The Reckless Engineer

by Jac Wright

  Poor guy never recovered from that chill he caught.

  Jeremy picked up Harry’s call.

  ‘Our second bomb has exploded as expected,’ Harry said with the assured calm of a strategist who knew what he was doing.

  ‘Where are you? We’re still going to Jack’s hearing today, right?’

  ‘Of course we are. I’m driving to the now famous McAllen-Connor mansion as we speak. This is going to be an interesting pre-trial hearing with six other suspects arrested and currently in custody for the same murder, not to mention Peter and Marianne who have been questioned and released on police bail.’

  ‘I’m just leaving my hotel in Portsmouth and I should be there at Jack’s in an hour. I need to leave Jack’s hearing in the afternoon though. I have to go in with Sally Trotter to her Section 2 Appeal hearing applying to be discharged from the hospital. I promised Alan I would be there.’

  ‘Okay, I’ll let you get on the road. See you soon at Jack’s.’

  Harry hung up.

  Jeremy dropped Annie on the pier close to The Royal Atlantic, out of sight from the paparazzi mobbing the hotel, and headed towards the McAllen mansion breaking all the speed limits. The media crew at the McAllen gates was bigger than at the hotel, possibly because they knew not only of the “the stunning billionaire heiress Caitlin McAllen’s arrest” along with her “handsome lover, Gavin Hunter,” but also of the impending pre-trial proceeding to commence jury selection for the prosecution of “the good-looking millionaire philanderer Jack Connor.” Jeremy noted that Jack had been downgraded from “handsome” to “good looking” after Gavin Hunter’s arrival on the media scene.

  Jeremy drove past the mob gathered outside the McAllen mansion gates, pulled up to the curb a block further down, and walked along the path next to the mansion to the side gates though with Félipé let him in. The lad led him to the front reception where Jack and Harry were locked in discussion, Harry briefing Jack on the hearing due to start at eleven and to continue through the afternoon. Harry had driven his Mercedes straight through the main gates past the press and the crowds.

  ‘Jeremy, did you know how and when this bloody Gavin Hunter got involved? I will bloody smash his face in. I bet he killed Michelle and framed me. And now he wants to steal my wife. I was told he was a bloody labourer, but they say he is “an engineer and an entrepreneur” already worth millions at thirty-seven. And I have to first hear that my wife’s been sleeping with this guy in the national news!’

  ‘Nobody knew Jack. I heard it was a public tip off,’ Jeremy lied, winking at Harry over Jack’s shoulder. ‘At least you gave Caitlin the courtesy of hearing it all via an anonymous letter,’ he joked.

  ‘I shall ask for full disclosure of the circumstances of these arrests at the earliest opportunity, Jack, and then you can know. Magnus Laird and Tim Brown are with Caitlin and her dad; they should know more about what’s going on. We are relying on the police to disclose all the information they discover from interviewing the suspects and searching their premises in due course.’

  Harry looked at his watch. ‘It’s 9:20. We have to leave right now to get to the courthouse on time.’

  Jeremy walked out through the side gates and up the path again. As he approached the main road reporters and their camera crew surrounded him, shouting questions. Was he with Jack Connor’s solicitors? What did he know about the involvement of Caitlin and Douglas McAllen in the murder? Was the whole family being charged for conspiring together to kill Michelle?

  ‘I am only a family friend. No further comments.’

  Jeremy pushed through the mob to get to his car, turned it around, pulled onto the curb and waited for Harry to drive on ahead of him. Harry stopped the car at the gates, got out, and made a statement to the reporters. Jack was sitting in the passenger seat rejecting requests to make a comment. Once Harry was in front, he got in line behind him and they headed towards the Portsmouth Crown Court.

  They parked on a side street by the courts and waited for the hearing to approach. At 10:40 they headed to the court in the same car, Jeremy driving Harry’s Mercedes. Jeremy dropped Jack and Harry off at the front of the Crown Court building into a sea of people from the media. He parked the Mercedes in a secure parking lot a few blocks away and walked back to the court building.

