by Leah Hope
“I have to say I’m with her on that one Mark” Gil said. “What a flippin’ cheek. I think I’d have told him where to go too.”
“Well you’d have been just as daft as Sheila then! You think this guy’s going to take no for an answer? We’re talking about maybe half a million quid’s worth of stones here!”
“I suppose you’re right. So what happened next?”
“Chummy leaves it a couple of days before he calls again and ups the ante. He doesn’t know of course that the Cresswells have found the diamonds so he thinks the reason they won’t part with the bear is because it’s an antique and has some value in its own right. So he ups his offer to a grand. Still the Cresswells refuse to budge. He goes to two grand, same answer. Now he’s getting suspicious. Have they found the diamonds? There’s only one way to find out. Ten grand. Nope says Sheila Cresswell. And this seals her fate.”
“According to Malcolm Cresswell, the guy says he’ll give them twenty-four hours to think about it and this time he’s going to send a “friend” round. He strongly advises them to accept his offer.”
“Can I ask a question Mark?” Bridget said. “I assume the Cresswells have been able to give quite a detailed description of this man.”
“They have and it unfortunately it bears no resemblance to Jeremy Marshall-Dobbs, who’s our chief suspect for being the owner of the bear.”
“So he’sent someone else along to do his dirty work then” Gil said.
“It certainly looks like it. Anyway, the following evening, another guy turns up, definitely not a “nice man” this time. He repeats the offer of ten grand for the bear which again the Cresswells turn down. He says he’ll give them a week to think it over. If they still refuse, he said, Sheila Cresswell’s future safety could not be guaranteed. Which was quite a strange way to make a threat but the Cresswells were left in no doubt that the man meant serious physical harm.”
“So why on earth didn’t they accept the offer? I mean ten grand is not to be sneezed at is it?” Bridget asked.
“I asked Malcolm Cresswell the very same question. I can’t believe his response. He said, quite calmly “why on earth should we? It’s our lottery win”. He said there was no way they were going to hand over those diamonds. For once I was lost for words. But then he added that he was already hatching a plan to fake Sheila’s death in the hope that somehow the heavy would simply leave them alone. Is he completely stupid or what! Well we all know what the plan was don’t we. Sheila hid out in her sister’s house in York while Shirley impersonated her on the ferry. Shirley then flew to Canada to stay with her daughter. Oh by the way, we’ve established that she and her daughter spent the last couple of weeks at a resort near Lake Louise, which they’d had planned for some time.”
“So it was all perfectly innocent then, they weren’t hiding away?”
“No, not as far as we can tell. It was just by chance that their trip coincided with the rest of the Cresswell clan going missing. Anyway, as I was saying, Malcolm stayed with some friends in Dover for a few days and then, on the pretext that he needed some time on his own “to come to terms with the tragic events”, he left, drove to York to pick Sheila up and then on to the holiday cottage at your cousin’s farm. The plan was to wait until the dust had settled and then head for Spain where they would start a new life with the stash of gems.”
“You were probably going to mention this at some point Mark but I’ve been dying to know how Shirley Wheeler got off the ferry? She clearly couldn’t travel in Malcolm’s car” Gil asked.
“Cresswell told me that after she’d made sure she’d been seen on the open deck, to tie in with the story that he would later recount, she kept her head down and simply left the ferry as a foot passenger.”
“Very clever” Gil replied. “But another thing’s been bugging me. Why was Rachel at the cottage as well? Did the heavies threaten her too?’
“Because she started to get “strange” phone calls, as she put it. Her phone at work and at her flat would ring and there would be no-one there so she put two and two together and came up with five. There’s no evidence that our man targeted her so although I don’t generally believe in coincidences as you know, I’m working on the assumption that that’s what it was in this case. But Malcolm panicked and suggested she took some leave and join him and her mum in Yorkshire. I’m betting there’s a disgruntled boyfriend on the scene somewhere who’s behind the phone calls but I won’t be sure until we’ve been able to question Rachel at length.”
“What about Jamie, have you been able to speak to him?”
“No, he’s still out of contact in the wilds of the Pyrenees somewhere but we have no information to suggest he’s in any danger. We will of course want to speak to him as soon as he’s back in the UK.”
“I know I’m being stupid” Bridget said, hesitatingly “but I still don’t really understand why Sheila Cresswell had to disappear so publicly. Why didn’t she and Malcolm just do a moonlight and head for the cottage in Yorkshire or Spain even. Why all that palaver on the ferry?”
“Call it stupidity or naivety but Malcolm Cresswell thought that the heavies would be more likely to believe that Sheila was dead, and therefore call off the hunt, if there was a huge wave of publicity surrounding her death it, if you’ll pardon the pun. They aren’t the sharpest tools in the box and thought that would be the end of the matter.”
“So do they still have the diamonds?” Gil said.
