And The Earth Moved: Romantic Comedy Cozy Mystery (Amber Reed CCIA Mystery Book 1) (7 page)

“Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t there huge security fences all around the quarry?” I say, pointing at the barrier ahead of us.

“In most areas but not all remember? Such as in the area where Joel fell to his death.”

I gesture to the particular patch of very solid looking fence a few feet in front of us. “Then why are we not getting in through one of those areas instead?”

“Because this area offers the nearest access to the quarry offices. Don’t panic, we can get through this fence; no worries.”

I eye the fence. It looks pretty secure to me. “How exactly?”

He shakes his head but he’s smiling. “Again with the questions.”

When we reach the fence Charlie pulls some wire cutters from his backpack and cuts a hole at the bottom of it big enough for us to crawl through. The ground is wet and a mixture of earth and rocks. Charlie is through to the other side in seconds. I kneel down to follow, my trousers instantly damp, and try to wriggle through the hole, snagging my jacket on a piece of the cut wire. Charlie, still on his knees, deftly separates my coat from the wire then grips my arm and helps me through and onto my feet.

As he slips the cutters back into the bag I nod towards them. “Standard issue agency equipment are they?”

“Yes, they are actually.” He grabs my hand and leads me down the steep path towards the offices.

An automatic, movement-activated security light -well, at least I hope it’s been triggered automatically- comes on, flooding the yard near the offices with bright white light. The huge metal gantry which delivers stone into the backs of the lorries looms above the quarry yard and looks like something from a sci-fi movie – some giant metal monster.

Charlie ducks out of sight behind one of the lorries parked up for the night, pulling me with him, and stares around him. I love how he seems to take in every detail of our surroundings with just the quickest visual sweep. I squint into the semi-darkness on the outskirts of the security lights trying to do my own visual reconnaissance.

“Are we going to break in?” I whisper, crouching beside him.

“No.”

“OK. I’ll rephrase that. Are
you
going to break in?”

“No.”

“But…”

Charlie fishes in the pocket of his jeans. “I have a key. No breaking and entering necessary. I’ll just need to disable the security alarm first. Unfortunately I don’t have the code to switch it off properly once we’re inside.”

“I’m not going to even ask where you got that key from.”

He lets out a chuckle. “Remember earlier when I accidentally left my hat in the quarry office?”

“You found a key at the same time?”

“I wouldn’t say
found
exactly. More like searched in a few drawers for it.”

“OK. What are we waiting for then? Let’s go.” I want to get this over and done with as quickly as possible.

He places a steadying hand on my arm. “First, we need to wait until the security light goes off again. It should only be on for a minute or so. Second, we aren’t going anywhere. I am.”

I begin to protest but he cuts me off. “I need you to stay here. Keep your head down. It’ll take me a few minutes to sort the alarm. Stay here, OK? Promise me. And I mean a proper promise.”

“I promise,” I reply solemnly. Like I’m about to go wandering off in a dark quarry on my own? I’m not that crazy.

“Good. From here you’ll see when I get the door open. At that point, when I gesture, come over, but keep low and behind the vehicles as much as you can so you hopefully don’t trigger the lights again.”

The cheeky part of me wants to ask what kind of gesture he’ll be making but I bite my tongue. Now is not the time. Nerves are making me feel all tingly and scared and I blame those same nerves for making me attempt to crack jokes about rude gestures.

I wait, hunched up, the smell of diesel and dust making me wrinkle my nose. I watch Charlie doing whatever he’s doing to the security alarm box on the side of the offices. It doesn’t take long before he’s opened the door and beckons across to me. I creep across the uneven ground, avoiding the giant puddles, being sure to stay low and hidden as much as possible as instructed.

Inside the office Charlie, wearing black gloves, is already opening and searching desk drawers. “Don’t touch anything at all,” he warns.

“Finger prints,” he says by way of an explanation as he sifts through documents in a folder.

“But…” I stumble over something and yelp. Charlie gives me a look, shining his torch to the ground in front of me where a rubbish bin has now spilt its contents across the floor. Tin cans, old newspapers and fast food wrappers are scattered everywhere. I bend to pick it all up but Charlie gets there first, waves his gloved hands at me to remind me about fingerprints, and proceeds to scoop the contents back into the bin.

Frustrated I stand and watch him systematically search the office and wish I’d thought to bring along a pair of gloves. Come to that, why hadn’t Charlie got some spare gloves in his car? Perhaps he had but chose not to offer me them. Too late now to go back and fetch some though.

