by John Holt
* * *
“Here we are” Kendall said quite simply as they approached Simmonds’ car. He walked over to the rear of the car. “Now that’s not a pretty sight,” he said as he bent down. Just above the wheel arch was a large dent. The paintwork was substantially damaged, and a coating of red paint could be seen quite clearly. “The red paint is from Mr. Coe’s car.”
Kendall took a few photographs. “Do you know when that happened Mr. Simmonds?” he asked. Simmonds looked at the dent, and shook his head. He had no idea. “Then I’ll tell you, shall I? It happened at about two twenty-five on the morning of your wife’s murder. Mr. Coe was most upset and apologetic. He actually went up to your apartment the following morning, to apologize to you, but oddly enough there was no answer.”
Simmonds nodded. “Strange I never noticed it, this morning,” he said, shaking his head. “Must have happened while I was away, being held in New York.”
Kendall shook his head. “Oh no you were there,” he said. “You actually drove the car away. Mr. Coe said that it was gone by the morning.”
“Well Eve must have driven it away somewhere.”
Kendall shook his head. “You forget Simmonds that she was dead, murdered between twelve and two o’clock that morning according to the Medical Examiner.”
Kendall turned to face Devaney. “Sergeant, I think we have enough don’t you?” he said.
Detective Sergeant Devaney walked over to Simmonds. “Carl Simmonds I have a warrant for your arrest, for the murder of Eve Simmonds. You have the right to an attorney. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you do say will be taken down and may be used as evidence against you. Have you anything to say?”
Simmonds shook his head.
“Right, take him away officer.” The two police officers stepped forward and took hold of Simmonds and lead him away.
* * *
Chapter Thirty-Four
Kendall Sums Up
Kendall looked at the small pile of letters that had just been brought in. As usual there was a generous helping of junk mail; letters trying to sell him things that he neither wanted, nor needed. Letters telling him that he had won first prize in a prize draw. There were un-missable offers of gadgets to help him run his business, and tablets to lose weight. There were letters offering great savings on car insurance, and how he could improve his health. As usual he unceremoniously placed them all into the waste paper basket.
Amongst all of the unsolicited mail there was a large brown envelope that stood out. Kendall picked it up. It was postmarked Fort Lauderdale, and it had been posted more than a week ago. He carefully tore it open. Inside there was a photograph, and a card. Kendall looked at the photograph, which showed a long view of a large house. He instantly recognized it as the house he had seen in East Shore Drive. There was a figure shown standing by the entrance. There was no mistaking the dark wavy hair of Carl Simmonds. In the top right hand corner of the photograph was a date “05/04”. The fifth of April.
Kendall looked across at the calendar on the wall. April 5th was the day that Eve Simmonds had been murdered. He picked up the small card and opened it. There was a single line message. “Thought you might be interested in this.” It was signed Russell.
Russell must have written that note shortly before his murder. Kendall leaned forward and pulled a buff colored folder towards him. He opened the file and placed the photograph, and the card, inside. He then slowly turned the cover and closed the file. He sat looking at the cover for a few moments. He looked at the label in the top right hand corner. It read quite simply “Eve Simmonds”. He continued to stare at the label a little longer. His hands laid flat on the desk. He suddenly nodded his head, and picked up his pen. He hesitated for a moment and then underneath the name he added “The Marinski Affair”. He underlined the words, and then added the date. He then laid the pen back down on to the desk. He smiled. “That’s that,” he announced to nobody in particular.
Mollie looked up. “Did you say something?” she asked.
Kendall looked at her and smiled. “I just said that’s that.”
“Oh,” she said. She stood up and slowly walked towards his desk. “How would you rate it?” she asked.
Kendall looked puzzled. “Rate it,” he repeated. “Rate what?”
Mollie sat down next to his desk. “The case,” she continued. “How would you rate the case?” She paused for a moment waiting for a response. Kendall continued to look blank. “How would you rate the case in terms of difficulty, on a scale of one to ten,” she explained. “One is easy, and ten is difficult.”