“They did, but we’ve since retrieved them from the cistern where they hid them. Malcolm took the bear with him when he left home, apparently intending to sell it on eBay but never got round to it.”
“Will they face any charges?” Bridget asked.
“We’re still looking into that. As far as Sheila faking her own death is concerned, there aren’t likely to be any as they didn’t gain financially, although it will be anyone’s guess if Malcolm intended to make an insurance claim at some point. With regard to the diamonds, the law of “finders keepers” would normally apply except that it’s pretty obvious the hoard was the result of crime. Which means we’ve confiscated them so they won’t be getting them back. At best, we could charge them with wasting police time but the CPS may decide it’s not in the public interest to bring about a prosecution.”
“So they could walk free?” Gil asked.
“More than likely yes, but that won’t be my decision.”
“That doesn’t seem right, after all the trouble they’ve caused.”
“I agree but if stupidity was a crime they’d be banged up for life.”
“Just one more thing” Bridget said, trying not to sound like Columbo.
“You said that the bear was possibly owned by Jeremy Marshall-Dobbs, has it been tested for finger-prints or DNA?”
“We’re struggling to get prints from the bear because of the nature of the fur fabric and the diamonds are of course very small, but forensics are doing their best. They’re checking both the bear and the diamonds for DNA and we’ve taken DNA samples from all of the Cresswells to eliminate them from our findings. But as we don’t have Jeremy Marshall-Dobbs’ DNA or dabs on record, we haven’t got anything to compare the results with.”
“Hmm, so where do you go from here?” Bridget asked.
“Well we’ve still got the Marshall-Dobbs under surveillance but the most exciting things they’ve done so far is to buy a new lawn-mower and get their cat neutered. So much for living the high-life off the proceeds of crime. But we’ll persevere and… Sorry folks, I’ve got to go”, Mark said abruptly. “We could have lift-off.” With that, he ended the call.
“I wonder what that’s all about.” Gil said as he stretched his legs. “Fancy another cuppa?”
“No I don’t think I do. I need to make a start on supper.”
“Do you want me to do it? You must still be feeling pretty sore.”
“No thanks, you know me, I find cooking very relaxing but you can do the clearing up though.”
Havin
g declined Gil’s offer of help, Bridget suddenly felt very tired. One of Cathy’s ready meals that they’d brought back with them would do very nicely. It would just need heating up. Although her body still ached all over, Bridget’s mind was in over-drive as she thought about what might be happening with the Marshall-Dobbs investigation.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The next few days were very quiet, nothing was heard from Chief Inspector Addison. Then on the fourth day he rang.
“We’ve got him” he told Bridget as she picked up the phone just after breakfast. She was so relieved to hear the news that she sat down on one of the kitchen chairs with a bump. “Oh Mark, that’s wonderful” she exclaimed. “I wish Gil was here but he’s just left for the garage.”
“Well don’t get too carried away yet Bridget because at the moment we’ve only been able to charge him with diamond smuggling, not that that’s insignificant by any means. We picked him up at the airport on the way back from Amsterdam and he coughed straight away. He was caught red-red-handed though so he didn’t have much choice. He’s denying any knowledge of the Cresswells though or any threats to Sheila’s life.”
“So were the diamonds in a teddy bear?”
“Yep. He said it was a present for his younger daughter, he even had a receipt for it. Oh but we did have another bit of luck. It seems the lovely Tania has a bit of a cocaine habit going on. We found enough of the stuff hidden in her suitcase to keep them and their social circle as high as kites for a week.”
“I’m going to you on speaker Mark” Bridget replied “so I can make a cup of tea while you speak.” Bridget grabbed the biscuit tin before sitting down again with her tea.
“So at the moment Jeremy Marshall-Dobbs is out on bail” Mark continued. “Until we can track down the gorillas who put the frighteners on the Cresswells there’s not a lot we can do on that front. But the diamond smuggling will see him sent down for a good few years at least so he won’t be going anywhere.”
“What about Tania? Could she go to prison too?”
“She could indeed. Possession of a Class A drug carries a maximum sentence of seven years. Mind you, it’s a first offence and she’s never been in trouble before so she could get away with just a heavy fine. But that’s for the courts to decide. We will of course look to link her with the diamond smuggling but if Jerry insists he acted alone, we might be on a sticky wicket. But we’ll see.”
“Oh those poor children” Bridget said with a sigh, dropping her chocolate digestive into her tea as she did so. She hoped Mark didn’t hear her swear under her breath as she fished it out.
“Well you know what they say, if you can’t do the time blah-di-blah….”
“Yes I suppose you’re right. There’s one thing I’m curious about Mark, how did the teddy bear end up at the jumble sale where Sheila Cresswell bought it?”
“That we won’t know until we’re able to charge him with offences against the Cresswells. My guess is that it got taken their accidentally. Someone probably called around collecting for the local jumble-sale and one of the Marshall-Dobbs’ minions was tasked with sorting some stuff out and handed it over with a load of unwanted things. I bet old Jerry was livid when he found out! Of course seeing that photo of Sheila Cresswell was a stroke of luck and played right into his grubby little hands.”
