The Suffolk Crop Circle Mysteries: Murder by Blackmail

By C. C. Smith and E.M. Smith

The appearance of a Crop Circle with a strange coded message in the village of Churchaven Suffolk, started Justin and Henrietta on an investigation that revealed the murder of Justins ancestor in Victorian times effecting his family with startling consequences. The pair investigated two further Crop Circle appearances over the next few years, finding historic events of Eviction and Fraud effecting people in the 21st century, and in the case of the message in the last Circle a revelation for Henrietta.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Dec 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781546284529

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© 2017 C.c & E.m. Smith. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  12/04/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5462-8453-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-8452-9 (e)

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CONTENTS

Murder By Blackmail

Circa 2000

Circa 1860

Circa 2000

Iceni Treasure

Circa 2005

Circa 1745

Circa 2005

The Last Of The Filbertons’

Circa 1912

MURDER BY

BLACKMAIL

CIRCA 2000

A STRANGE OCCURENCE

It was two in the morning, when above a large field of barley at Hayworth’s farm in Suffolk a bright light appeared as if from nowhere, to hover like a billion fireflies illuminating the underlying ground. But this was nothing like the natural phenomena of swarming insects being surreal and invasive on the silent crops below. In the nearby village of Churchaven the inhabitants were oblivious to this unnatural display; whilst in the farm house the bright light merely caused Jack Bacon, the burly farmer, a mild disturbance as he turned over semi-conscious to put an arm round his wife’s waist, as if she needed some sort of comfort that he was near her as he had been for the twenty years of their marriage. To the good people of this English village nothing unusual was taking place; in a way, this was true because similar occurrences had taken place over the last twenty years with the results known to all the following day.

The appearance of a crop circle was then, in this quiet part of Suffolk, not unusual, but all the same a mystery that in some blasé way the village folks had accepted as probably little more than a prank by people unknown. The fact that the antics of well-meaning or perhaps nefarious individuals, depending on one’s opinion, had never been seen didn’t seem to occur to the good people of this hard-working farming community. The only real impact these appearances had caused was for the leader of the parish council, Dawn Fotheringay, to report the incidence to the society concerned with crop circle phenomena. On each occasion, a representative of this organisation had visited the site and photographed the pattern both at ground level and from a light aircraft. The opinion of these investigators had been the same for all reports – the patterns were of a simple nature and although large, typically forty metres in diameter, didn’t seem to be extra-terrestrial. This had been the conclusion in all of the six reports in the twenty years since the first circle had appeared; however, for the last two appearances there was a caveat to these somewhat mundane findings – that the appearance of so many crop circles in the same area was unusual.

A week later Dawn read out the findings of the experts to the Parish Council, who showed their usual reaction to the occurrence – mild interest but keen to move to the main business of the meeting; a planning application for two new houses next to the village green. Perhaps this lack of interest was due to the conviction of many members that this was not anything associated with forces outside of Earth, but due to some person or persons unknown and so was more irritating than anything else. Nevertheless, even though to most this was a boring subject the council voted unanimously for the report to be published in the Parish magazine. So as far as the council were concerned this was the end to the matter; a surprising result because the report included a section on the complex pattern and large size of the circle; making clear that this circle was completely different to any of the previous structures.

THE MATHEMATICIAN

Situated a mile from the centre of the village Honeyland Hall was a large elegant Georgian house approached by a long drive that passed near the field the latest crop circle had appeared in. The Hall was the country home of London Stockbroker Fred Morgan and his wife Elspeth. Both husband and wife enjoyed the advantages of a large fortune earned by Fred in his thirty years in the market; apart from this there wasn’t anything unusual in their life. In fact, they were in many ways a typical English family with a son and daughter. Justin was twenty-six and had just completed a doctorate in mathematics at Imperial College London, whilst his sister Jennifer had just started University and was busy doing what first year students frequently did on their first release so to speak from the constraint of home life – enjoying the freedom and missing some lectures. Her brother was in a different situation and now had the chore, as he saw it, of finding a job that would satisfy his intellectual capabilities. His father had suggested the stock market, but the bright young man, although eminently suited to the mathematical approach being used in the modern trading paradigms for derivatives and risk analysis, wasn’t ready for such a commitment. Although the idea appealed to him he had decided this wasn’t what he wanted at this point in his life.

