ARTHUR'S SEED, THE RETURN (Chapter Seven)

ARTHUR’S SEED

THE RETURN

Chapter Seven.

Jacob and Jimmy were alone in the sitting room of Gorawen’s house drinking the whisky that Jimmy had thoughtfully brought with him when he did the shopping. Tyler was out of sight upstairs and safely asleep in bed thanks to Gorawen’s special brew.

“Right Jimmy,” announced Jacob, “now Tyler’s safely tucked up in bed and before we have too much whisky, let’s go and move Lillian’s body out of the cellar and into the boot of the car while it’s still dark. Then when that’s done, we can talk about my plans in detail before you leave here in the morning to dispose of Lillian’s body, bury her in pieces if necessary. It’s important that you don’t return to the house until I ring you. I don’t want you turning up before we find the tunnel; Tyler will only start asking awkward questions. I will call you with instructions on how to find the tunnel and only then, will you be free to drive back here. Once we have settled in on the island and they trust me, I will contact you again. Then you can contact the lads using the house phone and wait for them to arrive. We have a lot more to talk about tonight and not a lot of time to do it in, so let’s move.”

Jacob quickly drank the last morsel of whisky from his glass and placed it on the arm of the chair. He walked over to the cellar but before unlocking the door he turned back to Jimmy who was still seated and cried out to him, “come on, I said move dam it, we haven’t got all night.”

Jimmy immediately stood up saying, “sorry boss.” He took a final swig of whisky, placed his empty glass on the table beside him and rushed towards the door to stand by his boss’s side.

Jacob took the key from his pocket and unlocked the door; he switched on the light before nervously descending the steps, closely followed by a humiliated Jimmy. As they gazed down at Lillian’s body Jacob said to Jimmy, “you grab her arms, I’ll get her legs.”

The one thing that Jacob had not counted on was that the low temperature of the cellar had dramatically affected the onset of Rigour Mortice on Lillian’s body. Consequently, when they tried to lift her body from the floor using her arms and legs, the cracking sound of her contracted muscles and joints being stretched, unsettled Jacob so much that he immediately dropped her legs to the floor.

Jacob burst into tears and knelt on the floor beside his wife’s body. He looked up at a puzzled Jimmy and said, “I don’t know if I can do this Jimmy.”

Jimmy looked down at him and grabbed both of his hands to help him up, “come on boss, we have to do this, you don’t want Tyler to discover his mother’s body down here do you.”

Jacob wiped away his tears and said, “no, you’re right, but how the hell are we going to get her up the bloody steps with her body like this?”

“We need a blanket and a rope.”

“What, how the hell is that going to help us?”

Jimmy looked around the cellar and saw an old blanket on a shelf. He grabbed it and laid it out on the floor beside the body, but struggled to roll it onto the blanket by himself, due to it being contorted by Rigour Mortice, so looked up at Jacob and pleaded, “I need a hand here boss.”

Jacob quickly knelt on the floor and helped him to roll his wife’s body onto the blanket. “Right,” Jimmy declared, “you wrap the blanket around her body while I go out to the car, I think I noticed a towrope in the boot. Then we can tie the rope to the blanket and haul her up the steps together.”

Jacob was amazed by Jimmy’s ingenuity and within half an hour, they had successfully transported Lillian’s body safely to the boot of the car.

Jacob walked into the sitting room and poured himself a large whiskey and toasted Jimmy as he walked into the room, “cheers buddy,” he said before drinking it down, “I don’t know what I would have done without your help.”

“Oh that’s what you pay me for boss and besides, I’ve cleared up a lot of dead bodies in my time for the firm.” He went to pour himself a whisky but was stopped by Jacob.

“I’m sorry Jimmy but you’ll need a clear head for what I am about to tell you.”

Jimmy put the cork back in the bottle and said, “sure thing boss.”

But that did not stop Jacob from filling his own glass with the demon drink and swallowing it down in one mouthful, saying, “my plans all hinge on me locating my mother’s tunnel to her secret island. How else could she have transported Meyric and the rest of his team to the island to kidnap my sister’s daughter? I do wish she was here, but I fear she is dead as the last time I spoke to her she was planning to declare war on my sister’s family and kill her husband. If she had been successful, she would have phoned me by now and asked me over to celebrate. But since then, I haven’t heard a word from her. It’s totally unlike her not to phone me and let me know how she’s doing. She did ask for my help at the time, but I told her I was far too busy to get involved in another one of her foolhardy schemes. The last one ended in me losing my best man Meyric.” Jacob filled his glass again and took another mouthful before continuing, “ironically, if I had helped her out when she asked, I would most likely be living on the island in the lap of luxury. But as it is, I’m completely in the dark as to where the tunnel is, the only place it can be, is in the cellar. I haven’t had time to explore yet but tomorrow I will have a fucking good look. If necessary I will tear the place apart.” Jacob refilled his glass and drank it down, “once I have located the entrance, the plan is to take Tyler with me to this mysterious secret island, the island of my birth.”