“Mmm, interesting,” he mutters as he takes photo after photo of some papers using his mobile phone.

“What’s interesting?” I ask irritably. “Tell me.”

“Shhh,” he replies. “I’m trying to concentrate.”

More photos of papers. I try to peer over Charlie’s shoulder but he’s too tall, even hunched over a desk examining papers, so I move to his side and lean across as he flicks through some documents instead. “A planning application?” I ask, recognising the headed paper and the logo of the local council. “What’s it for?”

“An extension to the quarry by the looks of it, further out towards the edge of the moor, near those ancient standing stones where Joel fell to his death.”

“What?” I gasp. “The council will never grant that.”

“They haven’t put the application in yet, these forms haven’t been signed.” He glances at me. “Have a nose around and see if you can spot anything which might shed some light on what’s going on around here. But don’t touch anything.”

I look around. The office is still a complete tip. If Charlie had come in and ransacked the place in search of whatever he’s looking for then I doubt the Turston brothers would even have noticed. I take a step nearer to a large noticeboard and begin to read the various things pinned up on it. Fire regulations. Health and safety certificates. A wall planner with various dates circled in bright red marker pen. I notice today’s date is one of those circled and wonder what it means. Is it significant?  I suppose I’d better mention it. “Charlie, look at…”

Charlie interrupts me. “Amber. Stay calm. I think we’ve got company.”

Chapter Eight

“What?” I drop my torch. In a split second Charlie picks it up, takes my hand and pulls me across to a door in the corner of the room.

Lights from a vehicle sweep across the wall of the office and my throat constricts. We’re about to get caught. “What’s going on?” I whisper. “Who is it?”

“I don’t know do I?” he snaps. He yanks the door open and tucks me inside what appears to be a large store cupboard. “Look, stay here.”

I can just about see him as he moves around the furniture in the office which has been plunged back into darkness as the car is parked up, headlights switched off. 

“Be careful,” I hiss as he makes his way towards the small window at the side of the building above one of the messy desks.

At the window he flattens himself against the wall and carefully eases the slats of the metal blind away from the frame a fraction so he can see, at an angle, out into the quarry yard.

“What’s going on?” I can’t help asking.

“God knows, there’s a car parked up but I can’t see who is driving it. It does look familiar though. I think the same vehicle was parked here earlier when we visited the offices. Must be somebody who works here.”

He can remember information on all the cars which were parked up near the quarry offices earlier today?

Of course he can.

“What…” I begin.

“Get back in the store cupboard now and shut the door,” Charlie says in a don’t-you-dare-argue-with-me tone.

“But…”

“Do it! Now! Do not open the door no matter what happens.”

I hear the distinct sound of footsteps - heavy boots - approaching the office and realise why Charlie has issued his warning. I close the door softly and sink to the floor amongst the boxes and a cobweb covered vacuum cleaner.

I hear footsteps in the office then silence.

What is going on out there?

I pray Charlie is OK. He drives like a cross between a spy escaping the enemy and a guy in a Formula One race. He carries wire gutters in a backpack and knows how to disable security alarms. Surely he knows how to handle himself if he’s discovered in a place he definitely shouldn’t be or if a fight breaks out.

What if whoever turns up does have a gun? I still don’t know if Charlie is armed or not. Do CCIA investigators carry guns?

What if they - whoever they are - have got Charlie and I’m going to be left all alone in the quarry? What if they lock me in? What if…

I hold my breath. Mind racing with thoughts.

I still can’t hear any sounds out there though.

Should I open the door? Charlie told me not to under any circumstances but if it’s quiet now then surely it will be OK to open the door just a touch. Enough to peer through and see what’s happening.

Yes or no?

I take a slow, deep breath and open the door a fraction, about to peer out when it’s yanked away from me and I leap back in fright.

Chapter Nine

I look up into Charlie’s eyes.

“I thought I told you to keep the door closed,” he hisses at me.

Before I can reply he grabs my hand. “We need to get out of here now.”

I nod and scramble to follow him across the room.

“Did you…” I try to speak but it’s barely more than a whisper when the words do manage to find their way out.

Charlie glances back at me briefly. “Not now,” he warns me, holding a finger to his lips to silence me.

Is the person who turned up still here somewhere? Are we likely to be caught at any second?