  By the time he got through the crowds into the courtroom Jack and Harry were seated on the defence benches ready for the hearing, Harry wigged and cloaked in keeping with the solemn attire and the awesome spectacle that was the Crown Court. Jack was still coughing. The courtroom was packed with the press who had set up cameras and other equipment wherever they were allowed.

  Jeremy walked to the defence benches they were occupying and sat behind Jack and Harry. Harry barely had time to turn around and whisper to him that the prosecution had informed him they would be applying for an eight week adjournment of the pre-trial hearing in order to complete the investigations pertaining to the recent arrests in the case, when the clerk announced Judge Morgan to the courtroom.

  ‘All stand.’

  As they obliged, Jack suddenly doubled over, coughing and groaning in pain and holding the left side of his torso. Jeremy leaned over and helped him sit back down.

  ‘Is the defendant okay, Mr. Stavers? I hope this is not one of your delaying strategies.’

  ‘No, your honour, but please excuse me while I confer with my client.’

  Harry bent down to them. It was Jack’s ribs that had cracked from Sally’s kicking him and digging her three-inch heel into his side on the day she was hospitalized. He explained they had never really healed due to re-injury at the last hearing and from the violent coughing from the chest infection, and that the ribs were injured again that morning from a camera or some equipment jutting into his side when they were caught in the crowds during the walk to the courtroom.

  Harry stood up and explained the situation to the court.

  ‘Your Honour, we are keen to proceed with this hearing if you would allow my client to remain seated with us.’

  ‘The defendant may remain seated if you are satisfied he is in a fit enough state, Mr. Stavers. However, I advise that you get him some proper medical attention during the recess.’

  ‘Thank you, Your Honour. I shall.’

  ‘I understand that the prosecution has an application this morning, Mr. Davis?’

  As the court proceeded with its business Jeremy leaned over to Jack. ‘I have some ibuprofen, a painkiller and an anti-inflammatory agent, in my inner coat pocket. Let me get them for you.’

  Jeremy reached inside the secret inner pocket of his jacket and felt through the papers he had in there. The painkillers were at the bottom and he had to take the papers out to reach them. As he did so the papers fell onto the floor and on his lap. He finally reached the ibuprofen and handed four tablets to Jack with a plastic cup of water.

  Jeremy bent down to pick up the fallen papers—several photos of Skull’s flat he had taken with his mobile just before leaving, the letter to Michelle from Caitlin, Caitlin’s divorce proposal to Jack, Caitlin’s email to Gavin . . . As he scanned through the documents he froze, suddenly stunned.

  ‘We are not opposed to the adjournment, Your Honour,’ Harry was continuing with the proceedings. ‘However, the prosecution has eight other suspects, six of whom are currently in custody—Mr. Douglas McAllen, Mr. Anton Reilly alias Skull, my client’s wife, Mrs. Caitlin McAllen-Connor, Mr. Gavin Hunter, Mr. Kevin Cossack, and Mr. Cyrus Levent—all arrested on suspicion for the murder of Michelle Williams independent of my client. Moreover, my client’s ex-wife and son, Marianne and Peter Connor, have also been arrested, questioned, and released on bail. I should like to point out that the prosecution and Officer Edwards apparently have more than a reasonable doubt about my client’s guilt.’

  Harry paused and flipped through his papers for effect.

  ‘I should like to make two applications at this point. Given the extended period of time my client now has to suffer the prosecut
ions’ doubt, that he be spared the trauma of home detention tagging for this extended duration. He is no more of a flight risk than the other eight suspects.’

  ‘Mr. Davis?’

  ‘Might I have two minutes to confer with my officers judge?’

  Jeremy seized the moment to catch Harry’s attention and discuss the new idea and the strategy he had in mind.

  Soon Carl Davis re-started the proceedings. ‘We are agreed on granting Mr. Connor bail, but we are opposed to the removal of home detention tagging at this point. We assess Mrs. Marianne Connor to be a less of a flight risk than Mr. Connor because of her closer maternal ties to her children, for instance; and she has not got the means that Mr. Connor has to take the whole family and run. However, we are happy for the court to reconsider this application when the investigation and the processing of the people currently in custody will have been completed. They have just been arrested due to some, er, unusually remarkable, detailed, and, er, conveniently timed cooperation from the public.’

