“It was more than we can comfortably afford to lose,” Mary told her. “He paid for renting the space and he paid for forty bottles of wine. He also gave some money to Todd and Ted towards the cost of the food.”
“Poor Stuart,” Janet murmured.
“And now he’s practically being accused of being involved in the theft,” Mary said.
“I’m sure that’s not the case,” Joan said.
“He’s been dragged down to the police station,” Mary told her. “And he’s the one who reported the problem.”
“Maybe you should start at the beginning,” Janet suggested.
“Why don’t we sit down with some tea and biscuits,” Joan said in a soothing voice.
“Yes, all right,” Mary said. She followed the sisters into the kitchen and sank down in the first chair she reached. Sighing deeply, she put her head in her hands and didn’t move until Joan put a teacup in front of her some minutes later.
“Here we are, then,” Joan said. “Tea and biscuits.”
Mary took a chocolate digestive and nibbled her way through it, with frequent sips of milky tea. When it was gone, she sat back and smiled weakly. “I needed that,” she said. “I didn’t get any breakfast.”
“I can make you some breakfast,” Joan offered.
“Oh, no, I can make do with some more biscuits,” Mary said. “I’m causing enough trouble as it is.”
“So what happened?” Janet asked, impatient to hear the story.
“I left the party early last night,” Mary said. “I had a headache and I wasn’t going to bid on anything anyway, so I didn’t stay long. Stuart rang when it was over to tell me that he was going to help with the tidying and taking down all of the decorations, and that he’d be home in an hour or so. I decided not to wait up for him.” She stopped and took another biscuit.
“They were still clearing up when we left,” Janet told her, mostly to fill the awkward silence as the woman ate.
“So I went to bed. Stuart came in about two hours later, exhausted but happy. They’d raised much more money than they’d hoped for, mostly due to some very wealthy businessmen from Derby who were invited by Fred Arnold, I gather.”
“They paid ridiculous prices for things,” Joan said. “We didn’t get a chance to buy anything at all.”
“But those are the kind of people you want at these sorts of events,” Mary said. “Stuart was just surprised that Fred knew so many people from Derby, and that they all came and spent money.”
“How much money was raised?” Janet asked.
“They didn’t count it all right away, but Stuart thought it was about twenty thousand pounds,” Mary said.
“Wow,” Janet said. “I knew things were selling for silly prices, but I didn’t think they’d made that much.”
“They made over a thousand pounds on ticket sales,” Mary said. “Stuart said two men got into a bidding war over the signed football and that it went for several thousand pounds in the end. Apparently some people made cash donations as well, during the evening.”
“They did have collection buckets scattered around the room,” Janet remembered. “I glanced in one and saw quite a few twenty pound notes. People were incredibly generous.”
“It was meant to be such a good cause,” Joan said.
“So what happened next?” Janet asked Mary.
“When Stuart got up this morning, he rang Norman. They were supposed to be meeting to do a proper count of the money and go over the publicity for Monday. When he rang, no one answered. He tried Julian, but he didn’t answer, either.”
“Oh, dear,” Janet said.
“Exactly. Stuart wasn’t too worried yet. They’d had a late night and both men are busy with other things, so he left messages for them both and left it for half an hour. When neither man rang back, he drove over to the hotel they were using in Derby.”
“They should have stayed here,” Janet muttered. “We’d have kept an eye on them.”
Mary nodded grimly. “That’s what I said,” she told Janet. “But they’d told Stuart they were staying at a big chain hotel in Derby. When Stuart got there, the hotel manager had never heard of either man. That’s when Stuart rang Robert Parsons.”
“But why do the police think someone local was involved?” Joan asked.
“Robert did some checking into Norman and Julian. Those aren’t their real names, of course. Apparently they’ve done this several times before. They start by finding a small community near a big city, then they recruit someone local who can help them set up a committee to plan the event. Once it’s all over, they pay their local accomplice a cut of the money before they disappear.”
“So one of the committee members was in on it the whole time?” Janet asked.
“That’s what Robert seems to think,” Mary said.
“Who set up the committee, then?” was Janet’s next question. “Surely that person is the one who’s behind it all.”
“Except it was Stuart who set up the committee,” Mary said softly.
“Oh, dear,” Janet exclaimed.
“Norman rang him up. He said he been given his name as someone who might be willing to help with a charitable fundraiser, and Stuart couldn’t say no,” Mary explained.
“Who gave Norman his name?” Janet asked.
“That’s just it, Stuart never asked and Norman never said,” Mary told her.
“Did Stuart pick the rest of the committee himself, or did he get names from Norman?” Joan wondered.
“Norman had a list with about five names on it,” Mary said. “A few people turned him down, but Alvin and Winifred agreed to help. Stuart asked Fred to join as well.”
“So Alvin or Winifred must be the local accomplice,” Janet said.
“Or maybe the local accomplice just gave Norman the names and didn’t even sit on the committee,” Joan suggested.
“Surely whoever it was would have wanted to be on the committee to keep an eye on how everything was going,” Janet said.
