“Yes you asked me to come round remember”
Hugh shook his head as though he didn’t remember.
“You said you needed my help”
Like a light bulb going on in his head Hugh all of a sudden remembered the phone call he made just before Isobel arrived.
“Yes I remember now but I didn’t expect you to come over so soon. Because you were shouting at me when I suggested it I thought you would come around later in the week”
Hugh said this with a surprised expression on his face. He knew from experience his father would never rush over to see him no matter what the circumstances.
Just then Mills re-entered the room and the conversation ceased. He seemed to be carrying more documents in a folder and Newton wasted no time in letting his feelings be known once again.
“Can I assume you have come to tell us that my son is innocent and you have made progress in arresting someone for this”
Mills nodded his head and looked at Philip Newton.
“Maybe but first I would like to have a chat with you without the presence of Hugh”
Both the Newton’s and their lawyers looked confused as Mills asked the officer on the door to escort Hugh back to the interview room so he could be alone with Newton and his lawyer.
“May I ask what is going on now?” asked Newton his face telling Mills he was reaching boiling point.
“Yes sir we have some disturbing and incriminating evidence which might clear your son and help us catch the suspect”
Chapter 19
If Rachel Stewart thought her life had taken a turn for the worse, things were about to get darker and not just for her but for her father as well. It had taken four hours to get to London on the train and when she arrived at her father’s offices it took a few minutes for her to find him. People in suits rushed past her carrying boxes of papers and files. In another room some members of staff she recognised were being interviewed, some by the police and some by guys in suits. There amongst the chaos was her father Malcolm Stewart. His normal arrogant self-had been subdued somewhat as in one hand he held his phone and the other was rubbing his forehead vigorously. His sleeves were rolled up and his shirt was undone as Rachel approached him not really wanting to ask what the hell was going on. A glance in her direction but no acknowledgement was all she received as Stewart tried to hold the conversation on the phone and talk to his lawyers who were questioning the people in suits every time they picked something up.
Rachel took it on herself to ask one of them who they were and what they were doing.
“Can I ask who you are madam?”
“Yes I am Mr Stewarts’ daughter”
“Right well Rachel where do we start? Over there we have the fraud squad, in that room over there we have the inland revenue and those guys over there, myself included are from the metropolitan police. If you have any more questions come and see me”
“Why are you all here?” Rachel asked as the guy walked away with a box in his hand.
The guy stood and looked at Rachel with an almost sympathetic expression on his face as well as one of bemusement.
“You really don’t know why we are here?”
“No I really don’t”
“Well I think you need to have a chat with your father because he may be going away for a long time”
All Rachel could do was cup her hand over her mouth to try and hide the disbelief and shock that was now paralysing her whole body. Why was all this happening to her and her father and more to the point why was it all happening on the same day? Before she arrived here her life lay in ruins but now it seemed to be sinking into a dark hole to which there seemed to be no obvious way out. Normally her father would laugh at such events as these because he knew people in high places who would sort it out, but this seemed beyond the point of any help. This was real and to Rachel her father looked almost unrecognisable as he watched his life’s work being taken from him. She was gripped by fear as she approached him but was desperate to find out why this was happening to them and why he was not his normal arrogant self.
“What’s going on” Rachel asked shaking her head.
“They have been investigating me for the last year or two watching everything and digging up things from the past. I can’t see any way back from this”
“What about the people you know? Surely they can………”
“Some of them are looking at it for me but they will turn the other way if there is any sign of it involving them………….which it obviously does”
Rachel wanted to offer encouragement but didn’t know what to say. She watched as another guy in a suit approached them both and he looked like he meant business.
“Mr Stewart I officially have to warn you that you are under investigation so I would advise against leaving the country. We will be in touch one way or another and how soon will depend on what we find. At the moment it does not look good so like I said stay close to home”
“Yeah…..that’s if I still have a home”
“Dad what do you mean?”
“Come on let’s go” said Stewart as they made their way to the car park.
They left the city and headed for Hertfordshire where the Stewart home was. Most of the journey was taken up with awkward silences as both of them kept their nightmare and life changing events to themselves. Eventually they reached the house and as they both sat at the dining table in the kitchen Rachel could not hold back the tears. At the same time she tried to remain positive but knew her father was hiding something from her.
“Maybe it’s just a mistake. Maybe they won’t find anything”
Malcolm Stewart looked at his daughter with some fondness probably for the first time in years. He knew something bad had happened to her and that was the reason she was here but she still remained determined to not let the family suffer. He realised he had to be honest with her and tell her everything he thought she could cope with.
