by Tyler
The Willow,
High Mill Drive,
Whitby.
12th September
Dear Mr. Brown,
I’m writing to apply for Darkwood Manor; please could you tell me the date and time you would like me to be the there?
The reason I’m applying is because I’m a building expert and have been studying buildings for two years and enjoy it.
I’ve also been wondering about its history. Like who’s owned it and when was it built? Does the Manor have electricity and water?
Hope I’m included in the first 20!
Yours sincerely,
Tyler J.
……………………
I woke up on a Monday morning to hear the yapping of my dog ‘Boris’, so I knew that the post had arrived. I got my dressing gown on and went to get the post; bill. Bill; credit card offer and a hand written one. I went through to the kitchen to get Boris’s breakfast and mine. I left the bills and credit card offer but opened the hand written one. The first bit I saw was a £500 offer! I couldn’t believe it that after nine months Mr.Brown had re-plied. It enclosed everything I needed to take e.g. flask of coffee, sleeping equipment and a torch as there’s no electricity or water!
I decided to drive to the Swan Hotel on Friday the 13th of July. I set off at 25 to 8 to get there for 8.00pm.The Swan had a bright red sign which said ‘The Swan Hotel’ and a picture of a swan.
I went in and took my coat off; I saw a sign with an arrow pointing left and saying ‘Dark wood Manor visits’. I followed a couple of signs to the hotels lounge.
They were already a few people there. I went in and sat down next to a man about my age (29), brown hair and tall. He also had a jacket saying ‘Pete’s Plumping Service’, so I assumed that his name was Pete. We started to chat about odd things and then he asked me why are you here, I said, "I’ve come to look round the Manor and for the £500, how about you"
"I’ve come for the £500."
A strange man came in wearing a brown tweed coat and matching trousers. Everybody went silent when the man came in, "good evening ladies and gentlemen, I’m Mr. Brown and I expect you’re all here about the £500 pounds and Dark wood Manor. I assume you’ve got your letters, the plan of the manor and the certificate which lets you access the £500 pounds after you’ve slept at the manor.
"Anyone got any questions, then?" Mr. Brown asked. Someone questioned "why are you doing this", Mr. Brown hesitated "ER, ER, we, no, em well it’s a very old house and" After two more questions Mr. Brown said "Has everyone got clothes, coffee and something to sleep in"
Suddenly Mr. Browns mobile phone started to ring, when he had finished he went to the front and said "I’m sorry but there’s a problem so come back next week Good evening" and with that he left the room in a rush…
I decided to sleep over night and travel back in the morning. Lots of people did the same too but were still mumbling about the night before. "Should I come back next week?"
"Yeah, I’am sees ya there"said Pete.
1 week later
I arrived back at the Swan Hotel again and saw a couple of cars already there at quarter to 9. I got out of my mini and went in. I made my way to the Hotels lounge and looked for Pete.
He was sat in a corner with old clothes, his coffee and a sleeping bag and a torch.
I too had all my stuff but it was in a bag.
As I sat down Pete said, "Look, there’s Mr. Brown."
He strode in wearing a black suit
On and stood in the middle of the room looking strange. Mr. Brown said "Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m glad you’re all back, tonight you’ll be sleeping in the ballroom and all the doors will be locked for your own safety. I will give you a short tour of the ground floor and the 1st but not the 2nd, as it’s not safe.
Mr. Brown said "there is a toilet in the corner of the ballroom, which you’ll be able to use, oh we better get going" everybody grabbed their stuff and followed Mr. Brown out of the room.
Ten minutes later we arrived at the rusty gates of Dark wood Manor…
The gates were unlocked for quickness, but usually padlocks would have locked them, Mr. Brown led us in and first I saw two statues of wolves, which looked creepy at an old manor.
We were led up some steps that echoed a bit around the garden. They were two solid oak doors, which Mr. Brown needed two arms to push back; the doors hadn’t been polished for a long time because the brass doorknobs had lost its shine.
As soon as we set foot in the manor the smell went from fresh to damp and musty. There wasn’t any light because of the shuttered windows.
