A Stranger Death (Ch 14)

appent (41)in #fiction • 6 years ago

a stranger death.jpg
Previous Chapters: Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 | Ch 8 | Ch 9 | Ch 10 | Ch 11 | Ch 12 | Ch 13 |

Chapter 14

When Darren rang the doorbell, the door was quickly answered by a short, thickset man.

"Mr Spikes?" said Darren. Spikes nodded his head. "I'm Darren Cooper and this is my girlfriend, Sarah Maddison. I spoke to you this morning concerning two boxes we had found."

"Yes, please do come in, I've been expecting you."

Spikes led them into his study and invited them to sit down on the couch. After he had seated himself behind the desk, he looked at Darren questioningly. "Have you brought the boxes? I'm rather anxious to get them back into my safe."

"No," replied Darren. "Although we are quite satisfied that the boxes do belong to you, we cannot be as certain about their contents, which appear to be quite valuable. If you can prove that the contents of the boxes is your property, then we'll be only too happy to return them to you."

Spikes' face took on a thunderous look at these words from Darren. But the mood seemed to pass quite quickly as he started to understand Darren's reasoning and recognized that he had little choice but to go along with what was being suggested.

"I was expecting to get them back now, but I can see why you are taking this precaution. I think I know how to prove to you beyond any shadow of a doubt that both the boxes and their contents belong to me."

Spikes walked across his study to a wall that had a picture of Torquay Marina hanging on it. Taking the picture down revealed the door to a wall safe. Spikes opened the safe door and, reaching inside, took out a box that was identical to the two that they had dug up in Sarah's garden. He then approached Darren, opened the box and showed him the contents. "The two boxes you found should have contents that are identical to this one, and that should settle any doubt as to the fact that both the boxes and the contents are mine."

When Darren looked inside, he confirmed as much to Spikes. "Yes, you're right. OK then, in that case, I am quite happy to return both the boxes and their contents to you."

"I'm curious to know where you found them," said Spikes. "I didn't even know they were missing until yesterday when I spoke to a client."

"That's the strange part," said Darren. "We found them buried in Sarah's garden, but we have absolutely no idea how they got there."

On saying this Darren got the drawing of the dead guy out of his pocket and showed it to Spikes. "Have you ever seen this man before?" he asked.

Darren thought he saw a look of recognition pass across Spikes' face, but a questioning look quickly replaced it. "No, never seen him before. Why, who is he?"

"Just someone that we would like to talk to," said Darren. "We thought he might have something to do with the disappearance of your boxes, but perhaps we're mistaken. Are you sure you've never seen him?"

Spikes shook his head. "The last I saw of those two boxes was when I gave them to a courier for delivery to a client. I assumed they had arrived safely until I spoke to the client yesterday, and he asked me what had happened to them. That was shortly before Mr Wright contacted me to say that you had found them."

"Oh well," replied Darren. "I guess we'll never know how they ended up in Sarah's garden. However, on another note, I believe it is customary to offer a reward in circumstances like this when something valuable is returned to its owner. We were wondering if that is the case here."

"To be quite honest, I hadn't considered it, but now that you mention it I think it would be appropriate. I don't keep large sums of money in the house, but I'm sure I could arrange something. I have to go out this evening, but if you would like to come back and see me tomorrow morning to return my property to me, that would give me time to organise something for you."

"OK, that would be great. In that case, we'll be on our way, and I'll return tomorrow morning as you suggest."