The Body in the Boot: The first 'Mac' Maguire mystery

by Patrick C Walsh

  ‘Did he have any particular friends that you know of?’

  ‘No, I think he kept himself to himself most of the time although he did go out for a beer with one of my sons a few times.’

  ‘Was that George, Stelios or one of the two younger ones?’ Tommy asked.

  ‘No, no, the younger ones are only ten and twelve, it was my son Dimitrios he went drinking with. Dimitrios is a teacher now but he was a student when Matyas worked at the university.’

  ‘Does he still live locally?’

  ‘Not too far away, he teaches in Letchworth, at the St. Hilda’s School and he has a flat not far away from the school.’

  Again he wrote down an address and gave it to Tommy.

  ‘Is there anything else you can tell us?’

  ‘Don’t you think I’ve said enough?’ Spiros said with a wide smile.

  ‘Thanks you very much Mr. Andreou,’ Mac said as he and Tommy made to leave.

  As Spiros held the door open for him Mac asked, ‘By the way how many sons have you got?’

  ‘Just the eight,’ Spiros replied, a proud smile covering his face.

  Back in the car Tommy said, ‘He’s some character isn’t he?’

  ‘Certainly is. One of the few I’ve met who might just fit into my friend Tim’s favourite category.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘People you wouldn’t mind being locked in a pub with.’

  Tommy laughed out loud.

  ‘Anyway he’s given us more than enough to get on with. So let’s see, we’ve got a solicitor, a taxi owner and a teacher to see.’

  ‘Are the first two fairly local?’ Mac asked.

  ‘Yes, not too far,’ Tommy replied.

  He looked at his watch, it was just coming up to three o’clock.

  ‘Dan wanted us back around four and I must admit I’m starting to feel a bit knackered myself. How about you?’

  Mac was quite surprised to be able to say, ‘Not too bad actually. Why don’t we try the first two now and if you give me the address I can have a word with the teacher. The school isn’t far from where I live.’

  ‘Okay, fine with me as it saves me a long trip to Letchworth and back. Right the solicitor’s the nearest, let’s start there.’

  They drove out of the narrow streets and onto the wide ring road. Five minutes later they pulled up outside a large modern office block just off one of the main traffic islands.

  ‘This must be it then,’ Tommy said pointing to a sign which said ‘Spiros House’.

  ‘When he said he had properties I thought he meant two or three more flats,’ Mac said.

  George Andreou Solicitors were on the ground floor, in fact they had all the ground floor.

  ‘And here was me thinking that it would be a pokey back street operation,’ Tommy said.

  ‘Assumptions can be so wrong. From all we’ve heard so far our man is hard working, polite and pays his way, not exactly what we were expecting is it?’

  A young blonde receptionist asked how she could help.

  Tommy showed her his warrant card.

  ‘We’d like to have a few words with Mr. George Andreou. Is he free?’

  She had a look at her screen.

  ‘He’s in conference now but he’ll be free in fifteen minutes, is that okay?’

  ‘Yes, yes that’s fine we’ll wait over there,’ he said pointing to a seating area containing a sofa and two easy chairs.

  ‘What questions do you think we should be asking George Andreou?’

  ‘We’ll need copies of all documents related to this Matyas. Once we get a name then we’ll be getting somewhere. Unless they knew each other socially that will probably be it.’

  A meticulously groomed man in his early forties, wearing a dark tailored suit and shoes you could see your face in approached them. He looked at them with some apprehension.

  ‘You’re the police? Is everyone okay, it’s not my family or anything?’

  ‘No, no, nothing like that Mr. Andreou,’ Tommy said as he rose to shake hands. ‘Do you have an office we can use?’

  He led them to a small room behind the reception area.

  ‘I’m sorry, we don’t have the police call here often, I thought it must be something…anyway how can I help?’

  Tommy showed the solicitor the likeness.

  ‘This man, Matyas, used to be a tenant of your father’s. We’d like to know as much about him as possible. Did you ever meet Matyas yourself?’

  The solicitor shook his head.

