Archie's Battleflat Adventures: The Harriman Mystery by Rebecca King Page A

to be ready for his
second attempt.” He glanced toward the window again, unsurprised to
find the figure still standing there. “This time, though, we will
be ready.”
    “ Are you going to fetch the villagers?” Archie asked, feeling
his carefully made plans to go the tavern break into tiny
pieces.
    Jack considered the possibility for a moment. There was
nothing to say that the man watching the house hadn’t been put
there by Lord Brentwood to keep an eye on Archie. After all, he was
the only one who had seen the murderer up close. It was unlikely
that Lord Brentwood would go to the time, trouble or expense but,
just because Lord Brentwood hadn’t said anything to Jack about it,
didn’t mean it wasn’t possible. The more he considered it, the more
he realised that Archie was probably right. The man beneath the
tree probably was the murderer.
    “ No. I think we will sit and wait, and see what he does. He
was scared off last night.” He clapped a hand on Archie’s shoulder
proudly. “Tonight, he doesn’t know that we will be waiting for
him.”
    “ What are we going to do?”
    “ I think that I’ll keep an eye on him. When he approaches the
house, I will be ready to pop outside and go and have a little word
with him. If he ends up in the tavern cellar, then so be
it.”
    Archie’s
eyes grew wide. “The tavern cellar?” His eyes flew to Edward, who
groaned softly. Thinking fast on his feet, Archie’s turned back to
his dad. “Isn’t that where Mr Harriman is?”
    Jack
scowled down at Archie. In reality, most prisoners were kept in the
tavern cellar until a cart could be prepared to take them to gaol.
But, given the cellar was now occupied with the murderer’s victim,
it didn’t seem appropriate to put the murderer of the dead person
in there too.
    “ Quite right, Archie,” Jack coughed, uncomfortably. “I’ll have
to take him over to Leicester at first light. Right now though, the
man doesn’t know we are watching him. If he doesn’t approach the
house, we’ll leave it. Tomorrow, I’ll talk to the men, and we will
set a trap for his visit tomorrow night.” He made no mention of
telling the Justice of the possible murderer’s whereabouts. After
all, it could just be a very inept burglar. But, as it appeared at
that moment, it looked as though the murder knew exactly where
Archie was, and wasn’t prepared to leave until he had silenced his
witness.
    Over the
course of yesterday, Jack had spoken to enough men in the village
to know that almost everyone considered there something was strange
about Lord Brentwood, and didn’t trust him as they ought to.
Careful questioning had confirmed that nobody had found a tricorn
hat like the Justice had claimed, and that left Jack with a lot of
questions that right now, he was unable to answer. It was down to
him, as constable of the parish, to bring this matter to a
conclusion by himself, and if that meant he had to arrest the
Justice of the Peace, then so be it.
    Archie
glanced at Edward, who lifted his brows in silent query. Archie
read the silent question. Was Archie still planning to go through
with visiting the tavern? Archie nodded imperceptibly and
immediately felt guilty that they weren’t going to take his father
into their confidence about their plans. But, it was only because
Archie didn’t want to get his dad into trouble. If his dad found
the piece of paper and didn’t tell the Justice, he could get into
serious trouble, especially as constable for the village. If Archie
found the piece of paper, he could claim he had no idea how
important it was, or something like it, and would probably only get
a stern ticking off. If the piece of paper was still in Mr
Harriman’s hand.
    “ Right then, boys, I suggest you go off to bed now, and leave
this to me,” Jack said, heading toward his own room to collect his
shirt. The room was chilly without any clothing on, and it was
going to be a long night, he just knew it.
    “ Can’t we sleep