Chapter 39

As soon as we entered the house, Mum pounced on us. “About half an hour ago, I answered a strange call from Dr Wells at the museum. John, he’d like you to call him back. He says it’s important.”

I wondered why Dad rather than me, since I’d had the most dealings with Dr Wells.

Dad went into the room both he and Mum used as a study when working from home, and shut the door so he couldn’t be overheard. I felt annoyed at being excluded. The phone call lasted about fifteen minutes. When Dad emerged, he was grim-faced. He stalked into the lounge indicating Mum and I should follow him. I was pleased to see that Janey had invited herself along too.

“Dr Wells said that there’s bad news regarding the coin he sent to Italy,” said Dad. “The expert in charge of appraising it wants to tell us in person, or at least the person who found the coin. Dr Wells has provisionally arranged a video conference using the museum’s facilities for ten o’clock Monday morning. The expert recommended we have a lawyer with us.”

“Whatever could the news be?” Mum mused out loud. “Surely there’d be no need for such theatrics even if it had been stolen. It was insured, wasn’t it?”

Dad nodded.

“Can we ask Ms Edgeway to be there?” I asked. “And I’d like Janey too.”

“I think Richard Masson would be a better choice,” countered Dad. “And it’s a schoolday.”

Janey faked a cough. “I think I’m coming down with something,” she croaked. “I’d better give school a miss on Monday.”

“I agree Richard would be a better choice because Carlie doesn’t have much experience outside her field,” said Mum. “But I’ll ask if she wants to attend as well as Richard, since she’s looking after Jon’s interests.”

“Great,” snarked Dad. “Let’s all go.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” agreed Mum, even though the suggestion hadn’t been intended seriously. “We need to cover as many bases as possible since we don’t know what we’re facing.”

“Hurray!” exclaimed Janey, miraculously croak-free again.

Dad looked very annoyed but, seeing he was outnumbered, he managed to avoid voicing his displeasure.

Over dinner, we all hazarded guesses about what the expert would have to say, the guesses getting more and more absurd. But even so, none of them were quite as absurd as what had happened to me after finding the headband.

Sunday I had another demon spawn eviscerating session with Dex and Phil. They could tell I was distracted because I finished third by a country mile. Phil slapped my shoulder.

“Ouch! What was that for?” I protested.

“You’re only half here so I was testing whether my hand would pass through you,” said Phil.

“Yeah,” agreed Dex. “What’s up with you today?”

I gave then a highly edited story of one of the coins I had found on the moors being sent to Italy for appraisal, making no mention of the possibility of it being very valuable. “Anyway,” I summarised, “the expert in charge has some bad news and wants to tell me about it over a video link tomorrow morning.”

“That’s weird,” said Phil. “Any idea why?”

“No. My family had a brainstorming session over dinner last night and couldn’t think of a plausible scenario.”

Sunday night I didn’t sleep very well, but at least I wasn’t troubled by any erotic dreams involving unsuitable women. Monday morning I went through my morning routine, including breakfast, like a zombie. Whenever anyone wanted to say something to me, they had to say it twice. And even then I struggled to response with anything more than a monosyllable.

Mum and Dad each took their own cars; Dad so that afterwards he could go straight on to his first appointment, Mum so that she could take Janey on to school afterwards before returning to her office near the town centre. Janey’s school bag went in Mum’s boot so Janey went in her car and I followed my most trusted ally, leaving Dad on his own. He couldn’t complain too loudly with the reconciliation evaluation meeting looming.

We met up outside the museum, where Dr Wells met us and escorted us upstairs into a lecture theatre type room with a large screen at the front. He explained that the room had been built for just this purpose, and was hired out to local societies and educational institutions.