Kendall (Kendall Book 5)

by John Holt

  In other news Tony Fletcher, the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Westcom Digital Enterprises, has been charged with the first degree murder of Victor Lowry, the late proprietor of the Virginia Sentinel. Mr. Fletcher will make his first appearance in Court on Monday morning.”

  * * *

  “Well that’s that,” said Kendall, as he switched the radio off. “Fletcher has been charged, and Gardiner has been formally discharged. That’s not a bad result.”

  “That’s a pretty good result I would say,” said Mollie. “Just a couple of questions though.”

  “Go ahead,” said Kendall. “Fire away.”

  “Did the police really find Fletcher’s prints on the door? It doesn’t seem very likely to me. I would have thought that they would have been so well smudged with all the use, that they wouldn’t have seen anything. After all so many people would have used that door wouldn’t they?”

  Kendall nodded. “You know I never would have thought of that,” he said and winked his eye.

  “Neither did Fletcher obviously,” said Mollie, as she suddenly realized.

  “No, he didn’t,” replied Kendall. “More to the point the police checked Fletcher’s car, and there wasn’t a sign of Gardiner’s prints anywhere. If he had used Fletcher’s car there would have been prints everywhere. Door handle, steering wheel, gear shift. You name it.”

  Mollie nodded her head. “I’m still puzzled though,” she said.

  “Go on,” Kendall replied. “What’s the problem?”

  “I just wondered how Fletcher knew that Gardiner would have been there, at the apartment, that day,” she asked.

  “That was easy,” replied Kendall. “He had simply sent a note, allegedly coming from Lowry, to Gardiner, inviting him to come over to the apartment. The note actually stipulated the time of four o’clock. Gardiner naively though that perhaps Lowry had had second thoughts, and was prepared to give him his job back. Fletcher then rang Lowry, requesting a meeting, saying that he would be at Onslow Mansions, at four o’clock.”

  “Oh I see,” said Mollie. “But why would he visit Lowry?”

  “I don’t know what reason he actually gave,” said Kendall. “It could have been to discuss business perhaps, don’t forget Lowry had been trying to take over Westcom for some time. Or maybe it was to make a payoff.”

  “So Fletcher was being blackmailed then,” said Mollie.

  Kendall smiled and nodded. “Oh he was being blackmailed alright,” he said. “But not by the Sullivan Brothers. That was just to throw me off the track, and to give the impression that he was a victim, and not the bad guy. It was actually Lowry who was doing the blackmailing all the time.”

  “So that’s why he was murdered.”

  There was a knock on the door, just as Kendall was about to reply. “Come in,” he called out.

  There was another knock, and then the door slowly opened. It was Martin Gardiner.

  “Come in Mr. Gardiner,” said Kendall. “Good to see you, take a seat.”

  “Ah, Mr. Kendall,” Gardiner said as he sat down. “I just had to come and thank you.”

  Kendall smiled. “You really have to thank Mr. Jennings,” Kendall replied. “He was absolutely sure that you were innocent.” He turned to face Mollie. “And you also have to thank my partner, Miss Adams over there. She never doubted you for a minute.” Kendall shook his head. “I was much harder to convince.”

  “Oh why was that Mr. Kendall?” asked Gardiner.

  “Oh he’s just stubborn Mr. Gardiner,” Mollie started to explain. “Once he has something in his mind you can never shift it, it would take an earthquake.”

  Mollie stood up. “I’ll get some coffee shall I?” she asked as she walked towards the kitchen.

  “Mollie does like to exaggerate,” said Kendall. “But I have to admit that I did have certain difficulties with this case.”

  “Such as?” asked Gardiner.

  “Well there were several things really,” Kendall started to explain. “The main thing though was I just could not accept that suggestion that although it was you who had arrived at Lowry’s apartment that day, it was a different person who was seen leaving on that same day. That was just too much of a coincidence.”

  “And I can tell you Mr. Gardiner, he hates coincidence,” said Mollie returning with the coffee.

