A Mother Scorned

by Sam Fintz

  “Find out for me who the sources are. I will take the necessary steps there. All you will have to do is take care of your evidence. You may have to play it out until trial or just before, so you don’t make anyone suspicious. I will tell you when that will be. I don’t need to remind you how important it is that you keep your eye on the ball. Any slipups will be catastrophic for all,” Mike said to Max.

  “I am well aware Mike, no need to remind me.” Luckily Mike couldn’t see the look on Max’s face. It wasn’t pleasant.

  Mike said to him: “Ok good, now don’t forget to log a call to me to ‘inform’ me of the progress so that there is an audit trail.”

  “Sure thing Mike, speak later then.”

  Without saying another word Mike hung up on Max, who went and opened the blinds. He could see this was going to be his most challenging task so far. He longed for a bit of normality.

  After a while he called Mike back from his desk phone and had a brief non-committal chat with him for the record.

  Feeling frustrated, Max looked at the pile of papers on his desk and with an angry swipe of his arm he swept the papers off his desk and onto the floor.

  Chapter 27

  At the Harrington Mansion in Cheshire, Aiden and Jason were sitting in Aiden’s bedroom talking about what they should do for the rest of the day. Jason knew he should probably be at his office, but his brilliant assistant had assured him that everything was under control. Unlike Aiden, Jason had to do some, but not a lot of work to earn enough to have this lavish lifestyle. His father Ashley Packham felt that hard work is what got him to where he was today, so he was only too happy that his son had a business of his own and wasn’t sponging off him like Aiden was off Malcolm Harrington. Jason was quite adept at his recruitment consultancy and he had a really good well-paid team that pretty much had the Manchester market cornered. He had the Harrington account, so this meant that Jason didn’t have to spend a lot of time at the office. His father didn’t know this much detail and that suited Jason just fine. Whenever his father called, Jason was “in a meeting” and would call him back. It was easier for everyone this way.

  Malcolm Harrington didn’t share Ashley Packham’s view on bringing up his son and made sure that his son had everything his heart desired with the minimum of effort. Aiden’s mother’s untimely death added to Malcolm’s need to indulge his only son. One day when he was gone, Aiden would need to put in a day’s work or two. Until then it was fine. He had more than enough money to support that so why not?

  As was fashionable amongst the Cheshire set, lunch was always a lavish affair and needed planning. There was a new eatery called Chez Mouton near Hale that was opened in a renovated pub. It was meant to be the new place to be seen, so Aiden and Jason decided that would be the best place to go and eat. Aiden called a few friends including Carl and Emma Dawson, the power couple, who were delighted to go with them. There were going to be six of them, so Aiden got the housekeeper to call the eatery and book them a private room there and to make sure there was a case of Bollinger on ice.

  The boys had a couple of hours to kill so they put on speedos and went down to the indoor pool to do a few laps. The pool was huge, and the room was very ornate. Lots of pillars and marble. There was a sauna and steam room as well as a twelve-man Jacuzzi. When they had finished swimming, they grabbed a bottle of Bollinger from the fridge in the bar and headed for the Jacuzzi. Aiden got the bubbles going and they stripped off their speedos and jumped in. They spent the next hour exploring each other’s bodies. As usual Aiden let Jason take the lead. It worked better for him that way.

  When they had finished Jason smiled at Aiden and said: “Come, let’s go and get ready. We don’t want to be late! Don’t forget the check in box!” The check in box was a small antique silver box that was lined with velvet and held six glass vials and some silver spoons. The box had once belonged to some drug addicted French aristocrat. Aiden had bought it on a trip to Chamonix a few years back. Each tiny vial was filled with cocaine.

  “I won’t, but you need to remind me,” Aiden told him.

