The Secret Of The Cathars (2011) (22 page)

Philip noticed that most of them did so. There was now a generally sombre atmosphere in the room. Jackie was hanging on to his arm very tightly

“
One final thing,” said Bernard. “Jacqueline said that your personal accounts with the hotel will be paid up to date which I will do straight away. Of course, anybody who wishes may stay on here after today. However I must point out that, if you do so, it will be at your own expense.”

Jackie turned back to face the room. She seemed to have recovered some of her composure. “I believe most of you who live away from here have your own transport. But what about you, Gaston?”

“
No.” He remained taciturn.

“
Do you want a lift somewhere?”

“
I would like to go to Toulouse.”

“
Please can you give him a lift on your way back to Paris, Bernard?”

Bernard spluttered a bit, but in the end he agreed that he could.

“
What do we do about the police?” asked Gaston.

“
Yes. Thank you for reminding me.” Jackie face wore a worried frown. “If you were interviewed by the police in connection with Andre’s death, and they thought they might want to speak to you again, they will have asked you to let them know before you leave town. So you will have to call in to the police station to tell them where you will be in the next week or two. Is that clear?”

It appeared that it was clear to everybody.

“
Well,” she gabbled, “I’ll thank you again. I’m sure you’ll understand that this has been an upsetting experience for me, as I guess it has for you too. I’m going up to my room to wind down a bit. If you have any more questions, I’m sure Bernard will be able to answer them. Goodbye.”

She turned and bolted towards the door. As she passed Philip, she murmured, “Please will you come up in five minutes?”

Everybody was silent for a minute or two after she left. Then Bernard filled the vacuum by asking people whether they had any other expenses they wished to claim and the room was once again filled with chatter.

- 22 -

When Philip got up to her room he found Jackie lying face down on the bed again. The shock she had received that morning seemed to have stripped away her aura of power and invincibility. She was no longer the famous television personality. She was just a beautiful, upset lady.

He went started to massage her back once more, trying to relax her and at least make her feel less overwhelmed by her problems. After a while he started to talk to her quietly.

“
You mustn’t let this defeat you. You’re still the star that everyone wants to see on their television sets. All right, so somebody powerful and high up has been able to persuade or bribe TV France to change their mind about the Cathar series and that’s very disappointing and frustrating after all the effort and commitment you’ve put into it. But it’s not the end of the world.”

“
Isn’t it?” she mumbled. “How can I get up in front of a set of cameras and talk to the watchers as though nothing has happened?”

“
I’m sure you can do it. You’re a professional. I bet there are a number of occasions when you haven’t been totally happy with the words which have been put in your mouth. And yet you’ve been able to deliver them with real conviction.”

“
But that was only detail stuff. It was never like this.”

“
Perhaps it wasn’t.” He continued working the muscles of her shoulders. “I agree that this is more serious. But you’re big enough to cope with it.”

“
I just don’t want to do it anymore.”

“
I don’t believe that, Jackie. In a few days I’m sure you’ll be raring to go again. You’ll find some new topic to get involved in. You’ll find that you want to put your full effort - your very substantial effort - into making your next project a success.” He paused. “I’ve only known you for a week but I have already realised what a fantastic talent you have.”

She rolled over and looked up at him. “Kiss me, Philip.”

So he did. It was a long time before she could draw breath again. “Do you know,” she said, “I think you’re very good for me.”

“
Well, you certainly do a lot for me.”

She sat up with a sigh. “I feel much better already. I suppose you’re going to tell me that I have to go back downstairs and face all those people I’ve let down again.”

“
You haven’t let them down. You know that and they know that. They understand that it’s out of your hands. I tell you what - why don’t you have a shower to freshen up first? You’ll feel better after that. We just dressed and rushed down to the lounge earlier. We didn’t give ourselves a chance. I could do with one as well.”

“
All right then. I’ll be ready in ten minutes.”

“
I’ll pick you up,”

So they got back to the lounge about twenty minutes later. Philip thought Jackie looked devastating and the room burst into a round of applause when she entered.

“
I don’t deserve that,” she said. “But Philip has persuaded me that I must put on a brave face and come down to say goodbye to you all.”

Philip had the self-assurance to speak up. “But before we do that, does anybody want to go back up to the site to get anything?”

Suddenly it seemed that almost everybody did.

“
Well, in that case we’d better take both Land Cruisers. Can Gaston and Armand drive them, please?”

They both said that they’d be pleased to do so.

“
You can stay here if you want,” Philip said to Jackie.

“
No. I’ve got some sensible trainers in the car.”

The trip up to le Bezu almost seemed like a friendly outing now that everybody had got over their shock and a substantial amount of cash was nestling in their pockets. Even Bernard came along to see what they had done on the site. When they got up to the Great Hall area, he was clearly disappointed.

“
Not much to show for six weeks work, is there?”

“
We were just getting down to the Cathar level,” said Gaston. “We had a lot of rubble and vegetation to remove before we got there. Everything had to be carefully sieved and searched.”

“
Oh, absolutely, old chap,” Bernard hastened to assure him. “I know how careful all you archaeologists are not to miss anything.”

When they got back to Quillan, Bernard took Jackie aside. “I believe I’ve settled all the hotel bills and anything else that I know about. Any contractors, such as the scaffolders, can send their invoices straight to TV France, where the orders came from. Now then,” he patted her hand, “here’s ten thousand for you to keep you going until your big cheque comes through in a week or so. Let me know if you need any more.”

“
Where does all this cash come from?” asked Philip.

“
My dear chap, it comes straight out of the coffers at TV France.”

“
When did you get it?”

“
Oh, I had to call round there before I set off to come here. They opened up especially for me. I can tell you, it was after midnight.”

