The Legend of the Black Monk Page 12

  ‘The man in the wheelchair, Mr Wood. Wants us to meet him up at the old manor this evening after dinner. Quite insistent.’

  Chapter 17

  The Man in the Wheelchair

  The atmosphere between Rachel and John Sky was not entirely harmonious that evening, the latter making a fleeting, monosyllabic appearance at dinner and barely acknowledging anybody. In contrast, Rupert’s mother seemed intent on making a fuss of them all and was full of questions about what they had been doing and their plans for the following day. It was a welcome change but all they could do to avoid letting something slip.

  After dinner, the four were in the hallway, intending to head off quietly and unobserved to the manor, when the study door opened and Sky bristled out. ‘Rupert! Your mother asked me to find you. You are required by Mr Baverstock. Some documents have to be signed.’ He turned to go into the kitchen.

  ‘Now?’ Rupert was incredulous. He was also convinced his mother and Sky had not spoken since long before dinner. ‘Surely the solicitor’s office closed hours ago?’

  ‘He is working late on something which must be dealt with immediately. Wait here, I will be right back. A car is on its way.’

  With that Sky disappeared into the kitchen. The old grandfather clock struck the quarter hour. Rupert looked at his companions, bemused. ‘Why can’t it wait till morning?’

  He reached under his jumper and took out the piece of Himmel’s crate he had been concealing. He handed it quickly to Drew. ‘Here! Better look after this for me, just in case.’

  ‘I told you it was dangerous –’

  ‘SSHH!’ Drew interrupted Rebecca, stuffing the wood under his own jumper and nodding his head towards the kitchen. Sky reappeared, just as the sound of an engine could be heard in the yard outside. ‘Ah, the car is here. Good. Rupert, if you please?’

  ‘Where’s Mum, and Uncle Gaston? Aren’t they coming?’

  ‘They have already signed. Yours is the only signature needed.’ Sky smiled.

  Rebecca noticed he had very stained teeth. The smile was a new experience for all of them and not wholly comforting. Looking askance at his friends, Rupert followed Sky outside. Moments later the car was driven away through the farm gates.

  As Rebecca, Laura and Drew were putting on their coats, to their astonishment, Sky reappeared through the door.

  ‘Aren’t you going with Rupert?’ asked Laura.

  ‘My signature is not needed,’ replied Sky, reproducing the unnerving smile. He disappeared into the study, closing the door firmly before any of them could think of anything to say.

  ‘I don’t like this one little bit,’ said Rebecca slowly, lips pursed and frowning.

  ‘We’d best get to our meeting. Things are starting to happen rather fast.

  … How could Gaston and Rupe’s Mum have already signed if this has just come up?’

  ‘You don’t think Rupe is in any danger, do you?’ worried Laura.

  ‘With what we may have discovered about Sky’s real identity, and that oh-so-natural smile on his face, I’m not sure anyone is completely safe.’

  * * *

  The majestic entrance to Morbed Manor was proud testament to the craftsmen who created the castellated walls, balustrades and staircases. The moon’s silvery light added a compelling aura, a silent witness to the house’s secrets down the centuries.

  Under the cover of the drooping pines, Rebecca, Drew and Laura crouched on the velvet lawn, watching the driveway.

  ‘We’re a wee bit early,’ said Drew, checking his watch with a small torch. ‘Spooky place. Come on, let’s find the back door.’ He was on his feet first, followed by Laura.

  Rebecca started to follow when she was distracted. From deep in the trees down the driveway came a strange noise.

  ‘Is this our man?’ she thought to herself and held back for a moment as the others disappeared. She was drawn inexorably towards the sound. Across a small section of lawn and down some stone steps, she emerged into a darkened square around a fountain. The sound was much closer and she stopped dead. The same, unnatural moaning she had heard in the cave at the Horns of Lucifer!

  A faint glow lit the trees just ahead. Rebecca approached, the fears and trepidation from the cave returning. She could not break away, she had to know what it was. Through the trees she made out cloisters, a doorway and a rounded tower. Just as she had seen in the cave! Her breathing became shallower, her hands clammy with sweat. ‘No …’ she murmured, not wanting to believe what she might see. There was the hunched, hooded figure, crouched over the obelisk, moaning and wailing. It seemed to sense her presence and the hood slowly lifted up towards her. With a cry, he leapt up and swept towards her.

