Cut to the Chase

by Ray Scott

  ‘What happened to your car at Albrighton?’ he asked. ‘And what about my canal boat, is it still where I left it?’

  ‘No idea, we’ll have to find out,’ said McKay. ‘I’d say the car could have been reported by now, more than likely by another householder, I’d certainly wonder if a car was parked outside my house in Canberra for nearly a week. Not so sure about the canal boat, the hirers won’t be asking questions for about another week, and I don’t think other canal users will take much notice of it. But somebody at Amblecote may start to wonder about it if it’s sitting around there for too long.’

  ‘We’ll cross those bridges when we come to them,’ grunted Kelsey. ‘What time is it now?’

  ‘About 5 o’clock.’

  ‘It’s time to go and have a look around the vicinity of Ben’s house.’

  It wasn’t long before Ben rolled up with Dick Jackson in the passenger seat. He drove into the driveway and the garage door started to roll up.

  ‘Damned useful things, those electronic tilt-a-doors,’ remarked Kelsey. ‘I must get one fitted at home.’

  They saw the garage door began to descend and the car disappeared from view.

  ‘Hallo, who’s that?’ asked McKay as a car drew up outside the house and parked outside the front fence.

  ‘Probably his wife,’ said Kelsey.

  ‘No, I doubt it. She’s still away. If it was her she’d have driven straight in, I’d say.’ Wallace replied and then he looked harder and his heart leapt.

  ‘It’s Liz!’ Wallace said. ‘She’s his sister.’

  They watched as she alighted and walked up the drive to the front door.

  ‘Not bad,’ commented Kelsey approvingly.

  They waited for about half an hour, there was no external activity from the house, though they did catch sight of somebody moving around inside the front window. Then Kelsey’s mobile telephone rang. He answered it in monosyllables, finally uttered the word ‘Agreed,’ and rang off.

  ‘Council of war,’ he announced. ‘But not in Ben’s house, I’d sooner not take the chance of being seen anywhere near it and certainly not in it. But Dick’s confirmed what we had already guessed, the phone was bugged.’

  ‘They must be nearby then to pick it up.’ Wallace suggested.

  ‘Not necessarily,’ said Kelsey. ‘Dick has located a booster in a tree in the back garden. It transmitted on a high frequency to where ever they picked it up.’

  He started the car and allowed the engine to idle.

  ‘I thought we’d use a motel room somewhere, but Ben’s suggested we go to his sister’s house about a mile away. Dick wants to check her phones as well just in case.’

  Wallace felt a surge of adrenalin at the thought.

  ‘We’ll just follow Ben’s car, Ben’s staying at the house. His sister will drive his car with Dick in it, and we’ll follow it to her house.’

  Wallace went cold at the thought that anyone could have broken in Liz’s house, but there was one comforting thought. He had been unaware that Liz had been living near to Ben until he had arrived at Ben’s house, so Elsie couldn’t have been aware of it either. But, if they had been bugging Ben’s phone for some weeks before Wallace’s arrival in England, calls to and from Liz would have been made in the normal course of events, presumably picked up by Kalim and his men, and Liz being his sister, they might have thought it worth bugging her line as well.

  ‘Here she comes, don’t lose her, Alan,’ said McKay.

  ‘No worries,’ Wallace said. ‘I know where she lives.’

  ‘Really!’ Kelsey and McKay exchanged glances. ‘Been there before have you?’ Wallace felt himself blushing.

  Wallace experienced extreme embarrassment when he entered Liz’s house with the others, Dick Jackson was nowhere to be seen; apparently he was upstairs checking the bedroom extension. They entered the house and trooped into the sitting room, Liz wasn’t there but she entered from the kitchen, Wallace thought she had been preparing coffee ready for the invasion. She looked at Wallace searchingly, then she smiled, and an overwhelming sense of relief flowed through him. Clearly the information regarding his innocence had been covered by Ben, and presumably Dick Jackson as well, during their time in Ben’s house.

  Jackson came down the stairs as they waited, and nodded cheerfully.

