by John Holt
“Did he say what the argument was about?” asked Kendall.
“He’s not sure,” Devaney replied. “He couldn’t make out what was being said, it was too muffled. He just knows that there was quite an argument going on.”
Kendall nodded. Then he held his hand up, and sneezed. “Sorry about that.”
Devaney looked at him. “Are you all right?” he asked concerned.
Kendall sneezed once again, and wiped his nose. “I’m okay,” he replied. “It’s just this wretched hay fever.” He reached into his pocket and took out a nasal spray. “There that’s better,” he said. “Now back to business. What about the other witness?”
Devaney shrugged his shoulders. “You should try one of those herb remedies. You see them on the internet.” He paused and looked at Kendall. “Ever considered Acupuncture?” he asked. Kendall had considered acupuncture, for perhaps a whole millisecond. He would stick to the spray, thanks very much.
Devaney returned to his notepad, and flipped through once again. “Here we are the other witness, Clive Norris, a cab driver. He had just dropped someone off next door, when he saw a man run out of the building. He ran out at speed over to the corner of the street where he got into his car and drove off.”
“When was that? Kendall asked.
“A little after three, apparently,” Devaney replied. “Incidentally the time of death has been given as between twelve and two.”
“Was our Mr. Norris able to give a description?” Kendall asked.
“Only a very vague one I’m afraid. It was dark remember.” He flipped another page. “Male, about five eight to five ten, medium build, dark suit.” He flipped the notepad closed. “That’s it, narrows the search down to a few hundred thousand or so I imagine.”
Kendall said nothing, but certainly the description would fit countless numbers, that much was certain. It also described Carl Simmonds almost exactly. But Carl Simmonds is in New York isn’t he? He continued to walk around the room. “No one heard anything?” he asked. Devaney nodded. “Must have used a silencer then.”
Devaney said nothing. “Thanks Devaney,” said Kendall, as he started to walk towards the door.. “It looks like the master isn’t coming after all, but you were a reasonable substitute.”
He reached the door and pushed it open, then turned back. “You’ve still a long way to go, but you’ll get there. Just keep practicing. I’ll be seeing you.”
* * *
Chapter Fifteen
Mollie Has Some Doubts
Kendall had been sitting at his desk, staring at the ransom notes for a little over an hour. He had shuffled them around on the desk time and time again. First he had lined them up across the desk. Then he would re-arrange them in a line running down the desk. Then he would lay them diagonally left to right. Then he would reverse them. Whether or not he really thought such action might help is unknown. He would pick one sheet up, and then shake his head and place it back down. He would then pick up the second sheet. He would examine it in minute detail, and then slowly place it back down, carefully placing it into its previous position. He would then return to the first sheet, and pick it up once again. He turned them over. There was nothing. He held them up to the light. There was still nothing. He rubbed his fingers over each of them. Was there something strange about the feel of the paper, the texture, or maybe even the smell?
He could detect nothing out of the ordinary, nothing strange, or odd, just an ordinary piece of paper, nothing unusual. He didn’t precisely know what he was looking for, but there was certainly something about them. There had to be. Eve had seen something, but what it was, was a complete mystery. He had read them over so many times that he knew their contents by heart. Slowly he read them through once again. There was nothing significant. Just the normal kind of thing you would expect from a ransom note. Short, sharp, and to the point. We have so and so. We want such and such for their safe release. Be at such and such place, at such and such a time. And finally, there is to be no police involvement.
It was all fairly standard and predictable. All right, so there was nothing particular about the contents. So what about the actual writing itself? Would that give a clue? He looked closely. The writing was haphazard to say the least. Sometimes it was all in capital letters, sometimes in lower case. Sometimes the writing was large, at other times it became quite small. One minute it would slope to the left, and the next it sloped forward. All meant to prevent easy identification.
