The Secret Detective Agency: A totally gripping historical English cozy murder mystery by Helena Dixon

Author:Helena Dixon [Dixon, Helena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2025-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

‘I think it is high time that we took a good look at whatever was concealed inside the chapel at Trelisk,’ Jane said as soon as the chief inspector was gone.

‘I agree.’ Arthur went out to speak to Benson and returned a few minutes later with the package.

Jane closed the curtains and turned on the lights. The daylight was almost gone, and she had no wish for them to be fined for showing a light in the blackout. Arthur moved the tea tray to one side of the coffee table so there was room for them to empty out the contents of the battered brown-paper parcel.

He used his paperknife carefully to cut the string and folded back the paper. A small black notebook and a bundle of what seemed to be blueprints lay inside the wrapper.

‘What on earth?’ Jane looked at Arthur.

He picked up the plans first and opened them up fully so they could both see what they were.

Jane sucked in a breath. She really could have used a cigarette right now if those were what she thought they were.

‘Are those the plans for a new aircraft?’ Arthur frowned at the blueprints.

‘Not so much new, as some important modifications to our current aircraft.’ Jane’s tone was clipped.

She had heard whispers around Whitehall that there were problems with one of their planes. The best engineers had been working on a way to reduce the incidents of breakdowns and fatalities.

‘Then how and why did they end up inside a disused offertory box? Have these gone missing, do you know?’ Arthur’s brow creased in perplexity.

‘I have no idea. Are they copies, do you think, or originals?’ Jane asked. If originals, then whoever had taken them must have stolen them with a view to delaying the installation of the improvements. If they had been concealed by her own agents, then a wish to delay made no sense to her. Surely, if her agents had recovered them, they would have sent them back to the ministry. Jane couldn’t imagine that one of her agents would betray their own country like this. There had to be another reason.

‘I’m not sure. I suspect they must be copies. There are handwritten annotations of some kind here, look.’ Arthur looked closely at the documents.

‘Were they taken to give to the enemy?’ Jane asked. Surely Anna had not been complicit in such a terrible betrayal, or why had she left a clue to help Jane find them?

‘Probably, but then why would our own people have hidden them away?’ The lines on Arthur’s brow deepened as he voiced Jane’s own thoughts.

‘Unless, someone else stole them and then Polly or one of the others recovered them and needed to place them somewhere safe. If they couldn’t find a way to get them back to the office.’ Jane tried out a theory.

‘They could have simply destroyed them,’ Arthur said.

‘Not if they believed them to be the originals,’ she suggested. ‘That notebook, what does it say? There may be an explanation in there.

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