FORGET ME NOT (Mark Kane Mysteries Book One)

by John Hemmings

  “Or neither.”

  “So tomorrow it’s Paul Philips’ turn to be grilled.”

  “It’s an interview, Lucy, not a barbecue.”

  “Want me to wear anything special? You know, to create a good impression?”

  “I want you to act like my secretary if that’s not too much to ask.”

  “You don’t want me to sit in on the meeting? In case I get some good ideas?”

  “No.”

  “It may be your loss.”

  “I’ll risk it.”

  “How about a bottle of Champagne to christen the conference room?”

  “Now you’re talking.”

  We were sitting on the front porch now; me with Jack Daniels and Lucy with a tomato juice.

  “Sidney’s decided to stay.”

  “Why, would nobody else have him?”

  “He’s picked up an important new client. He thinks the address attracted him. He’ll probably need the conference room more often from now on.”

  “Lucy, if he brings his client to the office it’s going to be a bit of an anti-climax. We’ve got no windows.”

  “He’s going to tell his client that it’s because of security. And in the interests of privacy.”

  “Good luck to him.”

  “You could tap their phones.”

  “Who, Sidney and his client?”

  Lucy sighed heavily. “Susan and Josette; in case they discuss the plot.”

  “That is something that crossed my mind. It’s illegal of course.”

  “That hasn’t stopped you before.”

  “When’s the technician going to copy the hard drive?”

  “Tuesday; it’s all arranged.”

  “Maybe you’d like to go with him to the Philips’ house. You might learn some of the tricks of the trade, and Greg says he’d like to meet you.”

  “You think I can be spared from the office?”

  “You’ve got a cell phone. I’m going to be a bit busy.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’ll tell Greg a white lie, pretend that you’re my assistant or something so he won’t think it’s a two bit operation.”

  “Or because it’s true.”

  “In your dreams,” I said.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Paul

  Paul Philips turned up at the office just before eleven. He was looking somewhat preoccupied and a little disheveled. He didn’t share his father’s effortless sartorial elegance, or at least not then.

  I showed him into the meeting room. Lucy had placed a pile of files and folders on the conference table that had nothing to do with the case; nothing to do with me either in fact, but they created some sort of impression that the investigation was generating a lot of paperwork.

  “Thanks for seeing me Mr. Kane. My brother told me you’re doing your best to iron out the problems with Gloria’s estate and speed things along. I spoke to him this morning as a matter of fact.”

  I briefed Paul on the progress so far, or rather lack of it. I made no mention of his mother’s cause of death, and I didn’t mention the possible connection between Susan and Josette either.

  “I understand that you were close to your mother and visited her frequently during the last few months before she passed away.”

  “Yes, I managed to call in two or three times a week, mostly at weekends, but sometimes I’d have lunch with Greg. I’ve actually been out of work for the past few months, well since the beginning of the year actually. It was heartbreaking to see her like that. I had to steel myself to go really. I’d usually talk to her about growing up and vacations we’d enjoyed together and things like that, but she had no idea who I was and not much of what she said made sense. I owed it to her and to Greg too. It was much worse for him of course, day in and day out. We all had an enormous sense of relief when she died, for her as much as for us. It meant that we could move forward again. But then we had the shock about the will.”

  As he spoke I had a fleeting idea that perhaps Gloria’s death had been a family affair. Had the father and sons agreed together to end Gloria’s life prematurely? Had the motive simply been desperation on the part of a united family?

  I told Paul about my concerns as to Susan’s true identity and the possibility that Gloria may not have been of sound mind when she signed the will.

  “As yet nobody has contested the will,” I said. “I understand that Simon would be content for the estate to be distributed according to the terms set out in the will, but your father and Gloria’s attorney have a duty to ensure that everything is properly investigated.”

  “I won’t pretend that I’m not anxious for everything to be expedited. Frankly I’m in a bit of a fix financially. Can I talk to you off the record?”

  “On or off the record I won’t divulge anything that you don’t want me to. I don’t have any obligations towards the proper administration of the estate; I’m just carrying out investigations according to your father’s wishes.”

  “So I can speak to you in confidence? My brother says you’re trustworthy.”

  “If I wasn’t I’d soon be out of a job. Feel free to tell me anything which particularly affects the investigation as far as you are personally involved.”

  Paul sat thinking for a while. He looked around him and made motions with his hands as if he was washing them.

  “I need this sorted out as quickly as possible. I’m in a real jam at the moment. The fact is that I owe quite a bit of money. I don’t think I can hold the creditors off for much longer.”

  “Even your creditors must know that, given time, your prospects will improve?”

  He smiled grimly and shook his head. “I’m afraid the people I owe money to aren’t the type to be accommodating. Can you promise that you won’t tell my father about this?”

  “As far as your personal circumstances go it has no bearing on my investigation, so I give you my assurance that nothing will go outside these four walls.” I almost said ‘these windowless four walls’ but caught myself just in time.

