Daphne's Last Mystery: An Alternate Ending
Chapter fourteen: Fred Takes a Hand
Cody slid in the snow, "Lamb!" He checked her neck for a pulse; it was strong and steady. He sighed, relieved that she was alive. "Wake up, Lamb!" The tightness in his chest eased when her eyes fluttered open, then returned at their closure. "Stay awake, Lambie Pie."
"You're excused this time but you call me Lambie Pie again and we'll never have children."
"Ye be okay, then. Ye still have ye humor."
She draped her arms around his neck loosely, "Cody, I wasn't joking."
He checked the scalp wound; as he suspected it looked worse than it really was. "Can ye stand?"
She kissed his lips hard, "I'm a little lamb, my fleece is white as snow, every where Cody goes, I'll be sure to go. Help me up, darling. What happened? I was walking along, then darkness."
"From the marks i' th' snow, I'd guess ye got hit on the head by a cosh. It was a glancing blow. Lamb, I want ye to go to the castle, let Mum look at ye head. Don't follow me."
"And what are you going to be doing?"
"Whoever did this, is still in there." he pointed to the cottage door. "Don't follow me." he repeated, walking toward the door.
"Good thing I suffer from selective hearing." Daphne made her way quickly along the side of the cottage to the rear door.
Cody opened the door slowly, easing into the room. The room was a mess but the noises were coming from the second bedroom.
"It's n' here!" Cody heard one voice scream.
"Let's git!" There were two of them and they were coming his way. He hid behind an upturned chair.
The two came sauntering out of the hall as if they had the rest of the night. They found out they didn't when they came even with him and Cody hit the closest on the jaw, knocking him into the other man.
Both fell to the side but recovered speedily. The one he had hit came at him, throwing a round house right. The swing was easily avoided; Cody jabbed, the sound of bone breaking was loud in the room. The man spurted blood from his nose, screamed and ran for the back door. His friend followed, giving up the battle.
Daphne had been waiting, listening to what was going on inside. The first man burst through the door before Daphne knew he was there. But the second man wasn't so lucky. The stick of stove wood, left over from Fred's wood chopping and she had found, caught the man in the midsection so hard he was driven backward several feet before he dropped.
"Ewww, that'll leave a mark. So will this." She swung, hitting the man on the forehead. Blood gushed as he fell forward.
"Ye didn't ha' to kill th' man." Cody held her close. "Di I no' sa' not t' follow me?"
"He's not dead. He'll have a headache when he wakes up. I didn't follow you; you went in the front door, I didn't go close to the front door."
"We will be talkin' about this later. Now, let's get our friend here up t' th' castle." Cody grabbed the man by the collar and started dragging him away.
Daphne dropped the stove wood, "I'll have to talk to Fred about cleaning up his mess. Can't be leaving wood just laying around, someone could get hurt." She followed Cody.
It was Ian that answered the hectic knocking. "What tis all this?"
"I got coshed, Dad."
"Dad?" Cody glanced at his fiance.
-Xxxxxx
Everyone had been awakened. They all walked around nervously, trying not to look at the blood in Daphne's hair. While Daphne told her part of the story, Cody had made a phone call, returning to tell his part. 'Da, the constable will be here shortly."
The man had remained unconscious during the telling of the story. Edie had wanted to clean the blood out of Daphne's hair but Daph had refused saying, "No, I want him to see what they did."
"I have a plan." All eyes drifted to Fred. "I'll need your permission, Sir Ian."
"Mystery Inc. is back." Velma smiled.
"I'm not part of Mystery Inc. anymore, Velma. Please, Dad. I've known Fred and my friends since childhood. I trust every one in this room, except him." Daphne pointed at the unconscious man.
"That's good enough for me. What d' ye need, Fred? This sounds like fun."
"Everyone here wants one thing. Not to see this bum in jail. We want to know who sent these characters. To do that I need two glasses of water, a three foot piece of hose, a portable desk lamp, rope to tie this character to the chair. Tie his hands behind his back, each leg to a rear chair leg. And put on an extra log on the fire." He continued on, explaining his plan. Everyone scattered to find the required items.
"Every one know what to do?" Fred asked when all was in readiness. "Okay, then. Everyone take their places. It's time to spring the trap." Fred turned the lamp on, pointing it into the face of the man. Taking a chair and sitting in front of the man he said, "Let's wake our friend."
Fred threw one glass of water into the man's face; the man shook his head, becoming conscious, "Who are you?"
"I'm your best friend. I saved you from some serious injury." Fred picked up the piece of hose.
"Why am I tied up? You can't do this!" He jerked around, finding there was no give in the ropes that bound him to the chair.
"Let me tell you. You hit my friend on the head, leaving her in the snow. She wanted to proceed hitting you with that piece of wood. I was able to stop her."
"Lucky for you, you creep!" The disembodied voice came out of the dark.
"Her friend wanted to tie you to an ant hill. I explained that in the winter, we'd have to wait till spring."
"I was willing to import some ants, just for you." Velma's voice was heard but nobody could be seen.
"I won't go into what her third friend wanted to do to you, it's too gross. Her friends and I are from the states, In the old days when the cops wanted to know something, they'd take the prisoner down in the basement where the screams couldn't be heard. My grandfather was one of those cops. He was an expert on the use of the hose technique. He told me that the hose, in the right hands, could be used to beat a person without leaving a mark of any kind. He taught me a lot.
"We don't want your name or the name of your friend. We have you and your associate has a broken nose. If he hasn't been arrested by now he will be soon. Now, here's what's going to happen. We want the name of the person behind your attack on our friend. I'm going to ask you for his name. If you don't give it to me..." Fred let the hose lightly tap the man's crotch. "What is his name?"
"Ye'll get nothing from me! Le' me go!"
"Wrong answer." Fred raised the hose, slamming it against the seat between the man's tied legs.
"Crack" the hose went. The man screamed and promptly fainted. Fred picked up the second glass of water, repeating the action of throwing it in the man's face. Daphne came out of the dark, taking both glasses into the kitchen to be refilled. The man had recovered, hatred filled his eyes as he watched the red head sit the glasses down.
"Hit him for me?" Daphne spoke low but enough for the man to hear. She disappeared into the darkness.
"What's his name?" Fred lifted the hose. "We can do this all night."
"Alright! His name is Graham Donaldson."
"You hear enough, constable?" Fred asked, lowering the hose.
"Go' i' all on tape." The constable stepped out of the blackness.
They couldn't stop the man from talking now. The whole story came out, recorded on the constable's tape machine.
Graham Donaldson had been the man in the pub that had given up his seat for Daphne. He had sipped his pint, watching all that money being won by a mere girl. The temptation had been too great.
The constable was taking the man away, Velma asked, "Fred Jones, you never told us of your grandfather being a policeman."
"He wasn't." Fred replied, "but he didn't know that." he indicated the man.
"And we'd've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for ye meddling kids." The four friends laughed so hard, tears were trickling down their cheeks.
"Fred," Cody stretched his hand out, " I get all the items except the extra log on the fire."
Smiling, Fred took the offered hand, shaking it, "I was cold. Good night."
TBC