R C S Hutching

Hurricane Enigma R C S Hutching

At first the flickering of flames in the darkness was barely noticeable and any sound almost undetectable to the human ear. The creatures of the night were the first to sense the danger and a scurrying, slithering, exodus began. Predators and their natural prey ignored each other in their desire to escape the most feared of all natural enemies. Slowly but remorselessly, the hungry flames spread, feeding on an ever increasing area of combustible matter. The heat radiated outwards and the more susceptible, dryer items began to spontaneously ignite. Glass cracked and shattered, soft materials smouldered and we're swiftly consumed. Persistent rain during those early hours of the morning combined with the isolated nature of the building meant that the conflagration went undetected for a considerable time. Far too long, in fact, for there to be anything worth saving from the blackened, smouldering shell which remained. Once the fire brigade had done it's belated, but ultimately futile, best to suppress the blaze, the examination of the ruined building and devastated garden area was possible. For thirty years, the shell of the house stood, abandoned, and slowly decaying - a forlorn sight amidst the relentlessly encroaching weeds. How it featured in the mysterious disappearance of a Spanish Air Force bomber in July 1944 was only one of the puzzles faced by former flyers Colin Medhurst and Billy Hagen when letters apparently written by a dead man came to light in 1974.