“
It seems an awful lot of cash for a TV company to have lying around in their safe.”

In reply Bernard just shrugged before enfolding Jackie in his embrace.

“
Keep your pecker up, old girl.” He glanced at Philip. “Mind you, you seem to be in good hands. Goodbye. I’ll see you soon. Now, where’s that chap, Gaston?”

The man was waiting outside. Jackie saw the pair of them off. Philip kept out of the way. When she came back in she announced, “Well, that’s all of them gone now. Armand and Jeanette left half an hour ago. All the others had already gone. What about Jean-Luc?”

“
He disappeared while the rest of us were up at le Bezu.”

“
He never said goodbye.”

“
He’s not exactly a social person,” said Philip. “Oh, that reminds me. When you were walking round the castle, I was in the shed some of the time. If you remember I collected the record books for you. While I was there that journalist woman turned up again.”

“
I didn’t see her.”

“
Well, I hope you won’t mind.” He cleared his throat. ““She said that she wanted to interview you about progress and what you’d found about the Cathar occupation of the site. I’m afraid I told her that it was all over and that the whole place was being closed down. Did I do wrong?”

“
It’s not important any more. What did she say in reply?”

“
Oh, she just decided that she was obviously wasting her time and moved off again. I didn’t see her after that.”

Jackie shrugged. “Forget it. So, we’re all alone here now, are we?”

“
I suppose we’d better check with reception.”

When they did so, they were informed by a disappointed concierge that their two bedrooms were now the only two occupied rooms in the hotel.

“
Are you going to move in with me?” she asked.

“
Yes please.” He grinned. “We might as well keep a tight rein on our money even if we seem to be awash with the stuff at the moment.”

“
Well, we can at least make sure that we lunch well. I’m hungry and I expect the chef will be willing to get us a late lunch.”

Over the meal Philip said to her, “I felt a fraud taking the two thousand euros. I’ve really only done two days work.”

“
Rubbish, you’ve done more than most. If nothing else, you’ve kept the director sane.” She pulled a face. “Besides, after the way Alain has treated me, I want to take TV France for every euro I can.”

After an excellent lunch they moved Philip’s things into her room and took a restful siesta which turned into a love-making session from which they emerged at about six o’clock.

“
It’s a bit early for dinner,” Philip observed.

“
I couldn’t eat another thing after that lunch. Why don’t we just have a drink somewhere and come back here after that.” She smiled coquettishly. “I’m sure we could find a way of passing the rest of the evening.”

Philip thought she seemed to have recovered well from her shock of the morning. “Well, actually I’ve been thinking. This evening would be as good a time as any to go up to the site and do some poking around. I want to find out about this Cathar secret and it’s likely to be very quiet up there at the moment.”

“
Are you sure about this? By the time we’ve got changed into work clothes and driven up to the castle it will be nearly seven o’clock - not long before it gets dark.”

“
That’s just the point. There won’t be any visitors looking round at that time of day. You see, Jackie, I’ve been thinking about that bit of masonry walling while you were sleeping. I know it’s partly above the new stone slabs. However, if you remember in the journal, the shallow cave where they hid the bamboo tubes was high up in the room. Why do you think they put this new paving over such a large area?”

“
You’re going to tell me.” She was alert now.

“
I think it’s because the roof of this room, or the floor above it, had already been removed before they used it to store whatever they put there. Or perhaps the floor wasn’t very strong and they decided to replace it with the new slabs. Anyway, I think it’s possible that the new paving had been laid lower than the old floor and ended up being fixed across the stone rubble walling which my ancestor used to block up the cave.”

“
Well, it’s a possibility. How large was the cave?”

“
As far as I remember - in modern measurements it was about two metres long by over a metre and a half high.”

“
And how big is the bit of stone walling?”

He rubbed his forehead. “Well, the length is about right. You can only see about half a metre of walling above the stone slabs, but I don’t know how far down it goes below the slabs.”

“
Hmm.” She looked up at the ceiling, trying to picture the area. “I suppose it’s worth a try.”

Philip leaned forward persuasively. “And this evening would be a good time to look. If anybody is still interested in what we’re doing, they’ll be less likely to watch us at night. I noticed there was still a bag of tools in the shed - hammers, small cold chisels and crow-bars. We could use those.”

“
It might be a bit dodgy if we were stuck up there in the dark.”

“
Ahah,” he said triumphantly, “I have acquired a torch.”

She laughed. “You seem to have thought of everything. All right. I agree.”

So they got dressed in working clothes - jeans, sweaters and safety boots - and went up to le Bezu in Philip’s little car. It was about a quarter past seven by the time they’d picked up the bag of tools from the shed, carefully locking the door behind them, and made their way down to the trench. It obviously hadn’t been touched since Armand and Philip were taken away from the area the previous day.

When they got there, Jackie asked, “Is it going to take a lot of work to demolish the wall?”

“
Hopefully it won’t take long levering with that crow-bar. Luckily we’ve got better tools than my ancestor had.”

However it took more than half an hour to get the first stone out. It had been very firmly hammered in by the people who built the wall. Philip had to virtually smash the stone into pieces to get it out. Finally it was done and he pulled away the last of the rubble. Then he groaned because he found he was only looking at the face of the natural rock behind the wall with a cavity only a few centimetres wide.

“
Don’t worry,” said Jackie. “Phillipe de Saint Claire said the cave was quite shallow. It will get deeper as we remove more stone.”

Philip realised she was right. So he concentrated on getting the next stone out, which was a much easier task. Gradually he enlarged the hole down to the paving level, handing her the stones when he pulled them out. As he did so, he found that the cavity was indeed getting deeper. Although they tried to remain calm, the atmosphere was getting more tense.