Everybody had the same idea as me so all 14-torch beams shot out. But then about 16 pigeons came swooping down towards the door, startled at the light and then one pigeon came down and ‘CRACK’. The last pigeon had broken its neck by flying into the window, which was next to the door that the pigeon had been aiming for, but sadly mist. Some ones hand went up "yes" Mr. Brown said
"How did those pigeons get in?"
"Err, err, these things do happen in an old house" Mr. Brown replied. Mr. Brown led us into the Kitchen, It was quite dark and with an artificial food smell. There were a couple of pans and a old stove which hadn’t been used for a few years, We turned round and he lead us to a dinning room which only had a dusty table and three chairs.
We were at the ballrooms white double doors when Mr. Brown brought out a key and shoved it in the dusty lock, with a short click and push of the arms the double doors opened with a creek.
The floor was a traditional black and white with a huge chandelier, which hung from a filthy ceiling. There was a porter loo in the corner of the ballroom with an oil lamp and some matches next to it; there was a picture of a tall man in black with a plaque saying ‘Ballroom in memory of George Foxster’.
I decided to get out my sleeping bag, coffee and torch.
Mr. Brown then announced "well, here you are in the ballroom and do remember the porter loo in the corner there and have a nice sleep and I’ll come six o’clock sharp so be ready to go, Goodnight" and with a short click and a bang of a door Mr. Brown was gone…
After half an hour Pete came over with two other men, I stood up and held out my hand "Hi, I’m Tyler, nice to meet you "and shook my out stretched hand," Travis and Nick Jackson "and they both shook my outstretched hand.
I had a drink of coffee and then read my book ‘The War’ for about twenty minutes and then went to check the door to see if it was really closed, it was!
I must have dozed off for a while because Pete shook me awake. He whispered "Come with me, Travis and Nick have found a tunnel" I followed Pete over to the other side of the ballroom. Then I knelt down to have a look in the tunnel; it was quite dusty and very dark. Nick then said "Give me a torch and I’ll see if I can get through." We said for him to shout to us when he’s got through to the other side, we also gave him a handkerchief to put over his mouth as it’s dusty. We heard quite a faint "Ok you can come now" From Nick which made me a bit nervous. I picked up my torch and a handkerchief over my mouth. At first I got a bit a claustrophobic, but then I saw a torch beam pointing my way which reassured me a lot. I felt air and then I was there, so I turned my torch beam off.
I crept through the exit of the tunnel and saw that Nick had prised opened a trapdoor. He jumped down and landed with a ‘thud’, I jumped down too and it looked like we were in a cellar. I heard Nick say "Wh, wha, what is that? I followed his quavering finger and saw something that looked liked they had been hung. Just then Travis and Pete came down the through the trapdoor and landed in a heap. Pete then saw what we were looking at and tugged it down, and dust came with is. What was it?
Travis kicked it and it turned over, it was an old ball gown and not a body. We started to laugh and I sat down, but suddenly the old chair dropped back and I fell into a hole. All of a sudden I was in water; it must be a well.
When I scrambled around for a bit I found a key, I put it in my pocket and tried to climb out but then my foot slipped on some cloth. I slipped it aside and found a keyhole so I got out the key and shoved it in. It turned and it opened the door to a storeroom! I shouted up "Come down1 I’ve found a doorway!" They all fell down in one heap and were all wet too; Travis said, "Let’s go in" so we did…
We went through the passage and there were lots of cardboard boxes. Travis went up to one that was padlocked and after a few bangs with a crowbar the lock fell off. He opened it and there was a load of pots and pans, I remembered that I’d seen a thing in the paper ‘Local Museum robbed for priceless pots and pans, gold cutlery and box of solid gold bars. Pete moved towards a box, but it wasn’t locked so we opened it! More pots and pans-silver this time. The third time it was the gold bars!
We’d opened all of the boxes. Eleven in total, in the last two were gold cutlery and we couldn’t believe it, it was worth loads! We’re rich!