  Rebecca fell backwards, stumbling to the ground, a scream of fear escaping her lips.

  And in an instant he was gone, vanished from sight and earshot behind the house.

  For a few seconds she lay in dumbstruck silence, shaking uncontrollably, wild eyes locked where the figure had passed her.

  ‘Hey! Are you okay?’ Drew was kneeling at her shoulder, helping her up.

  ‘Drew, Drew, I – I … I saw him again and it was the same room, the obelisk! I saw it, the same. And that voice, wailing, inhuman …’

  ‘Steady, girl,’ Drew helped her to sit up. ‘What voice? Who did you see?’

  ‘Didn’t you see? I… I keep seeing him! He ran past me, didn’t you see?’ asked Rebecca, clutching at his sleeve. ‘In that tower over there – look! …’ Her voice tailed off as she looked and saw that now there were only trees and bushes.

  ‘No, look … there’s nothing there. Calm down, it’s okay … only us here. Who did you see?’ Drew tried to sound calm.

  ‘I don’t know, I don’t know.’ Rebecca shook off his hand, collecting herself together and suddenly wishing she had not said anything. ‘Look, keep it between us, okay? … In my dream at home before I came here, there was a carriage, a black carriage with a driver and black horses thundering along a road, and this woman inside, screaming for help, clawing at the windows, looking for somebody. I … then I actually saw it … and in the cave on the Claw this afternoon, a voice spoke to me out of the darkness … and now I have just seen a hooded figure. He was weeping over a grave, the same thing … except this time he saw me too. It’s happening again, Drew, just like before. Why?’

  ‘I don’t know. Can’t you think of anything it might mean? When this happened to you at Rahsaig, it was something in the past being disturbed by what was happening in the present, wasn’t it? You seemed to be some sort of a bridge between two worlds, who opened a door into the past? Becca McOwan and Siobhan could make a contact through you because you had an open mind?’

  ‘Maybe… yeah.’ Rebecca’s eyes held a faraway look, remembering the discovery of her ancestor’s diary and how the activities of some art thieves had disturbed ghosts from the past and somehow re-opened ancient secrets and dangers. And the voice in the mist that had called to her. … Only she had believed enough. ‘Maybe.’

  * * *

  Settling back into his seat in the taxi, Rupert realized things were not quite right when Sky slammed his door. He put his hand on the door lever, only to hear the lock click. He rattled it but it would not budge. ‘What’s going on?’ Rupert hammered on the perspex between the front and rear of the taxi but to no avail.

  ‘Sit back and enjoy the ride.’ Sky stared through the window, his face contorted into a vile sneer.

  * * *

  Morbed Manor was dark and still. The portraits of the great and good Dewhurst-Hobbs lined the staircase and walls, presiding silently over the wood panelled hallway as they had for hundreds of years.

  ‘Where are the lights?’ said Laura.

  ‘Careful! Just in case the house is being watched.’ Rebecca crossed the flagstone floor to the door of the Library. ‘Let’s wait in here. There’s a light on the reading table. Draw the curtains so it doesn’t show outside.’

  ‘Who do you suppose this geezer Wood is?’ said
Drew, picking up a book and opening it absently, as Laura switched on the lamp. ‘Didn’t get much of a look at him but he seemed pretty old.’

  ‘Not too old, I hope.’ A voice out of the darkness by the fireplace. They turned, startled as the man in the wheelchair emerged into the light. ‘I have lived more years than I care to remember but, as the saying goes, I have all my own teeth.’

  ‘Oo-er, sorry, I didn’t know.’

  The old man smiled and cocked his finger as if shooting Drew with an imaginary gun.

  Rebecca, who had jumped a mile into the air at another voice out of the darkness, now could not help smiling. This old man had an impish quality. ‘Rebecca McOwan, Mr Wood. We spoke on the phone.’

  ‘Miss McOwan. Where is Rupert?’

