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karohemdPreviously
On the Orient Express, part Two
In which we put a miscreant in his place, arrive in Istanbul and carry on to Cairo.
The next morning I met up with the others at breakfast and I told them about Grantham blackmailing Mrs Stephenson and they told me about their little stakeout. They had waited and Hill had indeed turned up and entered the luggage car (with a key from a guard). However, he wouldn't divulge what his purpose was. The crate seemed to be in order although Alex said he'd heard something moving inside and Dr Carter thought the nails had been put in the lid in an odd way.
No real progress there, we just knew we had to watch out for this Hill character.
That day, two more stops were on the agenda, one at Sinaia for the quite wonderful Peles Castle and later Bucharest which was nice enough, too.
At the hotel in Bucharest (where we would also stay the night) I had opportunity to speak to Mrs Stephenson again who told me that Grantham had given her an ultimatum until Istanbul. Upon my urging, she finally divulged what Grantham had in hand against her: Several years ago, the Davy family and the Stephensons were bitter rivals in developing a lamp, which eventually made them bitter enemies. There'd been some scandal but nothing major. What nobody knew was that her brother had married into the Davy family and was promptly disowned and shunned by his family, the other family members being under strict orders not to contact him or face a similar fate. Despite this threat, Ethel and her brother met secretly in London and somehow Grantham had gotten wind of this, broke into her hotel room and stolen a letter her brother had written. Grantham now threatened to send this letter to her husband if she didn't hand over the rose diamond. I promised I would do
anything in my power to help her retrieve the letter and told the others about it.
A plan was hatched. While everybody was out at the next stop at Varna, Alex, Robert and Thomas would gain entrance into Grantham's compartment and search it for the letter. Should they not find it, they wanted to wait for his return and persuade him to hand it over.
Lo and behold, it worked. With the letter in my breast pocket, I visited Mrs Stephenson who was very relieved and grateful and disposed of the letter so it wouldn't cause anymore harm.
Perhaps not surprisingly, we didn't see Grantham during the rest of our journey which ended quietly in Istanbul where we transferred to a fine hotel.
After spending two days booking our onward journey, seeing the sights and doing various bits of shopping, we boarded the ferry for Cairo where we arrived safely a day later, while the archaeologists and their precious cargo took a privately hired boat. Anthony Nelson had invited us to the grand opening of his exhibition so we were looking forward to finally seeing the crate's contents.
Having arrived in Cairo, we found a hotel. Jeremy received a note from Nelson that he and his cargo had arrived and all was set for the exhibition in two days' time and that he would spend the intervening time at a dig nearby. However, Silas later found out that not only had the crate vanished from the museum but that Nelson hadn't been seen, either. Most curious. Our suspicions - especially against Nelson's "assistant" Hill - were raised again, so we hired a truck to take us to the dig site first thing the next morning.
To be continued...
On the Orient Express, part Two
In which we put a miscreant in his place, arrive in Istanbul and carry on to Cairo.
The next morning I met up with the others at breakfast and I told them about Grantham blackmailing Mrs Stephenson and they told me about their little stakeout. They had waited and Hill had indeed turned up and entered the luggage car (with a key from a guard). However, he wouldn't divulge what his purpose was. The crate seemed to be in order although Alex said he'd heard something moving inside and Dr Carter thought the nails had been put in the lid in an odd way.
No real progress there, we just knew we had to watch out for this Hill character.
That day, two more stops were on the agenda, one at Sinaia for the quite wonderful Peles Castle and later Bucharest which was nice enough, too.
At the hotel in Bucharest (where we would also stay the night) I had opportunity to speak to Mrs Stephenson again who told me that Grantham had given her an ultimatum until Istanbul. Upon my urging, she finally divulged what Grantham had in hand against her: Several years ago, the Davy family and the Stephensons were bitter rivals in developing a lamp, which eventually made them bitter enemies. There'd been some scandal but nothing major. What nobody knew was that her brother had married into the Davy family and was promptly disowned and shunned by his family, the other family members being under strict orders not to contact him or face a similar fate. Despite this threat, Ethel and her brother met secretly in London and somehow Grantham had gotten wind of this, broke into her hotel room and stolen a letter her brother had written. Grantham now threatened to send this letter to her husband if she didn't hand over the rose diamond. I promised I would do
anything in my power to help her retrieve the letter and told the others about it.
A plan was hatched. While everybody was out at the next stop at Varna, Alex, Robert and Thomas would gain entrance into Grantham's compartment and search it for the letter. Should they not find it, they wanted to wait for his return and persuade him to hand it over.
Lo and behold, it worked. With the letter in my breast pocket, I visited Mrs Stephenson who was very relieved and grateful and disposed of the letter so it wouldn't cause anymore harm.
Perhaps not surprisingly, we didn't see Grantham during the rest of our journey which ended quietly in Istanbul where we transferred to a fine hotel.
After spending two days booking our onward journey, seeing the sights and doing various bits of shopping, we boarded the ferry for Cairo where we arrived safely a day later, while the archaeologists and their precious cargo took a privately hired boat. Anthony Nelson had invited us to the grand opening of his exhibition so we were looking forward to finally seeing the crate's contents.
Having arrived in Cairo, we found a hotel. Jeremy received a note from Nelson that he and his cargo had arrived and all was set for the exhibition in two days' time and that he would spend the intervening time at a dig nearby. However, Silas later found out that not only had the crate vanished from the museum but that Nelson hadn't been seen, either. Most curious. Our suspicions - especially against Nelson's "assistant" Hill - were raised again, so we hired a truck to take us to the dig site first thing the next morning.
To be continued...