Outside he tugs me across the rough ground to an area behind some lorries and gestures for me to crouch down near the back chassis of one of the huge trucks so I’m out of sight. I stare back at him, so many questions tumbling through my mind, yet unable to speak. I hear a noise and see a man in a coat, the hood up, come out of one of the other quarry buildings with a rucksack. He walks towards the car and I hold my breath. As he opens the door the interior light flickers on and I catch a glimpse of the person’s face. It’s Liam. I’m sure it is. 

Charlie and I stay out of sight until the car’s headlights disappear over the top of the quarry track, heading back towards the road.

“Right, the coast is clear. First I need to go back and lock the door again. I didn’t want to hang around before in case Liam came out of the other building. I just wanted to get you out of there.”

“Lock the door?” I frown. Did I see Charlie unlock the door when we hurried out? Meaning it was locked again when we were inside… “Did you lock the door again?” I ask, confused.

He nods. “Yeah. When the car turned up I didn’t know if Liam was likely to come into the main office or not. If he had come over and then found the door unlocked he’d have instantly been suspicious and been looking for intruders. So I scooted to the door and locked it again, removing the key, just in case.”

The footsteps I’d heard.

Clever thinking.

“You said, first, you were going to lock the door, then what? Was it definitely Liam who turned up? I thought it looked like him but wasn’t entirely sure.”

“Yes it was Liam. He just went into the other building which looks as though it’s a storeroom of some kind. He shut the door behind him so I couldn’t see what he was doing. I just wanted to get you out of the office whilst he was in the other building. Then he reappeared, zipping up his rucksack, like you saw. He must have forgotten something and come back for it but I couldn’t see what it was. I think that building houses quarry equipment so it could have been anything.”

“Why on earth would he want quarry equipment in the middle of the night?”

“Good question,” Charlie says. “Which brings me to the second item on my list. I want to get into that building and see what’s inside it.”

Now that Liam’s car has gone silence surrounds us again and I shiver. I just want to get out of here as quickly as possible. Charlie, now examining the lock on the other building, clearly has other ideas.  Nervously I make my way towards him. “Can you unlock it?”

He’s systematically working his way through the various keys on the key ring he ‘borrowed’ earlier today from the office. “None of them fit,” I say as he checks the last one. “What now?”

“There’s more than one way to open a lock,” he says, putting his rucksack on the ground he opens it and pulls out a small black leather pouch. I watch in silence as he selects a slim metal tool and then, in seconds, picks the lock. I can’t help being impressed even though I know I shouldn’t be. Lock picking is not a skill I usually look for in potential boyfriends. Not that Charlie is a potential boyfriend of course.

“Why didn’t you just pick the lock on the first building? Why borrow the keys if you can get into a building easily anyway?”

“Picking locks isn’t exactly a subtle way of checking out a building,” he replies. “If you can get them then keys are better.”

Inside the building Charlie shines his torch around the room. Every wall has row upon row of metal shelving, about four tiers high. The shelves are stacked with all sorts of quarry-type equipment. High visibility coats and vests, hard hats, a whole section of mechanical stuff that I haven’t got a clue about and a stash of canteen supplies, from bags of sugar to spare mugs. “Why would you bother to come back to the quarry for anything in here?” I say looking around me.

“Maybe whatever he wanted wasn’t in here.” Charlie flashes his torch to the other side of the room and a padlocked door. “Maybe it was in there.”

Charlie examines the door but not only is it locked via a large keyhole it also has a smaller Yale lock too. Just to be extra safe there are two bolts with padlocks, one at the top and one at the bottom.

“Can you get in?” I ask, shining a torch on the Yale lock as Charlie inspects it.

He shakes his head. “Nope. Even I can’t get in there. I’ve got equipment to try and crack the padlocks and the Yale but nothing for the other keyhole. Trust me, this door isn’t opening any time soon. Not unless I put a stick of dynamite under it.”

I gasp. “Have you got a stick of dynamite?”

He looks at me as though I’m crazy. “No, I haven’t.”

“Oh. So that’s it then,” I say, feeling a little disappointed we can’t discover the secrets of the locked storeroom.

“For now,” Charlie says, packing his gear back in his rucksack. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Getting up the steep path out of the quarry is harder than getting down it. Charlie holds out a hand to help me as we begin to scramble up through bushes, trying not to get our feet tangled in bits of spiky brambles.

It seems to take an age to reach the top, crawl back through the hole in the fence and sprint down the lane towards Charlie’s car. During which time neither of us speak.