There was another door on the right hand side, I went to turn the handle, and it was open. There were two chairs, a table and burnt out candle in the middle, in the corner there were some old wooden steps leading to another door. Suddenly, I heard footsteps and muffled voices, so I dashed out through the Th the others and whispered "Hide, hide behind the boxes," Frantically we moved boxes around but didn’t hide behind the gold.
Footsteps were stomping down the stairs and in a hoarse voice someone said, "Got the gold en, I’ve bin waiting fer two weeks now!" Two men came into the room wearing black, the other man was no other than "Mr. Brown "I whispered…
After they’d gone I got up, the old man ‘Stan’ had paid Mr. Brown £500,000 for the priceless pots, a set of silver cutlery!
I went through to the other room and scanned it for any thing interesting, there wasn’t. Travis, Pete and Nick came through." Shall we go and see what’s up there "I asked them. In a low voice they all agreed. We went up the creaky steps and opened the door, our torch beams swept smoothly across the room and landed on another pair of stairs, with a door at the top. I went up, but the door was locked, so I asked Travis" Crowbar please, Travis." He flung the crowbar up to me and I single handed caught it, and rammed it in the side of the door. After some shoving, ramming and pushing the door creaked open.
In side it was cold and the walls were covered with equipment: Helmets, rope, pickaxes and digging stuff. Nick said" why on earth does he have all this digging stuff? In er, er, a kind of garage?" We were all thinking why, but it just didn’t make sense.
Pete questioned," Do you think someone could have used all that digging equipment to steal that stuff from the museum?"
"It seems a bit strange, doesn’t it?
I’d spotted these stairs in the garage, hidden by
Some barrels which were moved. We walked down to a door, the door we came to, it was locked, I turned to Travis and said "Crowbar again please." He rummaged through his tool bag and got out the black bar. He started to take off the hinges with no hesitation the door fell forward with a ‘BANG’ on the floor.
We moved forward and stood still on the door. There were a lot of statues and pictures. There was also a bed, sink and a toilet in the corner, which must have been Mr. Browns. On the other side of the room there was a large grey safe.
I and Travis walked over to the safe; it was a combination lock not key. Then Travis nudged me "that’ll be tricky, it’s alarmed too"
We used the crowbar, but ‘SNAP’ it broke in two. Travis emptied his tool bag but there wasn’t anything to use. I pulled the rest of the crowbar out of the safe and heard a ‘click’, I pulled the safes handle and it steadily opened. The last person who had used this had not closed it or done the alarm!
Inside the safe was £500,000 and more! Me and Travis couldn’t resist the urge and were stashing our pockets with loot. We left enough for Mr. Brown, his thieving statues and priceless stuff should make it full again very soon!
Travis came over and asked "Where are Pete and Nick?"
"They must be down stairs; Pete probably got hungry and went to find some food."
Travis went round the room touching the statues. He came to a strange looking man, with a beard and pointing his finger at something. Travis put his finger to the mans and said in a funny voice"ooooohhhhh, ET". Suddenly the mans finger slipped, then there was a rumbling noise and the statue moved to the left. A secret passage was in front of him…
At the same time me and Travis walked through the doorway and saw Nick and Pete tied up and gagged. Held at gunpoint with a pistol, Mr. Brown sniggered"Well, well, well have you come for your friends then?"
Travis yelled"Yeah, we have so let them go or else "
Mr. Brown hesitated for a moment but then said,"Now, now who’s holding the gun?"
Mr. Brown said no more as Travis threw his leg up into the air and the gun landed on the floor. Mr. Brown lunged forward and seized the gun again, but Travis threw a punch and smacked Mr. Brown hard in the face!
Mr. Brown landed on the floor with a bloody nose and a bruise was appearing on his right cheek. I yelled with excitement and said" WOW! I never knew you could do that Trav!"
We untied Pete and Nick, but instead we tied up Mr. Brown and searched the room. Nothing.