  Rebecca explained about Sky and the papers to be signed. The old man’s expression became instantly grave. He spoke slowly and deliberately. ‘That might not be good at all. Sit. You had better listen as time may not be on our side.’ They sat down around the table and waited as the old man produced a black and white picture from his pocket and laid it on the table. Five men in uniform stood in a line on the deck of the submarine HMS Indomitable.

  ‘Survivors of the U-821 out of Stettin, sunk by Rupert’s grandfather the Admiral.’

  He pointed at the end figure. ‘This is me.’ There was a shocked silence round the table.

  ‘You were on the U-boat?’ Rebecca picked up the photo and examined it closely.

  ‘A survivor … then … you are a German?’

  ‘Yes, but do not worry, the war is over.’ A smile edged about his lips. ‘I was barely eighteen years old when this photo was taken, so I will forgive you for not recognizing me. I am also a friend of the Admiral. I am executor of his will, which is why I was at the house. You know me as Wood but my real name is Werner von Krankl.’

  ‘The Admiral talks about you on the tape. You were shot by General Himmel, weren’t you?’

  ‘You have listened to it? Good, that will save explanations. This is a very dangerous time. Evil men are here, men who have done terrible things. They want what Himmel left behind and they believe Rupert knows the secret of where it is. They will stop at nothing. You understand? … nothing at all.’

  A moment’s shocked silence greeted his words. The implication was clear.

  ‘Who are these guys? Are any of them monks by any chance?’ Drew leaned forward.

  ‘The Admiral and I believe that the St Morwenna’s order was long ago infiltrated by an organisation known as the Komrades founded by the ex-Nazis of Hitler and his henchmen who fled Germany at the end of the war. Fanatics … evil, vile people. We think they may be using the monastery as a cover while they search. They pay the order to keep quiet and leave them alone. I know this because until a few months ago, I was caretaker at the monastery. I am not a monk but after the war, Rupert’s Grandfather was kind enough to settle me there, as my family all died in the Dresden bombings. And that is where my suspicions about the order started.’

  Drew looked at Rebecca. ‘When Rebecca and I were in town trying to find you, there was this hook-nosed monk about. We’ve seen him before, here the other night, looking for something.’

  Von Krankl nodded slowly and pointed at the picture again. His finger tapped a tall man in the centre. ‘This man is Herr General Karsten Himmel. Do you see a resemblance to the hook nosed monk?’

  Laura gasped. ‘Hook Nose is – was – General Himmel?’ There was a shocked silence in the room.

  ‘Not General Himmel … but very likely his son.’

  Rebecca picked up the photo and examined it more closely. ‘Then if we are right and Sky’s true name is Himmel, he is a descendant of the Nazi?’

  ‘You have made a positive connection between Himmel and John Sky? We were not sure, the Admiral and I, although we thought Sky had to be involved somehow.’

  ‘John Sky translated becomes Johann Himmel. That’s all the connection we made,’ said Rebecca, suddenly a little sheepish.

  ‘Very possible. It would be typical Nazi arrogance. No real attempt to hide it. General Himmel could be Sky’s grandfather, and Hook Nose’s father. He was a man of over fifty back in the war, so would be well over a hundred now, were he alive. The Admiral found out a lot about him. Himmel escaped the POW camp in 1945, a few weeks after the war had ended, when some prisoners revolted and started a fire. He was taken in, injured, by the Order … he masqueraded as a monk. He supposedly died in 1955 but we know a man called Himmel went back to Germany that year, under the cover of the old Komrades network. Rather than the man himself though, we now believe this was the General’s son, a member of the Hitler Youth in the war, who came to England to find his father afterwards. He knocked on the Admiral’s door in 1955. He was younger, but the same unmistakable nose. This man married and had a son, perhaps John Sky. It would make sense. Sky’s appearance here many years later, weeks after the publication of the War Department Records, is to say the least a coincidence. The similarity in appearance was strong and the Admiral and I became worried.

