Free Cherringham--The Curse of Mabb's Farm by Matthew Costello

fear — and that man has it.”
    “It doesn’t make sense …”
    Jack didn’t respond to that. More deep thoughts churning.
    He squinted with one eye. “Mind if I have a wee bit more. Can smell and taste the peat. Great stuff.”
    “Be my guest. Just remember you’re driving through that mess out there.”
    “Never forget that. You are right — there is something awfully wrong about all this. But there’s this other thing, the brother, Ray.”
    “His disappearance? Just seems like he left, leaving Charlie in charge—”
    “Bingo. That’s it . I can see a dozen reasons for his leaving. I mean, I vanished from my world and washed up here. But Ray, the good, capable farmer, leaving the place to his incompetent brother? That, I don’t get.”
    Then Sarah had a thought. She knew they were a team, and she also knew there were things in her world that Jack didn’t understand, things that could be useful.
    “Let me do some digging around about Ray Fox. Maybe check bank records, land titles, all that stuff—”
    Jack grinned. “You mean hack around?”
    She smiled back. Jack wasn’t above bending the rules to do what had to be done.
    “Let me worry about the niceties. See what I can find. Might be the ‘missing Ray’ is nothing—”
    Jack killed his second pour.
    “—Or something. Great idea. And one more thing?”
    “Hmm?”
    “Whoever did that outside isn’t playing around, Sarah. And I am beginning to formulate a plan.”
    “Plan?”
    “More of a trap. Can we meet tomorrow morning, at the mystical Tamara’s shop? I’ll set it up. Say ten-thirty?” Then: “I mean, of course, half past ten.”
    “Details?”
    “Patience, Watson. All will be revealed in the morning. We’ll need the help of the all-knowing, most mystical Tamara.”
    “Really? That massage must have made some impression.”
    “Don’t knock it,” he said with a smile. “Did wonders.”
    “Meanwhile — I’ll do some hunting on the net. I can’t wait to hear what you’re cooking up.”
    “Me either, actually.” He stood up. “Say goodnight to Daniel and Chloe for me.”
    Then Jack left, and Sarah realised that the house now felt safer simply by his having come over.
    And when the rain abated, and she finally went outside, she’d see that — before leaving — he had walked around to the back and had disposed of the wicker arm and the dead raven for her.

12. Ray’s Secret
    Sarah looked at the screen on her MacBook Air, shook her head, and then muttered, “Too wrong.”
    Grace — sitting at a desk across form her — looked up.
    “Wrong? What’s ‘wrong’, Sarah?”
    She looked up. She trusted Grace implicitly, thought of her as much a confidante as Jack. She could — and would — tell either of them anything.
    But hacking into the local bank was not an activity she could share with her assistant.
    “Hmm? Oh nothing — just a software glitch.”
    She looked back at her screen. It had taken just a few minutes to slip through the first line of Greenwood Bank’s security. Far too easy — even for an amateur like her …
    “How are you getting on?” she said to Grace. “You okay sorting the graphics for the hotel spa weekend?”
    “I’m onto it. But did you know that they’re planning a Murder Mystery Evening for the weekend, dinner and everything?”
    Sarah laughed at that. “Sounds like fun.”
    “I thought I might go, though can’t see Jeremy sitting through that …”
    Jeremy, Grace’s boyfriend, was a quiet young man who liked his football.
    They seemed to get on well…
    “Well, if he says no, count me in,” she said, hitting Enter.
    And then, after a few navigational tricks, and using the various paths and backdoors that every site has, Sarah was in the main database for the bank.
    Sarah leaned close.
    Still felt wrong, she thought. Doing it for the right reasons or not.
    From here, she couldn’t actually move any funds. God! Even this local bank would have sufficient monitoring systems in