The clock chimed eleven as Justin walked into the sitting room; today like the previous week he had stayed in his room watching TV and playing a few video games, but most of all his time was spent solving mathematical puzzles – he had obtained an old copy of Sam Loyd’s 1914 book of five hundred mathematical puzzles and had worked through a hundred leaving plenty more to feed his need for intellectual stimulation. Although he had enjoyed solving the greatest puzzles of all time, today he felt he needed to be doing more with his life; after all, at twenty-six his life was before him; so, he settled into the plush seat of the sofa and stared across the room. Seeing a copy of the parish magazine he casually picked it up and flipped through the pages; just as someone might do, believing they would be bored with the contents but browsing nevertheless in some subconscious belief there might be something interesting hidden in the pages.

Seeing nothing of interest he threw the magazine back towards a table; he watched for the brief second of its two metre or so flight and seeing it land smoothly with its back page uppermost felt satisfied with the accuracy of his aim. He hadn’t bothered to look at the last page; now it was before him with a large font heading above a short report – ‘Another Mysterious Crop Circle.’ Puzzles and mysteries were the feedstock to his inquisitive mind, so he reached over to read what he’d missed on his first consideration of this otherwise boring document. The report was short and of little detailed information apart from where the phenomena had occurred and in the last sentence reference to the unusually complex pattern. Nevertheless, it was sufficient to interest this young man who had for the last week lounged about in a sea of doubt about what he should be doing with his life.

With his interest roused he read the short piece again and then picked up his iPad to key in the URL given in the report. Unexplained Phenomena flashed on the screen with an introduction that this body was a non-profit organisation comprised of folks prepared to investigate any occurrence that seemed to defy explanation; as he read the terms of reference for the group he saw that there were several people who majored on crop circle occurrence. The latest news section brought him to the report on the Churchaven appearance. A key part of the report, and basis for the analysis, was the set of pictures; these had been taken at ground level and from the air. The assessment, obvious from the pictorial evidence, was that this circle was a complex and potentially meaningful structure. Indeed, the summary went even further to suggest the pattern was some form of hidden code that the experts on these types of phenomena would attempt to decode. The intriguing comment and fascinating pattern hit Justin as though he was about to attempt one of Sam Loyd’s more difficult puzzles. The report author was a Henrietta Gladstone; her contact details were listed with an invitation to whoever might be interested to contact her if that person might be able to assist her in the analysis of the pattern.

Justin had a mental capability that not only equipped him for complex mathematical analysis but a remarkable memory; meaning he merely had to read Henrietta’s contact details to memorise them for later use. For now, he wanted food to feed his body and take the opportunity to fire a few questions at Jemima, assuming she would be familiar with all the gossip and intrigue in the village as one thing puzzled him – why was there so little interest in what to him was literally an earth-shattering event.

You’re up at last master Justin.

This slightly cynical comment was taken well as he appreciated his lazing about over the previous week was to the prim house-proud woman a waste of the good Lord’s daylight hours, so he responded jovially, being the master’s son, I waited in bed expecting a full English breakfast. He knew of course that she wouldn’t consider taking meals to anyone, least of all him, unless someone was ill and needed pampering.

Although a woman who was proud of her work and quick to criticise those she believed were lazy she had a sense of humour, You may be the master’s son, but he’s given me permission to teach you how to cook, so tomorrow we’ll start with you in my kitchen by seven o’clock. By the evening you should know enough, with me presiding over you, to cook dinner for Fred and Elspeth.

Her serious demeanour suggested to him she really meant he had to get up early to work in her kitchen, then, seeing her smile realised she was amused by his antics and replied; maybe I’ll only expect a light breakfast today – shall we say two eggs, well done bacon, fried bread of course and coffee.