Kendall smiled. “Oh I see,” he replied. He thought for a few moments. “Well let me see. I suppose it would have to be a one or a two. At least it was to start with.”
Now it was Mollie’s turn to look puzzled. “What do you mean, to start with?” she asked.
“I mean when it was just a missing person case,” Kendall explained. “A possible kidnapping, it seemed so easy. Then it started to get a bit more complex, and suddenly it was an eight, or nine. Nothing seemed to add up. It didn’t make any sense whatsoever. Then, of course, we found out about the robbery. Then it was an eleven, or even a twelve.”
“So when did it get easier?” Mollie asked.
Kendall looked at her, and shook his head. “It wasn’t that it got easier,” he replied. “It just got more understandable. It made more sense. After the kidnapping, there was the murder, the two murders, Eve Simmonds, and Russell.” He paused once again. “Then we found out about the robbery all those years ago.” He looked down at the desk, to where the file sat. “The Marinski Affair. I was sure that all three things were somehow connected. I didn’t know how, or why. I just knew that it wasn’t just a case of co-incidence.”
“I suppose that it was Wheeler putting all of that down in his diary that finally got you on the right track,” said Mollie.
Kendall looked up at her, a frown slowly spreading across his forehead. “All of what?” he asked.
Mollie looked at him in surprise. “About the blackmail,” she replied. “All of that about him asking for money; how much he got, and when.” She paused. Kendall was staring at her. She started to frown. “You know about blackmailing Simmonds. I can’t believe that he would really do that, but just as well that he did.”
Kendall shook his head, and smiled. Then he started to laugh. “He never put anything of the kind in his diary. At least not that I am aware,” Kendall replied. “That would have been incredibly stupid of him don’t you think? It would have incriminated him, and he would not have wanted to do that, now would he?”
Mollie looked puzzled. “But I thought,” she said slowly. She then shook her head, not absolutely sure of what she did think.
Kendall nodded. “Yes, and so did Simmonds” he said. “I’m afraid I lied. Wheeler never wrote down anything of the kind.”
Mollie looked stunned, shocked. “You lied,” she repeated.
Kendall started to grin. “Well everyone else had been lying in this case, from day one,” he said. “First it was Eve Simmonds, then it was Carl Simmonds, and then Mary.” He paused and started to laugh. “So I thought why shouldn’t I join in?” He shrugged his shoulders.
“Oh I see,” Mollie said slowly, not seeing at all. She nodded her head, and started to smile. “So Wheeler wasn’t blackmailing Simmonds then.”
“Oh yes he was blackmailing him all right,” Kendall replied, as he stood up. He walked over to the kitchen area. He went inside. There was the sound of cupboard doors opening and closing.
Mollie looked puzzled. She had missed something somewhere, something obviously very important, something crucial. “I don’t understand.”
A few minutes later Kendall returned to the room. “Let me explain,” he said as he placed a large box of chocolates on to the desk. “Help yourself.” He picked up a hazelnut cluster and started to chew noisily. “In the few days immediately after the robbery there were two fairly large deposits going into Wheeler�
�s bank account. Both payments corresponded with withdrawals that Simmonds had made from his bank.”
“Carl Simmonds killed him to stop him from talking, but he made it look like suicide in order to incriminate him.” He paused for a moment, watching Mollie closely. “It was Simmonds who had produced the confession note.” He reached down and opened the bottom drawer of his desk. He took out a single sheet of paper. “And here it is.” As he placed the paper onto the desk he made a mental note to return it to Devaney as soon as possible. “Recognize the notepaper?” he asked.
Kendall bent down and opened the bottom drawer of his desk once again. He took out a file and placed it on the desk in front of him. He opened it and took out a single sheet of paper. He placed it next to the alleged confession. “That is one of the ransom notes sent to Eve,” Kendall explained.
