched and the observer got too close to the edge and accidentally bumped the cylinder.”

   Martin quickly ran down to where Joseph was waiting and they proceeded to climb the stairs without any problems, but when they reached the top they found they had to adjust their eyes to the different conditions that they now faced.   The light now coming in from the open doorway was extraordinarily bright, almost blinding, when viewed from this angle and height.    And as they had seen earlier, bales of decaying feeding hay were spread along the edge of the loft along with various other items which caused shadows to spread intermittent darkness towards the wall.   Not just shadows, but extremely dark patches of nothing that lay between the items at the edge of the loft, and the wall behind it.    Joseph knew that he had been right in waiting for Martin, especially after the incident with the cylinder.   There was danger in the darkness – anyone, or anything, could be hiding, protected from detection, in these shadows and they had no idea how dangerous a creature may be lurking there.

   As they cautiously moved along the loft in its strange, powerful silence, an eerie feeling fell over them; they could feel the hackles rising on the back of their necks with every subsequent step that they took as they cautiously made their way past, and sometimes through, the worst of the dark patches.   Their eyes constantly peeling left to right and back again as they scanned the darkness for any sign of life or the abnormal.   

   Step by step was taken with trepidation, with caution, with worry.   The closer they got to the end of the loft, the more the feeling intensified in their minds.   And then their greatest fear eventuated.   Suddenly they were forced to move in closer to the wall, to total darkness, as they found themselves blocked off by more than a dozen large cylinders similar in size to the one that fallen towards Martin.   Without a word spoken, the hackles on their necks simultaneously grew tighter, caution was now paramount in their minds, and the fear of the unknown rose several levels within their hearts.   Then, unexpectedly, in a totally noise free environment, with the exception of their slow, deliberate footsteps and heavy fear-laced breathing, an all but muted , almost inaudible noise made them stop dead in their tracks.   A scraping sound, so minute in volume, it may very well have been a small rodent, or perhaps even a cockroach scuttling out of harm’s way, but whatever it was, it caused sweat to pour from their foreheads, and dryness to invade their throats.

   Slowly, they began to turn their eyes to locate the source of the strange noise.   An action that seemed impossible in the savage darkness that they were currently imprisoned in, but suddenly they saw what appeared to be a pair of extremely reddish eyes glisten in the blackness.   It was only for an instant, but both men saw it.   Simultaneously, again without a word being spoken between them, the two men dived on top of the hapless creature in an attempt to subdue it.   But instead of coming to grips with something fleshy and clothed as they had expected, or totally hairy with sharp, vicious teeth that could rip their faces off their head with one bite, they found themselves tangled up in each other’s arms and legs, as the sound of something inches from their heads exploded in their ears.   Suddenly it felt like dozens of sharp, red-hot needles were randomly ramming themselves into their hands, their arms, their face and their neck. 

   Then the pain began in earnest, pain that was increasing by the second … hurting more and more with each and every movement they made in a fruitless attempt to right themselves … and then a warm, wet feeling began to run down their faces, their arms, their face and their neck … then everything went dark.

Go to Episode 28 part 1