  Chapter 28

  Detective Inspector John Wilkes was sitting in the witness interview room with the first witness, who according to the sheet in front of him was called David Holmes. He was a tall skinny man with nicotine stained fingers, dirty hair tucked into a stained cap and a patchy beard. The man had clearly never heard of dental hygiene let alone even visited a dentist. He was dressed in a tracksuit and Nike trainers that were undoubtedly knock-offs. Sergeant Mandy Hodge was also present. He pressed the record button on the machine in front of them on the table and said:

  “For the recording I am Detective Inspector John Wilkes of the Great Manchester Police accompanied by Sergeant Mandy Hodge and the witness in the case of the death of James Winters. Please state your name,” he said to the witness.

  “I am David Holmes,” the witness said in an unmistakeable Manchester accent.

  “Mr Holmes please can you tell me what you witnessed on the day of the accident? For the recording I am asking Mr Holmes what he witnessed pertaining to the accident on Princess Road at the intersection of Wilbraham Road on the 31st of August of this year, in which Mr James Winters was killed.”

  David Holmes spoke next: “I were on me way ‘ome for me tea when I hears this almighty noise, sounds like a jet, man. So, I looks up and there’s this bloke in a red car going dead fast. As he was going through the lights like, this other car, one of them black Mercedes I think, were going across. Well as you can imagine, he never stood a chance. The bloke in the red car just smashes into him and he spins off in the other direction. It were crazy! Like a dream, man.”

  “What happened next?” John Wilkes asked.

  “Well, I didn’t see no-one moving in the black car. I thought to meself, that’s got to be bad. I seen this before but not like this. The bloke in the red car, which were all smashed up like, just gets out and he is shouting like a madman that the guy were speeding and jumped the lights.”

  “Mr Holmes, did you see if he jumped the lights or not?” Wilkes asked.

  “You see I can’t be 100% but I think the red car were the one that were speeding. I think he jumped the lights. When the police arrived, they started asking for witnesses and being a law-abiding citizen as I am, I said sure, I will be a witness. So here I am. I don’t want nobody thinking I don’t do my bit.”

  Wilkes pulled out a picture and showed it to David Holmes. It was a previous mugshot of Aiden from one of his earlier misadventures.

  “For the purpose of the tape, I am showing Mr Holmes Photo ID JW3108. Do you recognise this man, Mr Holmes?” he asked.

  “Yeah, yeah I do. That’s the bloke were driving the other car. The red one,” Holmes said, looking pleased with himself.

  “Thank you, Mr Holmes. That was very helpful. We will be in touch if we need more information,” Wilkes told him. Sergeant Hodges showed him out and when she returned, Wilkes said to her: “I really hope that the quality of witness improves. The Harrington legal team will crucify him on the witness stand! I need you to run a check on these witnesses, so there are no surprises. Something tells me this is not the first police interview David Holmes has had!”

  Hodges left the room to go and get the next witness. When she re-appeared, John Wilkes had to try really hard to suppress his dismay. He was faced with a six-foot two man dressed in a frock that reminded him of Hyacinth from Keeping Up Appearances. “Good God, we are doomed,” he thought to himself.

  Chapter 29

  After introducing himself and Sergeant Hodges for the purpose of the recording, it was the turn of the witness.

  “I am Keith Barras also known as Candy O’Toole,” the second witness said in a less than feminine voice. “But for now, just call me Keith.”

  “Mr Barras, sorry, Keith, please tell us what you witnessed on the 31st of August this year,” John Wilkes said to the drag queen sitting in front of him.

  Keith told him a brief account of wha
t he saw. When he was asked if anyone had jumped the lights or was speeding, Keith said to him in his clipped tone, clearly put-on to hide the fact he was from Bolton originally: “Well, I cannot say for certain, but from the noise I think it was the red sports car that fit young man was driving, but as I said I am not certain.”

  He finalised a few more details and showed Keith the photo of Aiden which he confirmed as being him. When he concluded the interview, with a flurry of his silk scarf, Keith Barras left the room.

  John looked at Hodges and the two just laughed and laughed.

  “What the hell was that?” he asked Hodges.

