Page 76 of Right Place, Right Time
Adam smiles. ‘You’re very sexy when you’re bossy, you know?’
‘Good, I’m glad you like it.’
We lean forward to kiss, but just as our lips meet, there’s the noise of someone clearing their throat.
‘I’d ask if I’m interrupting,’ Barney says, grinning in the open doorway. ‘But I think I already know the answer to that.’
Adam and I immediately pull away from each other.
‘Barney!’ I say, surprised to see him. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I have news!’ Barney says. ‘I’ve been doing some digging in the university’s records and I think I’ve found out something you both might find very interesting …’
25
‘Barney, you’ve not done anything illegal, have you?’ I ask, immediately concerned he’s been up to things he shouldn’t.
‘Eve!’ Barney says in protest. ‘Is that really your first thought? Doesn’t think much of me, does she?’ he says to Adam.
Adam smiles.
‘Let’s just say,’ Barney continues, ‘I’d probably be in trouble if I was found to be searching through secret files, but it was totally worth it.’
‘Why are they secret?’ Adam asks.
‘All in good time,’ Barney says, clearly enjoying his reveal. ‘Now, are you going to put the kettle on or shall I? This isn’t a quick story, but I think you’re going to think it’s very worthwhile listening to.’
I quickly make three cups of tea. Adam and I pull up a couple of chairs and then Barney begins his tale.
‘So, I’ve been doing some detective work about the time that Archie owned the shop next door. I don’t know if you know, but all Cambridge professors have records kept about them – they include what they achieve while they are part of the university and usually what they get up to after they leave.’
‘I thought they just stayed on in the job until they croaked it,’ Adam says. ‘Like a perk of the job.’
‘Many of them do,’ Barney says. ‘But for those that leave, their university usually likes to keep a record of what they go on to do. You can access pretty much any information on the university’s database about any staff member – that’s the point of it being there. All the old records that were kept on paper have been copied and uploaded too. But when it came to Professor Archibald Darcy, the records just stopped in 1940.’
‘How do you mean, stopped?’ Adam asks, frowning.
‘It said he’d been seconded by the government to work on a top-secret project and he would return to his job at the university after the war was over. That was nothing unusual in 1940, I’m sure.’
‘But he never did go back, did he?’ I say, looking at Adam. ‘You said he went missing.’
‘I said it was likely he had a breakdown. That was the story passed down in my family, that he’d gone a bit mad after the war. Barney has sort of confirmed that now. Poor old chap.’
‘I’m not finished,’ Barney says. ‘There’s more. When his records just stopped abruptly, I tried to do a bit more digging. So I found my way to where the old paper files are stored – they’ve never been destroyed even though most of the information has been uploaded onto the database. It’s an old building at the back of the university – no one really knows it’s there. It’s just an old prefabricated hut, really.’
‘How do you know about it, then?’ I ask.
Barney taps the side of his nose. ‘People underestimate us support staff. We know everything that’s going on in the university and if we don’t, we usually know someonewho does. Everyone thinks it’s the professors and the deans who are the clever ones, but it’s the people doing what they’d class as the menial jobs that actually run the place.’
‘Go on,’ I say to encourage him.
‘So, anyway, I decided to head out to this building and see what I could find. I’d managed to obtain the keys too.’
He raises his eyebrows at me, but I just shake my head. I don’t approve of what he’s done, but I can’t deny it is quite intriguing so far.
‘I was just about to go inside when this old fella stops me,’ he continues. ‘I guess I wasn’t as stealthy as I thought in my chair. It does make doing things secretly quite difficult – you tend to stand out in a crowd instead of blend in.’
‘What did the guy want?’ Adam asks.