Jemima had a soft spot for Justin, although in years she was a good twenty over his age, and replied with a smile to his absurd comment, in that case sit down, we can talk while I get what you command. Her reference to talking was not unusual even though in reality she was a servant; because her interest in him wasn’t one sided, there was chemistry between them, not in the man woman relationship but as two friends. He now had the opportunity to ask her what intrigued him, receiving the boring answer that the latest mysterious circle appearance was seen by most villages as nothing more than an irritation. It seemed the first two appearances years ago had caused considerable interest with some people concerned that aliens were preparing to land. But on the third appearance discussion in the village hall, led by the Parish Council leader, concluded the most likely explanation was that these appearances were nothing more unusual than people intent on causing the villages alarm. This was the formal result of the meeting; others didn’t accept this simple explanation but in the interests of harmony in the community didn’t seek to raise the matter again. So, you see Justin there are those who want to accept these are human made patterns in Jack Bacon’s field, whilst others, myself included, don’t accept this.

The justification for the village to take, what to him was a surprising decision and her admission that she didn’t agree with the view implied she believed the phenomena was the result of something paranormal, causing him to wonder if this was a mystery he should become involved with; or to put another way to prove one way or the other if this unexplained event was a prank or something more interesting. He knew the friendly housekeeper had a sharp mind and wide interest in what was going on both locally and in the wider community, so he responded in jocular mood. I can see you aren’t one to accept anything at face value Jemima, and if there was a group of jokers doing this I guess you’d know who they are; after all, whenever I see an Agatha Christie movie I keep thinking you’d make a good Miss Marple.

You mean I’m a well-meaning busy body with the intellect of someone who’s just got their doctorate. Can’t agree with the busy body but on the intellectual front I agree – always thought I could give you youngsters a few problems to make you think us oldies aren’t in the doldrums yet. By the way, have you solved that problem in the puzzle book – the one where the riders need to be put on the horses?

How did you know about that?

I saw a cardboard cut-out on your table and it seemed to me you hadn’t worked it out; odd really, it’s so obvious.

"I admit it did take me a long time to figure it out but after a couple of minutes I’d cracked it. Anyhow I happen to agree with you on the crop thing; the pictures said it all to me. The pattern is fascinating, complex and big; I can’t see how anyone, or even a group of people, could produce something like that even given a few days to make it. Anyway, with time on my hands, and I don’t mean a watch, I’ve decided to investigate.

She replied with a laugh, are you sure it’s the mystery that interests you or is it the fair Henrietta that takes your fancy.

I’ve not met her, is she pretty?

VIEW FROM ABOVE

Fred Morgan walked into his son’s room to find him occupied in something on the WEB. Such was the younger man’s interest in what he was reading that he hadn’t heard his father. Good evening Justin what’s so interesting.

Engrossed, he replied casually; the strange patterns seen across the world in crop circle phenomena; then with a sudden change in his demeanour - I need to use the helicopter Dad; will you arrange for me to have it tomorrow; I want to take a few pictures of the crop circle in Jim Bacon’s field before he harvests the wheat and the circle disappears.

Fred was amused at how his son had become, as he saw it, besotted by the strange appearances in the village; something he had decided was unusual but not of any great interest and not a subject his son should be concentrating on – it was in his view the time for deciding what career he should pursue and that career should be in finance to follow in his footsteps. His reply showed his displeasure, you can’t fly it and I’m not going to waste a day taking you on some pointless pursuit.

Pointless Dad, I don’t think so. It may seem to you a waste of time but I’ve reason to believe these crop circles, or at least the ones we have seen in the village, are more than some mindless pattern. My initial view is that the pattern on this latest one is some sort of code or maybe message is a better word. Whether it comes from beyond our world or was constructed by some rather cleaver people I don’t know, but I’m sure going to find out; so one way or another I’ll get what I want, and at this moment that is a proper aerial picture of the circle; the pictures in the report have been taken at an angle and don’t give me the proper perspective, scale and dimensions of the construct.

His Dad understood in that moment that his son was passionate about the village mystery and whatever he said his son would do what he intended with or without his help. Clearly my boy there is more in this than I had believed as you have found something that has given you a problem to solve - just like those mathematical problems you so enjoy. In that case I’ll take you up tomorrow.