  ‘All clear,’ he said, and parked his metal case by the hall doorway. ‘But there was no doubt about the one at Ben Wakefield’s. Quite a sophisticated system, I’ve come across it before, the Russians still use them, though we don’t see so many of them these days.’

  ‘How far does the signal go?’ McKay asked.

  ‘Anything up to 30 miles, I’d say,’ responded Jackson. ‘It’s still in place as you requested.’

  ‘Why are you leaving it there?’ asked Liz.

  ‘Because we want to catch these bastards,’ said Kelsey. ‘They killed a harmless old man in London because his views differed from theirs, they also tried to implicate Australia – and Harry – in the assassination, and we don’t like that either.’

  ‘How will you do that?’

  ‘Don’t know yet, we’ve got to nut that one out. But Ben understands the situation; he’ll use his mobile now for all calls from the house. We suggest you call him on that if you’re ringing him at his home. In the meantime, we’ve got to work out our next moves, but we can’t do it alone.’

  ‘And Harry still has to sort things out with the police,’ added McKay. ‘Otherwise we could have anything we do prejudiced if some local bobby arrests Harry in the middle of it. I can smell coffee, is it ready?’

  Liz seemed to like McKay, Wallace gritted his teeth as she gave him a winning smile that Wallace would have died for, and she went out to the kitchen. He noticed all their eyes followed her as she walked out.

  Chapter 28

  It was agreed that Wallace should return to London with Kelsey and Jackson. He had a session with Liz in the back garden where they were able to talk without anyone else being in earshot, she told him she had seen the article in the newspapers, the same one that Fred Hackett had in his barge, and it had been a terrible shock.

  ‘I had heard of the murder before, there had been a photo previously but it looked nothing like you so I never associated it with you, the name and the spellings were different, I knew Harry was short for Harrison so I never associated Henry with you,’ she said. ‘But this later picture left no doubt it was you.’

  ‘Which cast me as Villain No: 1,’ Wallace said. ‘How did Ben take it?’

  ‘I didn’t know what to make of it, but Ben was angry at first, he thought you had conned him, but knowing you as he did he kept saying it wasn’t like you. But he did have a problem, should he report it or not? On the one hand you were his old friend Harry…and mine,’ she added quickly. ‘On the other hand, this was serious, this was murder and the police were looking for you.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ Wallace responded. ‘I can understand his dilemma, he’d also got his reputation as a businessman to consider; he couldn’t afford to be suspected of harbouring a criminal.’ He recalled that this had been McKay’s reasoning as well.

  She reached for his hand as they talked, and he felt a thrill go up and down his spine.

  ‘You know why the new information hit the papers?’ Wallace asked.

  ‘No, what do you mean?’ she asked.

  ‘It was bloody Elsie. She gave them heaps of information, and that photograph. It was taken in her parents’ back yard. She obviously corrected all the misspellings as well, the bitch,’ Wallace said bitterly. ‘I can’t see why she did that, or who locked onto her.’

  ‘You are too naive,’ snorted Liz. ‘I can see why she did it; she’s a vindictive bitch. As for the ones who locked onto her, maybe they were the same people who leased that apartment in London in your name.’

  Wallace nodded, that was a possibility, he remembered telling Kalim in Jakarta that he was estranged from his wife, and had a feeling he may have mentioned the animosity bet
ween them. He had also told Kalim that she had retained the Wallace surname which would have enabled him to trace her more easily. Clearly he had said far too much.

  That night Liz and Wallace shared her room, and her bed. After all he had been through he thought he was in Heaven. The others slept in various places throughout the house and they all left the following morning, Kelsey had decided not to use any local hotel/motels because he thought it best not to leave a paper trail which could be traced if they resorted to hotels.

  Wallace left the next morning with Jackson and Kelsey who were heading for London where Kelsey was to consult with the British Intelligence services and where Wallace was to give a statement to the police. McKay decided to head for Albrighton to check whether the car was still where he had left it, if it was it would also enable him to pinpoint the house where Kalim had incarcerated Wallace. He was dropped at Dorridge railway station as he was also going to look for the canal boat afterwards to see if that was still where it had been left.