Mollie looked at the two pieces of paper closely. The two sheets were the same brand as used by Eve Simmonds. The handwriting was identical. She looked up from the paper and smiled. “The paper is the same as that paper you brought back from Eve’s apartment.” Kendall smiled back and nodded. “So it was all a fake. Simmonds wrote the note. That’s why the earrings were actually found in Wheeler’s room,” she said. “Further incrimination, and further proof of his guilt.”
“Correct,” replied Kendall. “Simmonds didn’t even bother to disguise his handwriting. Who would bother checking? He was so sure that he would get away with it, which of course he did for quite some time.”
Mollie nodded her head. “Just over four years,” she said. She looked at the confession note. “Poor old Wheeler,” she murmured, her eyes beginning to water. “How were you so sure that he had been murdered?”
“Wheeler was shot at close range, a bullet to the right temple. The bullet entered the head from the rear, and travelled upwards, and forward. He was killed instantly,” Kendall replied. “The only problem is that Wheeler was left handed. He could never have shot himself in the right side.” Mollie looked puzzled, still unsure. “If he had used his left hand to shoot himself on the right side the bullet would have entered the head from the side, and travelled upwards but towards the back of the head.”
Mollie said nothing for a while. She formed her left hand into a gun, and pointed at her right temple. She nodded. Her finger was pointing slightly upwards, and towards the back, just as Kendall explained. “Yes,” she said. “I get it.”
“Wheeler had no idea about guns,” Kendall continued. “If he had wanted to commit suicide it would have been far easier for him to take an overdose of tablets, or poison. But of course it is far easier to fake somebody’s suicide by a gun to the head, than it is to force them to take an overdose of tablets down the throat.” He stopped suddenly and stared at Mollie. “What are you doing?” he asked.
She was holding her opened left hand on the right side of her face. The hand was approximately two inches away from her face. Her thumb was pointing inwards towards her ear. The four fingers of her hand were pointed straight back.
She looked up, still not moving her hand. “If I held the barrel of a gun pointing to my right temple, and I held the gun butt with my four fingers,” she explained. “I could pull the trigger with my thumb.” She moved her thumb as though she was pulling the trigger. “Do you see what I mean?”
Kendall smiled. “Ingenious,” he said. “Unbelievable, Mollie you are brilliant.” She started to smile, feeling very pleased with herself.
Kendall shook his head. “Mollie, if you were left handed and you were planning on suicide by a bullet to the head, is that how you would do it?” There was no reply. Kendall shook his head once again. “If it were me,” he continued. “I would simply shoot myself in the left temple, and not the right.” He paused for a moment. “It would be a whole lot easier.”
Mollie said nothing, but merely nodded her head. “Anyway as I was saying before I was interrupted, clearly the real killer had no idea that Wheeler was left-handed. No one thought of it at the inquest. Why even Wheeler’s own daughter was far too young at the time, she never realized the significance, so it was never questioned. Finding the earrings was the clincher. Wheeler had to be the villain, no question. Case closed.”
“What about Frank Russell?” Mollie asked. “What was his part in all of this?”
“Yes poor old Russell,” Kendall replied. “Just like poor old Wheeler, Russell was completely innocent. I was so wrong about him. When he first came to see us, he was so nervous. It was unbelievable. He was afraid of two particular men. He had seen them first at the airport, the night that Simmonds had apparently disappeared. He saw them again the day that we had arranged to meet.”
“You mean the two men that worked for Simmonds?” Mollie suggested.
“That’s right,” said Kendall. “They worked for Simmonds, and Russell worked for Simmonds. I put two and two together and I got five. I had assumed that Russell must have known the two men, and that he was just putting on an act. He wasn’t really frightened. He just wanted me to think it.” He shook his head again. “I was so wrong, because in reality he did not know them. Russell really thought that Simmonds was missing, and he thought that those two men might, somehow be connected, in some way.”
“So he really was trying to help you find Simmonds then?” said Mollie.
Kendall shook his head. “Not exactly,” he replied.