“As Robert explained it to Norman, the local man was responsible for pushing ticket sales, especially to wealthy business owners,” Mary said.
“Didn’t you say that Fred sold most of the tickets to the Derby area businessmen?” Joan asked.
“Yes, but he wasn’t on Norman’s list,” Mary said with a sigh.
“Poor Robert,” Janet said. “It looks as if it’s going to be a huge mess for him to untangle. I don’t suppose he’ll be able to track down Julian and Norman?”
“I doubt it,” Mary replied. “As far as Stuart knows, they disappeared as soon as the event was over. Robert is trying to get some fingerprints from somewhere, but no one can be sure what they touched or when.”
“They helped clear away the glasses, but we were all doing that. Robert can’t possibly take fingerprints off of every glass,” Janet mused.
“No, he’s working on some of the wine bottles, the ones that Norman and Julian supplied,” Mary said.
“I’m surprised you know so much about the investigation,” Janet said.
Mary flushed. “Stuart came home after he rang Robert. When Robert came to talk to him, I, um, overheard a lot of their conversation.”
“Stuart can’t be a serious suspect if Robert told him all about the previous cases,” Janet said. “He wouldn’t talk about them if he thought Stuart was the accomplice.”
“I hope you’re right,” Mary said. “After he and Stuart talked for a short while, he took Stuart down to the station. Why would he do that if he didn’t think Stuart was guilty?”
“He probably just needed to get a formal statement,” Joan said, patting Mary’s hand. “He’ll probably interview all of the committee members at the station. No matter who he thinks is behind it all, he’ll want to be seen to be treating them all the same.”
Mary nodded. “I suppose you’re right,” she said. “But it’s incredibly worrying.”
“Of course it is,” Janet said. “But we all know Stuart didn’t do anything w
rong. Robert can talk to us if he has any doubts about the man.”
“I’ll tell Stuart,” Mary said. “I just hope he gets home soon.” She got to her feet. “Thank you for your kindness,” she said. “I really appreciate it.”
Janet walked her to the door while Joan tidied the kitchen. “Let us know if we can do anything,” she told Mary. “And if you hear anything interesting.”
“I’d like to hear that Julian and Norman, whatever they’re really called, have been arrested,” Mary said. “But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“I’m sure Robert will do his best,” Janet said. “I hope he finds the local accomplice quickly. I hate the thought that someone on that committee was helping to deceive us all.”
Mary nodded. Janet watched as the woman walked down the steps and then across the road. Sighing deeply, Janet pushed the door shut and walked back into the kitchen. To her surprise, Joan was sitting at the table, the tea things still spread across it.
“What’s wrong?” Janet asked.
“I hate that we were duped,” Joan said. “And I hate that we helped those men trick our friends, as well.”
Janet sat down and helped herself to a custard cream. “I can’t believe we sold all of those tickets for them,” she said between bites. “I thought we were helping fight cancer, not funding two con men.”
“I wish I knew a way to help Robert with the investigation,” Janet said.
“I imagine he’ll want to talk to us at some point,” Joan told her. “We were involved with the event, after all.”
“So was he,” Janet pointed out. “He was there, providing security so that no one stole the money before it could be stolen.”
Joan nodded. “He’s probably upset with himself for not suspecting anything.”
“I hadn’t thought of that. Poor Robert. He will be blaming himself, won’t he?”
“If he does come to talk to us about it, we’ll have to try to make him feel better about it,” Joan said.
She got her opportunity that afternoon. Both sets of guests had arrived and then gone back out again. Janet was playing with Aggie and a ball of string when Robert knocked on their door.
“Ah, I’m glad you’re home,” he said when Janet let him in. “I’ve been running all over Doveby Dale and Little Burton trying to find people today.”
“We’re here,” Janet said brightly. “What can we do for you?”
“If you can spare a cuppa, let’s start there,” the man replied.
Joan had already switched the kettle on when Janet and Robert walked into the kitchen. “How are you?” Joan asked in a concerned voice.
“A bit frustrated with myself,” the man admitted. “I should have been suspicious of those two, but I did do some checking on them and everything looked legitimate.”
“They were very clever,” Janet said.
“From what I can tell, they have the whole thing down to a system,” Robert told her as Joan set a plate of biscuits on the table. He helped himself before continuing. “I’ve found five other reports from around the country of this sort of thing. I think our Norman and Julian were responsible for three of them and they may have been involved in a fourth as well.”
“It seems a profitable enterprise,” Janet said.
“Oh, extremely,” Robert agreed. “They find a small village that’s close enough to a city where wealthy businessmen can be found, and then they find a local accomplice who wants or needs some extra cash. They get a committee together and the committee ends up doing all of the work and paying for nearly everything along the way, so the event itself is pure profit for the pair of them.”
“And you think they had a local accomplice here?” Janet asked.
“I think they must have,” Robert said. “They need local knowledge. They need to know who to put on their committee. Someone from Doveby Dale or Little Burton helped them. I don’t think I’ll be able to track down Norman and Julian, but I’m determined to work out who helped with their fraud.”
Janet frowned. “It must have been one of the committee members, mustn’t it?”