  “Not sure sir. But I will find out,” with which the two laughed even more.

  Once they had pulled themselves together, Hodges showed in the next witness who was as unremarkable as the last two were remarkable. She was a nervous woman called Anne Parfitt who was in her late forties and was dressed in corduroy trousers and a cardigan. She had a knitted beanie on which she took off to reveal wild hair that was something of a mess. She could remember most of the details but couldn’t really recall the colour of the sports car or if it was indeed a sports car. She also couldn’t give a definitive identification of Aiden from the picture, but she thought it might be him.

  After she left, Wilkes said to Hodges: “We are going to need help with that lot. Make sure you run that check on them and get back to me as soon as it is done. I need to know every detail especially if there is any criminal record that could kibosh the whole thing. Make sure you check with DVLA as well to confirm identity and if need be the Home Office. I want them squeaky clean or we can’t use them.”

  “Got it, sir. I will get back as soon as I can. Don’t worry, if there is anything I will find it.”

  “Damn those Harringtons. If it wasn’t for them, we would have gotten better witnesses! Everyone knows what happens to their witnesses. Fuck, fuck, fuck and fuck again!” Wilkes said to himself when Hodges had left the room.

  Chapter 30

  When Wilkes got back to his desk there was a folder waiting for him. It was the final results of the James Winters post-mortem.

  He knew mostly what it would say but he opened it anyway. There was a diagram depicting the body with the injury points marked in red. He could see the impact point as well as various other marks. The one that chilled Wilkes the most was the neck injury. Jim Winters had died from a broken neck. According to the report he was killed instantly due to the massive trauma to the neck. The impact was severe, and the car was a classic, so it didn’t have modern safety features like side airbags to protect the occupants. He had seen in the video footage that Rose Winters had brought in just how severe the impact was. This report just brought home the reality of it all. The thought of it sent shivers down his spine.

  He called Sergeant Hodges over and said: “Get the team assembled and let’s get started.”

  “I haven’t finished the background checks on the witnesses yet,” she told him.

  His response was short: “Fine you get on with that, but I want the rest of the team in the briefing room in 10 minutes and you in there as soon as!”

  “Yes sir, will do.” She turned and went to summon the rest of the team and then returned to her desk to carry on her checks on the three witnesses. Her thoughts were that it was not going to be an easy task and she didn’t believe for a minute that Wilkes was going to like what she found.

  “Keep an open mind Hodges,” she whispered under her breath as she logged into the DVLA search portal to check the photo ID (if it even existed!)

  In the meantime, Wilkes gathered together his folders and his notepad and headed over to the briefing room to start. The other three members of the team were waiting for him.

  “Right, let’s get started,” Wilkes told them in a brusque voice. “Firstly, the rules are that you listen at all times, you ask questions if you don’t get it and you make sure you note everything down. Is that clear?”

  Three “Yes sir” answers came back simultaneously. Wilkes placed the folders on the table in front of him and grabbed a marker pen and noted on the board James Winters’s name. He also noted the names of Aiden Harrington and Rose and Stefan Winters. He grouped the names of Rose, Jim and Stefan Winters together on the left and put Aiden Harrington’s name on the right of the large whiteboard.

  “Just to clarify, it is alleged that Harrington drove his Ferrari in this picture at high speed through a red light and crashed into the Mercedes causing the death of James Winters and the severe injury to his son Stefan. Rose Winters, James’s wife only had minor injuries due to her proximity in the motor. Harrington was unhurt thanks most likely to his intoxication and the drugs in his system. What we need to prove is that he was culpable, and we are looking for a charge of causing death by dangerous driving. The other charges are not going to get a conviction with prison time, so we are going after the big one. We have a number of stumbling blocks, one being that the Harringtons are almost untouchable, another that the only witnesses we could find that would come forward are not of the highest calibre and another is that his legal team make the Nazis look like powder puffs. We have dashcam footage of the accident and he was over the drink drive limit and tested positive for drugs at the scene. One more thing, the Chief Constable is personally overseeing this case so do not expect any special favours and expect to be here more than you will be at home. Is that clear enough?”