  “She’s absolutely right,” said Kendall. “I hate coincidence. To suggest that something could happen purely by chance, by coincidence, is, to me, just too simple a suggestion. I’m always suspicious in such circumstances. I’ve heard it too many times. It wasn’t me, it was someone else. In my mind it just wasn’t possible for two different people to be at the same place at the same time.”

  “But we were,” said Gardiner.

  “You were indeed, that’s when I had to start work. I still could not accept coincidence, and there had to be another reason,” Kendall continued. “Then I started thinking about that note that Lowry had apparently sent to you. The one that you told me about, but rather foolishly had disposed of.”

  “But Lowry hadn’t sent it,” said Gardiner.

  “No he hadn’t. In fact it was hardly likely that Lowry would invite you over for a chat, especially after that outburst at the hotel a few days before.”

  “So it was Fletcher,” said Gardiner. “He sent the letter.”

  “Correct,” replied Kendall. “But I have to tell you that because you hadn’t kept the letter I really doubted its existence, adding to my belief that you were in fact guilty as charged.”

  “So what changed your mind?” asked Gardiner.

  Kendall thought for a moment. “After talking to a few people it became clear to me that Lowry had many enemies. Many people who would have been delighted to see him dead. Many people who had good cause to see him dead. But you, well that was a totally different story.”

  “In what way,” asked Mollie.

  Kendall looked at Mollie, and then back at Gardiner. “What possible motive did you have? Think about it,” Kendall replied. “You had lost your job certainly. Not very pleasant agreed, but killing Lowry would in no way get you your job back, would it? You had nothing to gain by his death, and in fact the complete opposite could actually have been to your advantage.”

  “Makes sense, Mr. Kendall,” replied Gardiner.

  “But Fletcher, that was a totally different story,” Kendall continued. “Fletcher had been planning to kill Lowry for a long while. Lowry had been blackmailing him for some time. It seems that Fletcher had been involved in some shady share dealings, and Lowry had lost a lot of money as a result. Fletcher decided that Lowry had to be eliminated. With the number of enemies Lowry had, he figured that there would be more than enough suspects. Then he saw you at the Tey Hotel and he knew who he could implicate.”

  “What an evening that was,” said Gardiner, shaking his head. “I was so drunk, I didn’t know what I was saying, or doing.”

  “Well Fletcher saw a golden opportunity,” Kendall continued. “What he needed to do was to make sure that you visited Lowry shortly after that outburst.”

  “But how could he be sure that Lowry would be there at the apartment?” asked Gardiner.

  “That was simple,” replied Kendall. “Dixon at the Sentinel told me that Lowry had received a call from someone, he didn’t know who. But just after that call Lowry told Dixon that he would be at the apartment the next day, he had some private business to attend to. Dixon didn’t know any more about it, neither did Lowry’s secretary. But the deception worked.”

  “The call was from Fletcher,” said Mollie.

  Kendall nodded. That’s right,” he said. “So Fletcher now had two parts of his plan in place. His victim would be at the apartment, and you, Mr. Gardiner, you would also be there. He needed one more thing.”

  “The security guard,” Mollie suggested.

  “Right,” said Kendall. “This was the tricky bit. He needed the guard to be there when you arrived, at just about four, as arranged. But th
en he needed the guard out of the way from just after you went in, until you came out again. Of course he didn’t know exactly when you would be out but he guessed that it wouldn’t be long bearing in mind the circumstances.”

  Gardiner smiled, “You mean my relationship with Lowry?”

  “Precisely,” continued Kendall. “He knew that you weren’t flavor of the month with Lowry, and guessed that you would be out no later than four thirty, and probably considerably earlier.”

  “He was right on that,” said Gardiner. “I was out in less than half an hour, out on my ear.”

  “Well Fletcher didn’t know exactly how long you would be, but he needed the receptionist to be out of the way,” Kendall continued. “And long enough for him to arrive undetected.”

  “So how did he do that?” asked Mollie.

