Shuffling through pages, he was barely audible as he read from the fraudulently altered document.
“The name of Lucy Mears has been totally obliterated. She is not mentioned in this document.”
Edward Garnett Jnr was called into his uncle’s office and introduced to the visiting detectives.
CHAPTER 16
If Edward Garnett Jnr thought he was being summoned to his uncle’s office for an introduction to potential clients the look on Jordan Garnett’s face quickly put paid to that idea.
“Sir,” he said, addressing his uncle, “are you all right Uncle? Is anything amiss?”
“Amiss?” hollered the elder lawyer. “Is anything amiss? You young whippersnapper! You are asking me if anything is amiss?”
He stood up as if to confront the younger man, his face as purple as the tie he wore, the veins on his neck pulsating rapidly, his whole demeanor menacing and health threatening. Sensing trouble, Carole Carr gently took the senior lawyer’s arm and settled him back in his leather chair.
“Leave this to us, sir,” she implored.
Superintendent Harvey took over and addressed the younger man who was visibly shaken by the change in his uncle’s manner and felt an ominous sickly feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“We are here, sir, with regards to the last will and testament of Anna Leci. You had some dealings with her, I believe?”
Edward shifted from one foot to the other.
“Yes sir. I met the lady when Uncle was recovering from surgery. He asked me to have a document signed and placed in the safe for his return. I’m sure Uncle will confirm that,” he said wistfully, looking towards the elder Garnett who was apoplectic with rage.
The elder man attempted to speak but was thwarted by Harvey who gestured to him to remain silent. Detective Carr took over the interview. Handing the young man a sheaf of documents she asked him to confirm if that was the document he had asked Anna Leci to sign.
“Yeah, umm, think so.” He mumbled shifting yet again from one foot to the other.
“You think so?” questioned the detective. “Either it is or it isn’t. What is it then? Is this the document you were to have Anna Leci sign for your uncle?”
Edward Garnett Jnr sifted through the papers in an attempt to stall the inevitable questions which were to follow.
“Yes, ma’am, it is.”
“Please look carefully at these pages here and tell me if they were part of the original document given to you by Mr. Garnett here.”
“Umm, yeah, well, perhaps not quite.”
“Speak up man,” screamed the angry lawyer at his nephew.
Knowing his fraud had been discovered Edward Garnett Jnr hung his head in shame, his face chalk-white with fear.
“We are waiting for an explanation,” demanded Harvey.
“Get on with it Nephew, spit it out.”
“We can do this here or at the precinct. Save your uncle any more distress and strain of travelling there in heavy traffic, and speak up now. At least you owe him that courtesy.”
Edward Garnett Jnr lifted his head and shamefully spoke up, avoiding his uncle’s eyes: “It was never meant to go so far, you have to believe me Uncle,” he pleaded with his elderly relative who would not meet his eyes.
“After I had Anna Leci sign the document, she asked her nursing companion, Rita Hampton, to take me downstairs to have a meal before I returned home. Anna told me, ‘Your uncle is a dear, sweet man. I hope you will be a credit to him when you take over the firm. He speaks very highly of you. I want you to return here, but do not let your uncle know. He has to conserve his energy and recover from his illness.’
“Sir, I returned as instructed. The lady wanted me to add more pages into the document that she had already signed. ‘Make it look as if it’s part of the original document, and ask no questions.’ She gave me some handwritten pages that she asked Rita to witness. I was instructed to include it in the file and place them in the safe on my return to the office.”
Harvey, enraged at the audacity of the man, roared at him, “So you were aware of what Anna Leci had added to the document?”
“Yes, sir,” came the sheepish reply. “I read it over to the old lady as instructed.”
“And Rita Hampton was in the room with you at this time?”
“Yes, sir, she was.”
Detective Carr took over from her almost speechless boss. “So you were well aware of the whereabouts of Lucy Mears and her abductors? You knew the entire details of the abduction plot?”
