Wild Fiction

‘I’m being serious,’ James said waving his hands for attention. ‘I think I’ve worked it out. Lord Brockett turned to crime to help pay off his debts. He claimed that someone had made off with three of his prized Ferraris. The insurance company paid out five million quid in what turned out to be a complete scam. The Ferraris had been broken up and hidden on the estate. His wife, Lady Brockett, understandably upset with his lack of fidelity to her conjugal needs, shopped him to the police. They arrested him and banged him up in Ford Prison. Exactly the same place for almost exactly the same crime as Sir Betelgeuse.’
‘You still haven’t explained the photos,’ Genevieve said.
‘Oh yes the photos,’ James said waving his hands again. ‘I’m betting that Sir Betelgeuse Fullroy has done the same thing. All that stuff that he claimed was stolen is buried or hidden somewhere on his estate. The rolls of film show each artefact, each item, and he’s going to use that to sell everything. He can’t keep them but he can’t ship them until he’s sold them. The photos are the evidence of what he has stashed away. Now I bet we could find that stuff and hand it over to the insurance company with the bonds. That will make us even more famous. We’ll be in all the national and international newspapers. Everyone will read about us and then they’ll want to buy the book, this book, that talks about how we did it,’ he said pausing and drawing in a deep breath. ‘We’ll become immortal,’ he threw one of his fists into the air in a victory salute.
The others grinned at his simplistic boyish enthusiasm.
‘Let’s search the Fullroy Estate then,’ Genevieve said.

Chapter 43

‘It’s enormous,’ Conrad said. He was kneeling on the grass poring over a large topographical map of the area. It had taken them twenty minutes to drive south of Epsom to the edge of the Fullroy estate. In front of them was a wooden gate behind which a track followed a stone wall down the hill and disappeared into a glen. ‘We’ll never be able to search the entire estate. There’s just too much ground to cover and we don’t know what we’re looking for.’ Conrad had his hands pressed on his knees and stared up at the others.