Keppelberg Read Online Free

motor-bike. ‘Any chance of repairing my car?’ I asked point-blank.
    He stared at me for a few moments. ‘The one that got wrecked in the village,’ he responded.
    â€˜You keep your ear close to the ground. Any idea who might have done it?’
    He shrugged his shoulders aimlessly carrying on with his work. ‘I can start on it later today if you like. Mind you, it’s going to be expensive. New wheels, new distributor, a new radiator...’
    He knew far too much about the damage for my liking but I was totally reliant on his co-operation if I was ever going to be able to return to Cornwall.
    â€˜That’s okay,’ I told him looking around the garage. There were four wheels leaning against one of the walls that looked suspiciously like those that belonged to my vehicle. However, a wise head keeps a still tongue and I didn’t want to accuse anyone without sufficient proof... for fear I would land back in jail. The mechanic would certainly deny the allegation and, after that, he would probably refuse to repair my car. It was a loss-loss situation. Ultimately, I left it with him to collect my vehicle and tow it to his garage for repair handing him the ignition keys to enable him to undertake the work. At first, I wanted to stay in the village out of curiosity. Now I found the idea of leaving impossible.

Chapter Two
    It was much later when I discovered Wayne Austen’s part in the mystery. He was the partner of Tim, my sister’s husband. I had such little contact with my sister after she married Tim that I never actually asked what he did for a living. Had I concerned myself with the information, I would have learned that he operated a detective agency on the outskirts of Newcastle with a partner by the name of Wayne Austen. Not that any of it concerned me at the time except for the fact that my sister was extremely worried about my future and her intuition told her that I was going to return to Keppleberg. Subsequently, she asked her husband to do something about it and, for reasons of his own, he delegated the task to his junior partner.
    Wayne drove to Sprockton, a village a few miles from Keppelberg and he walked the remaining distance, hovering out of sight behind the trees which hid the area where my car had been parked. I wondered how he found out where to go after everyone denied having known the place. Wayne stared at the wreck of my car with a frown appearing on his face, watching the mechanic fit four wheels on the vehicle and adjust a tow-line to the front in order to take it away. He suddenly became acutely aware of my plight realising that I was trapped in the village with no means of leaving. He had heard many rumours locally about the strange attitudes of the people of Keppelberg who kept themselves remotely from the rest of the world, and there had been gossip that all the old folks who once lived there had perished. However, after a police investigation, the authorities seemed perfectly satisfied that the affairs of the village were running properly according to the law. After that, the village continued to operate without the interference of any external controls. The final report held that it was a model of the past and should be left well alone to conduct its own business affairs. The villagers seemed to be self-sufficient, growing their own vegetables, rearing cattle, providing their own milk, and never leaving the village to buy goods from any nearby towns. There had been no complaints from anyone within Keppelberg or from any of the nearby villages or towns and everything appeared to be normal with the exception of a morbid dislike of strangers coming to the village. There were eleven hundred inhabitants and that was the way they intended it to stay.
    I discovered later that it was Wayne’s plan to keep well away from me, so as not to link the two of us together, and he succeeded in that task very well for I had neither knowledge of him or his whereabouts