“Look to Anahita” that was what the letter said [JIMP#15]. However Sir Humphrey was adamant that the statue that I had discovered at Bristlingdown manor [JIMP#13] represented the Hindu goddess Durga. We had been at loggerheads for months, I was certain this was a clue from factions within the mysterious Amazon sisterhood although I could not fathom out why they had revealed it.

It was Professor Dupont who decided to end the debate by bringing in a colleague from Cambridge specialising in ancient Indian studies. Dr. Helen Lewis was a slim-built woman in her early 30’s with a pleasant freckled face, rosy cheeks and shoulder length brown hair with a fringe. “How wonderful!” she exclaimed at the sight of the ebony figure taking pride of place in the newly built strong room. “The resemblance to Durga is striking”. Sir Humphrey gave me a wink. Annoyed, I turned towards the statue. The undoubtedly female figure stood upon a three-stepped plinth in front of a large vertical ring around which were placed stylised flames pointing outwards at regular intervals. “The Ring of Fire! How odd. This is usually associated with Shiva” Helen said noticing my gaze. “You didn’t mention she was naked. How bizarre” she continued. There was no doubting the figure’s sex with the anatomical detail on display. The enormous thrusting breasts that would topple any real woman were a dead give away.

Unlike a real woman, she had 8 arms, 4 either side of her body arrayed in different positions holding various weapons. I could make out:

1. A bow and arrow

2. An axe

3. A sword

4. A trident like spear

5. A club

6. A disc or small shield

“The arms illustrates her multiple abilities as goddess of life & death, love and justice. She was supposedly stronger than every other deity” Helen lectured us. “I only see symbols of war” I said. Helen bit her lip frowning. The remaining arms ended in:

7. A closed fist

8. An open palm

I touched these in turn. “Skilled at unarmed combat too. Deadly woman” I said. “Um I’ve never seen that before. I would have expected a flower or some other symbol of life” Helen remarked leaning close. “And the big muscles?” I asked. “What?” said Sir Humphrey. “The musculature is distinct and highly unusual. The idealised woman was depicted with a large bosom indicating fertility and a full figure indicating wealthy eating”. That was putting it mildly, the artist had given the goddess thick arms with large clearly defined muscles, strong forearms and in several cases big bulging biceps. This contrasted strikingly with the huge pointy breasts and tiny waist. I noted that the sculptor had even inscribed what appeared to be abdominals on her stomach. “The artist had a good understanding of human anatomy” I said. Helen gave a nod still frowning “Incredible workmanship” she murmured.

The legs were similarly muscled. One was raised in a traditional Hindu dance pose with her thigh outwards, knee bent and a muscled calve pointing down with a slight inwards angle. “Four legs!” Helen gasped, “Hindu deities only have two”. “Could it be Anahita?” I asked. She shook her head. “The Persian goddess? Unlikely, they didn’t make images of their deities until around the 5th century BC and even then they had the normal complement of limbs” Helen replied. “I told you Jim, it’s clearly Hindu” Sir Humphrey said. “No, not Hindu” Helen pondered, “There is commonality behind the two races. They both originated from the Aryan communities near present day Iran” Helen told us.

“Look to Anahita” I murmured. Maybe the clue was more literal. I asked John, one of Sir Humphrey’s bodyguards, to help me lay the heavy statue carefully on its side. “What are you doing man?” Sir Humphrey cried. The underside of the base was plain apart from a central group of small indented white dots in groups of 3, 9, 7 and 5. “A maker’s mark perhaps?” Sir Humphrey asked. “None like I’ve seen” Helen replied. “I think it’s a key” I exclaimed. Everyone looked at me as if I were mad. I explained, “Professor Dupont said the diary of Lord Gerald Symthe-Jones is written in an Avestan Language”. “The Indo-Iranian connection again” Helen put in. “Yet some sections seemed to be gibberish”. The professor nodded. “I bet they are encrypted with this sequence as the key” I said. “Even if that were true, that still doesn’t tell me how to decode it” the professor replied. “There must have been a code book or a portable decoder which Lord Gerald carried around” I answered. “What would such a thing look like?” Sir Humphrey asked. “I’ve no idea, an ancient looking mechanical object. I would guess it would be circular with dials where you select the symbol to be encoded or decoded and somewhere to read off the result. Oh, and knobs or levers to input the key that altered the encoding”. “Don’t recall ever seeing anything like that” Sir Humphrey replied. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

