Chapter 4

The next day we started the cleaning / searching process in the attic, then worked down from there. We found nothing in the attic, nothing in the family bathroom, and nothing in the other bedroom, where we put away all the sister’s clothes.

Next was the one room we hadn’t been in. It was the one I dreaded, my old bedroom. It took an effort to open the door and go in. It looked exactly like it had on the last day I left it. It was a boy’s room, but as I looked, there were feminine touches. The bed was made, something I hadn’t done when I had walked out. And then there was one thing that stopped me dead in my tracks.

“What’s wrong, Babs, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Teddy, on the pillows.”

“So?”

“Last time I saw that, I was taking it to the garage in a box. I was twelve and had decided that grown boys don’t play with teddies.”

She went and picked it up, then handed it to me as I stood, frozen in place.

“He was your only friend?”

“And my confidant. He has a slit in the seam where I would put my notes about how lonely and scared, I was. Most of my life has been a series of scared times. When I was here, from the earliest age I can remember, I was lonely. I was often here, alone with my Nanny, for weeks on end. Boarding school was like a holiday camp for me.

“So, show me the secret compartment and let me read about your young angst.”

When I felt through the slit, I didn’t find something to make her laugh. I pulled out a sheaf of papers and small Bounty Bar.

We took everything down to the kitchen and brewed a pot. I still had Teddy in a tight grip and sat at the table while Adrianne poured. I didn’t know what to think. If the papers were a message from my parents, we would have to pass them on to Helen. If they held any clue as to where they were, or what they did, it would cook their goose. If it was a personal message to me, it would be the first, and that scared me more. I had bolstered my persona by thinking that they had been ciphers, figments of the imagination. Hard hearted and absent, distant, and unfeeling. All that could be shattered as we read what was on the sheets.

“Darling Barry, if you are reading this, you will be in an empty house and know that we aren’t around anymore. We may have died on the job or had an accident. Whatever the reason, we have left our wills with the agency. You inherit everything, the house, the funds, any debts. We hope that, as you read this, you remain strong.
That is something I need to admit, right now, as you have a right to know. You may have wondered why your sisters are so much older than you. I was determined, after them, not to have any more children. That lasted until I met Gregor, a Hungarian agent. You take your stockiness from him and, thankfully, your looks from me. Your father never knew, and I was back home before you were born, so Gregor didn’t know, either. As far as your father was concerned, you were his, and his alone. He is, however, becoming strange, as if he has something other than work on his mind. Sometimes, he frightens me.
I used to read the messages that you left in Teddy, and I would cry. But an agent must be focussed on the job and your father made sure that we remained aloof. We have been given a very dangerous task, so I brought Teddy out of retirement for this last message. If we are successful, I’ll put him back to bed, but, seeing that you’re reading this, we didn’t come back.
I hope that you have a successful career and find a good woman, you deserve more love than I was able to give you.
Love, your mother.”

I was crying as I listened to Adrianne reading it out. So, I had just spent several weeks talking to my birth father and didn’t know it. I would have to find out if he had been with Sofia at the time before I spoke about it.

One of the other sheets of paper had all the various bank accounts that I now had access to, along with all the contacts to work through their estate. The other was an impressive list of accounts, all over the world, that they had opened with agency, or ‘commandeered’ money.

“Ring Helen, she deserves to see this. Ask her to come to the house, we can provide her with lunch, tomorrow, if we go out today and shop. Odd about the Bounty Bar, I used to love the coconut shreds.”

Adrianne held me as I burst into tears, and rocked me, like a mother, as I let a whole life’s worth of regret drain from me. Later, I repaired my face and we looked closely at the two sheets of accounts. It seemed that I was now a well-off woman, more suited to the Davina persona than anything else. When we looked closely at the Bounty Bar, there was a couple of credit cards slid into the opened package, in the name of B. Bond, that matched two of the banks where we had deposits. I idly went to eat a Bounty and found that it had been tampered with. Inside was a deposit box key with a bank logo. Adrianne broke the other bar in two and found another key with the other bank logo. The two bars were put into the bin, as they had not aged well.

Adrianne rang Helen and made the arrangement without telling her much. Before we went to the supermarket, in the next town, she pulled me back to my old bedroom.

