Page 80 of Right Place, Right Time
‘Do you have the letter from your grandmother?’ Barney asks. ‘The one with the clues on it?’
‘Not on me. I thought it best if we keep it safely locked away in the shop safe. But I took a photo of it. Here.’ I pass him my phone.
Barney quickly reads through the letter. ‘Do you thinkThere is someone close who will have many of the answerscould be the same person as the timekeeper?’
‘I think it’s more than likely.’
‘So the only clues you have nothing on isThe Romans knew their numbersandHide-and-seek, Eve?’
‘We think the first one is Roman numerals of some sort.’
‘But you’ve no ideas on hide-and-seek?’
I shake my head.
‘Did you used to play hide-and-seek as a child?’ Barney asks.
‘I guess I must have.’
‘Don’t you remember?’
How could I tell Barney I blocked many of my childhood memories a long time ago. Remembering what I once had is too painful.
‘Not really.’
Barney glances at Adam.
‘Could you try, Eve?’ Adam asks softly. ‘I know it’s difficult for you, but it might help?’
‘All right, I’ll try.’ But after a few moments, I shake my head. ‘Nope. I’m sorry. Nothing.’
Adam glances at Barney this time, and I snap at them.
‘You two can stop with all the looks. I am trying. Really, I am.’
‘We didn’t say you weren’t,’ Adam says calmly. ‘You’re the one who seems a bit jittery when we talk about hide-and-seek.’
‘I just don’t remember, that’s all. And even if I did, what connection could those two small doors have with my childhood? It’s not as if I used to play hide-and-seek in a cupboard with those two doors on it. I think I’d remem — I stop suddenly. Something is jolting in the back of my mind.
‘What is it, Eve?’ Barney asks. ‘Have you remembered something?’
‘Give me a minute,’ I say, thinking hard.
I close my eyes. My mind doesn’t want to go back … but I force it to. ‘I did used to play hide-and-seek …’ I say as a distant memory begins to swirl in my head. ‘With my grandmother when she was younger and more agile …’ I can feel my face screwing up as I push my mind to go deeper. ‘I used to hide in a sort of half-dresser thing … no, it wasn’t a dresser … it was a cupboard with two doors and it was built into the wall … a bit like a cupboard under the stairs. Actually, that’s exactly what it was – a cupboard under the stairs.’ My eyes fly open. ‘I used to play hide-and-seek with my grandmother in a cupboard under the stairs. That’s it, I’m afraid.’
‘Were the doors wooden with engravings on them, by any chance?’ Barney asks excitedly.
‘Not that I remember.’
‘Oh.’ Barney sounds disappointed. ‘That’s a shame.’
‘Not necessarily,’ Adam says slowly. ‘If your grandmother was trying to tell you something by mentioning hide-and-seek, do you think she was hinting at somethingsimilar – a cupboard recessed into a wall or a cupboard under some stairs?’
‘Perhaps. But where would that be? We used to play hide-and-seek in her old house – not the same house I have now, but their previous home.’
‘What about if it was here?’ Adam says, thinking again. ‘In Clockmaker Court. What about down in our hidden office? You have to go down some stairs to get to that, don’t you?’
‘But we didn’t see any cupboards when we went down there,’ I say. ‘Only filing cabinets and desks.’
