He could feel her hesitation even though he couldn’t see her.
‘She can be good fun but, I don’t know, how can two sisters born less than a year apart be so different? Cathy’s very dependable, a hard worker and Dan’s well….Dan.’
‘Tell me more.’
‘She was always wild, even as a child. If you asked her to do something she’d do the opposite. Only Ella could manage her. After her mother died she was uncontrollable. I think she blamed her father for Ella’s death. She died in childbirth, the child, another daughter, died too. I don’t think Danielle ever got over it.’
‘I’d be really grateful if you could give me a carrier bag or something. It’s a bit awkward carrying these and using a crutch.’
She returned with a large plastic bag from Harrods.
‘Well I suppose we should check with Mrs. Lynn before I take these off the premises.’
‘I’m afraid that won’t possible,’ she said.
‘How’s that?’
‘She’s staying at the family hideaway in Devon. It’s right out on the wilds and you have to drive five miles to get any sort of signal on your phone.’
‘Don’t they have a landline?’
‘They never had one put in. Tom liked the scenery and the isolation. He did a lot of landscapes down there and he always said that it was the one place he could work and be certain of no interruptions. Cathy loves it there too so I wasn’t surprised when she said she was going there for a few days. Despite their differences her father’s death has really hit her hard.’
‘Yes she said something about liking the walking there.’
‘Well she’s different to Danielle there too, she loves the outdoors. She met her husband Oggy when she was out fell walking. She did well with him, he’s a really nice man. Anyway probably best if you leave it until after eight to phone her. They usually go to the pub around then to eat and you can just about get a signal there.’
‘She obviously forgot to tell me that. Anyway are you okay with me taking these away then?’ Mac asked to make sure.
‘It’s okay. You look trustworthy enough to me plus I did check you out on the internet, DCS Maguire,’ she replied with a smile.
He decided to follow her advice. He phoned Tim and said he’d meet him sometime after eight in the Magnets.
He had a couple of hours to kill so he decided to try and get the documents in some sort of order for when he handed them over. The ones in the plastic wallet had all been scrunched up. Of course that meant he’d have to look at them but he was curious and Mrs. Lynn didn’t say he couldn’t.
Even a quick look supplied him with more than enough evidence to put Danielle Pierson in jail. There were pages of signatures all of ‘Thomas B. Pierson’. Mac guessed this was Danielle practising her father’s signature. There were bank statements from her father and from her own account showing money coming and going. The amounts matched precisely. She also had several very large credits recently, probably from the sale of the paintings as well as evidence that she had been busy the month before buying real estate in Spain. As she had no job or other means of support these transactions could only mean one thing. She’d been robbing her father blind. Mac sighed and wondered what Mr. Pierson had done to deserve it.
He suddenly felt a sort of dissonance. There was something wrong and he was fairly sure it was something that he’d heard or seen today. What on earth was it though?
He sat back and closed his eyes and tried to relax. He went back through the events of the day in his mind. It took him a while to realise that it was something that Mrs. Symonds had said that had caused his unease. Now why on earth would she have said that?
For some reason the image of the two sisters kept popping into his head. There was something about it, something that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He made himself relax again and brought the photograph back into his mind. Then he thought of Catherine Lynn and made a mental snap shot of her as she sat crying outside the Magnets. He went back to the image of the two sisters.
He suddenly sat upright. He had it!
He thought back through all of the events around the Pierson case and, as astonishing as his discovery was, he found that it all suddenly made sense. He rang Tim and cancelled the pub, promising a really fantastic story for the next time they met. He drove straight back to St. Ippolyts.
Mrs. Symonds was surprised to see him return so quickly.
Mac dispensed with any pleasantries.
‘You said something earlier, something about how Cathy met her husband. Can you say it again?’
She thought for a moment.
‘I said something about her finding a really nice man…’
Mac interrupted her.
‘You said that they met walking?’
‘Yes, fell walking.’
‘Where?’ Mac asked, almost holding his breath.
‘Cumbria, that’s where the fells are, aren’t they?’
Yes that’s where they are, Mac thought.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes of course, hang on a minute.’
A few minutes later she returned with a photo album. She leaved through the pages and then showed Mac a photo. It showed Cathy in walking gear. She was standing next to a young man with a beard and in the background there was a wooden way sign pointing to the left, ‘Cumbria Way’.
‘Can you show me the picture of Cathy and Dan again?’ Mac asked.
She led him down a short corridor and around a corner into the lounge. She watched him as he studied the photo carefully. He thought he could see it but he couldn’t be sure.
‘Have you got a larger photo of them both?’
‘Yes there’s one upstairs, follow me.’
She led Mac up some stairs to the master bedroom. Over the bed was a painting of a nude woman on a couch. There was something very familiar about her.
‘That’s you, isn’t it?’ Mac exclaimed in some surprise.
‘Yes,’ she replied with some pride. ‘I used to sit for him, that’s how Tom and I first got to know each other. He must have done thirty or forty paintings of me over the years. He used to joke and call me his muse.’