  ‘No, it’s been quite a few years since I visited the kebab house, I don’t know why my father doesn’t sell it and put his feet up, he certainly doesn’t need the money.’

  ‘Would it be possible for us to have copies of any rental agreements that Matyas signed, anything with an address or a signature on?’

  ‘Certainly, so long as it’s okay with Dad. You won’t mind if I give him a ring?’

  ‘No, please go ahead.’

  The solicitor left the office and returned a few minutes later.

  ‘Well, it’s okay with Dad and so it’s okay with me. I’ve arranged for someone to locate and copy the documents, they should be with you in five or six minutes. He mentioned that you might want to speak to Stelios too. Just thought I’d warn you that he won’t be out of bed until nine or so, he does the night shift. Now if you don’t mind I’ve got another meeting to go to.’

  ‘No that’s fine, thank you,’ Tommy said.

  Mac quickly interjected, ‘Sorry, before you go I was just wondering what type of solicitors you were, seeing as you don’t have the police calling that often?’

  ‘We’re business and commercial solicitors, mostly contract work, commercial litigation, property management and so on.’

  ‘It pays well,’ Mac commented.

  When the solicitor smiled he looked more like his father.

  ‘It certainly does. I’ll see you later gentlemen.’

  Tommy checked in with Dan while they waited.

  ‘They’re still meeting at four which doesn’t give us any time really. If it’s still okay for you to take the teacher I’ll get a few hours sleep and see if I can catch up with the taxi driver around nine or ten. What do you think?’

  ‘Sounds like a plan to me.’

  The receptionist came in a few minutes later and handed over a large manila envelope. In the car Tommy excitedly opened up the envelope.

  ‘There it is,’ he said triumphantly handing a document to Mac.

  A name was printed alongside a signature ‘Matyas Toth-Kiss’.

  Tommy’s phone went off and after listening for a while he said, ‘Yes we’ll drop by now on our way back to the station if that’s okay. ’

  Turning to Mac he continued, ‘That was Mr. Meszaros, he said his uncle’s remembered something.’

  Once again the aroma assailed Mac as they entered the shop. Mr. Meszaros and his uncle were standing behind the counter just where they’d left them.

  ‘Hello again,’ Tommy said cheerfully. ‘Mr. Molnar your nephew said you remembered something?’

  ‘Yes, yes. Still got some marbles maybe?’ he said addressing his nephew. ‘Anyway his name, I remembered that he never told me his family name but I remembered his first name,’ he said triumphantly.

  ‘We know that already,’ Tommy said. ‘In fact your friend Mr. Andreou has given us documents with Matyas’ full name on.’

  The old man gave a dismissive wave of his hand.

  ‘Matyas? That’s what the Greek knew him as but I thought we were talking about Sandor?’

  ‘Sandor?’ Tommy took out the likeness again and gave it to the old man. ‘You knew this man as Sandor?’

  ‘Yes because that was his name.’

  ‘How can you be so sure?’ Mac asked.

  ‘The first time he came into the shop he was looking at all the cans over there on the shelves and he was talking on his phone which was quite loud. I could hear every word, he was talking about a football game the day
before between MTK and Honved, a local derby as you say it, and the man he was speaking to called him Sandor. When he’d finished his call I apologised for listening but I asked him about the game and that’s how we got started talking about football. I told him my favourite uncle was called Sandor and that was what I called him every time we met.’

  ‘What did you make of Spiros calling his tenant Matyas while he knew him as Sandor?’

  ‘I asked Sandor about that once and he said that his first name was Matyas but he didn’t like the name and so all his friends called him Sandor which he took for his middle name. That’s why he said he liked me calling him Sandor, because we were friends.’

  Very plausible it all sounded too, Mac thought. He was obviously playing up to the old man by implying he was his friend while Spiros was not.

  ‘Is there anything else you’ve remembered?’ Tommy asked.

  The old man shook his head.

  ‘Just the name but I thought it might be important.’

  He looked a little crestfallen.