We also searched Mr. Brown and found some mints, a cigar, pencil and pad with a phone number on it, £400 and old newspaper. It had the picture of the stuff that was stolen 2 weeks ago, silver cutlery, the priceless pots and the box of gold bars. I suggested that the stuff that was stolen had been sold to ‘Stan’ who gave Mr. Brown £500,000!
I and Travis slumped Mr. Brown against a post. Just then a bunch of keys fell out of his pocket. They had labels on, so I picked them up and read out loud"DM door, Dmb door, WH and the last set were his car keys.
Suddenly there was a’ beep…beep…beep! It was coming from Mr. Brown. We searched him but nothing.
The noise came again’ beep…beep…beep! It was a pager on Mr. Browns belt, It read,"Met me at wh the £ 4 him. I tried to translate but couldn’t.
We tied Mt. Brown so we could go back for him later. Nicks face was scrunched up trying to read a piece of paper; I asked" Nick, what are you reading?"
He replied" Um,errm,I don’t know I found it-it dropped out of Mr. Browns coat pocket." He passed it to me and it read’WH near yellow crane bring the money 8.00pm 14thjuly.’
I read it again but out loud." So is Mr. Brown in some kind of Mafia, Bring money for him? Who writes that?
We were all thinking for about 5 minutes until Nick questioned" Maybe we should find our way out of this place then phone the police or something?"
"Or better, I could go and impersonate Mr. Brown and then you phone the police."
So we did…
I took Mr. Browns trousers, jackets and shoes and shirt. I left him a blanket for when he comes round. I put the clothes in Travis’s tool bag, got out the torches and on our journey back to the ballroom.
When I thought that we were nearly there I stopped, breathing heavily I panted" Are you all OK?"
They all chorused" Yeah"
We were in the room where Mr. Brown had stored the museum stuff. I recognised the key that was in the door. I turned round and asked" Who wants to have a leg-up and see if there is anything there to get us lot up?"
"I, I will if you want." Nick raised his hand slowly.
We boosted Nick up and when he was there he shouted "OK, er, I’ve found a length of chain-Ill throw it down for you."
The chain came down. I was first up then Travis, then Pete.
I found myself back in the ballroom quicker than I’d expected. There were only eight other people in the room, I asked a girl what time it was. It was 8.23am.I had gone all night with nothing to eat and now my tummy was rumbling.
I unlocked the ballroom door and let the people out, and then I unlocked the front oak doors. My eyes had to adjust to the sudden light which stung for a while.
When everyone was gone I turned, "I think we should get something to eat and rest, then we’ll get ready for tonight!"
When I awoke I was so full I thought I’d burst, but it was good to be home, I’d set Tran, Pete and Nick a bed up by putting some old sheets together and a pillow each. I got up to try on Mr. Browns clothes; it fitted but was so not my style.
When we were all ready we set off in my metallic blue mini to the warehouse. We’d got the plan all sorted out, first Travis would phone the police, and then I’d go do the deal.
We were nearly there so Travis got out his mobile phone and rang ‘999’. He had to give details and the address and what was going to happen, we parked far enough away so we were out of sight. I got out of the car and, feeling very nervous went to the warehouse near the yellow crane, I could also see a couple of people, faintly.
"Hi lee, got the money en?"
"Um, its coming, my secutary is counting it this very minute, it won’t be long"
He asked me inside so I went into the warehouse. There was a small man in a black suit with two bodyguards next to him with machine guns.
He gave me a beer which I refused so he said instead" wan a coffee then?"
"ere, OK then"
I drank my coffee and sat down on a box. The small man with the bodyguards said" I don’t like waiting, and if it doesn’t come in fifteen minutes I shall have to ‘DEAL’ with you quietly "
Suddenly I heard rotor blades and police sirens. I ran towards the door, I heard a gun-shot and I fell to the floor with a bleeding shoulder! The short man and one of hid bodyguards got away, but the other man and the bodyguard didn’t. I was in hospital for 2 weeks but then made a full recovery, as for Mr. Brown he got sent to jail. I got sent £20,000 compensation and gave Pete, Travis and Nick £3000 each.