  Carl Davis paused and glared suspiciously at Harry, and then continued.

  ‘But they are still being investigated as collaborators or accessories in this murder at this point,’ he lied. He fucking lied! Well, it wasn’t going to matter. ‘We shall have a clearer picture at the end of our current lines of investigation, in about four weeks’ time, at which point we might be looking at setting the bail conditions, or granting no bail as the case may be, for the other suspects also.’

  ‘I am satisfied to grant Mr. Connor bail on home detention curfew to the next date this hearing is adjourned to, and which date it is I have to determine next. The Court will reconsider this application on that day, Mr. Stavers. Mr. Davis, you say your officers will need four weeks with the lines of investigation you have ongoing?’

  ‘Yes, but we estimate I shall need at least two more weeks to assess the information and prepare for the next hearing.’

  ‘Yes, Mr. Stavers?’

  ‘Your Honour, it is abundantly clear, particularly from the prosecution’s submission, if the prosecutor has in fact been truthful, that the suspects’ cases are tied closely to my client’s defence; that the information from the interviews and the searches of these eight suspects are directly linked to the defence of my client and the applications to be heard again at the next hearing. We might even have grounds to make an application to dismiss the charges against Jack Connor. The prosecution is yet to disclose even the full forensics reports on the scene of the crime. We also therefore ask for full disclosure, both of used and unused material from the interviews and searches on the eight other suspects by the next hearing.’

  ‘I agree, and might I add, what a mess, Mr. Stavers,’ Judge Morgan nodded at Harry over his specs worn well down on his nose and continued. ‘The prosecution shall serve full disclosure on the crime scene forensics reports and the eight other suspects—Ms. Marianne Connor, Mr. Peter Connor, Mrs. Caitlin McAllen-Connor, Mr. Douglas McAllen, Mr. Gavin Hunter, Mr. Anton Reilly AKA Skull, Mr. Kevin Cossack, and Mr. Cyrus Levent—on the defence attorneys within six weeks from today. This will include all used and unused material from the searches, interviews, and investigations. I shall give the defence two more weeks to consider the evidence and this hearing is hereby adjourned to no less than eight weeks from today.’

  Judge Morgan then turned to the clerk while Harry turned around to continue the urgent discussion with Jeremy. ‘Now do we have the court calendar, Mr. Jones? Is anything the matter, Mr. Stavers?’

  Jeremy paused. He hadn’t realized how loud they had got.

  ‘Er, could we have a short recess to confer with the prosecution and DCI Edwards, Your Honour?’ Harry addressed the judge.

  Davis and Edwards turned and stared at Harry, along with the rest of the courtroom.

  ‘The court is about to conclude this hearing for today. What is the reason for this recess, Mr. Stavers?’

  Harry stood up tall.

  ‘The reason is, Judge Morgan, that we know who murdered Michelle Williams, and it is not my client. And we might have the evidence to prove it.’

  The whole court stared in silence for a minute as if someone had just blown into a beehive, before a loud buzz arose from the benches occupied by the media at the back of the courtroom.

  ‘Silence in my court!’

  Judge Morgan rapped his gavel on the bench.

  ‘Mr. Stavers, Mr. Davis, Inspector Edwards, see me in my chambers with the defendant at once. This case is adjourned to a date to be determined by the court.’

  ‘All stand.’

  Judge Morgan was already on his way out by the time the clerk announced the conclusion of the session.

  Harry held Jeremy by his elbow as they finished their discussion.

  ‘Jack and I will go in and handle this meeting in Judge Morgan’s chambers, Jeremy. I know that you need to leave for Sally’s Section 2 appeal hearing. We shall reconnect after the hearings.’

  Knowing he was running late, Jeremy waded through a sea of loud and excited reporters firing questions at him. Behind him, he heard the clerk call court security to accompany Harry and Jack, who was in severe pain, safely into Judge Morgan’s chambers.