“Babs, we need to break the hex this room has over you. You’ll not be complete until you get the one thing you never had, here. That’s love. Last night we told everyone that we were lesbian lovers. Now’s the time to make that the truth.”

Then she kissed me, and I melted. Two hours later, we were freshly showered and dressed in fresh outfits, with a well-stocked credit card and shopping to do. We got a lot of stuff, so much that the store got one of the lads to carry our bags out to the car, and then gave us loyalty cards for future visits. They had a liquor outlet, so we stocked up with some good bottles of wine. After stocking the kitchen with everything for fine eating, we went out again to the local pub for dinner.

That night we slept in the big bed, and I woke with her spooning into my back. I felt sated, I felt wanted, and I felt loved, for the first time in my life. As dawn broke, I sat up in bed and watched her sleep. I wondered how long she had felt this way, seeing that we had lived together for a long time, already. It didn’t matter, as we were now a definite team. I would sacrifice my life to save hers, or, at least, fight off her enemies for as long as I could. I knew that we both would let a man take us to bed, and I wondered if we would ever have a foursome.

She opened her eyes and smiled. I leaned forward and kissed her.

“Not now, lover girl, I need a pee,” she giggled and pulled the sheets back.

I used the ensuite while she went off to the family bathroom. A half an hour later, we were both fully dressed and, in the kitchen, having a proper breakfast, now possible because of our shopping. We didn’t talk about ourselves, there was no need. We both knew that we were together, for a long time. We spent the morning cleaning the rest of the downstairs, so that Helen would see us at our best.

When she arrived, we gave her the lunch, a cold collation that we had put together. Then showed her what we had found. She read through all three papers more than once.

“This throws an interesting light on things. All the time I knew the Bonds, they seemed a loving couple. This note tosses that out of the window. Your father always was the strongest one, but I thought that your mother was close to him in that. This shows them to be more separated than we ever knew. I’ll take the note to show Gloria, along with this list of accounts that we will probably claim as Government assets. I’m sure you realised that this would be the case. The other list is yours, Barbara, and I am happy to see you have something behind you, now.”

As she was leaving, I mentioned that I had heard that my nanny was still alive. She told me that my nanny had been a serving agent but had retired before getting the job. That explained her attitude! Helen knew that she was in a care home and would go and talk to her with this new insight.

“Oh! And carry on with the cleaning, you almost have the place looking good. I’ll get back to you after we look back on your parent’s history. There may be clues that we had overlooked.”

We watched her drive away. Adrianne took my hand as we stood together. It felt good. We then went back into the house to rearrange things, yet again. We cleared all my parent’s things out of the master bedroom and piled them on the unused bed in the other room with my sister’s things, then transferred all of Adrianne’s things into the master walk-in and drawers, so leaving a ready spare should we have guests. After that, we dusted and polished, poked around and generally made sure we hadn’t overlooked any possible hidey hole. After all, a professional team had gone through the house and found nothing. They weren’t to blame for overlooking Teddy.

That night, after our meal, we sat and watched television, before going to bed as a couple. The next day, we had planned our final search. This was to be the detached garage. I was certain that nothing would be hidden in the garden, seeing that someone had been contracted to look after it.

The garage contained a car, not one I knew. They must have bought it before they left. The keys were in the ignition, and it started, reluctantly. We let it warm, and I backed it out, into the open air, so that we could clean it and use it, as it was a good model of a good make.

There were racks along the back wall, and they held boxes, each marked. There was a small pile of empty boxes on the top shelf, which we took inside the house to pack up all of the unwanted things that my parents and sisters had left. Then we took every box down and laid them, side by side, on the garage floor. We carefully went through each one, me having to take it slow when we got to the one that Teddy had been put in, and that still contained mementos of my boyhood.

As we completed each inspection, we put the boxes back, until there was just two remaining. These were odd, as one was marked ‘Harlequin’, while the other was marked ‘Columbine’, and I could never see my parents doing something as trivial as dressing up for a party. The boxes held exactly what was indicated. Both costumes were exquisitely made and must have cost a lot to buy. It was very odd, indeed.