  The Admiral was unhappy about his relationship with Rupert’s mother. Our suspicions deepened when he accosted the Admiral about the location of what he called the treasure. He said he wanted to help find it. He became quite insistent, menacing almost. Shortly afterwards, Hook Nose himself appeared at the monastery. Even though this was an old man, there was no mistaking him. I was in the gardens when I saw him – he did not see me – I, I thought it was a ghost … that the General had returned. I decided to leave, for fear I would be found out. I too know the secret you see. The Admiral and I kept our friendship secret. Not even his own family knew. You must find it before they do.’

  ‘But we don’t know what or where it is.’

  ‘The Admiral is – was, sure Rupert would be able to solve the clues. I must stay out of sight. Kapitan Kraus is the key.’ He looked expectantly at them. Rebecca returned his look with a blank one of her own.

  ‘All we know of Kraus is what the Admiral told us. But … didn’t you see what was in the crates? Is that why Himmel shot you?’

  ‘What is that?’ Von Krankl’s voice was suddenly sharp. He pointed at the cap Laura was playing with.

  ‘Oh yes, of course. I was going to show this to you.’ She held it out. The old man almost snatched it in his eagerness to scrutinise it. His face lit up.

  ‘Where did you find this?’

  ‘With a skeleton in the Smuggler’s Chapel. They discovered it in the crypt.’

  The old man held it up in his hands. ‘Do you know what this is? This is the cap of a U-boat commander! The U-821, our vessel! This is Jurgen Kraus’s cap! It was on a skeleton, you say?’

  Laura briefly explained the circumstances of the discovery. Von Krankl turned the cap over and over and Rebecca realised tears had formed in his eyes. ‘We never knew what became of the Kapitan. The Admiral and I travelled to Germany in the 1950’s to search for him, found members of his family but nobody knew what happened to him. Perhaps he never did go home … after that night. And now, here, he has at last been discovered in the chapel? We must find out what happened… and if it is him. He was the only other one who knew.’

  Rebecca was studying Von Krankl in a curious way. He became aware of her stare and looked at her.

  ‘You think I avoided your question about the crates, Miss McOwan? It is perhaps safer for all of you if I do not tell you what you are looking for.’

  Rebecca breathed hard. ‘With all due respect, Mr Von Krankl, if things are as dangerous as you say, and if we are to find Himmel’s ‘treasure’, I think we deserve to be told. It would also convince me that you trust us and… and that we can trust you.’ Drew and Laura looked at one another, a little unsettled by Rebecca’s directness. Von Krankl studied Rebecca thoughtfully. After a few seconds, he nodded.

  ‘Your point is valid. I should trust you and you can trust me, I assure you. You must please forgive me. It is a secret I have kept for over fifty years because I could trust
no-one … For a while I even kept it from the best friend I have ever had, the Admiral. I did not feel I should burden him. His career and reputation would have been ruined had it come out that he had kept quiet. I owe him everything, you see … my life… It is not easy suddenly to tell.’

  There was a rapt silence as they waited for Von Krankl to continue.

  ‘Inside Himmel’s crates were gold bullion bars, lots of them. A fortune. At the end of the war, many of the Nazi High Command escaped with whatever they could from the loot they had plundered. Himmel was trying to get to South America.’

  ‘How much is the gold worth?’ asked Laura, her eyes wide. Von Krankl looked nervously around him as if he expected to find somebody eavesdropping. He leaned forward, lowering his voice to a whisper.

  ‘I cannot be sure but what I saw in 1945 was worth many million Reichsmarks. What that must make it worth nowadays is incredible!’

  Rebecca looked sceptical. ‘If you knew that there was this incredible fortune, why didn’t you go looking for it? And others must have known – other Nazis. It’s over sixty years. Plenty of time to find it.’

  Von Krankl stared at Rebecca as if she had gone mad. ‘Young lady, I could not take it for myself. This was blood money, Nazi blood money. Stolen from the Jews and all the others they murdered. Like I said, I could not burden the Admiral and there was nobody else I trusted. When I went to work at the monastery, it became even more difficult. The Komrades, you see. I felt I was being watched every second in the years after the war’

  ‘But why suddenly now, so long after it all happened?’ asked Drew.

  ‘Secret files on the war are only released after at least fifty years, something to do with the Official Secrets Act,’ answered Laura.

  ‘The documents on this have only recently been made public,’ said Von Krankl.