Daisy's Blog

DAISY STORIES - The Oak
by Crystal Jones © 1995-2007

Chapter 4

As soon as Daisy was left alone, she slipped out down the stairs into the street. She walked until she turned the corner, pulled off her earrings, got out a black velvet bow on a slide, pulled her hair back into a bun and put on a pair of glasses. It was a disguise Daisy often used.

She then took off her reversible mac, pulled it inside out and put it on again. As a finishing touch, she hid her shoulder bag into a plastic shopper she had kept in her pocket. By now her appearance had completely changed. Daisy prepared to wait for a long time in the doorway of a shop which had closed.

It was a full hour before Valentina the mysterious walked out of the dentist’s down the steps and out of the gate. She seemed in a dream and wandered off in the direction of the High Street. She looked in shop windows but didn’t seem interested in what she saw. As she came across a teashop, she went in and ordered tea and cucumber sandwiches.

Daisy followed Valentina discreetly into the teashop and sat down behind her, and ordered a plate of cakes and tea. The guilty lady pulled out the newspaper cutting once more from her bag and stared at it again. Daisy quickly pulled a small camera out of her bag encircling it with the white chiffon scarf she had been wearing, saw that nobody was looking at her, stood up for a couple of seconds and took a photograph of the newspaper cutting.

After a while Mrs. Zubkov left the teashop and walked back to the embassy with Daisy following behind. As Mrs. Zubkov disappeared behind the embassy gate, Daisy decided the most important thing she could do was to get a train home and knock up her good friend Dirk, who was a photographer.

“Dirk, sorry to bother you so late but could you possibly do me a rush job. There’s an important photograph here that I need developed as quickly as possible.”

“It’s a bit late Daisy, but as it’s for you, I’ll bring it round to your office as soon as possible.”

An hour later Dirk arrived at Daisy’s office with an envelope. “I had to enlarge it - now the words printed in the cutting are perfectly visible.”

Daisy opened the envelope and at last read what was written in the newspaper article. It announced the untimely death of Lord Reginald Fitzgerald, and that the funeral was fixed for Monday the sixth of October - the very day Valentina disappeared!

Daisy looked through some newspapers which had been left in her office by forgetful clients to find out more about Lord Fitzgerald. “There it is!” she said to herself. ‘Lord Reginald Fitzgerald died in a riding accident. He had been married for twenty-six years.’

There was also a picture of his son Paul Valentine Fitzgerald, a young man with longish fair hair, of about twenty. He was a fairly good-looking youth - and there was something about his eyes...

(to be continued)

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