Adrianne grinned and suggested that we would look good in the costumes, so we undressed, there in the garage, and put them on. She was smoking as Harlequin, but the Columbine outfit was just a bit long on me. She laughed and asked me for a dance, so we went to move the boxes out of the way, only to discover that they were heavier than an empty box had any right to be. That put a stop to the fun.

Staying in the costumes, we carried the boxes into the house, and then went out to retrieve our normal clothes. We took it slow, changing back and hanging the costumes in the walk-in. The boxes were put on the kitchen table, and I measured the inside depth against the outside. Each one had a two-inch false bottom.

We took Columbine first, prising the bottom layer up. Inside was a bundle of passports, several bundles of cash from different countries, a pistol, ammunition, and, best of all, several notebooks. Adrianne went and phoned Helen, telling her that we had found two more secret compartments, and that one held some things belonging to my mother. She came back as I was looking at the notebooks.

“Helen told me to stop looking at anything. She is on her way with some professionals to examine everything. She wants them to open your fathers stash, it may contain things we don’t have clearance for.”

I, reluctantly, put the diary I had been looking at back in the box. I had looked at the passports, already, and they were all in different names, but everyone had a picture of my mother.

“I think, that while they’re here, we had better look in those safe deposit boxes. They may also contain things we have no clearance to know.”

She nodded and we sat together, in the lounge, lost in our own thoughts. Eventually, a car came up the driveway and we went out to greet our guests. We firstly showed them the garage, with the boxes, and verified that all the boxes in here were as they were marked. Then we showed them the two boxes on the kitchen table. We left the two guys, now pulling on surgeons’ gloves, and took Helen to show her the costumes. She felt all the seams to see if they held anything.

Adrianne and I went out and started washing down my car, leaving Helen and the professionals to do their job. Finally, Helen came out to us and smiled.

“You girls are just the best. Most would have looked at everything and contaminated the evidence. Your mother’s box, Barbara, was completely normal for an agent. The passports will be taken, the money is yours to spend. The notebooks are, so I’m told, just diaries and I will leave you to read them. If anything stands out, I know you’ll let me know.”

“What about the other box?” asked Adrianne.

“Yes, the other box,” she sighed. “That one is an opener to a can of worms. I’m told that it contains several passports, at least two being Russian issues and both look genuine. There are other items, that I can’t divulge, that point to our best agent being a long-time mole and was that before he married your mother. I’m afraid that it does point to him murdering your mother and taking the gold. I’m sorry, Barbara, but there’s enough there to put a code red on him. There will be a lot of soul-searching for some time to come.”

“While you’re here, with the professionals,” said Adrianne. “We think that you should be present when we open the safe-deposit boxes in the two banks.”

“Good idea, the boys will take everything away when we leave. By the way, I spoke to your old nanny last time I was here. She asked that I pass on her love and good wishes. She told me that there had been tension between your parents after you were born, Barbara, but couldn’t put a finger on why. You were a perfectly healthy boy and should have been the apple of your father’s eye. She said that you were a pleasure to look after and hopes you have a good life. Of course, we now know that he may have suspected that you weren’t his.”

The guys put a couple of paper bags into the back of their car, and then they followed us, me now driving my first car. In the next town, we stopped at one bank, and we all went in. Helen flashed an ID which made the bank manager want to help us in any way he could. I gave him the key with his bank logo on and asked if we could have a private area where we could open the box.

He led us to the lunchroom, which had a table and enough chairs. Then he went off, coming back with the box. We waited until he left, and the door was firmly shut, before I turned the key and stood back. One of the guys, both now wearing the gloves, looked inside, and whistled. I didn’t blame him. There were several jewellery boxes that he took out and put on the table. The other guy opened each one as they came out. I was dazzled by the sparkling stones and luscious gold. After that, came more bundles of cash, some bonds, and another pistol with a box of ammunition. We were collecting an arsenal.

Again, there was a bundle of passports from a variety of countries. My mother must have spent a fortune on these. If it saves your life, however, money is no object. The money and the jewel boxes were returned, and the box closed, to be returned to its safe place. As the pack of passports was being put into a paper bag, the guy stopped and pulled a folded paper from the middle of the bundle. He unfolded it and passed it to Helen. She read it and passed it to me. It was short, but not sweet.