  ‘Thank you Mr. Molnar, I think you may very well be right, in fact I think it might be the most important thing we’ve found out today.’

  The old man’s face beamed as Mac said the words.

  He turned to his nephew and said, ‘See Bela, if you have any marbles they’re going to be from my side of the family. An old man but such marbles I’ve still got.’

  ‘That was very nice of you,’ Tommy said as they made their way out onto the street.

  ‘I meant every word,’ Mac said seriously.

  Once they’d seated themselves in the car Mac pulled out the rental agreement again.

  ‘Have another look at that name.’

  Tommy did.

  ‘Matyas Toth-Kiss. What am I supposed to be seeing?’

  Tommy looked again.

  ‘Oh God, the initials. Why didn’t we see that right away?’

  ‘Yes MTK, bit of a coincidence him having exactly the same initials as his favourite football club, isn’t it?’

  Chapter Eleven

  Mac started riffling through the other documents as Tommy drove them back to the station.

  ‘Looking for anything in particular?’ Tommy asked.

  ‘Yes, sometimes landlords photocopy passports as proof of identity but I can’t see anything like that in here. Perhaps they didn’t bother as he was from the EU. ’

  Mac continued reading through the documents.

  ‘They’ve made a note of his passport number though, that may prove useful, and here’s his address in Hungary.’

  Mac went silent and appeared deep in thought. He looked at the clock on the dashboard, it was three forty five.

  ‘Tommy can you drive me back to the shop again?’

  ‘Again? What for?’

  ‘I have one more question to ask.’

  The bell rang as they opened the door and Mr. Meszaros looked up in some surprise.

  ‘I’m sorry but I have one more question,’ Mac said.

  ‘I’ll go get my uncle,’ Mr. Meszaros replied.

  ‘No, the question is for you. You worked at a university in Budapest and I was just wondering if you’d heard anything about how young people could get fake passports or identification papers so they could travel abroad?’

  Mr. Meszaros looked a little uncomfortable.

  ‘I never knew anything for certain but there were lots of rumours.’

  ‘Rumours?’

  ‘Perhaps more than rumours. For instance a few years ago there was a student in my university who was desperate to get to England once he’d graduated. He wanted to learn English so he could get a better job at home but his dream was to work in the US in Silicon Valley. Only problem was he wasn’t Hungarian, he was from Ukraine and, as it’s outside the EU you need a visa, a sponsor and so on, even then you might get refused. So he decided to cut some corners.’

  ‘He got a fake passport?’ Tommy suggested.

  ‘No he got a real one but he used a false identity to get it. He simply went to a graveyard and picked the name of someone who died very young who would be around his age. He then got a copy of the birth certificate and applied for a passport in that name. So now he has a Hungarian passport he can travel to England with no problems. With a passport he can work here, open a bank account, get a mortgage, anything.’

  ‘All too simple isn’t it?’ Mac replied. ‘So in your opinion it wouldn’t be too hard for someone in Hungary to get false documents.’

  ‘No, not hard at all.’

  ‘Thanks very much,’ Mac said as he made for the door. He stopped after a few feet and turned. ‘By the way what happened to the Ukrainian, do you know?’

  ‘He’s still here and doing very well. He has his own IT company and I’ve heard he now employs well over seventy people.’

  ‘Good, looks like the UK got the best of that deal then,’ Mac said with a smile.

  Tommy waited until Mac had gotten himself back in the passenger seat before asking, ‘Now before I start the car are you sure you won’t need to go back again for anything else?’

  ‘Wasn’t it a question worth asking?’

  Tommy started the car.

  ‘Certainly was. I’ve heard of that passport scam before. Wasn’t it in an old film or something?’ Tommy asked as he drove off.

  ‘Yes but a book first, The Day of the Jackal. Even here in the UK, where they say they check for this type of scam, I’d bet you’d still get away with it more often than not. Anyway that wasn’t the central point.’

  ‘What was the central point?’

  ‘That someone doesn’t have to have criminal intentions to use a false passport, they might just be cutting corners like our Ukrainian friend. So far our man is coming out as squeaky clean, so squeaky clean I’m beginning to wonder if he even is our man.’