Mollie looked puzzled. Just once she hoped that she would get a straight answer to a straight question. “What do you mean not exactly?” she asked.
“Russell knew nothing about the kidnapping, or I should say the alleged kidnapping. And he knew nothing about Eve’s murder,” Kendall replied. “He just thought that he was helping me, but Simmonds had planned it that way.”
Mollie now looked even more puzzled. “He planned it that way,” she repeated. “You’ve lost me there.”
“Why do you think Simmonds went to all of that trouble at the airport?” Kendall asked. “All of that pretence. Firstly he is going to Chicago, and then he switches at the last minute, and goes to New York.”
Mollie shook her head. She had no idea why all of the deception.
“It’s quite complex, and quite clever,” Kendall continued. “By changing flights at the last minute it meant that no one knew where he was going, apart from Russell that is, who was party to the switch. If that were true then the kidnappers must have been just opportunists. They simply saw Simmonds arrive at the airport, recognized him, and thought that they could make some easy money, making the whole story of a kidnapping more believable.”
He picked another chocolate, and started to chew. “That was my original theory anyway. Incidentally Devaney also went along with that idea. If that had been true it would have been very difficult to find them, and bring them to justice.”
“But we know that it wasn’t opportunists, don’t we,” said Mollie. “We know that it was the two men who were at Miami airport. They knew that Simmonds was booked on the New York flight. They took the same plane, as though they simply followed him.”
“But of course they didn’t follow him at all, because as we know Simmonds never went to New York anyway, he simply went down to the Keys,” added Kendall. “Russell saw the switch at the airport, so when Simmonds disappeared Russell was able to helpfully tell me that he had gone to New York.”
Mollie was still puzzled. “That’s all right, up to a point,” she said. “But how did Russell know to come and see you?”
“That was quite clever really,” Kendall replied. “When Russell came to see me I asked him what made him think I was looking for Carl Simmonds.” Mollie said nothing, but nodded. “He replied, let’s just say that word gets around, people talk.”
Kendall paused and stood up. He walked over to the kitchen area, and returned a few minutes later holding the coffee pot. “More coffee, he said holding the pot out. Mollie nodded. He poured out two cups, placed the pot on the desk and sat down.
“People talk,” he repeated. “For a moment I thought that ma
ybe Eve Simmonds had spoken to him. But it was more likely that he had received some kind of instruction from Carl himself. You see that whole visit by Russell was part of the plan. Mind you, Russell didn’t realize it, but it was all arranged for him to come and see me, and to tell me that Simmonds was in New York. He usually stays at the Lexington, that’s what Russell said. It was all part of the plan to show that Simmonds was in New York, to confirm it, to add weight to the apparent kidnap.” He paused once again, and took a drink. “Of course the credit card withdrawal was also part of that plan. That was meant to be further evidence that Simmonds was in New York.”
“So why was Russell murdered?” Mollie asked. “What happened?”
Kendall took another drink, and reached for the chocolates. “That’s simple, Russell had merely served his purpose. He had carried out his task, unwittingly, but he had done it. He had told me about the switch and about Simmonds going to New York. But the plan went a little wrong the moment Russell saw those two men following him. You see it wasn’t supposed to happen. They were meant to be in New York. There was a risk that he might have put two and two together, and come up with the right answer, and that he might have told me. That had to be prevented, and we know the rest.”
“He had to be silenced,” said Mollie quite simply, as she chewed on a chocolate.
“That’s right,” said Kendall. “He had to be eliminated. Sadly, in truth, Russell never actually told me a great deal.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Case Closed
“So who killed Russell?” Mollie asked.
“The gun that killed Russell was the same gun that was used to kill Eve Simmonds,” Kendall replied. “That gun belonged to Carl Simmonds.”
“I understand why Russell was killed, but why did Simmonds kill Eve?” asked Mollie, as she picked another Strawberry Cream from the box. “Was it because she was going to leave him?”
“Not quite,” said Kendall.