You won’t regret it Dad, I intend to crack this one, I’m certain there’s a mathematical basis for the design and that’s what interests me.

You know son, maths is a great discipline and has been a basis for much of my time in the city – it’s all about the numbers game, risk, price movement relevance and all that stuff; my use of number crunching has always had a practical application whereas this crop circle thing doesn’t seem to have any use. Then he continued jovially, if you could crack the national lottery, I mean give a better than a 90% chance of winning that I would like.

He received an equally light-hearted reply, well Dad the possible if it’s worth doing takes some time, but the impossible always takes a little longer. Anyhow if I can crack this I’ll have done something no one else has and that might make me famous and who knows money might flow just because of that.

Two days later Justin had a dozen pictures taken in such a way that he could accurately determine the shape, diameter and size of the smaller constructs within the circle that provided the pattern he was so intrigued by. He spent the next week analysing what he was convinced was much more than an artistic pattern; what he found surprised and excited him. The circumference was perfectly formed and traced an exact line, suggesting that precise measurements had been used to trace out the figure. Intriguingly what he’d seen at ground level was also apparent in the pictures - the wheat hadn’t been broken down to ground level but seemingly bent at right angles half way up the stem. The whole thing was bizarre; partial destruction of the stalks defied any rational explanation, with a malfunctioning combine harvester the only way he imagined how the crop could have been damaged, although there wasn’t any way such a machine could have made the intricate pattern within the circle.

The pattern was the stuff of mathematical dreams to a mind like Justin’s – having wrestled with the mystery all week he’d concluded there was a message in the strange layout he saw in the pictures. Speaking his thoughts as if he expected someone to agree with him; I’m not an art geek but it seems obvious to me that this isn’t merely some artistic design; who created it and what was the purpose; there isn’t a track from the field edge to the circle, meaning the thing was probably created from above in some way. That’s the only reasonable explanation, but how could it be done? I guess, and this is ridiculous, a person or persons dropped from a helicopter could break the crop down, but the ‘copter would flatten the crop, so even if people on the ground could create such a remarkable pattern it would be destroyed by the down flow of air from the ‘copter. That leaves only one other means – supernatural activity created it.

A MESSAGE FROM BEYOND

Justin had been analysing the complex figure for four weeks, convinced the strange pattern in Jack bacon’s field was really an audacious and mysterious way to give a message to whoever was interested and gifted enough to figure it out, spending several hours a day attempting to extract what he believed was hidden in the design. To his parents he was like Tara, their Labrador, who never left a bone until she’d found the delicious marrow inside; at such times the dog was oblivious to anything but the job in hand. Justin was exhibiting the same behaviour and even when he did join them he always talked of the mystery he was trying to unravel. On these occasions, his parents merely politely agreed with whatever he said, aware that their mathematically gifted son wasn’t going to give up what they considered was a pointless exercise that prevented him from carrying out something useful. So, it was with surprise when, unlike any previous evening Justin had joined them for dinner, he said; Dad, Mum I’ve found a way to decode the message. I was right all along this isn’t some silly prank, although it may be a prank but it’s definitely not silly. The message is encoded in a really elegant way.

That’s good news dear, what does it say?

I’ve not actually decoded the message Mum, but I know there is a code and it follows from that there is something some unknown person wants to say to us. I just couldn’t see how these guys had encoded the message. OK, I know you were both convinced I was wasting my time but this was a challenge I just had to face up to. It was clear to me when I first saw the pattern that it was too elegant to be some sort of random design without a purpose. Heck, you realise what this means.

No son I don’t, but I guess you’re going to tell me.

Come off it Dad, surely you can see that if the crop circle in our village contains a message then maybe all the other circles that so mysteriously appear without anyone seeing them being created might also contain a message. Fred nodded in agreement but not sharing the optimism, or more correctly the interest his son had in the mystery of crop circles, merely replied; seems likely Justin but until you can tell us what this secret missive says I remain unconvinced there is anything more than the real mystery – I mean who created this thing in Jim Bacon’s field and why.