  The journey to London and the High Commission was uneventful, which made a refreshing change from recent travels around the country. It was mid-afternoon before they finally arrived, and Wallace was allocated a room on the first floor where he had a welcome shower. After a change of clothes Kelsey came to see him in the downstairs kitchen area, where he was having a cup of coffee.

  ‘The mailing you and Dave McKay made from Knowle has arrived, we’re processing it now courtesy of some of our computer whiz kids.’

  He sat down opposite Wallace.

  ‘In the meantime, you will have to be moved to a house in Kensington,’ he said. ‘It’s a safe house used by M.I.5, this is their operation now and in any case it’s not appropriate for you to be sheltered by the High Commission with the negotiations still taking place regarding oil drilling rights in the Arafura Sea. We don’t want any enterprising journalist being tipped off that you’re here. I’ll keep you posted about that.’

  The following morning Wallace was scanning through the morning papers when Kelsey entered the room.

  ‘Interview with the police tomorrow,’ he announced. ‘Just remember to tone down any mention of what McKay was doing. You were on your own most of the time so concentrate on that if you can.’

  ‘All right,’ Wallace said, though he didn’t quite see how he could avoid any mention of McKay if he was asked directly. Luckily there hadn’t been much contact with police except in Kidderminster and Stratford.

  ‘Another thing, we’ve had some news from Bob Bramble’

  ‘Bramble!’ Wallace looked up sharply. Any mention of Bramble usually meant trouble and was always likely to bring him to a high stage of alertness and suspicion.

  Kelsey grinned when he saw Wallace’s reaction.

  ‘Yes, he does have that effect on some people, doesn’t he?’ he said and Wallace gathered that, like McKay, he wasn’t one of Bramble’s strongest fans either. ‘Bob’s done some digging. I gather he did it himself and he’s done a pretty good job.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Apparently your ex-wife was contacted some months back by a man who claimed to be a private investigator or heir hunter who had been appointed by a firm of solicitors. Do you know what an heir hunter is?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘They are firms that investigate estates where anyone dies without leaving a will, they peruse and pursue the Treasury lists released each Thursday and work on a commission basis for any heirs they find.’

  ‘I don’t understand what you’re getting at.’

  ‘You will. Incidentally, do you have an uncle named Ambrose Harrison?’

  ‘Yes, he lives in Surbiton. He’s my mother’s brother.’

  ‘Yes, we know he is, we had contact with the local police authority where he lives, you’ll be interested to know he had a burglary recently, very little was taken. We’re in touch with M.I.5 on that, we think his phone may have been bugged the same as Ben Wakefield’s, and I think your cousin’s phone had been bugged as well. However, I digress. Do you, or did you, also have a great uncle named Jonathan Harrison?’

  ‘Jonathan Harrison?’ Wallace shook his head. ‘Not that I know of, I’ve never heard of him.’

  ‘That figures, your wife, or ex-wife, was told he had died at a great age and had left you a huge legacy, amounting to nearly a million pounds sterling. The message she received was that she may be entitled to a large proportion of it; allegedly it was left to you before any divorce. So they asked her where you would be likely to go when you were in England as they wanted to keep tabs on you to ensure that if you received any cash she wouldn’t be prejudiced, presumably by you spending it or hiding it from her. She was also told it may be advisable not to contact you on the subject, nor the press nor the police, they were handling it and didn’t want you to be warned that she knew about it.’

  ‘Ye Gods!’

  ‘Bramble did some extensive digging, he found that there was no private investigator of the name that he supplied, nor did the lawyers exist. The London firm of heir hunters that had been quoted did exist but they knew nothing about it either. Bramble traced a small one room office where this bogus private investigator had rented space and a telephone line; it was in a serviced office block in an office building in St Kilda. They’ve long gone and the phone and the room have been rented out to someone else now.’