“I’m fairly sure it was,” Robert agreed. “But which one?”
“Not Stuart,” Joan said firmly.
Robert nodded. “He’s last on my list,” he told them. “And he’s only on the list because he has to be there. I know Stuart well enough to know that he’d never do something like this. But that leaves three other men. I don’t know any of them at all.”
“We don’t know them, either,” Janet said. “Although I’m trying to get to know Winifred Godfrey. That isn’t going well, though.”
“Should I ask why?” Robert asked.
Janet chuckled. “Why isn’t it going well or why do I want to get to know him?” She shook her head. “He’s a local historian and I’m trying to find out more about Alberta Montgomery. Unfortunately, he never rings me back when I ring him. Maybe he’ll be more accessible now that the fundraiser is over.”
“Surely the accomplice now has a large amount of unexplained cash,” Joan said thoughtfully. “Can you search their homes or check their bank accounts?”
Robert shook his head. “All four men have offered to let me search their homes,” he told her. “Which suggests to me that I’d be wasting my time. Bank records are another matter, but I doubt very much that our accomplice will put the money in the bank. He may simply use the money to fund a slightly more comfortable lifestyle for himself. It will be unnoticeable if he starts buying better quality shoes and more expensive cuts of meat using the cash he has stashed away.”
“Surely whoever it was will want to buy himself something wonderful with his windfall,” Janet argued. “I know I would.”
“We’ll be watching for that, obviously,” Robert said. “But I’m really hoping to catch him before he has a chance to spend the money.”
Chapter 8
The sisters told Robert everything that they knew about the committee, including what they’d overheard at the meeting that had been held at Doveby House. Then he took them through the decorating and the event itself, taking careful notes on what they told him. When they were finished, he shook his head.
“Obviously, I’ve rung several of my counterparts in the Cornwall area. No one knows of any upcoming charity events. I didn’t really think they’d have given away their next destination, but it was worth checking,” he told the women.
“So, what do you do now?” Janet asked.
“I’ve questioned all of the committee members once,” he replied. “I shall have them back in for additional questions on Monday. I may have an associate from the Derby Fraud division sit in with me. Beyond that, I’ll be keeping an eye on the four men, watching for any unusual behaviour.”
“If we can help in any way, please let us know,” Janet said as she walked the man to the door.
“I will do,” he promised. “I would prefer it if you’d stay away from the suspects, though.”
Janet shrugged. “I won’t go looking for them,” she told him. “But we do see Stuart quite regularly.”
Robert nodded. “And I don’t mind you spending time with him,” he said. “As I said, he’s last on my list of suspects. But please don’t go looking for the others. I worry about you and your tendency to want to help.”
“We have guests at the moment,” Janet told him. “I won’t have time to wander over to Little Burton to find anyone. If Winifred does get in touch, I promise to limit our conversation to Alberta.”
“I suppose that will have to do,” Robert said with a smile.
Janet watched as he walked down to his car and got inside. As the car disappeared towards the main road, Janet started to push the door shut. Movement on the other side of the street caught her eye. Stuart had emerged from his house and he was walking quickly towards her. She watched as he crossed the road and hurried up the pavement to the house.
“I thought he’d never leave,” he said, slightly out of breath from the pace he’d set.
&n
bsp; “Would you like to come in?” Janet asked.
“Yes, please,” he replied, glancing behind himself nervously.
Janet stepped back to let him inside and then shut and locked the door behind them. “Come on through to the kitchen,” she suggested. “We can have tea and biscuits.”
Stuart followed Janet into the kitchen. Joan looked at her sister and then switched the kettle on yet again. Janet shrugged. It wasn’t her fault that they’d had so many guests today.
“How are you?” Janet asked Stuart as she put the plate of biscuits in front of him.
“Terrible,” he said. “And before I say anything else, I need to apologise to you both. I’m sorry that I got you involved in the fundraiser. I’m sorry you bought tickets and I’m sorry you put in so much of your time and effort to make it a special night. I never should have trusted those two. I could kick myself for being taken in and dragging so many others with me.”
“You mustn’t feel that way,” Janet said soothingly. “They were very good at what they did.”
“They were terrible at arranging things,” Stuart pointed out. “They left everything to the committee, including the things they promised they would handle.”
“Which was very clever of them,” Janet pointed out. “You might have worried more if they’d been slick and professional, and by having the committee do everything, they didn’t have to pay for anything.”
“Let’s not talk about that,” Stuart moaned. “Mary was furious when she found out how much I’d spent on the event. Norman promised to pay me back once the dust settled, but now I’m out a lot of money.”
“At least we just lost out on some of our time,” Janet said.
“And the money for tickets,” Stuart said.
“The event did happen, so I suppose we got what we paid for with the tickets,” Janet replied. “Even if the money didn’t go where it was meant to go.”
“It all feels unreal,” Stuart told them. “If I weren’t caught in the middle of it, I wouldn’t believe it. I keep thinking now of all the things that should have made me suspicious, like them asking for cash, but I was so busy planning everything that I never gave it any thought.”
The Jackson Case Page 6