The Scroll

Chapter Five

Flat Top looked at his partner amusedly. "So what did His Righteousness have to say? I will take an educated guess and say that he didn't take the news too well?"

"Take it well? He reckoned that I disturbed him, that he was doing something important. Freak! He even suggested that we were late. Us! He gave specific instructions that we should search the area before we go back. Huh! What does he think that we are going to find? A dead guy walking around enjoying the fresh morning air? Or maybe he is having a cosy, romantic picnic with the girl. Late! We were out here before he had even thought about poking something important. Freak!"

Flat Top waited to see if his friend would continue. "Feel better now?" He asked when Cue Ball remained silent.

"Better? The Rev's a freak, un-natural. Come on, let's go and find the dead guy and his girlfriend.

The Templar still trailed them from a distance, un-mindful of the rain that was beginning to fall. Occasionally he had dropped instinctively to the ground when he sensed that the two horsemen were going to look behind them. Cue Ball's half of the radio conversation had drifted back to him and he had found it interesting, although it posed as many questions as it answered. But at least he now knew his name; Templer.

Up ahead Cue Ball and Flat Top paused to put on waxed ponchos before urging their mounts into a canter. Templer waited, watching to determine which direction they were heading in. As long as he had them in sight Templer knew that he would be able to catch the two riders, no matter how distant they were. It became clear that they were heading for the dense woods that Templer had seen earlier.

Moving quickly Templer doubled back so that he could enter the woods unseen by the horsemen. Once amongst the trees he was able to move more freely. Templer thought over what he had heard. His suspicion that the girl knew him had been confirmed. It was also obvious that she was not supposed to know where his body had been hidden. Her reaction to the two horsemen had proved that much. Cue Ball's conversation had also revealed the existence of at least two more enemies in addition to the person on the other end of the radio. Templer stopped abruptly. Cue Ball had called the other person reverend, a member of the clergy. The scroll. Had the Church of England discovered the scroll and taken from the girl? That would be a very good reason for his death.

The rain was falling steadily now. Cue ball and Flat Top were hunched forward in their saddles eager to reach the shelter offered by the tall trees. However, mindful of the horse's earlier exertions they kept to a gentle canter.

"Shit, she ain't gonna be out in this. If she ain't already home, warm and dry, she's gotta be sheltering in these woods." Flat Top stated.

"You're right there. Underneath the trees keeping her dead man warm!" Cue Ball chuckled. Nothing could keep his spirits down for long. Not even Reverend John and the weather.

Ten minutes later they were deep in the woods. The tall oak and sycamore trees protected them from the worst of the rain. Templer followed them effortlessly, giving no hint of his presence. Cue Ball and Flat Top had spread out, taking advantage offered by being on horseback in their search for Marilene. Deliberately they made no attempt to conceal themselves, in the hope that they would startle Marilene and force her into revealing herself.

Their attention was caught suddenly by the wailing sound of approaching sirens. Cue Ball paused, checking his bearings. After a moment he nodded to Flat Top and they changed direction slightly, heading toward the sound, continuing to search the woods as they went. Templer increased his pace to stay with them, any sound he made covered by the horses hooves.

The sirens stopped abruptly but blue lights still swept the trees. A narrow road twisted through the woods and at one of the tighter turns the emergency vehicles sat in sombre silence. Thick black tyre marks led off the road to where a blue Ford Escort lay upside down, glass and debris strewn around it. The front of the car appeared to be half the length that it should be and the roof was so crushed that the windscreen had popped out. One of the doors stood incongruously against a tree, the window open.