  “Yes sir,” the three said to him in unison.

  “Good, now let’s start with Harrington and what we know,” Wilkes said to them.

  Chapter 31

  Over at Chez Mouton, Aiden and Jason were being driven into the car park in the Bentley just as Carl, Emma, Danny and Kacie were arriving in an Executive Uber.

  “Hey guys,” Aiden said to them as he hugged each one in turn. Carl and Emma Dawson were looking great as usual. It had to be said that Emma looked good no matter what she wore. Danny and Kacie Leaver were dressed casually but still looked smart in a way that only rich people do. Danny had taken the day off for this from his job as head of the Cosmic Advertising Agency, which was located in the same building on Deansgate as Jason’s recruitment firm. The two were good friends and like Aiden and Jason, Danny had studied at Cambridge. Danny, who was quite tall and had a naturally muscular physique and short dark hair, had met and soon after married, Kacie. She was a petite woman with an impressive arse and long blonde hair. After graduating he landed his prestigious position as head of the biggest advertising agency in the North West of England. They were in a monogamous marriage which made them even more desirable to Aiden who was used to getting everything he went after. He was sure he would crack them eventually! Just as he had cracked Carl and Emma.

  The group were seated in a private dining room that the owners had cleverly created on a glassed-off mezzanine floor. It had one-way glass so that the VIP diners could look down on the other diners, but the VIPs couldn’t be seen. When the champagne was served Jason went and asked that they be left alone for 10 minutes. When the coast was clear, Jason presented the silver “check in” box. Each person was given a vial and a tiny silver spoon. They then performed the usual “check in” ritual followed by a generous gulp of champagne. Once that was done Jason called the staff back in. The chef also appeared from the kitchen to personally welcome them.

  Francois was a Belgian chef who had worked under and with the best chefs in the world. This was a major coup for this restaurant. He introduced himself and proceeded to tell the group what he had planned for them. They would start with an array of taster dishes followed by the signature dish which was flamed lamb fillet, very rare, with his special butter that only he knew how to make, and he made in secret. Desert would be a glazed pumpkin ice cream served with brandy chocolate profiteroles and an Amaretto cream. He bowed slightly and with a flurry he left the room.

  “How exciting,” Emma said. “I had heard this place was great! Well done Aiden for choosing this.”

  Once lunch was over Emma left to
use the bathroom. Before she could return Aiden also excused himself. He met her on the way back to the table.

  “Hey, babe. Did you enjoy lunch?” he asked Emma.

  “Yes thanks. It was superb as usual,” she replied.

  “You know it doesn’t have to end here. If you want, we can ditch those boring Leavers and head to the apartment for sundowners.”

  “I think that sounds divine. I will tell Carl and we will meet you there once we drop off the other two. It’s a shame they don’t like to play like the rest of us. But I am sure you won’t disappoint,” Emma told him, planting a big wet kiss on his lips.

  When Aiden returned to the table, he started to wind things up. Jason already knew what that meant, and he was eager to help move things along.

  They all left the restaurant after complimenting the chef and leaving a hefty tip for the staff. Aiden and Jason went off in the Bentley and the other four in their Uber.

  “That went well,” Jason said to Aiden. “I am guessing we will be seeing Carl and Emma in a bit.”

  “Yes, we will. They are ditching the Leavers and meeting us at the apartment for sundowners,” Aiden told him.

  Aiden told the driver to take them to the apartment and he then closed the window between the driver and the back of the car. He lay down and rested his head on Jason’s lap and put his feet on the leather seat for the rest of the journey. All Jason could do was smile as he looked at the countryside passing by.

  “You know I would do anything for you Aiden, don’t you?” Jason told Aiden.

  “One day I am going to hold you to it,” Aiden said and they just laughed as they headed towards the apartment.