Jimmy interrupted Jacob and asked, “sorry for interrupting boss, I know you have told me before, but can you remind me, what is so special about this island?”

By this time the whisky was beginning to affect Jacob’s speech and his tongue, but he carried on to answer Jimmy’s question, “according to my mother, it’s so bloody secret that no one knows of its existence so it will be the ideal place to run the company’s operations from there, right under the noses of the British police and the FBI.”

Jacob topped up his glass, drank it down and continued, “as soon as I’ve arrived on the island I have to find my long-lost sister who is married to the so-called king. My mother told me that my sister has no idea I’m still alive so it will take a bit of diplomacy to convince her who I am, that’s why I need to take Tyler with me. He knows nothing of the company so he will help back up my story, that I mean them no harm.” Jacob refilled his glass again but drank it down more moderately this time as he was beginning to notice the effect on his speech himself, “this may take some time but once Tyler and I have settled in, I will phone you from the island so you can carry out the second part of my plan. I have made out a list of my best operatives with their contact numbers.” Jacob took out a small notebook from his pocket and tried to throw it across the room to Jimmy but missed saying, “all you have to do is return here to the house, call the numbers in my notebook and give them my prearranged code word, ‘Home Sweet Home.’” He laughed and took another swig of whisky.

Jimmy picked up the notebook and flicked through the pages but was shocked to see the large number of names on the list and said, “there’s a lot of men on this list boss, an army.”

“I will need all those men to uphold my rule of law,” Jacob replied wagging his finger in front of his face and slurring his speech quite badly, “of course, certain heads will have to roll to make the island secure, but that’s what we do.”

By this time Jimmy was beginning to get a little worried about his boss’s drunken demeanour so said in a calm voice, “excuse me for saying boss, but I feel you may need some of your mother’s famous elixir to counteract the effects of the whisky.”

Jacob stood up from his chair and cried, “how dare you question my….” But fell on the floor in a heap before he could complete his sentence.

Jimmy rushed over to him and helped him back into his chair.

Jacob looked up at him in a haze and said, “you’re right my friend, come on, give me a hand to the kitchen.”

Jimmy took hold of Jacob’s flaying arms and helped him to stand up. Leading him into the kitchen was not easy, as Jacob’s legs kept giving way, but they eventually made it without tripping over one another. Jacob carefully leaned his body against the kitchen unit for support and opened the wall cupboard door. He felt inside for the right bottle containing Gorawen’s special potion but knocked most of the contents of the cupboard out all over the unit below and onto the floor.

Jimmy took pity on him and said, “let me help you boss, there are so many bottles of potions in here I would hate you to drink from the wrong one.”

Jacob waggled his finger in the air saying, “it’s got ‘pen mawr’ written on the label, (which is Welsh for hangover) my mother wrote everything in Welsh you know.”

Jimmy went through the bottles until he found the right one, “here it is,” and gave it to Jacob who checked the label carefully.

“Right, get me a glass of water,” ordered Jacob.

Jimmy did as he was told and handed the glass of water to him. Jacob removed the stopper from the bottle, poured half of its contents into his glass, and then stirred it vigorously with his finger. He pinched his nose with his thumb and forefinger and drank it down in one gulp.

Jimmy stood nervously by his boss’s side, still supporting him while waiting for the elixir to take effect.

After a couple of minutes, Jacob pulled himself away from Jimmy’s grip and said flexing his shoulders and neck muscles, “I’m fine now thanks Jimmy, let’s put all this stuff back in the cupboard and then we can get back to business.”

They both gathered the bottles together from the floor and unit top and began to refill the cupboard with its contents. Jacob picked up what looked like a spray bottle and said, “would you look at that, I didn’t realise my mother still had this here.”

He handed it to Jimmy who read the label, “‘Gwenwyn,’ what does that mean boss?”

“Poison,” Jacob replied.

“Oooh,” Jimmy cried and immediately handed the bottle back to him.