  “I’ve got a gambling problem. You know how it is, you dig a hole for yourself and then borrow money to get out; but it’s never enough so you gamble again. You just need that turn of luck. I’ve built up substantial debts with a couple of casinos; signed notes for them. It’s been going on for a few years actually but it’s kind of escalated out of control. I had no problem before, because if I got into difficulty Gloria would help me out. She didn’t know I was gambling in casinos, I always told her it was bad investments. It wasn’t really a lot in those days, but it is now and I’ve got some pretty unsavory people on my back.”

  “Who exactly? You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to, but since you’ve come this far you may as well.”

  “The notes I signed are treated as negotiable. If the casinos can’t collect they discount the notes to others. There’s a black guy called Calypso who’s been promising to do some rather unpleasant things to me. He even tried to get me to approach my brother and my father for loans to pay off the debts, but Simon’s got his own problems. Fortunately nobody’s bothered Greg yet. I guess I should go to the police but I can’t see them being particularly sympathetic. I doubt there’s anything they could do.”

  “Is that why you are difficult to reach? I was trying to get hold of you for a few days?”

  “I’ve moved out of my rental apartment to give myself a bit of breathing space, but I basically need to watch my back all the time.”

  “As far as the investigation goes I can’t make your problems disappear. Whichever way the investigation goes it’s not going to result in a very speedy resolution; but I can give you some advice and I may be able to give you some assistance in another way.”

  “Any way you could help would be tremendously appreciated.”

  “Okay, well just hear me out first. I have a few questions relating to my investigation. You help me with those as much as you can and I’ll see what I can do,”

  “Okay, anything; wha
t do you want to know?”

  “I appreciate that towards the end of her life your mother was seriously mentally affected by her condition, but in the first few months of her illness, maybe as long as long as a year or so after the initial symptoms, did you spend much time with Gloria?”

  “Yes, we all helped as much as we could. She was still largely okay for the first year or perhaps fifteen months or so. We could still enjoy a fairly close relationship during that period. There were times when she was perfectly lucid, and her physical health was fine. I wouldn’t describe that period as burdensome; we just had to make adjustments, that’s all.”

  “When did you first become aware of Susan?”

  “I didn’t know anything about her at all before Gloria died; neither did Simon. I understand that Susan visited Gloria a number of times at home, particularly when Gloria started to go downhill, but I never saw her at the house and nobody ever mentioned her. On those occasions that I visited Gloria during the last few months I generally only stayed for perhaps half an hour or so. There just wasn’t anything to be gained from staying longer. The nurses looked after her physical needs. I know now that Greg purposely arranged for visits by Susan that wouldn’t coincide with our visits. Before she became seriously ill Gloria had asked Greg not to tell us, me and Simon that is, about Susan. I think she felt very awkward about the situation.”

  “Were you involved in Gloria’s day to day care, like feeding or grooming her, helping her wash and so on?”

  “No, we left that to the nurses. Well I can’t speak for Simon or Sally; we were seldom there at the same time. Greg arranged things so that Gloria’s visits didn’t overlap. In the beginning Simon and I used to go and see her together, but then we just ended up talking to each other, so we decided it would be better to take turns.”

  “Were you surprised when Gloria died? I mean she was still relatively young.”

  “I was relieved. I don’t remember any other feeling than that. I was relieved for her, and for Greg.”

  “And you never heard your mother mention Susan?”

  “She never mentioned her to me. That’s why I was so surprised that she left such a large sum to her. I mean it’s her money, but it seemed odd; because she must have made that decision fairly early on, before she deteriorated. So I suppose she knew what she was doing.”

  “How about the nurses? I understand there were two main nurses. Did they ever mention anything about Susan, or perhaps another visitor but not by name?”

  “Gloria had other visitors throughout her illness. I never discussed anything of a personal nature with the nurses. They were just there to do a job.”

  “Okay Paul, now let’s see if I can do anything to help you in your personal problem. You’re living with your girlfriend?”

  “I still have my rental apartment but I haven’t dared to go back there. Nobody has physically abused me, but there was often a car parked outside. I’m sure it was arranged by Calypso to intimidate me. And he’s made threatening calls to me, I probably don’t need to get graphic.”

  “I’m sure you realize that whoever is chasing you for the money wants the money. Dead men, or even hospitalized ones, aren’t good for business.”

  “You mean you don’t think they’ll carry out the threats?”

  “They might, to a degree, and they can certainly make your life miserable. Is your rental apartment big enough for two?”

  “Yes, but I’m afraid to go back there.”

  “How about I move in with you for tonight? Maybe I can get the attention of whoever is bothering you and get them to back off.”

  “You’d do that for me?”

  “I’ll do it for Greg. He doesn’t know about this problem and I don’t want him to know; he has enough on his plate at the moment.”

  “Do you think they’ll listen to you?”

  “They’ll listen. I want you to understand something. These debts aren’t going away. You’ve incurred the debts and you’ll have to pay them eventually; even if they’re not legally enforceable you have a moral obligation. I can probably buy you the time you need. You stick around with your girlfriend until you hear from me. I’ll get home and pack a suitcase for the night and then we’ll move back to your place. You call Calypso or his boss and make an appointment for him to meet you at your place to discuss repayment. And pick up your phone when I call.”