  “A few days before Lowry’s murder, Fletcher had gone into the receptionist asking for directions. He noticed that the receptionist was a bit of a gambler. They got talking about the track, horse racing, and gambling. It seems that the receptionist was in the habit of placing a bet at the local bookie a few blocks away. In fact everyday he would take a break between four fifteen and five. Joe told me that himself. There wasn’t much happening at the apartments at that time, apparently. At least that’s what he told me. So he would take himself around to the bookie, and be there for the first two or three races. All Fletcher had to do then was to time the rest of his plan accordingly.”

  “He still took a chance that he wouldn’t be seen,” said Mollie.

  “Not really,” Kendall replied. “He just bided his time waiting for the right opportunity. All he had to do was make sure that Gardiner arrived when Joe was present, deliberately making the appointment for four o’clock. He knew that Joe usually disappeared at about four fifteen. Then when Gardiner left, a very short time later, the lobby would be empty. He then entered the building un-detected. Then after killing Lowry all he needed to do was to wait on the stairs for the right moment when Joe wasn’t paying too much attention. It was then that he made his way over to the entrance door of the building.”

  “The guard called out goodbye Mr. Gardiner,” said Mollie.

  “Correct,” said Kendall. “And the man, Fletcher, waved and called out Goodbye. Joe assumed that it was indeed our friend Gardiner here.”

  “But of course it wasn’t me,” said Gardiner. “It was Fletcher, but why didn’t Joe notice anything about the clothes that he was wearing?”

  Kendall smiled. “Our security guard was far too occupied with the horses, listening to the results on the radio. He never took any notice. He saw Gardiner come in, and assumed that it was the same person leaving.”

  “But Fletcher slipped up, didn’t he,” said Mollie.

  “In what way?” asked Gardiner.

  Kendall looked at Mollie. “Once outside of the building Fletcher panicked and started to run. I don’t know why, but he collided with a young boy, Lennie who later recognized him from a photograph.”

  “So what about that threatening letter that the police had found?” asked Mollie.

  “The one supposedly written by me,” said Gardiner.

  “That’s right,” said Mollie. “We know that you didn’t write it, so it must have been Fletcher.”

  “Correct it was Fletcher,” Kendall agreed. “It was supposed to incriminate you even more.”

  “It almost worked,” said Mollie.

  “Almost” said Kendall. “Fortunately it didn’t.”

  “You can say that again,” said Mollie.

  “And the rest is history,” said Gardiner, as he stood up. “I really must thank you once again, and I’m sure that you’ll be hearing from Mr. Jennings in the near future.”

  He walked to the door, and opened it. He turned and waved, and then was gone.

  Kendall shrugged. “Well I must admit I was convinced of his guilt when we started,” he said, as he looked at Mollie. “But you were convinced of his innocence from the very beginning. Why were you so sure?”

  Mollie smiled. “Women’s intuition,” she replied.

  Kendall shook his head. “Come on don’t give me that,” he said. “There’s more to it than that.”

  Mollie shook her head. “Well that’s all you’re going to get,” she replied. “More coffee?”

  * * *

  As Mollie returned with the coffee, the telephone rang. It was Alan Mills at the New York Police Department. “Hi Kendall, just checking on the Sullivan boys,” he said. “Did you find out anything?”

  “Oh yes I sure did,” said Kendall. “In fact we had a couple of very interesting conversations.”

  “Is that right,” said Mills. “So tell me what are they up to?”

  “Oh, nothing really,” said Kendall. “This and that, you know.”

  “No trouble?” said Mills surprised.

  “No, no trouble,” said Kendall. “In fact they were very helpful to me on one of my cases.”

  “I don’t believe it, Kendall,” Mills replied. “So tell me what are they doing?”

  “Oh they run a small delivery service,” said Kendall.

  “Did you say a delivery service?”

  “That’s right,” replied Kendall. “You might say it’s a bit like Fedex.”

  * * *

  “So what will happen with the Sullivan brothers?” asked Mollie after Kendall had hung up.