“Well, yeah, I guess I did, ma’am.”
Harvey exploded with rage, “You GUESS? You KNEW! You could have saved that child from enduring any more misery.”
“But, but… sir… you have no idea how manipulative and powerful that woman was. I tell you, I was scared of her.”
Detective Carr stood up: “And I suppose you were paid handsomely for your fear?”
She looked across at her superior to confirm what was to happen next. The senior man took charge; “Edward Garnett, we will continue this interview at the precinct. Cuff him.”
Turning to the elderly partner, Harvey implored him to go home and rest.
“You will not be required at the precinct, sir. We won’t put you through any more trauma. You will hear from us later. I’ll call you in a few hours.”
As they stood to leave, the elderly, shaking lawyer hollered at his nephew, “You disgust me. You are fired. I no longer have a nephew. Get out of here. Don’t even stop to clear your office.”
Shamefully, the errant young man had to suffer the indignity of walking through the main office, busy with legal secretaries and trainee lawyers who gasped in surprise as their senior colleague was led away in handcuffs, sobbing bitterly, his head bowed down as if hoping to avoid being seen.
As the shamed young lawyer was being locked up, Harvey turned to his deputy, “I had a gut feeling, Carole, that Rita Hampton was more involved than she let on. I’m not finished with that dame, and as for Anna Leci, even in death she continues to mock us.”
While interviewing Edward Garnett Jnr, Superintendent Harvey became more and more furious as he took the young lawyer’s statement, to the point that he had to leave the room, instructing another detective to continue recording the statement. Disgusted with what he had discovered, he stormed out of the interview room and almost bumped into his deputy who was coming out of her office.
“Hey, Tony, slow down. You need to cool it. You’ve let that creep get under your skin.”
“I’m enraged, Carole; that creep as you refer to him, could have saved Lucy. Yeah, I’m uptight. I won’t rest until he and that obnoxious woman are charged for this and get their just deserts. The death penalty is too good for them. He and Rita Hampton I’m sure were handsomely paid for their silence. We have to investigate where the money is and sequestrate those dollars. I’ll contact our fraud squad and get things moving. As for Anna Leci, she completely fooled the elderly Garnett into believing that young Lucy’s visit to her had been sanctioned by the child’s mother. The poor man is in a state of shock. I gave him a call to check on him. I thought he was going to collapse on us. He has to rethink his retirement plans and consider the future of the firm. Poor guy. He so wanted to keep the law practice in the family.”
Harvey sat in his office staring blankly out of the window over the busy city. He was staggered at the recent revelations. He was interrupted by an international call from DI Rab McKenzie from the Scottish squad who reported that his investigation into the possibility that the two American criminals had entered Scotland illegally via Scottish waters had no foundation in fact. Harvey had momentarily forgotten it was still under investigation, so caught up was he with events on his own patch.
“There’s been a few drug smuggling incidents round our waters recently. A Col
ombian ship was searched, and three men arrested with class A drugs, but no illegal entry of people was reported. We’re still working our way through CCTV from airports and harbours. The trouble is your two blokes could have arrived in the UK not long after you tracked them to Mexico. They could have slipped in unnoticed while your men were searching elsewhere.
“We were all presuming they came here recently. There’s no proof either way, but we won’t give up until we get the truth. I think we have to concentrate our enquiries around London where Barry Jones originated. I’m flying to the capital to speak with some London guys. I’ll keep you informed of progress. I hate these unsolved cases on my patch and I’m determined to get to the bottom of it and bring some closure.”
Sensing that all was not well with his Chicago friend, Rab McKenzie enquired: “Have I called at a bad time, Tony? You sound far away and I don’t mean physically; is everything okay over there?”
Chicago’s superintendent brought him up to speed.
“Things are moving rapidly over here, Rab, so rapidly that I haven’t got back to you to update you. I have you top of my list to contact as soon as I catch my breath.”
