Jade Monkey

I sat on the bonnet of Hannah’s car and looked out over Loughborough. Beacon Hill is one of the closest hills to the town. Its pretty deserted at night, and you can see cars coming from a long way away. Plus the view of Loughborough is the best you’re going to get without flying. Hannah finished fetching a horribly bright looking orange sweater from the back of her car and put it on over the top of a dark blue suit, before coming round to sit on the bonnet. She met my gaze.

‘A funding meeting at the University. They like their archaeologists to look formal. Now, you’ She said, ‘Have a lot of explaining to do.’

I looked heavenward. ‘That sounds about right. I’ve been looking for you to see if you could answer some of my questions.’

She wrinkled her nose and looked out across the city. ‘I think this is definitely a case where the gentleman goes first.’

I looked over my shoulder for one and chuckled. ‘Let’s see. I am a pilot. But before that I was a detective here in Loughborough. For long and very complicated reasons my partner stopped being a detective and took steps to stop me from being a detective.’

‘What steps?’

‘You don’t want to know.’

‘Oh I really do want to know.’

‘Attempted murder, arson and finally dynamiting our office.’

‘What did you do to make him so angry?’

‘Her.’

She looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

‘It wasn’t like that. We just had some severe differences about her choice of new employer and I said some things that were possibly a little ill considered.’

‘Such as?’ She pressed.

I sighed. ‘Mostly to do with her being a deranged psychotic not fit to sleep on the streets let alone walk them.’

‘Ouch.’

‘It went downhill from there.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes.’

‘What was she doing at my house?’

‘Probably looking for Mr Charles.’

‘At my house?’ She sounded outraged.

‘Well, he was there.’

‘What! That’s it, he’s a dead man!’

‘Yes.’ I said quietly.

She paused and met my eyes. ‘You mean that don’t you. He’s…’

‘Yes.’

‘You didn’t…?’

‘No. I think that whoever She is working for wants everyone to think that you killed him. They were coming back to finish faking the evidence. But that’s just my theory. I don’t think they’ll have had the time now. People tend to get a little upset at people using guns in Faraday so I expect the police are going to send a few people ‘round and if they’re half switched on they’ll find the body.’

‘Great. Looks like you’re going to have company on the most wanted list.’ She folded her arms against the cold and looked back towards the lights of the town. ‘So, what were you doing in my house anyway?’

‘Looking for you, strangely.’

She smiled. ‘Makes sense. You said you had some questions.’

‘Mostly about the Jade.’

‘Do you want to see it?’

My brain stalled for a few seconds.

She laughed at my expression and slid down from the bonnet.

‘Don’t worry it’s a replica, I wanted something to put in the display cabinet so we could check security. Much good that it did us.’

After fishing around in the car for a moment she returned holding a small figurine in a gloved hand. She tossed it to me before getting back on the bonnet.

I looked at in the half-light. It was a small figurine of monkey one arm raised and the other lowered about six inches tall. Whatever they’d used to replicate Jade was pale dark green.

Hannah spoke as I turned it over in my hands.

The Jade Monkey. Over a thousand years old, its origins are unknown. It’s been the focus of religious worship of several groups in the past, none of them I might add particularly wholesome.’

‘Not good.’

‘They weren’t. There are a lot of legends and folk stories about the Monkey too, the very few with happy endings are the ones where they throw it into the ocean or down a well. It’s disappeared a couple of times; been stolen, found, lost the usual. It ended up in the hands of the Chinese authorities and they sold it Miss Michelle.’

‘Any of these cults still around?’

‘No, they all died out centuries ago.’

‘Good. One homicidal maniac after me is enough.’

‘That’s about it unless you want a more detailed history.’

‘No thanks, that’ll be fine. This isn’t the real one is it?’

She snorted. ‘No I had ‘Made in China’ engraved on the bottom of the fake.’

I gave her a long look. ‘Can I have my sense of humour back when you’ve finished using it?’ And a thought struck me. ‘You did miss one thing out though.’

‘What’s that?’

‘The price?’

‘That’s because I don’t know how much it could cost. Whatever price Miss Michelle paid for it, it must have been very substantial. Anyone selling it on the black market could pretty much name their own price.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘So who’d be able to buy it’?

‘Miss Michelle, maybe.’ She grinned.

I handed it back to her. ‘Usually these thefts are to order. It’s so much easier when you already have a buyer lined up. Either that or they’re looking to sell it back to the museum. But the murder’s made it all go wrong for them.’

‘So what are you going to do now?’

I shrugged. ‘The only lead I’ve got at the moment says to check out the docks. A guy called Scary Anthony?’

‘I know him.’ She said darkly. ‘A thief, a murderer, and a second rate grave robber.’

I scowled. ‘I get to meet all the nicest people.’

‘I think that’s going to be a “we”. The quickest way to clear my name is to clear yours first.’

‘It could be a bumpy ride.’

She smiled and drew a large .45 revolver from a leather holster on her hip and sighted towards the town along the barrel. ‘I’m used to it.’