He was getting nowhere. As far as he could see there was nothing odd about the handwriting. He angrily threw the paper back down on to the desk, as he did so one sheet slid over the edge of the desk, on to the floor. Kendall never noticed. He stood up, pushing his chair away behind him. He started to pace the floor, up and down. As he slowly walked back and forth, he muttered to himself. “What was it about those documents? What was it that surprised her so much? What did she see?”
Mollie looked at Kendall as he passed by, and shook her head. She then noticed the sheet of paper lying on the floor. She shook her head once again, and glared at Kendall. She stood up and walked over to his desk, bent down and picked up the paper.
Slowly she scanned across the page. “Two hundred thousand in small bills,” she murmured. “Do not tell the police.” She shrugged her shoulders. She looked up at Kendall as he turned around and started coming back towards the desk. “Mrs. Simmonds had certainly noticed something in that note, something strange,” she said. “But what was it?”
She placed the paper back on to the desk, turned around and returned to her chair. “She looked so …” She stopped, unsure of the precise word. “How can I describe it?” She thought for a moment or two trying to remember the expression she had noticed on Eve Simmonds’ face. “Surprised,” she continued. “That’s it, she looked surprised.”
Kendall suddenly stopped pacing. He looked towards Mollie, thinking hard. “Surprised,” he repeated. He looked at the papers lying on his desk. “Why should she be surprised?” he asked, and started to pace once again. He suddenly stopped again. He turned to face Mollie. “She wasn’t surprised,” he said excitedly. “She was shocked. She saw something in the note that she recognized, or thought that she had. It shocked her. It meant something to her.”
Mollie looked up. “Like what?” she asked. “What did she see? The handwriting, perhaps she recognized it.”
Kendall looked at her and shook his head. “It’s not the handwriting,” he said slowly. “It’s too haphazard.”
Mollie was disappointed. “Well she certainly recognized something. If it wasn’t the handwriting, what could it have been?”
Kendall face dropped, and he shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I haven’t a clue.”
He held the paper up to the light once again. There was nothing unusual as far as he could see. He read the notes through once again. The handwriting was generally poor, but there was nothing significant.
“The spelling, perhaps,” Mollie suggested helpfully.
Kendall examined the papers yet again. He wasn’t the greatest speller in the world, but as far as he could see it seemed to be all right. There was nothing, the spelling appeared to be correct.
“No, it’s not the spelling,” said Kendall. “So what was it that surprised her so much?” He let the paper drop back onto the desk.
Mollie watched as it slowly floated down. She suddenly started to smile. She picked it up. “It’s not the spelling,” she said. “It’s not the handwriting, or the words themselves.” Kendall looked at her, a puzzled frown on his forehead. “It’s the actual paper itself,” she announced. “Look at it, don’t you recognize it? Don’t you think it looks rather like the paper that you took from Eve’s apartment yesterday?”
Kendall took hold of the paper. He then reached across his desk to a buff folder. He opened the folder and took out the top sheet. It was covered in notes that he had taken at the apartment the previous day. The two sheets of paper were identical. They
were both a light pastel blue in color. They had the same texture, and the same smell. They were the same size. Mollie was right, no wonder Eve had been surprised. The ransom notes had been written on paper similar to her own notepaper.
“By the way,” Mollie suddenly said. “That confession note written by Wheeler, wasn’t that notepaper also light blue in colour?”
Kendall said nothing, but a huge grin slowly spread across his face, and his eyes lit up.
* * *
It was getting late in the day. Mollie had finished typing up the notes that Kendall had taken earlier that day. He was sitting at his desk. His feet were up, and his eyes were tightly closed. She looked over to where he sat. “Are you awake?” she called out. There was no answer, just the sound of heavy breathing. “Are you awake?” she called out a second time. Still there was no answer. “Are you awake?” she called a third time, louder this time.
“I’m thinking,” he murmured, barely audibly.
Mollie looked at him, and smiled. “That’ll be a first,” she whispered.
“I heard that,” Kendall announced.