‘You were a very beautiful woman,’ Mac said.
‘Thanks, just a shame that it doesn’t last. After my husband died Tom suggested that I come and work for him and here I still am some twenty years on.’
‘Were you and Tom close?’ Mac asked, as much out of curiosity as anything else.
‘Yes, we were very good friends.’ She looked at the large bed in front of them. ‘After his wife died I used to share his bed sometimes but it was more out of companionship if you know what I mean. If you accepted the fact that the painting always came first with him then he was quite easy to get on with. I really miss him.’
A tear made its way down her cheek and Mac was again reminded of the icon.
‘Anyway here’s the photo,’ she said pointing to the wall.
This photo was much larger than the other one and had a better resolution. Mac examined it carefully and it confirmed what he thought he’d saw in the smaller one. This changed everything.
He decided that he had to phone Catherine Lynn that minute. He had news that couldn’t wait.
He’d found something that had turned the case totally on its head.
Chapter Fourteen
Saturday – One day to Easter
He’d arranged to meet her at his office at ten thirty. He’d contacted Toni Woodgate yesterday evening about the case and the meeting was mostly her idea.
She came through the door right on time. She was wearing the same outfit as the last time they met.
‘So you managed to open the safe,’ she stated with a smile. ‘Well done!’
‘Well not me but the person I employed for the purpose. You owe me five hundred pounds for that by the way.’
She pulled a cheque book out of her handbag and signed her name with a flourish.
‘So I take it that you have the files?�
�� she asked looking about the room for some evidence of them.
‘Oh yes. I’ve got the files and a whole lot more besides.’
Mac made no move to retrieve the files or do anything else. He sat very still and looked straight at her. She seemed to detect that something wasn’t right but she persevered anyway.
‘Good. Then let me have them and I’ll be on my way then.’
‘Aren’t you interested in how we cracked the code for the safe? You should be,’ Mac stated.
‘I suppose if you insist…’ she said with some reluctance.
‘It was your nickname. I’m surprised you didn’t try that as you were his favourite.’
Her face reddened but she kept up the pretence.
‘I have no idea what you mean Mr. Maguire,’ she protested.
‘It was 4-1-14 or D-A-N if you count the letters in the alphabet. Simple really, your father knew he was losing his mind so he used a code he’d never forget. The nickname of his favourite child.’
She was visibly pulling herself together. Mac was quite impressed.
‘My sister’s nickname you mean. Interesting but if you could let me have the files then I’ll be off.’
‘I can’t do that,’ Mac bluntly stated.
‘What do you mean you can’t do that?’ she asked, getting visibly agitated. ‘You do have them, don’t you?’
‘Not any more. They’re somewhere else, Danielle.’
He watched her closely as the realisation finally dawned on her that she had been found out. Mac was interested to see her body shape change and even the shape of her face. It was someone much harder that looked out at Mac now.
‘So you know. Might I ask how?’ she pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
‘It was a really good idea but, like most amateurs, you over-egged it. A real professional would have kept it as simple as possible but you couldn’t help yourself, could you?’
‘I’ve no idea what you mean,’ she replied.
Mac could see she didn’t.
‘That little side show you put on outside the pub, you blubbing your eyes out because of the news about your horrible sister.’
‘What of it? I thought I was quite good,’ she said with a self-satisfied smile.
‘You were but you showed me the wrong side of your face. There’s a very tiny dimple on the right side of your face. You were only a couple of feet away and I noticed it when I saw you outside the pub. I noticed it again when I saw a photo of you and your sister at your father’s house, the one where your hair is dyed blonde. Catherine doesn’t have a dimple. Plus Cathy met her husband in Cumbria not Wales, that was the slip that really put me on the scent as it were. It’s not something a woman would forget.’
‘I knew I’d got that wrong the minute I’d said it. Oh well, how very observant of you, Mr. Maguire. So I’m found out, oh well it was worth a try. I’ll have to grovel to Cathy of course but she’ll forgive me, she always does. I suppose I’ll just have to pay her back out of my half of the inheritance.’
She smiled. Mac looked at her with some wonder.
‘What’s your sister got to do with any of this?’ he asked.
She took a big drag from her cigarette and blew the smoke in Mac’s direction.
‘Well, I’d have thought that she’d have to press charges or something,’ she said as she looked for an ash tray.
She gave up and stubbed her cigarette out on Mac’s desk.
Mac gave her a smile and it seemed to unsettle her somewhat.
‘No, it doesn’t quite work like that. You’ve stolen sums of money from your father, who was a vulnerable adult, as well as paintings probably worth well over a million pounds. It’s all there in the files in black and white. You’ve also corrupted a solicitor, by the way he’s in the local police station as we speak, singing his heart out I dare say.’
She laughed.
‘He can sing away. Poor little beige man, no-one will take his word against mine. I’ll say that he forced me, threatened me with violence,’ she said, making a sad face and fluttering her eyelids.
Mac was interested in finding out how she’d gotten around the solicitor.
‘So how did you get Barry Acourt on your side?’
