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My fingers were still redolent of Abby's vagina as I removed the string Fr Sean had untidily secured around the wrapping paper. I carefully uncovered the painting, stood it up, and examined it. It was hideous, not least because the proportions were all wrong.
As I'd noted before, the gilded frame was old and solid, but on closer inspection there was an inner frame, secured by small wooden wedges, over which the canvas was stretched. The canvas was at most 20 years old and I saw why the proportions were out: it had originally been larger but had been cut down to fit. Curioser and curioser.
Tucked behind the canvas was a small packet of carrot seeds. Yes you did read that correctly: carrot seeds. On the outside of the packet someone had highlighted the phrase "show stoppers at your table!". I thought of taking a photograph, before I remembered that my phone was up at the Manor.
I took a closer look at the two frames themselves. The small wooden wedges securing the inner frame to the outer were clean white wood - brand new. One of them was at an odd angle and I tried to straighten it. I fumbled the movement: it pinged out of the frame and dropped to the floor, where it neatly fell into two pieces.
I stared down at it in shock. There was a rectangular inner recess, skilfully and purposefully made, in one half. Nestling in it was a tiny memory card. Carrots, and a memory card. What. The. Fuck.
"Careful, Jamie boy," I thought. What to do? The painting, along with its secret contents, had to go up to the Manor, that was clear. But equally, I needed to know what was on that card.
I found some nitrile gloves - I didn't want to leave any fingerprints. First I carefully removed the carrot seed packet and inspected it. It seemed completely genuine; unopened, and I could hear the little seeds rattling inside it. I replaced it carefully. Then I picked up the memory card.
I had an special PC in the study and I turned it on. It began slowly booting into Linux - slow, as it was booting from a CD. No hard drive. I pulled out the Ethernet cable as it finished booting and slotted in the memory card is found. I then picked out a spare usb stick to copy to, and plugged it in. I flashed up a disk cloning app and set it running: the memory card seemed almost empty - a single folder; half a dozen files - but this would copy everything on it, byte for byte. Leaving it running I went over to the church for evening mass.
I got back through the front door to the sound of the landline ringing. It was Fr Sean, in full inquisition mode. Why was my mobile turned off (he knew); where was I (which, since I was answering my landline, did not count as the most intelligent question he could have asked); where had I been (in church after deflowering Abby; I only mentioned the church); what had I been doing (ditto); and by the way the Bishop was about to tear me a brand new arsehole and I'd best brace myself. I did.
"One job! One job I gave you!" Bishop Patrick sounded more than a little angry. "Get that painting up to the Manor, James my boy, and do it right now! You do still have it?"
I apologised: I'd been unwell when I got home; perhaps it was the nuns' tuna sandwiches (I felt a twinge of guilt about this lie: they'd been excellent). I'd been in bed all afternoon (not untrue: id been enjoying the carnal delights of the said teen's tight virgin pussy). I was feeling better now. I'd just celebrated evening Mass and I was about to go up to the Manor with the painting. Straight away Bishop. Immediately Bishop. Yes Bishop."
I assume that he attempted to slam the phone down: I heard the handset clatter across the desk and a cry (which quite cheered me up) of "Fr Sean you useless fecking idiot ..."
The cloning program had completed. I closed the PC down, thus erasing any trace of my activities (no hard drive); grabbed the memory card, dropped the USB copy into my pocket, and went back to the painting. Eight minutes. Two more minutes to put the original card back in place, reassemble the wooden wedge, push it back in between the two frames and re-wrap the painting. I tried to mirror the original badly tied knots. Then I drove it up to the Manor.
I wasn't the only visitor. I parked next to a non-descript plain white Transit van with, in the passenger seat, a non-descript passenger, whose face I could not see. Mandy and Nusrah answered the door to me. They looked worried: Mandy, wearing a plain tee shirt through which her nipples were punching little thimbles, was twirling her brunette locks in her fingers. She looked as if she'd just come out of the shower. Nusrah, in plain flannelette pyjamas, had been crying, though she was trying to hide the fact.
Nusrah turned her big eyes on me in mute appeal as Rupert's voice rose from a room nearby. "So it will be sorted. Tonight! Yes - it's just arrived ... yes yes ... all of them." Then, more quietly, so that I could hardly hear him, "Tell him I'll do the transfer tonight!"
A voice I didn't recognise murmured a few words. After a brief silence I heard one of the inner doors closing, and footsteps elsewhere in the house. An outer door closed before I heard the unmistakable sound of the Transit being driven away fast.
I thought it prudent to knock on the door before I walked in with the painting under my arm. Rupert and George were waiting for me. Rupert looking agitated; George surprisingly neutral for a man I'd knocked out less than 24 hours before.
Rupert made a visible effort to control himself. "Oh James, is this the painting Bishop Patrick promised us? Good, good! He took scissors from a drawer and cut the string - Philistine! - and because I knew what to look for I saw his relief as he observed the securing wedges.
He looked up at me. "Really there was no rush." Yes, and the moon's made of green cheese.
"Now George has something to say," he added, "don't you George? And something for you?" George looked up, then reached into a pocket and pulled out my phone. "Battery's flat. And ... well, sorry Boss." To my surprise he looked and sounded as if he meant it. But, 'Boss'?!
"Anyway, we mustn't keep you," said Rupert, manoevering me to the door. "The girls will see you out. Off you go." I thanked him, and, as the girls were nowhere to be seen, let myself out. I got back in the car, plugged the phone in, and left for the presbytery.
I didn't get there. There had been a pleasant smell of freshly washed teenage girl in the car when I got back in, so I'd guessed there was at least one young woman hiding in the back. I wasn't sure I had the energy to fuck whoever it was, as I'd had such a good workout with Abby earlier, but it had seemed churlish to let on I knew she it they were there.
Ten minutes down the road, however, I heard a sneeze from the back of the car, followed by a whispered "Shush,Nussie - he'll hear!" Two teenage girls! This could be a challenge. I stopped the car. "Good evening girls. It can't be very comfortable back there on the floor. Wouldn't you like to sit up? Who's going to join me in the front? Mandy?"