“Barry, if you are now reading this, the one thing that I have dreaded has happened. Your father and I have been arguing for some months, now. He believes that you are not his child, and I can’t make him believe that you are, even if, as you know by now, you really aren’t. He has become more and more erratic, and I do fear for my life. He talks in his sleep and mostly it is about life in retirement, swimming, sailing, wining, and dining. He talks about women, a lot, but all have Russian names, for some reason. During the day he has started to talk about getting enough money to get away from the agency. As you have probably realised, he and I have squirrelled away a lot from our various jobs over the years, pretending that agency funds have been used for bribes. We did get a lot of good information, but I never saw any money change hands. He has said that we need just one big windfall, and he will be away. That’s the thing that worries me, that only he will be away, never we.
All my love, Your loving Mother (really!!!)”
PS look in the Estonian passport.

The guy looked in the Estonian passport, and a key came out with a tag on it. The writing on the tag said, “His secret box, duplicate.” The logo on the key was a bank that is only found in the bigger towns.

“We’ll have to talk to them and find the branch that box is in. The number on the key will tell us that,” said Helen. “This is moving along faster than I would have thought.”

We gave the box back to be returned to the safe room, thanked the manager for his help, then walked a block to the other bank. I was getting richer with every visit, unless the agency decided to want a lot of it back.

At the other bank, the process was repeated, and we were in a board room this time as we opened the box. This one did not contain any money, just weaponry. I saw three pistols, several grenades, a couple of SAS knives. The last thing brought a sweat to my brow, and I wasn’t the only one. It was about two kilos of C4, which was, itself, sweating.

This box also held a key, in an envelope. It was for the same bank. We asked for the box, and it was brought to us. Adrianne was sent off to the local supermarket to buy three good shopping bags, preferably hessian. In the last box, there was a bundle of notebooks, with a range of dates on the cover. Helen had a quick look at one and told me to step back, out of reading range. These were put in evidence bags. When Adrianne came back, the weapons were put in one bag, the C4 in another, and the journals in the third.

We left the bank normally, thanking everyone for their help. Helen stopped at the next phone box and made a couple of calls, making notes before she re-joined us.

“I’m told that there is a playing field, not far from here. The SAS are sending a chopper for the explosive, it must be removed from here. The boys can look after that, here’s the directions. Us girls can have a cup of tea in that café we passed between banks. You boys can join us when you’ve removed that C4, OK?”

The guys nodded and left us, carrying the weapons and the explosive. Helen led us to the café, where we sat at a table.

“Well, you two, it’s been an interesting day. Our Mister Bond is turning out like an onion, the more you peel off, the more there is. From my quick look, these journals his wife left us are full records of every job they did – the real story, not the one they gave us. There will be some old guys getting a visit, soon. Most of those who dealt with them have retired or died. I’m sure that, if he had any inkling of what she was doing, your mother would not have lived long enough to have you, Babs, and we would never have discovered all of this.”

“What now,” asked Adrianne.

“That’s above my pay grade, now. I will pass my report upstairs and I expect that there will be a concerted effort to find our Mister Bond. I also expect that, if he can’t be taken in, a code red will be enforced. How would you feel about killing him, Barbara?”

“He was never a father to me, Helen. I would do it, not that I would take any enjoyment from it, but he will be eliminated – if only for murdering my mother. That makes it personal. I wonder if Gregor has any idea where he may run to, they were friends for years.”

As we sat there, an army chopper came over the town, and passed out of sight. Ten minutes later, we heard the roar as it lifted off and went back over us, now with its deadly load. We ordered another pot of tea and were joined by the guys, now looking a lot more relieved. After everyone had drank their fill, we went back to the cars. Helen hugged the two of us, the guys shook our hands, and they were on their way back to the big city.

We got into my car and sat, in silence, for a while. Then I spoke.

“What now, my love?”

“How about you drive to a service station, top up this lovely car, and then take us to a country pub I know, beside the Thames, and we can have a celebratory dinner. After that, we can go home and cuddle. It’s been a big day, bigger than any I’ve ever had. Turn that key, love, we’ve got a way to go!”

Marianne Gregory © 2023