  ‘But if he wasn’t from Hungary why did he have MTK tattooed on his arm?’

  ‘Perhaps he’d lived in Budapest for a few years and was a genuine fan and perhaps he felt the tattoo made him that little more Hungarian or both, who knows? Anyway if he was using a fake passport we’ll know soon enough when we get Martin to run this passport number by the Hungarian authorities and get them to check their death records.’

  They were the last to get back to the incident room. Mary yawned and it set off a chain reaction of yawns in the team. They all looked like they were ready for bed.

  Dan went to the white board and addressed the team.

  ‘Okay so what have we found out since lunchtime? Martin?’

  ‘Nothing yet,’ Martin replied without moving his eyes from the screen.

  ‘Keep trying. Mary?’

  ‘As you suggested I got back in contact with the police artist and he’s supplied us with another portrait.’

  She handed the new likeness out to the team.

  ‘That moustache bothered me if I’m honest,’ Dan explained. ‘Made me wonder if the reason he’d grown it was so he could shave it off if he had to.’

  Mac looked at the new likeness. Without the moustache Sandor, or whoever he was, looked even more ordinary and unthuggish.

  ‘Adil and Buddy?’ Dan prompted.

  Buddy spoke for them both.

  ‘We’ve taken both versions of the portrait to Immigration at the airport as you suggested. They said they’d let us know if they found anything.’

  ‘Okay Mac and Tommy?’

  Tommy nodded for Mac to speak.

  ‘We questioned the owner of an East European food shop in the town. Fortunately the owner of the shop knew our man, he even knew where he lived, and through that we found more information. We know that our man lived in Luton for nearly two years and left to go back to Hungary around two years ago. He had a passport in the name of Matyas Toth-Kiss but we suspect that it may be a false identity and that his real name is Sandor something. He worked as a taxi driver for six months and then at the University for nearly a year as some sort of technical assistant. Tommy’s going to interview the owner
of the taxi firm later this evening and I’m seeing someone who knew our man when he worked at the university. He’s also very knowledgeable about football, that’s it really.’

  The team all looked blankly at Mac.

  ‘And you found this out in just over two hours?’ Dan exclaimed.

  Mac and Tommy nodded. Dan looked impressed.

  ‘Why do you think he’s using a false passport?’ Adil asked.

  ‘The initials of the name on the passport are the same as his favourite football team plus, when he was on the phone, the owner of the food shop heard someone call him Sandor,’ Tommy explained.

  ‘So is it likely our man may be a criminal if he’s using a false passport?’ Dan asked.

  ‘That’s not necessarily the case,’ Mac replied. ‘Apparently students from outside the EU have been known to apply for false passports while studying in an EU country, saves them having to jump through hoops with visas and so on.’

  ‘Mac, Tommy, great work! Really gives us something to go on. What’s in the envelope by the way?’

  ‘Sorry nearly forgetting,’ Mac replied. ‘These are copies of the documents relating to our man’s rental of a flat. They’ve recorded the passport number and there might be other information in here, I haven’t gone through it all yet.’

  ‘Even better, can you pass those over to Martin?’

  Dan turned and raised his voice slightly.

  ‘Martin can you go through these and follow up on anything you find? See if you can contact the Hungarian authorities and get a copy of the passport photo too.’

  Mac took the envelope over to Martin who gratefully received it. He quickly scanned through the documents.

  ‘Some proper data to go on at last, thanks Mac.’

  ‘Okay, it’s been a long day let’s all go home and get some rest,’ Dan advised. ‘That includes you too Martin unless there’s something earth shattering in that envelope. Everyone back here at seven thirty tomorrow and we’ll see where we are.’

  The team were shuffling towards the door when Dan called Mac’s name.

  ‘Just got something to give you before you go,’ Dan said as he produced a warrant card with Mac’s photo on.

  Mac was nearly speechless.

  ‘How did you do that? Are you even allowed to do that?’