“You know me well enough to know I don’t take defeat very well”
Rachel nodded in agreement.
“Well what you saw today at the office was just a formality. I knew the firm was going down months ago but stupidly I refused to believe it. It was my own fault for not keeping a closer eye on what my staff were up to. Too many mistakes were made and it only takes one thing to go wrong to make the Inland Revenue uneasy. Myself and a few of my larger clients was being investigated for fraud and some major discrepancies but they don’t just look back a few years into the accounts with a company like mine they look into every year and not only my accounts but every one of my clients accounts. I will spare you the details but let’s just say we didn’t get all this by being honest and running a legitimate accountancy firm. Some of our clients along with myself were funding things we should not have been funding abroad and skimming money from our major clients”
Rachel held her head in her hands and struggled to accept what her father was involved in.
“When did it start?”
Stewart stared out of the window as he spoke because he could not look his daughter in the eye and admit to being a criminal.
“It all started years ago, not long after I had started the company. The aftermath that resulted in my first attempt at skimming off a client should have put me off but it didn’t”
Stewart seemed visibly distressed which took Rachel by surprise. Her father never showed any sign of weakness but it seemed now his past was catching up with him and the taste of remorse was bitter in his mouth.
“Who was it?”
Stewart shook his head and took a deep breath as though even now it was hard to admit what he had done. Rachel also took a breath and waited for the explanation.
“At the time he was a good friend, which looking back probably made it easier but I don’t know why that is. He ran a successful company that was bringing in a couple of million a year and he paid me well to run his accounts. We became good friends, not best friend’s just good friends and he was a good man with a lovely wife and kid
s. I don’t know, perhaps it was the trust I was given but it was just so easy take from him whatever, whenever. I suppose I got greedy and whatever I took was never enough. Then I could have prevented something that I have buried for years until a few months ago when for some reason it all came back to me. Another one of my clients, even bigger than Chevaals company was also screwing him over. They were holding back his money and we were not talking hundreds of thousands we were talking millions. I found out he was an even bigger criminal than I could ever become and had the big oil companies such as BP and Esso backing him. Again I became greedy and became very good friends with him, helped him screw the taxman over by changing a few things and moving decimal points etc. When I found out he was withholding money from Sleeve Fit which was Chevaal’s company I became worried but then realised I was backing the wrong horse. So I wouldn’t lose out financially I jumped on board with someone you know quite well Rachel”
Rachel was taken by surprise that she had been included in her father’s reminiscing and just looked at him blankly.
“Philip Newton Rachel, Hugh’s father. That’s who I am tied in with and who I have earned my money off. I scratch his back and he scratches mine except I do more scratching than he does”
“The newton’s, God I know you are friends but not this”
“I found out what he was like a long, long time ago but I just couldn’t walk away. Newton and his company Rig-Works decided the time to sell the majority of the shares was getting ever nearer so they would sponge as much off the little companies as possible, Sleeve Fit included”
Stewart paused for a second as though he was re- living the days that were now haunting him.
“Both Newton and I skimmed and took from the smaller companies who trusted us until it pushed someone over the edge. All of a sudden Edward Chevaal realised he didn’t have as much money as he thought when he decided to use his emergency accounts to pay for work that would have sorted his debt out, a debt being caused by Newton. I watched as he begged and pleaded with the banks to extend his loans, I stood by as the Inland Revenue investigated his accounts and found out he owed millions, millions that I had taken from him. Then I watched a man being driven to despair, a man who just wanted the best for his family but was now being threatened to have everything taken away from him and his family suffer the indignity of being nearly destitute”
“What happened?” asked Rachel still wondering why her dad was telling her all this.
“Nobody actually knows what happened inside his head that day but…………..well let’s just say he sorted it out his way”
“What do you mean?”
“If he couldn’t keep what was rightfully his then nobody else was getting it. On the eve of the family house being taken along with everything they owned he set fire to it all, burning the place to the ground…….”
Rachel gasped, interrupting her father.
“…………………but not before killing his wife and daughter, trying to kill his son then killing his self”
Rachel’s sympathy for her father was now less than what it was before he had started the story and as much as she tried to understand and comprehend what he had done, she couldn’t.
“Why are you telling me all this……..why?” cried Rachel.
“So you don’t make the same mistakes as me. When you get something good in life appreciate it and don’t get too bloody greedy and end up with a conscience filled with regret”
At that Rachel broke down in tears and hid her face with her hands.