  “That’s up to the Court to decide. But at the end of the day they didn’t actually do anything illegal, apart from a bit of phone tapping. Furthermore they helped solve a homicide. I expect there’ll get a stern warning, and that’ll be that.”

  * * *

  “So I see that the enquiry has been completed,” said Kendall placing the newspaper down on to the desk.

  “That was quick wasn’t it,” said Mollie. “So what conclusions did they reach?”

  Kendall picked up the newspaper once again and scanned the article. “Let me see.” He looked down the page. “Here we are The Warwick Enquiry has made broad and complex recommendations relating to how the press is regulated.”

  “Go on. I’m listening,” said Mollie

  “Firstly, newspapers should continue to be self-regulated, and the government should have no power over what they publish,” Kendall shook his head. “So no change there then. Second, there shall be a new press standards body created by the industry, with a new code of conduct. That body should be backed by legislation, which would create a means to ensure the regulation was independent and effective.” He paused for a moment and started to smile. “Listen to this,” he continued. “The arrangement would provide the public with confidence that their complaints would be seriously dealt with and ensure the press are protected from interference. And pigs might fly.”

  “And that’s it?” said Mollie.

  Kendall smiled. “That’s it,” he said. “I knew it would be a complete waste of time.”

  “The enquiry goes on month after month, and receives evidence from hundreds of people, and that’s what it comes up with,” said Mollie disbelievingly.

  “Correct,” replied Kendall. “And don’t forget at great cost to the public. And what is worse, the newspapers don’t even have to agree to the proposals anyway.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Mollie.

  “The Warren Enquiry had no legal powers to enforce their recommendations,” Kendall explained. “I mean that the newspapers can just ignore the whole thing if that is what they choose, and continue as they have been up till now.”

  “I don’t believe it,” said Mollie.

  Kendall turned to the back pages. “Let’s hope there’s better news here,” he murmured. There wasn’t his team had lost yet again. That was five games out of five.

  Kendall looked up from his newspaper. “Of course you realize what this means don’t you?”

  Mollie looked at him. “They’ll be relegated to the lower league, I expect” Mollie suggested.

  Kendall looked at her puzzled. “Relegated,” he repea
ted. “What on earth are you talking about?”

  “Your team,” she replied.

  Kendall shook his head. “Team?” he replied. “I’m not talking about my team. I’m talking about Fletcher.”

  “Fletcher?” said Mollie, sounding puzzled. “What about him?”

  “Well, now that he has been charged with murder, because of us, it is extremely unlikely that he’ll pay us the ten thousand dollars that he promised.”

  Mollie looked over at Kendall. She then looked at a letter lying on her desk. She picked up the letter. “It gets worse I’m afraid,” she said.

  Kendall looked at her. Things could not be worse. “How?” he asked simply.

  “This letter is from a firm of attorneys,” she explained. “Taylor and Partners.”

  “And who exactly are Taylor and Partners?” asked Kendall.

  “They act for Mrs. Fletcher,” said Mollie.

  This wasn’t sounding good. “Go on,” said Kendall.

  “It seems that they have advised her not to pay our fee, because we had not informed her that we were also working for her husband.”

  “Oh I see,” said Kendall.

  “Furthermore it seems that some consideration had been given to seeking your license being revoked.”

  “Carry on,” replied Kendall, not entirely sure that he wanted to hear any more.

  “Fortunately Mrs. Fletcher has declined to take that action.”

  “Well that’s good news at least, but I guess there will be no check from her either.” He started to calculate how much they had lost. “I don’t suppose there’s a reward from the Sentinel is there?”

  “Reward for what?” asked Mollie.

  “Discovering Lowry’s murderer,” Kendall replied.

  “I doubt it,” said Mollie. “But there should be one from Mr. Jennings. So I should still be getting a bonus.”

  Kendall looked at her and smiled.

  “I’ll make some coffee then shall I?”

  Kendall nodded. “And some of those nice ….”

  “I know,” said Mollie. “And some of those nice chocolate cookies ….”