Cousin Once Removed (Keith Calder Book 6) by Gerald Hammond

Author:Gerald Hammond [Hammond, Gerald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2018-06-20T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The prospect of physical danger to himself had never worried Keith; nor was he overly concerned about most of his personal possessions. But because of the historical and cash value of the guns under the Briesland House roof, and also the possibility that these might attract intruders who would pose a threat to Molly and such children as she might bear, he had installed the latest and best fire and burglary alarms. But, because he was always interested in knowing who might be casting covetous glances in his direction and why, he had, with the aid of a friend skilled in modern electronics, added a refinement of his own. This permitted the optional inclusion of a delay between those virtually silent infra-red intruder-alarms on the ground floor going off and the yodelling electronic siren on the roof starting up.

So it was by a discreet buzz that Keith (and not the entire neighbourhood) was awakened in the middle of the night. At first he thought that he was only hearing the alarm-clock and he prepared to ignore it, but Molly jerked him awake with a cruel elbow.

‘Keith! We’re being burgled!’

Reluctantly, Keith levered his mind up out of its nest of slumber and fumbled for his slippers. He opened the door very gently and tiptoed to the head of the stairs. Bright moonlight lay across the hall. The intruder was still on the ground floor or the alarm would have gone off in earnest; but he had a margin of two minutes from the first intimation until the siren sounded, after which the cottager at the market garden would phone the police and claim a promised bottle of whisky.

Keith waited, with bowel-watering impatience, while the hall clock ticked away his time. He did not want Chief Inspector Munro poking his long, Hebridean nose in. Nor was he anxious to part with a bottle of whisky to the undeserving and rather smelly old man in the market garden cottage. But he had not the least intention of going downstairs until he knew precisely where the other man was.

A sound came from below him; stealthy fumbling followed by a double click and then the whisper of a door opening. The intruder would pass immediately beneath him. Keith had one of his duelling pistols in his hand. He knew that he could easily lean over the banisters and bat the intruder over the head with it, but because of the twin risks of an accidental discharge and of damage to a valuable gun he preferred not to. He laid the pistol softly down on a nearby table and instead picked up a solid ornament, ostensibly of bronze, a wedding present from one of Molly’s relatives. Molly set some store by it, but Keith did not. It portrayed a knight in armour rescuing a naked damsel from some unspecified peril. Something about the knight’s attitude suggested that his intent was less than honourable, although a full suit of armour was hardly ideal garb for such pastimes.

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