Jacob held it in his hand and stared down at it fondly saying, “my mother was very clever with her potions you know.” He held it up in front of Jimmy’s face and laughed, “one sniff of this stuff and you’re dead,” Jimmy quickly moved back out of Jacob’s reach. “You know this stuff is so good, it leaves no residue, and nobody will ever be able to determine the cause of death. She developed it especially for me to use for the company. You know we have labs in the States and in Europe reproducing this stuff from my mother’s original recipe. It’s then packaged in different branded containers, perfume spray bottles and even in deodorant spray cans. We do a bit of research on the mark’s preferences in smelly products, break into their residence and simply replace theirs with ours, it’s the perfect murder weapon. You know we have recently produced a series of lighters that are filled with this stuff instead of gas. Clever don’t you think, smokers always try to light their cigarettes when it’s in their mouths. It’s proved a lot more effective getting rid of certain people than a gun or knife.” He placed it back on the shelf carefully and closed the cupboard door saying, “right, let’s get back to business, now remind me where we got to?”

Jimmy replied, “I have to ring all the guys on your list and give them the codeword ‘Home sweet home,’ then what?

Jacob replied, “ah yes, let’s go back into the sitting room and I will explain.”

Once they were seated, Jacob continued, “right, the guys have already been prewarned by me to expect a call from you with the codeword, so they know what to do. They also know you will give them the GPS coordinates of my mother’s house which I have written down in the notebook I gave you.” Jimmy picked up the notebook and checked it was there and nodded.

Jacob continued, “they have already been instructed by me to drive down using the coordinates they are given by you in no less than six men per vehicle, and all tooled up. I have also issued them with the tide times, so they are aware of the causeway, don’t want them to get caught out as you did, do we?”

Jimmy grimaced and shook his head saying, “don’t think we’ve got enough towels and spare trousers for that lot boss.”

Jacob laughed and continued, “they probably won’t all arrive at the same time as they will be travelling from all over the UK, which is a good thing. I don’t want them to get here all together, as it may draw someone’s attention to the place. Remember a lot of these guys are hardened ex-army soldiers and trained assassins, so they know what’s expected of them, so treat them with the respect they deserve.”

Jimmy’s mouth dropped in amazement and said, “wow boss, you’ve got it all worked out down to the last detail, haven’t you.”

“I had to; this is an invasion which requires military precision to be effective. Remember we are invading an unknown country that has its own army. Admittedly they only have medieval weapons, but never under-estimate the enemy, we may be able to win the odd battle, but it’s no guarantee that we would win the war.”

“Once they have all arrived and are armed, you will lead them into the tunnel and bring them to me. Together, we will take over the island to make it my new headquarters. But remember, although the island itself is a secret place and no one knows of its existence, this house is of strategic importance if my overall plan is to work. It will be our only access point on and off the island. So, to be able to run the company’s operations from there, right under the noses of the British police and the FBI, the house must never be exposed to the outside world, or the tunnel discovered. Any questions?”

Jimmy thought for a moment then asked, “what are you planning to do with the bodies in the freezer boss?”

“Oh hell, I forgot about them,” he thought for a moment and then said, “the guys can deal with them later.”

“Yes, but the lid isn’t lockable, supposing Tyler decided to open it, you said yourself he was a nosy bugger.”

“Bollocks, I never thought about that.”

Jimmy asked, “give me the key boss, I will see if there’s anything heavy down there we can put on the lid to deter him from looking inside.”

“Hang on, I’ll come with you and give you a hand, you’ve helped me out a great deal over the past couple of days, I can’t expect you to do everything on your own.”

They both got up and walked towards the cellar. Jacob unlocked the door and turned on the light before descending the steps together. Jimmy looked around and saw two wooden crates filled with old cobblestones in the far corner, “they’ll do,” he said.

He was right, it took both of them to lift each crate off the ground and place them on top of the freezer. Jacob chuckled saying, “I can’t imagine Tyler even attempting to lift the lid with those on there.”

As they ascended the steps Jacob noticed Lillian’s discarded luggage by the side and cried pointing to them, “oh fuck, forgot about her bloody suit cases.”

Jimmy looked down and said, “it’s all right boss, I’ll get those and put them in the back of the car before I leave.”

“You’re a good man Jimmy, I can see you rising to the top of my organisation, very quickly.”

Jimmy went back into the cellar to pick up Lillian’s many suit cases but stopped to look around before leaving, “I know this is a big cellar boss, but I don’t see any evidence of a tunnel entrance down here.”

As Jimmy reached the door he placed the luggage on the floor while Jacob locked it and declared, “knowing my mother, she’s probably got a secret button somewhere which you press to open a false wall. Tyler will help me find it, he loves to brivet, it’s in his nature, the only part of his mental disability that might prove useful.”