buffs,â Louise said. âIâm on call shortly. As soon as the Horch reaches the forecourt my far from beloved husband and I have to rush out to greet von Ribbentrop. This is Chrisâs big moment; he only has two words to speak in the film â â
Guten Tag
â â
and this is the scene, so we have to make sure it goes well for his sake.â She excused herself with a quick touch of my hand, which reassured me that our nights together had been no dream.
Nigel and I then talked serious cars, as he showed off the Bentley and the Fiat. He knew his stuff, I grudgingly granted. He even knew all about the famous âBentley Boyâ Woolf Barnato, one of Dadâs childhood heroes. I realized that Nigelâs face had struck a chord with me as one Iâd seen around at various car shows and gatherings.
âWhere did you hire the cars for the film?â I asked. âFrom an agency?â
âThat or from people I know through my day job. Iâm a car insurance broker.â
I could see him being rather good at his job. âI saw you at the Wheatsheaf, I think. Or Dering Arms at Pluckley.â Both have regular classic car meets.
âProbably. Good hunting ground for this job. Did you know weâre having thirty more classics here this Saturday? The whole dayâs devoted to them.â
That sounded good to me. âTerrific. Iâll be here. Did you get the Horch from an agency?â
âDifficult. I tracked it down from someone I know.â He was so vague I wondered what the mystery was.
We were still deep into discussing the Car Day, as Nigel referred to it, when Roger Ford joined us and added his profuse thanks. âMight save the premiums going up next time, eh, Nigel? The insurers have been having some big payouts recently, Jack, and couldnât believe their luck over the Auburn being recovered within the thirty days before they had to fork out.â
âWhere are you keeping these classics?â I asked.
âWeâve special security garages set up here for two weeks. I donât think thereâll be more trouble.â
âYou think Billâs right?â I asked. âThat itâs Angie that the thief was targeting, not the film?â
âI darn well hope so,â Roger said with feeling. âOxley Productions canât afford much more of this. He must have realized that this didnât sound good, because he added, âDonât get me wrong, Jack. Angie was a good friend, and whatâs happened is a personal nightmare â both for Bill and me. But Billâs chosen to push forward with this movie, and the only way it will work is to keep distance between the movie and Angieâs death. We donât know where we are with the studios, but whatâs going on
here
is safe ground. Understand?â
I did. âThe known, not the nightmare.â
He shot me a keen look. âYouâve a foot in both camps, Jack. OK with that?â
âBoth camps?â Nigel queried. âThe Auburnâs back.â
Marshy ground. I didnât want Angieâs comments to Bill spread around.
âThereâs still the paperwork to do,â I said easily, âplus the need to find out who took the car in the first place, plus the possible threat to the other classics.â
âOf course,â Nigel murmured. âBetter safe than sorry.â
But were they safe? I wondered. Even in these glorious surroundings it was not only the shadow of Angieâs death that hung over the company. I had a feeling that they were characters in a film of their own, caught up in a web in which they were totally unaware of the spider working amongst them.
It took over an hour â a remarkably brief time apparently â to get the Horch up the drive, and even then its final arrival displeased Bill. I could hear his voice ranting at the unfortunate Chris Frant â for pulling up the Horch too quickly. By that
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