  ‘So that’s how they knew my Toorak Road address when they took out that lease in Knightsbridge. She gave them all that and she supplied that bloody photograph.’

  ‘And it explains how they knew where you were likely to go when you reached England,’ said Kelsey. ‘But initially they slipped up with your name; obviously they never thought of checking Harry out and assumed that Harry was derived from Henry. Also at first they didn’t spell your surname right, plus the foul up by not knowing your first name was Josiah, and initially she didn’t know that they didn’t know that either. They made assumptions that were reasonable on the surface, but wrong, as it turned out. They eventually got all the correct information from her on a second visit as did the local police when Scotland Yard got onto them. She gave them the correct spelling and the correct names, and I think she probably gave them that photo as well.’

  ‘Bloody bitch!’ Wallace exploded. ‘There’s no probably about it, only she could have given them that. I suppose she knows now there isn’t a legacy.’

  ‘No, she doesn’t,’ Kelsey grinned. ‘Bramble didn’t tell her that, he thought he’d leave that pleasure to you. Our friend Bramble isn’t without a sense of humour, apparently he was exposed to her for some time while he gleaned the information, he was also posing as a private enquiry agent and I don’t think he liked her either. She still believes she’s due for a windfall.’

  Wallace found himself starting to smile.

  ‘Serve the bitch right,’ he snorted. ‘Well, truly, hell really hath no fury…!’

  ‘What was that?’ Kelsey paused as he reached the door.

  ‘Nothing, just something Kalim said; he was bloody right for once!’

  Chapter 29

  Wallace had to have the story pat before he presented himself to the police. He went over it with Kelsey and also had some telephonic communication with McKay. Incredibly McKay had found the car still standing where he had left it, the residential street was well matured with high, overhanging trees, and he had originally parked it outside a house several doors from Kalim’s headquarters alongside high wooden fences. Because the front gates of the two nearest houses were some yards away from the car, and all the houses in the road were standing well back from the roadway, nobody seemed to have been too aware of it, and probably Kalim hadn’t noticed it either. McKay had then driven to Amblecote. Apparently the boat was still in the same place.

  The story was that Wallace was to give the facts regarding that night up to the point where he came around and found himself in the room with Ravindran. After that, he was to say that he panicked because of the situation and contacted McKay. So far so good, a
ll was as it occurred. McKay (ostensibly) told him to report to the police, but Wallace was frightened that Kalim and his men could still reach him and decided to disappear into the country. He purchased a second hand back pack and headed for Devonshire and Cornwall. This Wallace allegedly did, not being aware that the police wanted him for murder as he stayed on the road and at hostels and didn’t read any newspapers nor see any television. Only when he saw the same newspaper that Fred Hackett and Liz had seen, did he realise he was in the picture for murder. Consequently he gave himself up to the High Commission and was now reporting to the police. Wallace was accompanied by a lawyer of a firm often used by the High Commission.

  Kelsey made him go through the story several times and acted as a Devil’s Advocate, picking holes that were too obvious. Whether the police would believe the story or not depended on Wallace making as good a meal of it as he could. He wasn’t sure whether he would believe it himself had anyone told it to him, but it would have to do. Kelsey was very thorough and showed him photographs of various hostels where he could have stayed, always paying cash, and only staying one night. They spent much time on the Internet and mapped out a likely rambling and meandering route that he could have taken. The one big advantage that Wallace had was that he was innocent of the murder of the unfortunate Ravindran and this fact would surely shine through.

  Wallace attended at a police station near to the High Commission with Jason Singleton, the lawyer, and completed the written statement. The interview was conducted by a Detective Sergeant and a policewoman, he stated the facts as they had rehearsed them and it all went into the statement. He thought their main interest were the facts leading up to the murder of Ravindran which cleared him of any complicity in the killing, and not so much any subsequent escapades. The policewoman asked a question about ASIO and ASIS but Singleton blocked that, declaring it to be irrelevant and inaccurate. They emerged some time later into the street, Wallace wasn’t sure whether they had finished with him or not, nor was Singleton.