Contagion - Plans of Deception - Book One.

Peter had booked rooms for himself and his daughter, in the Grand Hotel on the Dorchester Road, it was gone 22.hrs by the time they had arrived. He had pre-warned the hotel management of the situation regarding his daughter, and had ask that any reporters or News crews, to be kept away.

The Manageress had children of her own, and having heard of the incident with regards Elaine, from the National News, she was acquainted with the situation and gave her full assurances of the hotel’s co-operation.

The journey had been pleasant enough in itself, it was Elaine who had not managed to travel that well, due to the discomfort of her leg, which was still in plaster up to her hip. It had also been an extremely hot day, and touching into the high 90s. On such days even with air conditioning, it is not advisable to travel by car, as the temperatures within the vehicles can easily exceed the bodies’ tolerance.

Their welcome was pleasant, but as requested, very low-keyed, as there was no desire to draw attention to them. Elaine looked in Awe, at the private swimming pool, before been taken to her room, she had longed to take off the casting from her leg and cool off in the water.

Her room was spacious and had been thoughtfully designed to accommodate wheelchair users. Christine had no idea of their planned visit, and was taken by surprise by their suddenly turning up the next morning, she had put weight back on and was once again looking the beautiful person who her family knew, before she had become so thin and ill through alcohol abuse.

Elaine could not have had a happier time, the two people whom she loved the most, were together and talking, as they walked along Weymouth’s High Street. They stopped to window shop in Marks and Spensors. Peter had hired a private nurse for the week to look after any medical and personal needs of his daughter. Realising that her parents needed some time alone, Elaine ask if she could do some personal shopping, and that she would be perfectly safe with her nurse.

After visiting W H Smiths record department, she had an enjoyable morning, of looking around the various stores. By the time they met back up with her parents at Winnie the Poos Restaurant, she was tired and had several carrier bags, full of various goodies, which had included presents for her mother and father. Due to the heat, it was too hot to eat, so the four had purchased cold drinks, and then went down to the Warf, to sit and watch the various boats unloading their catch of local fish.

That evening, Christine had returned to the hotel with them, where they had an evening meal together, and then took a stroll along the beach, to watch the evening sun setting in the west. Turning to his daughter Peter took hold of one of her hands, “listen my love, your mother and I have something to say to you.” He paused and drew in a deep breath. “It was wrong of both of us, to have allowed our lives to have become so involved that we both lost touch, with what to us is the most important thing in our lives, and that Elaine, is you.”

Elaine looked on, not knowing how to react or what was going to be said next. “Well what we are trying to say is…” There was a moment’s pause before he continued. “Is that we have talked, largely thanks to you, and that we have both agreed, it would be a good idea to put aside the past, and try and make our marriage work, and yes, to become a family once again.”

Elaine could see a tear in her father’s eye, “But it is important that we have your help, you see we truly need you to be with us, and to help us both keep on the same road, and if you see us starting to make mistakes, then please let us know, so we can correct them.”

Elaine was jubilant, and almost jumping from her wheel chair, and dancing around, that night the three of them had once again become a family. The nurse had offered to release them of their contract, due to their having come together again. Peter had smiled, and then explained that he would hear nothing of it, and had ask if it would be possible to retain her full time, until his daughter had no longer needed her. He had also made enquiries into retaining a private tutor, rather than under the circumstances of the past, to put his daughter through the stress, of having to become accustomed to a new school.

Peter was an astute man, knowing the Publishing house to still be footing his expenses, so he had decided to make the most of the situation while he could. The next day Peter spoke with his solicitor by ’Phone, after some thirty minutes he turned to his wife and child, and ask if they would like to live in this area full time. Elaine was instantly overjoyed with the idea, she loved the Sea, and Weymouth held a host of opportunities for the family.

That day their first port of call was to the Mercedes main dealership, Peter had wanted to test-drive the new seven seater estate people carrier, at least that’s what he had told Elaine. To her great surprise when they had arrived there was a vehicle wrapped in a giant red ribbon, which was waiting for them on the forecourt. Elaine was given an enormous pair of scissors to cut the ribbon, when her father received the keys, she couldn’t wait to be taken for a drive. Peter had arranged some weeks earlier to purchase the vehicle from another main dealership, it was the journey to Weymouth in the hired car that had made him ’Phone up and ask if they could deliver it to the Weymouth main agents.

