Georgina 4/8

“There’s been another series of attacks on George’s carting company,” said Abigail. “As you seem to do very well at this sort of thing, I thought it would be a good opportunity to increase your experience and find out what is going on. Then if necessary you can come and talk over the problem with me and together we can sort out how to try and deal with it.”

Jennifer Jane looked thoughtful. “I suppose there’s no doubt that it’s the same person who was responsible for the affair with the pigeons?”

“I think it must be. Fortunately there’s no evidence so far of any physical violence, otherwise I’d send someone more experienced at looking after themselves to deal with it. Not that you need any protection,” she added hastily as she saw the look on Jennifer Jane’s face, “but at least you know you have time to sit and think before acting and that’s an advantage when you’re still at your stage of training!”

Jennifer Jane smiled to herself as she went of to see George as a start to finding out what had happened. She supposed Abigail must be right, but as far as she was concerned she thought she was able to sort out much more complicated problems. Still at least she was being trusted to go out on her own this time.

George explained what had happened to his carts, then sat back in his office chair and waited hopefully.

“You say all these accidents happened at the same time?”

“As far as I can make out, yes! It took a week to get all the reports, but I’ve sorted out the times that they occurred and they were all within one night and morning of each other, but spaced out over distances as far as forty-five miles from here. That’s not possible unless there’s a large gang of some sort, or there’s magic involved.”

“It sounds a bit like the sort of trouble red goblins like to make, but I don’t know of any round these parts, do you?”

“There’s the lot in Happy Valley of course, but they can’t be a problem. Apart from them, the nearest are the ones that live in the village way past the Witches Home, but they’ve been fairly quiet for years now. If this really is goblin work, then they must be very well organised and that doesn’t sound like goblins at all! In any case it’s much too far for them to travel overnight.”

Jennifer Jane nodded thoughtfully. Then she asked to see the actual damage that had been caused. With George on the pillion of her scooter, he guided her round to see the carpenter and the blacksmith who were replacing the broken parts. Both craftsmen said that the damage was unnatural.

“Tyres don’t break like that. They might go rusty after several years use and wear through, or the weld might go, although none of mine have in living memory. But this has been broken across a sound piece of metal and that ain’t natural!”

The carpenter hadn’t seen woodworm develop so rapidly either, in what had been a piece of sound timber only a year ago.

“Once an axle is finished, we tap one end with a hammer to make sure there’s no hidden flaws. This one must have ‘bonged’ as it should, or we’d never have stamped it!”

The harness maker had much the same story to tell. All the damage had occurred in apparently sound parts of the leather and not where normal wear or the stitching would be expected to make them weak.