“Phroar!” Scott exclaimed as a motorbike slowed down and stopped as the Lollipop lady stepped into the road to stop the traffic to allow children to cross. Behind the helmeted leather clad rider, rode a helmeted schoolgirl. She wore the local uniform of a light blue blazer over a white blouse with a blue-black diagonally striped tie with a pleated blue tartan skirt and short white socks. Most of the girls like the bike rider wore light tan coloured tights. “Oh my god look at that! Look at that! Oh that is incredible” Scott was practically drooling as he leered and pointed at the girl. Ted Hawkins could see why, the girl’s short skirt flowed like a fan from the tops of her full thighs showing them off as they pointed along the sides of the bike with her calves bent back towards her footrest. They were thick meaty strong looking thighs with curvy hamstrings and thick calves. Even Ted stood mesmerised admiring the legs on show until Scott’s voice intruded. “Orrr I want some of that!”. “Pack it in Scott. You’re drawing attention to us” he hissed moving in front of him to block his view.

For the last quarter of an hour they had been waiting by a University staff car park, the top of which fronted a road. It was far from ideal but they had been following the Doctor for several days studying her daily patterns and this was the best of a bad bunch. At 8am there were just the occasional children using the alley beside the car park as a shortcut to the nearby junction. Ted was confident they could grab her and force her down the steps to the service room below an adjacent building before anyone was the wiser. “Ohhhhhhh” Scott moaned. Bike girl had driven off but the older girls were driving him to distraction with their skirts so short that he was surprised they weren’t expelled. A few minutes ago, one had dropped something and her miniscule skirt failed to cover her backside as she bent to pick it up. Ted had to physically restrain Scott from giving a helping hand in a manner the girl wouldn’t have appreciated. Ted noticed the latest object of Scott’s lust, a particularly buxom girl whose developing bust heaved under her blouse like two large ferrets fighting in a sack. “Oh god I’ll give that a good seeing to” he moaned. “Pack it in Scott. I’d thought you’d have learnt your lesson from the last time you perved after little girls” [JIMP#5] Ted scolded. “She’s at least 16 maybe 18. She’s legal” Scott replied watching the girl bounce past. “You’re old enough to be her father. Now pack it in because here comes the good Doctor, punctual as ever”.

They watched as Dr.Lewis parked then got out. “Phroar nice arse. Nice legs too” Scott murmured. Helen was wearing a green T-shirt with grey shorts and trainers. “I have to agree. If you’re a good boy, maybe I’ll let you give her a bone” Ted said as they walked towards the Doctor as she retrieved her briefcase and various books from the boot. Closing the rear hatch door then locking it with her key fob, Helen turned and bumped into Hawkins. “Oops. I’m so sorry” she apologised. Glancing at the tall hulking man with his brutish scarred face, Helen blanched and looked away. An obnoxious man with a large freckled face wearing glasses fixed up with plasters around the hinges leered at her. Helen had a gentle passive nature but had an overwhelming urge to smash her fist hard in the middle of his face. “Excuse me gentlemen but my students are expecting me” She said trying to keep calm. Ted answered “Not for another hour Doctor Lewis. There’s no need for alarm, we just want you to take a little stroll with us”. “Yeah then I’m gonna give you one” leered the odious one. “That’s enough Scott” snapped the thug “Doctor I promise that you won’t get hurt as long as you tell us all about Bristlingdown”. “Please leave me alone. Somebody please help upph”. Ted cupped his large hand over the Doctor’s mouth “There’s no-one here to help you Dr.Lewis. Tell us what we need to know and you’ll be on your way”. “Maybe it’s in here” Scott snatched Helen’s briefcase out of her hand, causing the books she was holding to fall to the ground. Scott brought his face so close to Helen’s; she could feel his foul breath on her skin. “I bet you go like the clappers NNNNNNNNNGH”.