He related recent events to his stunned colleague and after some discussion the two men ended the call, promising to be in touch with any developments.
Well, that’s a turn up for the books! thought Rab.
CHAPTER 17
Infuriated at the turn of events, Superintendent Harvey made yet another journey to interview Rita Hampton, this time accompanied by his deputy. His fists tightened on the steering wheel as they discussed the forthcoming interview. He parked erratically, lunging Carole forward as she held on to the side of the seat. She took a sharp intake of breath and refrained from commenting, knowing her boss was on a short fuse. He did not trust himself to be in the same room as Rita Hampton without losing control of his temper. Carole Carr conducted the interview as Tony, attempting to control his rage, watched from a one-way observation window of the interrogation room.
“I believe you have much more to tell us about Lucy Mears’ abduction?”
“No, ma’am, I told Superintendent Harvey all I could remember.”
“You omitted to mention Edward Garnett,” said Carole, dropping the name and watching for a reaction from the prisoner.
“Who, ma’am? I can’t seem to recall that name.”
“Then let me cast your mind back to when Anna Leci had you witness her signature on a document which Edward Garnett had rewritten, purporting to be her last will and testament and another document regarding the abduction of Lucy Mears.”
“Ma’am, it was so long ago. I’ve been going mad in this place, my memory’s not as good as it should be. I don’t recall anything like that.”
The scheming woman hoped to stall the flow of questions that she mistakenly took to be from a rather naïve officer whom she could easily deceive, by denying all knowledge of Edward Garnett.
Detective Carr was no pushover. She sat calmly staring at the prisoner in front of her, her stare disconcerting and menacing, a tactic often used by her to cause unease and agitation. She waited.
The silence seemed unending to the offender. Sweat formed on her brow, trickles of water ran down her face. She wiped her brow with her sleeve, her palms now hot and clammy; she felt uncomfortably hot. Carole waited.
When she could no longer stand the strain, Rita Hampton mumbled, “Edward Garnett? Well, ah, now I do seem to recall that name. Wasn’t he a lawyer from Jordan Garnett’s firm? Yeah, he did visit Anna when his uncle was ill… had to have some papers signed… yeah, maybe I did witness Anna’s signature… ”
Carole remained silent and waited knowing her tactics were working on the increasingly uncomfortable prisoner.
Outside the interrogation room, Tony Harvey whispered to himself, good girl, Carole, keep at it. He knew his partner’s skills and trusted her implicitly to draw a confession from the errant internee. Silence makes people uncomfortable; a strong tool used as a power tactic disconcerting the other; it denotes control and inevitably elicits a response. Rita Hampton felt her control slipping from her; her confidence shattered, she wanted a hole to appear to swallow her up, but her opponent waited. In silence.
She blubbered, “It all went too far. Anna’s entire wealth was to go to a fifteen-year-old rich kid. It wasn’t fair; she didn’t need her aunt’s mega riches. Eddie, umm, Edward came up with a plan to distribute it fairly. He added bits to the documents that Anna never knew about and got me to witness the signature.”
Carole turned towards the one-way window, signalled to her superior that he was to join her.
Rita Hampton was surprised to see the superintendent from Chicago yet again on her case, believing Deputy Carr to be on her own.
“Sir,” mumbled the flustered prisoner, “I am surprised to see you here. I hope you don’t think I can give you any information about Anna Leci. I’ve told you and this officer here all I know.”
“Stop there, lady. It’s time to come clean. I have to tell you that your accomplice Edward Garnett Jnr has been arrested and has told us of your deceit.”
At that she paled significantly, mumbled incoherently, and hung her head in shame.
“It’s time to talk,” hollered Harvey, having no compassion for the distressed prisoner. “Start talking, right now. Get your version in before Edward Garnett sings like a budgie and blames you for the entire deceit. May I remind you that five people are dead.”
Harvey could be the gentlest, most understanding inquisitor when he felt a prisoner deserved it, or he could be ruthless and furious when necessary. Rita Hampton experienced the latter. His accusing demeanor took her aback.