  “Sure, I promise.”

  I showed him out the office and told Lucy I was going home.

  “You only just got here,” she said.

  “I’ve got to pack a few things. I’ll be staying with Paul Philips overnight.”

  “This is so sudden, you’ve only just met him.”

  “Eat your heart out,” I said.

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Calypso

  I drove home and packed an overnight bag. I called my brother, Duncan, and explained the situation to him. I told him briefly about Paul Philips’ situation and told Duncan to consider himself on the case for the time being and to expect a call anytime in the next twenty four hours, maybe as early as this evening. I contacted Paul and arranged to meet him at a restaurant near his home at six o’clock. His place was in Dorchester, near Franklin Park. He told me he had left a message on Calypso’s phone to arrange the meeting. Calypso’s boss was a guy called Gearhardy.

  I met Paul for an early dinner. He wasn’t driving; his car had been repossessed. Paul didn’t feel like eating so we ended up in the corner of the bar munching pretzels and drinking Budweiser. We drove in my Chevy, parked and went up to his apartment on the second floor. The drapes were closed so I opened them. I’d packed a pint of Jack Daniels in my overnight bag and Paul fetched a couple of glasses from the kitchen counter. We half-filled each glass and waited for a call.

  Just before nine Calypso called to say that he was on the way up. Paul answered the door and a black guy who was a shade under six feet tall and about two hundred pounds came into the room closely followed by a couple of Hispanics who had apparently been taking classes on how to dress like Hollywood muscle. They had perfected a kind of swagger, which looked more than faintly ridiculous in the small confines of Paul’s apartment, and had presumably honed their perpetual sneers in front of the mirror. They each looked around before stepping into the room to make sure there wasn’t some kind of military ambush lurking nearby.

  “Who the hell are you?” Calypso said in my direction.

  “Mr. Philips is my client,” I said, and handed him my card; the one that simply said ‘Mark Kane, Private Investigations’.

  “This s’posed to mean something to me?”

  “It means what it says,” I said. “I assume you can read.”

  “We come to collect from Paulie boy here, it ain’t none of your business. You best stay out of it.”

  “You’re not collecting anything. We’re here to talk to the organ grinder, not the organ grinder’s monkey.”

  “Smart guy, huh? Maybe you’d like me to teach you some manners.”

  “Let’s cut the crap shall we? I’ve got someone who wants to talk to you.”

  I called Duncan’s number and handed the phone to Calypso, which he took grudgingly. Calypso’s henchmen were lounging in a couple of leather armchairs which they had helped themselves to. Calypso was standing by the living room window, holding back the drapes as if he was expecting something to happen in the street outside.

  “Yeah, what makes it any of your goddamn business?” Calypso said into the phone, and then stood silently as if trying to absorb a set of complicated instructions. After a couple of minutes he turned towards me, his brow furrowed. After another minute or so he said: “Sure no problem, yeah probably a bit of a misunderstanding.” He lowered the phone to his side and let it hang there limply.

  “That crazy sonofabitch Duncan your brother man?” he said.

  “The fleas that bite a horse’s back have smaller fleas to bite ‘em and smaller fleas have smaller still, and so ad infinitum.”

  “W
hat the hell’s that s’posed to mean?”

  “It means he’s taking a special interest in this case.”

  “We don’t want no trouble, man. Just doin’ what we’re paid to do, you know what I’m saying?”

  “I think you’ve said enough. Tell your boss that if he wants to discuss the repayment of Mr. Philips’ debt he’d better come here himself. If he prefers I’ll go to his office or he can come to mine. You’ve got my number, he can call me direct. I’m a busy guy so he’d better make it soon.”

  Calypso walked towards the door, pausing as he stepped out. “Nice place you got here bro,” he said over his shoulder. “Get off your fat asses, it’s time to go,” he said to his henchmen, who followed him out the door obediently.

  Paul had sat there bemused and hadn’t uttered a word. He looked as if he’d just seen a magic trick performed by sleight of hand and was trying to work out how it was done.

  “Who the hell is Duncan?”

  “He’s my brother, like the man said. He’s ex-Navy Seal and runs a survivalist school in Vermont. Not for people who want to survive in the wilderness, more for people who want to survive in dangerous places, like war zones. Sometimes he practices his skills in the real world. Let’s just say his reputation precedes him − to people in the kind of business who need to know these things. He’s not the kind of guy you’d want to upset.”

  Paul let out a long audible tube of air.

  “Jeez, I’ve never seen anything like it. So you think they’ll leave me alone now?”

  “I’d put money on it. But it’s not over until I speak to Gearhardy. Like I said, you’ll still have to pay him. I’ll stick my neck out and give him my personal assurance that you’ll repay him in full as soon as you get your inheritance. He’s a business man; I’ll sort it out. I hope I can trust you.”

  “I swear I’ll do it as soon as I can. I don’t know how to thank you. I’d like to meet your brother one day and thank him personally. What do you think he said to Calypso?”

  “It doesn’t bear thinking about, but I imagine that various parts of the human anatomy were alluded to. He’s a pussycat at heart though.”