What just happened back there? Why was Liam in the quarry at almost one in the morning? What is inside that quadruple-locked storeroom?

By the time I get home I’m asleep on my feet. It’s been a long and stressful day.  Flopping into bed I manage to keep my eyes open long enough to check my phone. A missed call from mum and one from Debs.  Both want me to call them back as soon as possible. It’s too late to call them now. Mentally I add calling them to my extensive To-Do list for tomorrow.

Eventually I fall into a troubled sleep filled with dreams of guns, locks, murders and Charlie.

My alarm clock hasn’t even gone off when my mobile starts ringing. My first thought is that it’s Charlie. I scramble upright and grab the phone or at least what I thought, half asleep, was a phone. It’s a bar of chocolate instead, strategically placed for late-night snack emergencies. Throwing the chocolate back on the bedside table I pick up my phone, seeing it’s my mum calling.

“Hi, Mum! You’re up early.”

“I wanted to catch you and this time of day seemed like the best chance of speaking to you. You’re so busy lately.”

“Sorry,” I reply. “Things are a little crazy at the moment.”

“Does it have anything to do with this Charlie guy you’re seeing?”

Before I can answer she carries on, “I heard all about you and him in the store cupboard at the pub the other night. Honestly, Amber I’m pleased you’re dating again, at last, I honestly am but I think that kind of behaviour is a touch unseemly.”

I thought Liam was the only one who’d noticed Charlie and I come out of the store room last night but apparently not. The gossips of Palstone have clearly been busy bees.

“I’m sure he’s a lovely young man but do you think the two of you can be a little more discreet when you’re, well, you know…”

“Mum! We weren’t doing anything in there other than talking.”

“Why would the two of you need to go into a cupboard to talk?” she says, sounding confused. “Oh, I see, it was
that
kind of talk.”

Lord help me. Now my mum thinks I’m dating some kind of dirty-talking-in-public pervert.

“No, Mum, it was just normal talking.”

“I don’t understand,” she replies.

How am I going to explain this without telling her about what Charlie and I are really up to?

“Look, I’m sorry, Mum. I have to go, my day is crazy today. I promise you though, you have nothing to worry about with Charlie and I and unseemly behaviour.”

“You’ll be more discreet with your carryings on in future then? Good.”

No! Oh, sugar. This conversation is impossible. I can’t tell her the truth. All I can do is agree.

“Yes, Mum, we will,” I say soberly.

“So when are you bringing him round for dinner? I’m sure your dad would love to meet him.”

“No he wouldn’t, Mum. Dad hates all my boyfriends, not that there have been that many of them to start with.”

“Nonsense, you’re imagining it. I’m doing my best to shield him from the gossip about the pub and the cupboard incident so when he does meet Charlie things won’t start off on the wrong foot.”

“Thanks,” I say, feeling irritated I’m being painted as some storeroom harlot without getting any of the benefits.

I’m out of the door and in my car on the way to the newspaper when my phone rings again. I see Debs’ name on the screen so pull over on the edge of the village.

“Hi,” I say, one eye on the dashboard clock. I can’t be late for work.

“You are no longer my best friend!” Debs says, sounding miffed off.

“Why? What did I do?”

“You never shared with me about yours and Charlie’s cupboard love fetish.”

Oh no, not this again. I hate village gossip.

“What’s worse is that I was in the pub at the time and I didn’t see the two of you coming out of the stockroom. Honestly, you turn your back on somebody for five minutes so you can watch a darts match and all sorts of exciting things go on.”

She pauses for breath and I’m just about to start making my excuses when I realise I’m in exactly the same situation as I was with my mum’s earlier call. I can’t explain what Charlie and I were actually doing in the cupboard. I sigh.

“So how was he?” she says, switching from annoyed to curious in a split second.

“It was just a kiss,” I say, hating the fact I’m having to fib to Debs yet again. “Nothing more.”

“Oh.” Debs sounds disappointed. “So why did you go in the storeroom? You could have just kissed in the bar.”

“I was supposed to be working. I’d have got into trouble if the boss would have seen us.”

“Right. I see. I miss that.”

I frown. “Miss what?”

“When you’re first dating a guy and you can’t keep your hands off each other. It’s so exciting. I really need to find a new boyfriend,” she says with a sigh. “I need to get out more.”

“Want to go to the cinema tonight?” I ask, seeing a chance to get back in her good books. “Ennis’ new romcom is on at the multiplex. I’ll buy the popcorn.”