They spent the next few days looking over what seemed to them to be hundreds of properties from Portland, Whyke-Regious to Bridport and Dorchester. Finally, they had narrowed their short list down to three properties, which they felt offered them in various ways, what they were looking for. The first was to be found in Preston, near Preston Cliffs where Elaine had met Amander; it offered a spacious kitchen, with fully fitted oak units, a separate washroom and a walk-in closet. There were four bedrooms, a capacious living room, but a small garden with parking for only one vehicle.

The second property was to be found on Portland, and was a spacious converted Lighthouse, which still had its tower, the present owners had a lift installed, and had converted the glassed observation room of the tower, into an art studio, but had since retired to Canada. There was almost more space than they knew what to do with, and all the rooms were huge, with the smallest bedroom measuring some 18 by 30 feet; the kitchen was made from solid hardwood, and looked magnificent in its own right. The garden was just over 2.4 acres, and with a private but well-maintained road leading up to the house, and a separate two-bedroom keeper’s cottage.

The third property was less grandeur, but none the less offered good simple and pleasant accommodation, that fronted an old disused railway, which was now used by ramblers and cyclists. It offered three medium size bedrooms a larger than average living room and a small but adequate kitchen. All three properties were visited several times by the family, and after speaking again to his solicitor, Peter ask his wife and child to write on a piece of paper, the house that they would most like to live in, and giving the reason why.

Having agreed beforehand that a two-to-one vote in Favour of a property, would be all that was needed. After receiving in the papers, his included, he opened them and quietly read through the various detailed lists, Elaine had taken up two full sides of A4 paper.

Peter picked up the Estate Agents pamphlet on the Lighthouse and screwed it up, “Well we no longer need this one.” He said, and then picked up the remaining two. He could see the look of disappointment on their faces; he then lent over and dropped the two pieces of paper in the waist bin. Both Christine and Elaine looked at him in some confusion. Peter smiled. “What…why are you all looking at me like that?” as he reached over he picked up the crumpled pamphlet on the Lighthouse, as if to throw it into the bin. “Well we don’t need this any more,” he said, “at least not if we are going to be living in it.”

He had an enormous grin on his face, as the ladies realised he had been leading them on. It had been a unanimous vote in favour of the lighthouse. Peter picked up the ’Phone and spoke with his Solicitor, then to the Estate Agent informing him that they would be paying cash, and would like to be in the property by the end of the week.

The family each exchanged papers to read what they had written, and as to they’re reasons why, Christine had written that she would like to keep the Glass Tower as an art studio, and once again take up watercolour painting. She felt the kitchen was well proportioned and offered good room for preparing meals.

For Peter, he wrote that it offered good family accommodation, and with ample light and spacious rooms; there was enough garden space to build a workshop and a double garage. He also liked the idea of living near the Sea, yet high enough to feel safe from any impending flood.

Elaine’s contribution was like a small book, and it listed that the house was big enough to accommodate a baby brother, and that the Glass tower room would be fun to lie in at night, and watch the stars. She had already planned a tree house in the garden, and had listed that as daddy and her enjoyed Fossil collecting and Fishing, that they could do both of these by living so close to the Sea, and that it would also be nice to have a Lighthouse as a home.

His solicitor had taken care of the Bankruptcy order which had been placed against them, and once that had been cleared, and the Lighthouse had been paid for including the various estate agent and solicitor fees. Peter had just over One hundred thousand-pound in cash for his disposal.

However, there was still a tidy sum to be made from the publishing house, which basically boiled down to Peter writing the book within the given time frame, also Peter had a sale going through for the three-bedroomed house he had purchased, which had substantially increased in value. It was just eight days later that the family checked out of the hotel, and had moved into their new dream home.

During their stay in Weymouth, Elaine had spoken with Amander each and every night from within her hotel room. Amander was excited by the Families’ news, and was pleased that Elaine would now be living so close in her new home. Elaine had asked her many times about meeting her dad, but each time Amander had refused saying she was scared, and that he or her mother would not understand and try to stop Elaine from seeing her.