  CHAPTER 40

  The Four Years Before

  Sally had arrived in England four years ago with great expectations. Her dad had moved his family from Perth to London for the duration of his PhD and postdoctoral research in Architectural Design at the University of London when he was young, and Sally had been almost four years old when they had left for Sydney. The earliest childhood memories Sally had were of happy times in England and of fun-filled family trips to the continent. She had been lucky, for her time growing up as an only child in the suburbs of Sydney and her time at University of Sydney reading for her bachelor’s degree and then for her PhD in Electrical Engineering had also been full of happy memories. She had met Dale Thomas, then a student of architecture in her dad’s class, at a campus event. Six years later they’d been married.

  The first unhappiness Sally had ever known had come about a year and a half after they had been married when Dale had suggested that she take about five years off work to start and raise a family. Sally had not been able to imagine living without the engineering work she loved. Then the fights had started. The end had come when something in Dale had snapped and he had kicked and punched her over and over while she had been hunched into a bundle on the floor.

  Sally had crawled out of the house and called an ambulance. After treatment and being fitted with a neck brace she had gone straight back to her parents’ house.

  They had divorced when Sally was twenty-nine. The divorce and the separation of marital assets had been the only thing that had proceeded without a fight in exchange for not pressing charges. With money in the bank Sally had decided to flee the unhappiness by setting out to travel back to the land of her happy childhood memories. And so she had come to be standing on the arrivals concourse of Heathrow Airport on an overcast day in April four years ago.

  Sally spent the first six months purely on travel, exploring Europe using London as her base. She loved discovering European cities—especially Rome, Florence, Vienna, and Paris. It took six months for her to start missing her work again. It began nagging her like a stone in her shoe with every step she travelled. And so she sat down at her laptop in her London flat and applied for engineering jobs.

  It was Jack Connor and Alan Walters who interviewed her at Marine. She wanted the job not only because the engineering work sounded superb and she felt an instant rapport with both Alan and Jack, but also because she fell in love with the Portsmouth seas at first sight. Sally started work, along with Jeremy Stone two weeks later, the newest engineers in Jack’s Radar Imaging team.

  Her need for balance of work and play satisfied, Sally now lived for the weekends again. True England had no mountains of massive heights tall enough to form snow-caps, and the lack of height in the land made a few rivers with rapid descents that formed many waterfalls o
r exciting white waters to raft through. However, what excitement she missed from the climbs and falls over land, she made up for by discovering the waves of the Portsmouth seas. She joined the sailing club in Port Solent and discovered wind surfing. Whatever wonders she missed of desert sands, winds, and bush creatures, she made up for by discovering European cities that gave up to her the secrets and treasures they hid in beautiful architectures, mysterious curiosity shops, and cobbled side streets.

  By the end of her first year, Alan gave her a permanent post at Marine. This gave her the means to convert her temporary UK travel visa to a full-time work visa. It was about this time she also rediscovered love, for it was about the beginning of the second year at Marine that she first started seeing Jack.

  It started unexpectedly while working on a new device that threw them together for most of their time in the office. She was surprised by her own feelings because Jack was not her usual type. Jack was a geek and a sissy. Whatever time he did not spend engrossed in the engineering work at Marine he spent obsessing over his engineering designs for BlackGold. He also came with a lot of baggage, particularly two grown up sons with whom he spent whatever little time he had free.

  He wasn’t her body type either. He was barely 5’ 9” tall, small compared to the tall, masculine hunk that Dale was. Jack was, however, brilliant, matching her in intellect and exceeding her in experience. He was also fun and very charismatic. He had a pretty face with fine, almost feminine features. That must have been what made her respond to his flirtatious advances eventually—that, and the loneliness of being away from home—for she knew from the start that it could only be an affair. Jack’s life was intricately woven into his wife’s company and money, a web she thought he would never be able to extricate himself from.

  However, the charming ladies’ man was persistent in his advances until eventually Sally succumbed, thinking, Heck, there was no harm in a bit of fun and romance.