Mollie shook her head. How could he possibly have heard that? There was no way that he could hear. She looked down at her desk. Then she looked over to the corner of the room. The television was on, although the sound was turned down low. It was Fox news. She turned back to her computer. In front of her lay an open book, “Word Made Easy.”
She began flipping through the pages. “Here we are,” she whispered, as she found the page she required. She slowly read through the paragraph, and then looked up thinking hard. She then read it through once again. As she did so she glanced at the monitor screen every few moments. She started to press the keyboard keys, as she followed the instructions written in the book. “Got it,” she suddenly announced triumphantly. “Got it, it’s quite simple really.”
The sudden noise startled Kendall. He opened his eyes wide, and looked up quickly. “Got what?” he asked.
Mollie looked over at him. “I know how to format,” she replied. “It’s so easy when you know how,” she added smugly.
Kendall looked at her, a puzzled frown on his forehead. Earth shattering, I don’t think. How on earth did we ever manage before? Must tell the news channels, Fox will probably do a Special about it. To think there are millions of people going through life not knowing how to, whatever it was. They don’t know what they’re missing. “Oh, that’s nice for you,” he said quite simply, and closed his eyes once more. Mollie looked at him, and glared. She wrinkled her nose at him, and poked her tongue out. He never noticed. She sighed, and then went back to her computer.
Five minutes went by. No one said anything. Then ten minutes passed by, fifteen minutes, still no one said anything. Twenty minutes went by. Kendall had fallen asleep once again. “This doesn’t make any sense,” Mollie suddenly said quite loudly. “This whole thing is just totally ridiculous.”
Kendall opened his eyes wide. He swung his legs off of the desk, and sat forward startled, banging his knee hard on the side of the desk. “What? What is it?” he asked, breathing hard. He started to rub his eyes, and quickly looked around the room. “What happened? Tell me quickly?”
Mollie glared at him, and shook her head. “Nothing happened,” she said deliberately slowly. “I just said that this whole thing made no sense, that’s all.”
Kendall looked puzzled, and started to rub his knee. He looked across at Mollie, and shook his head. “But I thought that you just said that you had got it,” he said. “You said it was easy when you knew how. Your exact words, I think.” He paused for a few moments. “No more than five minutes ago if I remember rightly.”
She looked at him hard and glared once again. What was he talking about? That blow on his knee must have affected him more than she had realized. “No I didn’t.” she replied. “I never said anything of the kind.”
“You did,” Kendall said indignantly. “You were talking about forms or something, and you said you had got it. Your exact words were … Now just let me think for a minute.” He held his hand up. “No, don’t tell me. I’ll get it, just give me a minute or two.” He paused for a few moments more. “Got it,” he announced triumphantly. “You said, I know how to …. I know how to ….” He shrugged and grunted. “Something or other.”
She sighed wearily. “Format,” she said. “I was talking about formatting.” Why doesn’t he ever listen? “I said that I knew how to format.” She said this quite slowly, emphasizing every word. “I was talking about formatting.”
“All right, so it was formatting” Kendall said. “Whatever it was, you said you knew how to do it. That is very good, I’m glad for you. I hope that you will be very happy.” He turned to face her. “So what’s the problem now?” he asked.
Mollie shook her head. “That was almost thirty minutes ago,” she replied. “I’m not talking about that, not now.” She took a deep breath, and cleared her throat. “I’m talking about this kidnapping.” She stopped for a few moments, staring at her computer screen. She started tapping her desk.
Patience was not one of Kendall’s better virtues. Nonetheless he said nothing and waited. Another few more minutes went by. Kendall looked at her, and raised his eyebrows. “It just doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
Kendall looked up bleary eyed. Is that it? There had to be more than that. He stretched his arms high into the air, and tried to stifle a yawn. He failed. He took a deep breath. “What doesn’t make sense?” he asked wearily, trying hard to sound interested. Another abject failure.
