Day Four, Another Visit To Pateley Bridge
Oscar had phoned Teddy Bradshaw, to let him know that he was going to be out of the office for a few days. Teddy didn't ask why, he knew it was department business and trusted Oscar, Teddy would also arrange for cover in the office.
Oscar was driving a hire car up to Yorkshire, he was on his way to see owner of the riverside campsite, he couldn't just phone her, how could he explain how he knew the content of a private email she had sent to a friend. He had a cover and a cover story for when he arrived, unfortunately he was going to miss, the office safety meeting tomorrow.
It was late afternoon, when he pulled down the the very steep drive into the campsite and parked next to reception. He was booked into The Crown for the night but thought it best to go straight the the campsite. There was nobody there and reception was locked up but there was a phone to contact the owner. A lady answered and said she would be there in minuet and she was.
Oscar explained that he was from the police, checking up on local thefts and wondered if she could help. He showed his warrant card and asked if she was the owner, with that sorted he went on to ask, if she had seen anything unusual over the weekend. The owner said that she hadn't. So Oscar went on the mention it would probably have been early on Sunday evening and it was also probably a couple involved.
"I did see a couple but they didn't look like thieves, they looked a bit old for that and they were dressed in bright clothing, summer clothing" she admitted.
"were they carrying anything like bags or anything else" Oscar went on.
"yer", she relied "they had an object with them, a coffee pot or something, that did seem a bit strange"
"do you think you could draw it for me", asked Oscar "and what do you mean by summer clothing?"
"I could have a go with drawing the thing" she answered "and well, he had a short sleeved shirt, denim shorts and flip-flops, the lady was wearing a short summer dress with very thin straps and sandals".
With the drawing in his pocked Oscar said "Thank you very much for your time and the information, before I go is there anything else you can tell me?"
She thought for a moment and said "There is one thing, you know, I could swear I have seen them before" but she failed mention that they had just appeared from nowhere in front of her window.
Sat at the bar of The Crown having a beer and waiting for his Wensleydale Chicken to arrive (a very nice meal), Oscar was studying the drawing, when the barman, asked what it was. Oscar said it was a antiquate coffee pot he was looking for and asked the barman if he had seen one, he hadn't, but Oscar used the opportunity to ask if he had seen the couple on Sunday night.
"yes they had a one or two beers in the bar, they didn't stop for too long, I think they have been in before. If you are ready, your meal is now at the table sir" said the barman pointing the way. Oscar thanked him and made his way to the table.
Up in his room Oscar took out his laptop and connected to the department computer, he had decided to do a manual search, the computer was good but Oscar was better. First he checked to see if the computer had thrown up any more appearing or disappearing people, it hadn't. So he checked by doing a manual search just for appearing or disappearing people plus a search for bright flashes, but also came up with nothing.
He didn't really expect much from the bright flashes search, after all, every camera and now every phone in the world made bright flashes. So who was going to even notice a bright flash on its own.
He took a photo of the drawing and sent it to the department computer, he then entered some approximate dimensions and asked for a search for anything similar. It took less than ten minutes to come up with three similar objects and two similar descriptions mentioned over the weekend.
He called up images of three similar objects, a fruit juicer, a coffee pot and a rocket ship sculpture, none came close to the drawing.
There were two descriptions similar to his and both came from France, one was on a fisherman's blog and one was a report from a museum curator. Both came from within a twelve mile radius of each other. Oscar pulled up the blog and read through it, he then read through the report from the museum curator. He did of course speak French, it was part of the job but the computers had already translated everything for him.
When he had finished reading, Oscar picked up the phone and made a call.
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