“I… I… ” She began through tears, “I’m so sorry. It was never meant to go so far, it was all a mistake. Wish to God I’d never set eyes on that lawyer.”
“Go on,” commanded Harvey with not a vestige of sympathy.
Carole Carr sat back and listened.
“It all happened so fast. Edward Garnett came to have Anna sign a document for his uncle, who was seriously ill in hospital. Anna said to me, ‘Take that young man to the dining room and order a meal. You might as well stay and eat with him. I’m going to sleep now and won’t need you for a while.’ So I did that and we got talking. He asked me about Lucy Mears. ‘I read from your employer’s will that the kid is to inherit everything; this whole damn monstrosity of a place to go to a kid! What about you Rita? It looks like you’ll be homeless when the old dear passes on. In my books, that’s unfair.’
“Until then I knew nothing of the contents of Anna’s will. Sir, he was so charming, such a smooth-talking guy and I fell under his charms. You have to understand, I’d been stuck in that place with little or no contact with people other than a few staff, and when he came along, well, he was a breath of fresh air. I’d never thought much about what would happen to me after Anna died. I’d a plan in mind to go to England and visit my cousin, but it was only a thought, and then Edward got me thinking about my future.”
She stopped to wipe tears from her swollen eyes, but Harvey had no time for theatrics. “Get on with it.”
Frightened by his brusque manner and aware of the silent detective still sitting in the room, never faltering in eye contact, she continued.
“Well, he then told me he could adjust the will to give me security and swore me to secrecy. At first I was shocked that a lawyer could be so deceitful, and then I guess his charms carried me away. ‘If you breathe a word of this to anyone Rita, I’ll deny everything and drop you right in it. I have the skill to discredit you in court so keep your mouth shut and listen up,’ he told me. I have to say, I was mighty scared.”
“And then?” demanded Harvey.
“Well, he came back on several occasions, supposedly to pay a courtesy call on Anna. He would sit with her and talk about everything an
d anything. Anna thought he was wonderful, but he was plotting all the time to gain her trust. It was all a game to him. The day after the incident that I told you about, sir, when I overheard Alf and Barclay talk about poor Les, Edward turned up at the house with flowers for Anna. He could see I was upset about something and, well, he was so concerned that I blurted it all out to him and told him that Alf and Barclay had planned to harm Les by fixing the plane. Detective, you have to understand how lonely I was and how kind that guy was to me, and I was real scared of those two guys and what they were planning to do.”
“I don’t have to understand anything but the truth,” he snapped. “Continue.”
In an attempt to distract him from more inquisitions and hoping for a whisker of sympathy, she asked for water, which Harvey sent a young officer to fetch, without taking his eyes from the distressed prisoner.
“And?”
Rita had no option but to proceed.
“‘You leave everything to me, Rita, I’ll deal with this,’ he said after he finished his visit with Anna. I was in the kitchen clearing up after her lunch, not that she ate much, and I looked out to see Edward in conversation with Alf. They seemed to talk for ages and then shook hands. Edward slapped Alf on the back, you know the way men do, and I was scared they would see me looking at them, so I hid awhile before returning upstairs. I must have been away longer than I thought as I could hear Anna ringing her call bell. ‘Where have you been? I need my pillows moved.’ She could be quite demanding, sir, and I was real stressed.”
Rita paused for breath and to sip some water. Realising there was to be no respite from Harvey’s constant glare and no hope of sympathy; she continued to regale him with her confession.
“I didn’t see him again for over a week, then he turned up one day with some documents for Anna to sign. ‘Uncle has asked me to get your signature on this document, right here and here,’ he said as he guided her shaky hand to where her signature was required. ‘It’s just a page he forgot to add, nothing really too important for you to concern yourself with. And how are you today, my dear? I have to say, you look a bit brighter.’ He could be real charming.”
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