Amanda Cadabra and The Strange Case of Lucy Penlowr by Holly Bell (best english novels for beginners .txt) 📕

to launch into her report as soon as they arrived for dinner. She relayed all she had learned from the caretaker — whom she characterised simply as someone she had met on the Moor — that day, while Hogarth washed out his roller after having emulsioned the dining-room ceiling.

‘Fascinating,’ he remarked when she drew breath.

‘I have something to add to that,’ offered Trelawney.

‘Go ahead.’

‘Shall I stir the chilli?’ suggested Amanda, going over and moving the wooden spoon around by hand.

‘Please, and get the rice on too, if you will. Thomas, tell us what you got today at Flamgoyne.’

Having heard the inspector’s report on his visit to the family pile that morning, she summarized,

‘So, the Flamgoynes were out in force that night and took some damage, but they seem to have succeeded in their objective if your estate manager heard correctly.’

‘Hm. They came home with a book or box and something shiny,’ commented Hogarth. He looked at Thomas. ‘So that was how your dear Aunt Agacine met her end. Interesting.’

‘Indeed. I didn’t know I had an Aunt Agacine. Then again, some things are best forgotten! Anyway, I’d have put her near the top of the list of suspects if she hadn’t been struck down before the Mordren explosion. However, as least we can identify some of the fallen.’

‘It’s clear though, that another merry band was present at the attack on Growan House,’ concluded Amanda. ‘And I’d have bet my best tea-pot that they were Cardiubarns. Because I can tell you what would be totally in character: if they knew about the research and happily let the Dowrkampyers get on with it, while they, the Cardiubarns intended to go in and swipe the results when it was done. In fact, they may even have felt some sort of warped entitlement to it.’

‘But,’ said Thomas, ‘it sounds like the Flamgoynes could have come home with the ultimate swag: The Grimoire, the compilation of the research that was going on at Growan House.’

‘Then how did that grimoire end up in the Cardiubarn crypt, all nice and ready to be used on me a few years later?’ Amanda asked rhetorically.

‘How, indeed,’ pondered Hogarth.

‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘it seems there was only one Flamgoyne fatality that night: Agacine. We know Lucy saw a woman in black lying on the stairs who looked dead.’

‘Alright,’ agreed Trelawney. ‘It is reasonable to assume then, that the body on the stairs was that of Agacine Flamgoyne.’

Amanda looked optimistically from one to the other of the men.

‘That’s at least some progress, isn’t it?’ Anyway, so we know for certain the Flamgoynes and the Cardiubarns were there. We know the Flamgoynes went off with spoils, but what about the Cardiubarns?’

‘And did the Flamgoynes make off with books or boxes?’ asked Trelawney. ‘If boxes, what was in them?’

‘And if books, was one of them the book?’ added Amanda.

‘If not, were they still spellbooks?’ pondered Thomas.

‘More questions then,’ commented Hogarth, taking a peek at the rice. ‘Almost ready. Plates out of the oven and cutlery, you two.’

Once they were all seated and tucking in with relish, Hogarth looked up from his plate at Amanda, and asked as if by-the-way,

‘Thomas says you still have photos of family?’

‘The Cardiubarns? Yes, Granny used to have the album on the sitting-room shelves, but I stuck it in a trunk in the attic ages ago. Why? Do you need them?’

‘Hmm, they could be useful.’

‘Is that policeman-speak for “yes”?’ she enquired impishly.

Hogarth grinned.

‘Busted, as they say. Do they still say that?’ he wondered.

‘Do you need them now?’

‘I’d like them now.’

‘Well,’ replied Amanda, wanting to be helpful, ‘there might be a way to get them without driving all the way to and from Sunken Madley. Aunt Amelia has a key to the cottage, and she knows her way around it.’

Hogarth had picked up his phone and was already dialling.

‘Amelia, my dear.’ He put it on speaker.

‘Mikey, how nice!’

‘And to hear your voice too. Are you at home?’

‘Where else would a single woman of my age be on a Friday night?’

‘So, you’re going out then,’ Mike replied saucily.

‘A soirée,’ she replied, with an air of innocence.

‘Do I know him?’

‘No, sweetie, but I’m sure you’d approve.’

‘Now that is worrying. Amelia, darling, I need a favour, and it may involve you changing out of your glad rags.’

She sighed. 'If you want me to bury another body, can it wait until tomorrow?’

He laughed.

'It’s more a resurrection that we need.’

‘We?’ enquired Amelia.

‘Yes, the young people are here.’

‘Hello, Aunt Amelia,’ called Amanda and Thomas.

‘Hello, my dears! Right. Down to business. What can I do for you all?’

‘I need the photographs of any Cardiubarns,’ Hogarth explained, ‘from an album in the attic of the Cadabra’s cottage.’

‘Of course.’

‘Let me hand you over to Amanda.’

‘Sweetie, are you all right? Don’t let your Uncle Mike bully you into anything you don’t like, now.’

‘I’m sure he wouldn’t, Aunt Amelia,’ replied Amanda. ‘And you do know we’re on speakerphone?’

‘Yes, my dear, which is why I said it! Now. Tell me how I find it.’

‘Attic, brown trunk with three straps. It’s got stuff on top of it, but just shove it off, and I’ll put everything back when I come home.’

‘The dark tan album with the black edges?’

‘That’s the one,' Amanda confirmed.

'Shall I use the scanner in the dining room? Put them on a USB stick and email them?’

‘Ah no,’ intervened Hogarth. ‘Amelia, could you print them out — Amanda, I’ll replace your ink — and send them by courier?’

‘Shall I use Broughams Express?’

‘Please.’

‘Will do. You should have them by midnight,' Amelia assured him.

‘Thank you, you’re a treasure.'

‘You’ll still be up, Mike?’

‘I will indeed. Thank you again and sorry about