‘Oh that was the easy bit. I made some eyes at him, let him take me to bed a few times and the poor thing thought he was in love.’
Mac really didn’t like the woman sitting in front of him. He’d met her sister last night and she was so totally different.
‘I must admit that I didn’t appreciate you using me as your cat’s paw in all this either. Anyway I’ll take some comfort from the fact that you’ll be spending the next few years in jail.’
The word ‘jail’ seemed to shock her. Her face turned pale. She took a few minutes to think.
‘So what happens now?’ she asked.
‘The police don’t need your sister’s permission to press charges when there is clear evidence of a crime having been committed. By the way that’s where the files are now, in the local police station.’
‘Half the money and the paintings were mine anyway,’ she protested.
‘Wrong again. I found something else in that safe, a new will, one that superseded the one your boyfriend had in his safe. Your father left all his paintings to the County Council on the proviso that they built a museum to house them. That includes the ones you made off with. The museum’s apparently already half built. So, in reality, you’ve been robbing the good people of Hertfordshire blind and not your sister. It will be really interesting to see what the judge thinks of that. ’
‘I’m sure the will should be easy enough to overturn, I mean his poor mind had gone, hadn’t it?’
She looked quite confident about the fact.
‘No it hadn’t, at least not according to his doctor who signed the will as a witness and the dementia expert who was the other witness. He had it done by another firm around the same time he gave you and your boyfriend’s firm the legal power of attorney. I dare say he didn’t want to upset you when you were the one who was going to be looking after him.’
‘The bastard!’ she exclaimed with passion. ‘I was counting on those paintings.’
‘You may well have been but I’m afraid that you’ll have other concerns now like trying to keep yourself out of prison.’
She looked levelly at Mac.
‘I’m not afraid. I don’t think it will come to that but if it does I’ll manage it. I always do. I’ll turn up dressed like a little schoolgirl, no make-up and the skirt a bit high to give the men on the jury just a little glimpse of thigh. I’ll boo-hoo all the way through the trial...’
She was smiling as the tears rolled down her cheeks.
‘I can cry to order. I’ll claim that I was sexually assaulted by my father, he raped me again and again and, being traumatised, I sought revenge the only way I could. I’ll make myself the real victim in all this.’
She smiled broadly at Mac.
‘And did he assault you?’
‘No of course not. He was an old darling but they won’t know that will they?’
She smiled again.
She was even more despicable that Mac had expected.
‘Oh yes they will! I’m sorry Toni but I hope you’ve got what you wanted because I’ve had quite enough of this,’ Mac exclaimed.
Danielle looked behind her and then looked really puzzled.
‘Who’s Tony?’ Danielle asked.
Mac’s phone rang. He had a message. He showed it to Danielle.
It read ‘More than enough. On our way in. Thanks, Toni.’
It took a minute or so before the penny dropped.
‘You’ve not been recording this, have you? I thought they only did things like that in films.’
For the first time she looked scared.
‘Every word,’ Mac confirmed. ‘Toni, or rather I should say Detective Sergeant Antonia Woodgate, is a good copper, a bit of a stickler really. So when I took her the evidence of your crimes she sugges
ted that we record this interview, to get even more evidence if possible. I must admit she was spot on, you’ve given us absolutely everything we could have wanted.’
She stood up so abruptly she knocked the chair over.
‘You bastard!’ she screeched at the top of her voice. ‘I won’t forget this!’
‘God, how unoriginal you are! I’ve heard those words from every low life I’ve ever arrested and I’ve arrested quite a few. I’m afraid that you’re getting boring now.’
Right on cue Toni Woodgate and two burly uniformed officers entered the office.
He still could hear Danielle screaming ‘Bastard’ as they took her down the hallway.
‘Good work Mac,’ Toni said.
‘Even better work from you though, I’m impressed. You were so right about the wire. If she’d done as she’d said and claimed sexual abuse who knows what might have happened. She’d have certainly ruined her father’s reputation and she might have even got off with it. Well she can’t do that now, can she?’
‘No she can’t. Thanks to you it’s all neatly wrapped up with a big pink bow on the top. I’d better get back and get to work, lots of charges to prepare.’
She shook hands with Mac and left.
And that was that. Two cases done and dusted and it was still only Saturday.
Mac sat in the quiet of the office for a few minutes. It was only eleven and Tim wouldn’t be finished at the shop until five. He thought of the two cases. Both involved the tears of a woman and false tears at that. Danielle Pierson’s tears had been false and treacherous and, while the teardrop on the icon’s face may not have been real, there was something incredibly truthful about it, something very human. He pictured the icon again in his mind and wondered what would happen when old Nikos revealed it to the world.
He sighed and decided he might as well get some shopping in and then go home and wait for five o’clock.
He opened his front door and stood very still. He’d been expecting silence but there were sounds coming from the kitchen. He dropped his shopping bags in the hall and tip-toed towards the kitchen. The radio was on and he could smell coffee.
He threw open the door. A figure turned and looked at him with surprise.
The Weeping Women (The Mac Maguire detective mysteries Book 3) Page 13