Wings over Water (A King's Watch Story Book 2) by Mark Hayden

Author:Mark Hayden [Hayden, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Paw Press
Published: 2019-07-04T06:00:00+00:00

4 — The Big Guns

‘Well?’ she said.

‘There’s something out there, all right. Oh, cheers.’ I took the mug of coffee and lit up. ‘And it’s under the second dig site. Deep, but definitely under there, and before you ask, I have no idea what it is.’

‘Right.’ She stared through the rain, across the grass. Her eyes had widened a touch, and her lips had pursed just a fraction. She was worried. So was I.

‘How did you know about the bribery?’ I asked.

‘Sorry?’

‘How did you know that the landowner bribed the air ministry?’

‘I put two and two together. There was a letter in the file gushing about the quality of the site. There’s nothing special about it that I can see, so I assumed the civil servant who wrote it had been given a back-hander.’ She grinned. ‘Who knows – perhaps it was a homage to Sir George Cayley.’

‘Is he local?’

She pointed up the road, and over the river Derwent. ‘He’s buried two miles up there, in Brompton.’

I turned and lifted my hat, as every RAF officer should. Sir George is truly the father of aviation, and worked out the physics of flight decades before the internal combustion engine made it practical.

‘If you’re listening, Sir George, all help would be gratefully received.’ I nodded slowly. ‘I’m not saying you’re wrong about the bribery, it’s just that there might be other factors at play. Do you know Vicky Robson?’

‘By reputation. We’ve not met.’

‘She’s got a great future in the Watch, I reckon, and that’s because she’s learnt to think outside the circle. Most Mages think they see the world more clearly, and that blinds them to other things. They’re rubbish at cyber-security, for example.’

She grinned. ‘It’s a good job you’re not after me, then.’

‘But someone else might be. Think about it.’

‘Oh.’

‘Anyway, ignoring magick, what can you tell me about this field?’

She got up and went to the edge of the gazebo. She looked around for a minute before shrugging. ‘It’s quite big, I suppose.’

‘It is, and it’s always been big. They dug the drains around it for some reason, and have a look at the levels.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Every other field is level with or below the road. This one is a good three inches higher.’

‘That’s nothing.’

I shook my head. ‘Three inches means a lot to water. In a real deluge, this would be one of the very last fields to flood along here. Why? I have no idea except that it’s yet another coincidence.’ I checked my watch. It was three o’clock on a Friday afternoon. I’d have to be quick. ‘I’m going to call Ruth Kaplan.’

‘Who’s she?’

‘I thought you knew. She’s Hannah’s twin, and our contact in the police. If I’m in luck, she’s still at work.’

Inspector Ruth Kaplan of the City of London Police was still at work. Good. I sweet talked her into checking the ownership history of Draxholt, and she said she’d get back to me.

‘What did you say at the end?’ said Woody when I’d disconnected.

‘Ah gutten Erev Shabbos.

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