No amount of talking could convince her, so Elaine had decided it was simply best to forget the idea until later. It was Peter who broached the subject again, he had quietly overheard his daughter talking one night, and never once had the conversations given him any reason to be concerned. In truth, he was amused by some of the comments that he had heard his daughter come out with. One was a joke that she was telling to Amander, it went like this. “How many Canaries can a scotch man get under his kilt?” the answer. “That depends on the size of the perch.”

He knew all to well, like any young girl broaching her teenage years, such jokes were a way of their exploring the outskirts of sex, yet this gave him no fear. Looking at his daughter, he asks her how she was feeling and wanted to know if Elaine was looking forward to having her cast removed. Elaine had not realised that the time had come so quickly, and was very excited by the idea. Her leg had long healed, although it would need therapy for some months to ensure it had regained its strength and use.

Peter had promised her the moment that she was free of her cast, and her leg strong enough, that he would go with her, and allow her to show him where these fossils were hidden. He still had found it difficult to accept, that there was this secret hoard of fossils, just waiting to be collected. He felt sure it was a child over estimating the one or two fossils, which she had found while out on the beach.

It was five days later before the tidal conditions were right, to allow the family to have access to the beach. Elaine had found it a little painful to clamber over some of the rocks, but to her surprise as Peter helped Elaine and Christine around the summit of rock, that jutted out into the Sea, there before them some thirty metres away was Amander.

Elaine shouted with joy, as both Peter and Christine looked at each other almost white with shock. From where they stood, Amander looked like any normal child dressed neatly in her summer frock and enjoying herself, as she skipped stones across the water. Elaine had told her father that was something she really enjoyed doing, and that there was hundreds of shining round stones ideal for skimming.

It took the family just over ten minutes, to have negotiated their way around and over the various rocks and boulders, and by the time they found their feet on firm dry sand, Amander had once again disappeared, leaving the adults to question weather they really had seen her or not.

Elaine was disappointed, but no amount of calling would bring her back onto the beach, to join in with the families’ fun. Peter looked across to his daughter, “Never mind my love, at least we have seen her, and maybe on another day she will feel that we are to be trusted enough for her to talk with us.” Elaine shrugged her shoulders, she was disappointed. “I tell you what,” said Peter, trying to cheer up his daughter, “come on and show your mum and me where you have hidden these fossils.”

That idea had brightened his daughters’ face, and she hurriedly grabbed both of her parents’ hands and ran along the beach, and was leading them towards a distant cave, which was partially hidden from view. As they approached the entrance, Peter could see it was not actually a cave, but a large and narrow gully that extended back some twenty meters or more into the cliff, and to his utter amazement, as Elaine led the two parents further into the gully, Peter could feel a chill running along his spine.

It was not a place to find ones-self in during the night, and then just behind a large boulder, was a neatly piled collection of beautiful fossils. Although the light was poor in this part of the gully, he could still see the sheer quality of what lay before them, and he could feel his heart increasing in its beats. Looking over to his wife he was almost speechless, even more so when Elaine promptly informed him, that these weren’t the best ones and that the others were a bit too big for her to have carried, so she had asked Amander to help her hide them further along the beach.

Peter knelt down and picked up near perfectly preserved fossilised fish and lizards, there was even large teeth and claws. The commercial value of these alone would easily be in the many thousands, he knew some would need careful cleaning, but none the less he almost kicked himself for not having believed his daughter. Realising that at any time, anyone could have found this hoard, and have walked away many times richer than when they had arrived.

Elaine had grown impatient; taking hold of her father’s hand she tried to lead him away to view the remaining fossils. Christine was tired and suggested that she should stay there and wrap the various items in tissue, and pack the fossils which they could carry away in their Rucksacks. Peter smiled as he saw the wisdom in her words, so he and Elaine made their way along the beach, until some twenty minutes later, Elaine had taken him into another cave.

It seemed to split into two sections; both bore their way deep into the cliff. After only a few meters, Elaine stopped and moved what appeared to be a large bundle of branches. There behind them lay several large boulders, each some three to four feet in diameter. Embedded into each of them was what looked like a full skeleton of a bird type creature, with a long beak and a row of pointed teeth?

