Lesson 14 – The Stone Assignment

(A follow on from Lesson 7 – Pine Lane Cottage)

PG Stone locked his room door. He walked down the passage, passed the kitchen and into the large dining room. A large hexagon shaped oak table with matching chairs filled the centre. PG studied the painting on the wall. A scene of two women at a counter drinking wine, a brunette dressed in green and a blond dressed in red. They looked at him. A clever painting because the third person in the picture was himself.

“What do you think?”

Startled, Stone turned to see Sarah standing behind him holding two bottles of beer. He did not hear her come in.

“The painting or the beer or both,” Sarah said and walked to the oak sideboard to get glasses.

“I’d like a beer, thank you,” said Stone, “the painting has three people in it.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, both are looking at a third person, me, the viewer.”

“You’ll meet them this evening. We three have a task, an assignment for you, PG Stone.”

Sarah poured a beer into a tall glass with the right size foam head. She handed it to PG and put the second bottle in a bucket of ice. “You can wait on the deck for the girls to arrive,” she said, pointing to the open double doors.

PG Stone went through, sat at a picnic bench, facing the village down in the valley, with the low mountain as a backdrop. He felt relaxed for the first time since leaving the city and its nightmares.

“Oh, there you are,” said a husky voice.

PG stood and turned to face the two women from the painting. The husky voice put down a bottle of wine and raised her glass in greeting.

“I’m Alex Holdsworth (the brunette). This is our friend Lee Towers (the blond). Lee runs the Crown & Anchor pub in town. The three of us own that farm you see over to the right of the mountain.”

Stone turned to look in the direction Alex pointed.

Sarah joined them, and they sat and refilled their glasses.

“Who does the talking?” Lee asked.

“I’ll explain the situation,” Sarah said. “A group of businessmen want our farm. We won’t sell, ever. The threats have started, serious threats, physical. We want you to talk to these businessmen, make them stop the threats and back-off.”

“Will you do this?” asked Alex.

“I’ll need names of the businessmen. Until I get more information, I cannot make a firm commitment.” PG Stone hated himself for the feeble reply. He should say. No.

“When will that be?” asked Lee.

“Tomorrow afternoon, latest.”

Later that night, events forced PG Stone to accept the assignment and clear himself as the prime suspect. Stone was set up. In the kitchen of Pine Lane Cottage lay the murdered Alex Holdsworth.