He’d get his way in the end, though. Everyone had a price for selling a house or a piece of land, or could be threatened into doing it. It was just a question of finding out what the best way was to get what he wanted.

And if you had to cut a few corners en route, well, that was life and to the victor the spoils.

Chapter Thirty-Three

A man from the nearest heritage office arrived two hours after Angus’s phone call and knocked on Stacy’s door. She in turn phoned the big house to tell them Bill Lynch was there.

Now that it was daylight, the police officer had left, because people could clearly see the obstacle and the Keep Out notices, and there was another emergency needing attention.

Bill went to stand on the edge of the hole and peer down it and she felt obliged to go with him and make sure he didn’t touch anything till Angus and Nell arrived.

‘Amazing,’ he kept saying. ‘Abso-bloody-lutely amazing.’

He’d stared at her bruised face, but she didn’t feel the need to explain that to him. The police had rung to inform her that Darren was being sent for psychiatric checks, because he was still behaving strangely and had attacked a doctor brought in to see him. He wouldn’t be released until they’d decided he wasn’t likely to hurt her again and they’d let her know before that happened.

She felt safe for the moment but wasn’t sure what she’d do when they did let him go. She’d had a little cry about that problem because it seemed obvious that she couldn’t stay here now. Just when things were going right, Darren had to ruin her life again, damn him!

When Angus and Nell arrived, Bill said, ‘Aaah! Now we can get somewhere!’

Nell stopped beside Stacy to ask, ‘Are you all right? Your face is very swollen.’

‘No permanent damage, but I don’t want anyone taking photos of me, that’s for sure.’

They turned as Angus told Bill about the secret communications room, and then the two men went inside the house.

‘Come on!’ Nell said. ‘I don’t want to be left out if they discover something.’

It took a while to check everything and it was Stacy who noticed that the kitchen door wouldn’t close properly. Angus went to touch the wood panelling in the hall nearby.

‘Don’t touch anything!’ Bill called.

Nell had had enough aggravation. ‘This is a very frustrating situation for us. You lot are acting as if you own this house. Well, it belongs to my partner and if he wants to touch it he can.’

‘I won’t cause any damage,’ Angus said more mildly.

As he pressed his way round the edges of the panelling to see what was making it uneven, there was a click and one panel swung outwards, revealing a very narrow passageway. To one side, probably under the main stairs, was a sloping set of steep stairs leading upwards, almost like a ladder. Two yards or so in the other direction were more of the steep, narrow stairs, this time leading downwards.