Elspeth was sympathetic to her son’s endeavour and being more interested asked; if you don’t know what the message is, how do you know it’s in code?

That’s a really good question Mum; then with an amused look at his father, who Justin considered to be one of the most astute people he knew, continued, I’m surprised you didn’t see the paradox in knowing there is a code Dad, but not being able to prove that it is a code by finding a message. Fred didn’t comment, but realising his wife had asked a hot button question looked expectantly at his son. It’s really straightforward, it’s all in the pattern – in other words if, in what at first appears to be a random structure, there is actually a logical relationship between the component parts of the circle then it’s likely the people, or whoever created it, wanted to impart information to whatever audience they were targeting.

Fred, not to be outdone by his wife’s question, made what he considered was the flaw in his son’s assertion; so you found the pattern isn’t random, but that doesn’t mean there is a message in there; an alternative view is that it’s merely an artistic design without meaning, although I suppose, just as those pictures the artist sees something of significance in, but most of us can’t, there could be something, but not in the sense of a message.

OK Dad your right but what you don’t know is the pattern I’ve found; look at a picture of the crop circle.

Interesting Justin, four circles on the outside and from there to the centre some sort of pattern.

The outer ring has fifteen characters with each character being either a π, β or Ω pattern. It took me sometime but I figured out these characters equate to a Ternary code, with the π representing ‘2’ β ‘1’ and Ω ‘0’."

I suppose that is a good guess son, so go on what value did you get?

It’s clear to you Fred, as your job is all about numbers, but this talk of a ternary code means nothing to me, will you explain Justin.

"OK Mum you must know about a binary code where a number can be defined as a sequence of ‘0’ and ‘1’. Well in a ternary code there are three instead of two states to represent a number, ‘0’, ‘1’ and ‘2’. Anyhow I’m convinced this pattern of fifteen characters is a ternary code because it decodes to 100021212100120 and turning this into a normal decimal number gives ‘4937775’.

Elspeth thought for a moment and then asked the crucial question – does that number have any meaning, because if it doesn’t surely there isn’t any point in assuming the pattern is a ternary code, is there?

Exactly, this is all very interesting but just finding a number, or should I say guessing that this pattern equates to that number, is pointless.

"I agree Dad, but this is the really interesting bit, the number 4937775 is the first ‘Smith number’ identified. Smith numbers were named by Albert Wilansky; he noticed a property in the phone number (493-7775) of his brother-in-law Harold Smith. Specifically, that the sum of the digits of the number equal the sum of the digits in the numbers prime factorisation – look at what I’ve written here:

The prime factors of 4937775 are = 3 x 5 x 5 x 65837,

While, 4 + 9 + 3 + 7 + 7 + 7 + + 5 = 3 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 5 + 8 + 3 + 7 = 42"

His parents seemed bemused by the description with Fred saying, I suppose this is interesting to you Justin as a mathematics genius but all you’re really saying is that you’ve found a sequence of numbers that can be shown to equal 42; I know 42 is considered a special number that crops up in many ways but that’s about it. So, unless you can make sense of this I suggest you spend your time on something useful.

Elspeth wasn’t convinced by her husband’s opinion, I don’t agree, it seems to me there is something worth investigating; but I’m in the camp that crop circles may well be supernatural and if that is the case Justin is on to something.

As I’m not a believer in the supernatural aspect of crop circles Elspeth I can’t agree with you, but I suppose I’m outvoted. What will you do next Justin?

Hold on Dad, I’ve only given you what I found in the outer circle, and I agree it’s all numbers, more work is needed to find real meaning in this. Anyhow, the second circle is structured like the outer one but this time the ternary number is a twelve-sequence code 212122112221; in decimal terms, this is 465505 - a number that doesn’t mean anything to me?"

Although it was still a set of numbers the decoding of the second circle seemed to increase Fred’s interest in the remainder of the circle, well son you’ve wetted our appetite, is there anything more of interest?

Before he had time to reply his mother interrupted, "you say this is a ‘Smith’ number Justin, whatever that is, but how