Page 49 of Right Place, Right Time
‘I’ll believe it when I see it. But, you’re right, there is something going on here – there’s just been too much happening to believe it’s all a coincidence.’
‘More than the books and the door?’
‘Oh, yes, so much more.’
I climb back down the ladder and quickly explain to Barney everything that’s been going on that he doesn’t already know.
‘So, let me get this straight,’ Barney says slowly when I’ve finished telling him. ‘You’re saying this family not only wanted you to do their house clearance, but they also had some strange photos ofbothyour great-grandparentshidden in the attic that you and Adam justhappenedto discover?’
I nod.
‘Adam has taken on the bookshop that his great-grandfather once owned – yet he didn’t know that when he bought it,’ Barney continues, wide-eyed. ‘And subsequently you’ve now discovered not only a locked door hidden away behind many layers of wallpaper, but a set of novels with notes, equations and diagrams that are clearly supposed to tell you something important, but as yet you don’t know what?’
‘Yes, that about sums it all up. Sounds a bit crazy, doesn’t it, when you put it like that.’
Barney shakes his head. ‘It doesn’t sound crazy, it sounds very much like you and Adam were meant to discover all this. Like it’s been the plan all along.’
The rest of the afternoon is quiet so I tell Barney he can go early, which he gratefully accepts.
I tidy up the shop, pausing to look at the pictures from Past Times House we hung this afternoon.
Is Barney right? Has it been the plan all along for Adam and I to find everything we’ve discovered so far?
But if that is the case – why? What possible reason could there be?
The particular painting I’ve paused in front of is the abstract one. It’s nothing like any of the other pictures that hung on the walls of Past Times House, but something about it spoke to me so I added it to the others in the hope it might be to one of my customers’ tastes.
Depicted in the oil painting is a tree standing in the middle of a garden. There’s a pile of books in frontof the tree, with a single apple balanced on top of them. Inside the trunk of the tree is a clock, and dotted about in the branches are lots of random objects, including, very oddly, a black-and-white-spotted dog.
I’m about to move away from the painting when I stop and take a closer look. Something about it is familiar …
What is it?I look closely at the artwork.Is it the tree?But really it could be any tree, it’s depicted in such an abstract way.The books?Again they could be anything. I count them – there’s exactly twelve. And the objects – they are such an odd assortment they could mean anything. And the red apple balanced on top of the books looks like any other apple.Perhaps it’s the clock?I stare at it for a moment and then it hits me – the time! The time reads half past two, just like the broken grandfather clock.
I look across at the clock face and then down at the carving on the door underneath. The tree on the door looks exactly the same shape as the one in the painting! But why do the two clocks say exactly the same time? Is it simply a coincidence or does it actually mean something? And what is so special about the time half past two?
15
I close up my shop at five o’clock, still none the wiser what the time on the painting and the clock might mean, and I head next door to see Adam.
‘Gosh, you have made some progress this afternoon,’ I tell him, looking around the shop at all the neatly stacked bookshelves. ‘It looks like you’re almost ready to open. The whole place looks amazing.’
‘All except that wall,’ Adam says, looking at the wall with the metal door in. ‘If we can’t find out how to unlock it, I’m going to have to put the bookcase back again.’
‘I know. It’s so frustrating, though – I feel like we’re so close to finding out what’s behind there. Oh, I need to tell you about the picture Barney and I hung this afternoon in my shop.’
‘That’s odd,’ Adam says when I’ve explained. ‘I remember that picture in my grandfather’s study; he often used to point it out to me, but I wasn’t really interested in art when I was young. It was so different to all the other artwork he had in the house, though – that was much more traditional. Do you know who did the painting – is there a signature on it?’
‘No, I’ve looked. Which is odd in itself. I wonder where your grandfather got it from?’
‘Absolutely no idea. So you think the tree in the painting might be the same as the one engraved on the front of the grandfather clock?’
‘It is very similar.’
‘You know I’ve looked around at all these books today,’ Adam says wearily. ‘And there’s none with an eleven in the title. That’s incredibly frustrating too. Where is eleven when all the others were clearly on show on my grandfather’s bookshelves?’
‘Do you think we’re thinking about this too hard?’ I say. ‘Is the answer staring us in the face?’
‘Probably. Do you fancy a drink?’ Adam asks. ‘I could murder a pint.’