“I’m trying to help you Rachel……”
“It’s too late…..it’s too late” she shouted.
As she attempted to leave the kitchen her father grabbed her determined to get the message across but it was too late for that.
“Let me go…..get off me you’re too late”
“No it’s not too late”
“It is too late. I came down here for your help but now I realise it’s just the way we are. Is that why mum left you?”
“Don’t say that Rachel it wasn’t like that”
“I came down here because I have nothing left back in Hereford”
“What?”
“Yes that’s right because I also got greedy like you and thought there was something better out there than Keith. I went with someone else behind his back because my vision was full of pound signs. I wasn’t happy with what I had and wanted better but ended up hurting the only person who really loved me for who I was. Now I have nothing except the realisation that perhaps this is who we are. The Stewarts, never happy unless our bank accounts are full and it doesn’t matter what we do to get it”
Rachel stormed off upstairs to where she knew a room for her would be. The door slammed shut as Malcolm Stewart sat back down at the table and pondered on where his life would go from here. He poured himself a whiskey and knocked it straight back as the room gradually got darker. The sound of footsteps could be heard across the kitchen floor and he turned to see his daughter dressed in her pyjamas. She held out her arms to him and they embraced.
“We will talk some more in the morning. I’m going to try and get some sleep”
“Ok! See you in the morning”
Stewart poured himself another glass of whiskey, gulped it back then himself headed upstairs to bed. The struggle to sleep was long but eventually it came. Dreams and visions came and went until a vision of a man stood over him scared him enough to wake suddenly. Paranoia had Stewart looking around the room for someone who wasn’t there. His head rested back onto the pillow and his eyes closed to search for sleep once again.
The figure appeared again except this time it was real as Stewart felt a strong hand placed over his mouth and nose, then the strong smell of chemicals filled his nostrils until his world went black as he passed out. Then the figure seemingly with no effort waited for the muffled struggle to finish then picked Stewart up out of bed and placed him over his shoulder. Calmly the figure then carried him down the stairs and through to the kitchen, out quietly through the back door and into the garage that was situated about thirty yards from the house. Once there he was placed inside his Jaguar car whilst the intruder set everything up in time for Stewart to wake up.
The strong smelling salts meant Stewart woke with a start and took a few minutes to gather his bearings.
“What the hell is going on?” he mumbled as he realised he was sat in his car in just his boxer shorts and a tee-shirt.
“Here take this” said the figure as he tipped a tiny drop of liquid on his finger and placed it in Stewart’s mouth.
Within seconds and half way through an attempted tirade of abuse towards the figure, Stewart’s speech slowed and he became paralysed, his eyes bulging with anger and fear. The figure watched
as he tried to grab the steering wheel but his arms lifted only a few inches before they dropped again.
“It’s ok don’t try and panic. I have given you a paralysing drug to make sure you don’t disturb the lovely Rachel and it will wear off soon enough. That was quite a speech you made to her in there and I must admit I never thought I would hear a man of your calibre admit to such things so please let me commend you. Of course this is now and what happened was a long time ago so you could say it is long overdue and of no real significance”
Stewart’s eyes were red with rage as his mind told him to do something about what was happening to him but his body was incapable. The struggle in his eyes was evident as the figure picked a bottle of Stewart’s whiskey off the garage floor and opened it. The figure then poured it carefully into the mouth of his victim and held his nose to make sure he swallowed it.
“You’re probably feeling slightly drunk already and that is because you have already had a third of a bottle. I suppose I should introduce myself because it feels wrong that I know so much about you and yet you know nothing about me. Well my name is Connor Chevaal, son of Edward and nearly thirty years ago you helped drive my father to kill his family, my mother and sister,
then burn almost everything he owned”
Malcolm Stewart stared at the figure he now knew to be Connor Chevaal, the son of Edward and the anger in his eyes turned to intrigue. He had started to feel the effects of the alcohol but knew just by looking at him that the figure in front of him was the son of Edward Chevaal. He closed his eyes in resignation and when he opened them a tear could be seen forming in his eye. Straining his eyes to see what Connor was doing brought a look of horror onto his face as Connor opened the electric window to leave just a small gap then Stewart watched as he pushed a hose pipe through the gap then disappeared behind him.
“You might need some more of this” said Connor as he poured another few mouthfuls of the bottle into him and watched as he struggled to swallow it all.
LUCIFER'S ANGEL Page 16