On closer examination, Peter realised it must have been a nest area and somehow, something had happened to have killed the creatures outright, and preserved them exactly as they had fallen. On two of the skeletal fossils, it was still possible to see the outline of feathers. On further investigation, he discovered two fossilised eggs, each about the size of a small melon, he surmised that there had possibly of been a massive mud slide through some type of volcanic activity, in truth he could only guess as to how they had come to be there. None the less he realised something very major had occurred here, as the area was very rich in fossils.

The importance of this find was immense, and he realised, that unless he was very careful, that he would lose this rich area to hoards of collectors, unless he kept everything very quiet.

That evening he talked over with his wife about the events that had occurred throughout the day, she agreed that it was imperative to keep their finds a secret. They both tried to explain to Elaine the importance of their discovery, and had asked her to mention to no one what they had seen today.

That night Amander turned up sitting on Elaine’s bed, “Why did you not stay to talk to my parents,” asked Elaine. Amander just looked at her for some minutes, before she spoke, “I was going to,” said Amander, “but then I got real scared, you see in truth you are the only person I have actually spoken to in over four years.” Elaine looked at her trying to take in the information that she had just heard. “No silly you must have spoken to your mum or dad,” enquired Elaine.

Amander smiled, one of the reasons that she loved her new friend so much, was the pure innocents of the child. “No silly, I can’t, I don’t know why but I have tried, for some reason they just don’t seem to be able to see me.” The child was genuine in her statement, almost as if she herself had not realised or accepted that she was a ghost. Tears were flowing from her eyes and Elaine could see that it deeply hurt her, “Don’t cry,” said Elaine as she moved over and sat next to her friend, then reached over and put her arm over her shoulder. “I can see you, and I know my parents saw you, they said so.”

Amander wiped away her tears and nose with her sleeve. “Err” went Elaine as both girls burst out laughing, Elaine realised that she too had done the same thing, some months back. “Come on, you are always welcome here, and I know my dad has been looking forward to talking to you.”

Her statement was true, Peter had long wondered what lay on the other side of the Vail of death, and that for thousands of year’s people have debated and written many papers about this much-debated subject. However unbeknown to him, he was in time, about to find out in person the very questions that he had wanted to ask of Amander.

That night Elaine’s nightmares had returned, it had been brought on by her seeing the mouth of the caves, this had triggered some deep-set memories, frantically she woke screaming, when her parents arrived, she was covered in sweat. Their sleep was disturbed another two times that night, Christine slept next to her child to try and comfort her. The next day Peter phoned the doctor, to talk over the events that had occurred. He prescribed a higher dosage of medication, hoping that it would rest her, and take away the fears, explaining to her father that it was not uncommon for such things to continue years after such an event.

His words had not pleased Peter, he realised that his daughter was deeply disturbed about something and that he needed to get to the root of the problem, or he feared that it may well kill his child. The medication eased the nightmares, or more to the point helped her to sleep through them. It was Amander who tried to convince Elaine, to look further into her dreams; she knew there was something there that needed dealing with, and that it was only Elaine who could do it.

Peter had spoken with his solicitor, and had managed after much negotiations to purchase a stretch of coastal land, he shook the hand of the man before him. “I hope you enjoy your acquisition.” At that the man departed, Peter looked across to his solicitor and smiled. He was pleased that was over, and that now there was no legal way of preventing him from retrieving the fossils. He had just purchased over seven miles of coastal fields, which fronted onto the coastline, starting at Preston Cliffs.

His investment had dug very deeply into his reserves, however he knew the Investment, if handled correctly would return him over ten-fold. It was his intention to feed the fossils into the market slowly, by having his fossils taken to various selected fairs in the USA, he knew that there, there was a very lucrative market to be found from the US and the Japanese collectors. If he was careful, he knew he could front a small trading company, and open a shop that specialised in rare fossils, and use this without drawing direct attention to him, also he was incredibly doing something he truly loved, and knew would not take him away from his family.

The area of cliffs that he had purchased, had proved to be a very productive investment, and yielded up many very valuable and rare finds. In time Peter even anonymously donated some of the fossils to the British Natural History Museum, without giving them any clue as to who had sent them in, or as to where they had come from. He knew now that his fortune had once again started to turn for the better. This time he vowed that he would put his family first, and no amount of business success, was worth the price that he had once paid.