Mollie stopped tapping, and looked over at him. “Carl Simmonds being kidnapped,” she replied slowly. “That doesn’t make any sense, not to me that is. I mean apart from Russell, no one knew that he would be going to New York did they? So how did his kidnappers know?”
“Go on,” Kendall, now wide-awake, coaxed gently. He had been thinking along very similar lines for the past few days now. “I always knew that I’d make a detective out of you one of these days,” he said. “Keep going.”
Mollie glared at him, and shook her head. “Firstly, Carl Simmonds lets everyone know that he was going to Chicago for a few days, apparently on business, right?” Kendall said nothing, but nodded his head in confirmation. “Secondly, at the very last minute he switches planes and actually goes to New York. Russell actually told us that much. Russell himself took the flight to Chicago instead. Although why he did that we just don’t know.”
Kendall had to admit that Mollie was certainly right about that last point. They had no idea why Russell had made that trip to Chicago. Surely it wasn’t to be a stand-in for Simmonds at those big important business meetings. Kendall made a mental note to question Russell directly, the next time he saw him.
“Come to think of it, we don’t know why Simmonds actually switched planes anyway,” Kendall continued. “I mean why did he even bother going to New York?” He started to rub his chin, deep in thought. “What was it that Russell had said? Something about Chicago being a simple ruse for some reason. Maybe he didn’t want his business competitors to know what he was up to.”
Kendall took a deep breath and smiled. “Perhaps he had never any intention of going there at all, after all we checked with his business contacts in Chicago, and none of them were expecting him.” He started tapping his hands together. “Exactly agreeing with what Eve Simmonds had told us, at that very first meeting.” He thought for a few moments. “What was it that she had actually said?” he said. “None of them knew that he was coming, that was it.”
“Apparently Simmonds wasn’t doing too well, from a business point of view,” said Mollie. “In fact he was in deep financial trouble, and owed several hundred thousand dollars to various concerns including the IRS.”
“So maybe Chicago was a deliberate ploy, a deception, a ruse,” said Kendall. “He just wanted people to think that he was going there, right up to the very last possible moment.” Then he suddenly shook his head. “But why would he do that? What would be th
e point?” He started to rub his chin once again. He had no idea.
Mollie did not hear what Kendall had just said. She was still trying hard to think things out for herself. “He obviously didn’t stay in Chicago that long did he? Russell I mean. A few days later he had made that arrangement to meet up with you. Why would he bother going anyway?” It probably didn’t matter, she reasoned, but it was still aggravating to say the least.
“So Simmonds never intended going to Chicago,” Mollie continued. “It was all a ruse. But if that’s true, how did the kidnappers know that Simmonds wouldn’t be going to Chicago after all? How did they know that he would switch planes like that?”
Kendall still said nothing. Go on Mollie, go on. You’re doing all right.
“Unless, of course the kidnappers picked him up at Miami airport, and forced him to switch planes.”
Kendall smiled and shook his head. She had been doing fine, right up to that point. Then it all went wrong, and now it made no sense at all. The thought of Simmonds actually being picked up at the airport was just too much of a co-incidence. And then to already have a ticket for him to go to New York with them. How did they know that he would be at the airport that particular night anyway?
Kendall shook his head again. No, he thought, there’s just no way. He tried hard to imagine the scene at the airport, as they grabbed him, and forced him to go with them. Would it have been at gunpoint, or maybe they just threatened him in some way. The area would have been packed with dozens and dozens of passengers, hundreds more like. Then there would have been all of the airport staff and the extra security personnel that there was nowadays. Such a plan would have been fraught with too many difficulties. There were just too many possibilities of things going wrong. The chance of success would be no more than fifteen, or twenty percent, he calculated. They wouldn’t take that kind of a risk. No, it was totally impossible, totally impractical. Besides, Russell had already said that Simmonds had already purchased two tickets before he had even arrived at the airport, one ticket for Chicago, and one for New York.