“But would he be so foolish as to leave a bear stuffed full of diamonds just lying around. Why didn’t he put the bear, or at least the diamonds into his safe?” Bridget asked, trying to decide whether to risk another chocolate digestive or not.
“It was quite a clever ploy when you think of it. Anything in his safe would be flagged up as being valuable so if it was ever broken in to, it would get taken with the other contents. If the bear was on a shelf in one of the kids bedrooms along with a collection of other toys, no-one would give it a second glance.”
“But why hide the diamonds in such an expensive toy in the first place? You would think he would have chosen something less valuable.”
“My guess is he hoped it would throw customs officials off the scent if he ever got stopped. Like you said, who would use such an expensive item only for it to get ripped open. He’s a clever man our Mr Marshall-Dobbs, I’ll give him that. But he’ll slip up one of these days and we’ll be waiting.”
“I certainly hope so. When you think of what he drove the Cresswells to, it doesn’t bear thinking about. Oh by the way Mark will Malcolm be facing charges for crashing into me?”
“I’m afraid so. The tyre marks clearly indicate he accelerated as he approached your vehicle. So it’s dangerous driving as a minimum but possibly attempted murder or manslaughter instead.”
“Oh good grief. So I’ll have to go to court then, to testify against him.”
“It’s looking that way Bridget but the CPS are still looking into the case so I don’t have an answer for you at the moment.”
Bridget could feel the colour drain from her face. Another biscuit was called for. “Where are the family now, are they back home?” she asked, after recovering her composure.
“Yes they are. Rachel has just returned to work and Jamie’s due back from Spain later today. He’s got a shock in store, unless one of the family have been able to contact him when he got within range of a mobile phone mast.”
“Poor boy, well poor family really. They’ve been through a dreadful ordeal. I was hoping they could begin to put it all behind them but now they’ve got the prospect of a trial hanging over their heads.” Bridget paused. “I don’t suppose I could ask for the charges against Malcolm to be dropped?”
“Unfortunately not. It’s the CPS who make that decision and I can’t see them doing it in this case. The evidence is pretty damning. To all intents and purposes he deliberately drove his car straight at you with the aim of causing you serious harm or even death, so I wouldn’t feel too sorry for him if I were you.”
“I understand that Mark but it was me who started the chain of events by chasing after him like a lunatic and then blocking the road with my car.”
“But you gave him ample time to stop, the decision not to do so was Malcolm Cresswell’s, not yours so don’t beat yourself up. Oh and if that isn’t enough to stop you feeling guilty, then maybe this little snippet will change your mind. Do you remember when I told you that on the night that “Sheila” went missing from the ferry how distraught Rachel and Jamie were?”
“Yes I do, I think you said it was one of the worst things you’d ever witnessed.”
“And it was, those kids were beside themselves. And do you know why? Well I’ll tell you. It was because their dear father hadn’t told them that it was all a put-up job.”
“You mean he let them think their mother had fallen overboard?” Bridget replied, horrified at what she was hearing.
“Got it in one. He only told them the truth the next day as he wanted their reactions to be “genuine” as he put it. Can you believe that? To do that to your own flesh and blood. I’m staggered that either of them want anything more to do with their blasted parents.”
“Well that does put things in a different light I must admit” Bridget replied, still reeling from what she had just heard. “I do understand what you’re saying Mark but it’s still hard not to feel some level of responsibility.”
“Well taking responsibility for your actions is no bad thing of course, even if it does seem to be going out of fashion these days. But please promise me you’ll never try anything like this again.”
“Oh I won’t don’t you worry. I’ve learned my lesson, the hard way. Besides I’m getting too old for getting into scrapes. The most risky thing I’m going to do from now is to make a soufflé.”
“I’m glad to hear it but with your prowess that’s not risky at all. I’m sure it will rise to perfection - it wouldn’t dare not to!” Mark replied with a laugh.
*
Bridget told Gil all about Mark’s phone call over a cup of tea and a slice of coffee and walnut cake when he got back from the garage.
“So that’s the end of it then” Gil said, mopping up some crumbs from his plate with his finger and popping them into his mouth.
“Well not exactly, I’ll probably have to go to court and testify against Malcolm Cresswell. I’m really not looking forward to that.”
“I know, but it won’t be for months yet” Gil replied, trying to cheer up his sister.
“But that’s the worst thing, it’ll be hanging over my head all that time. By the time it gets to court I’ll be a jibbering wreck. I’ve read enough courtroom dramas to know how these things work. They’ll try to tie me up in knots and make me look like a fool. Well maybe I deserve it for being so reckless.”
“I know Bridge but what’s done is done. We can’t change the past. We of all people should know that. We’ll get through it like we’ve always done. In the meantime, let’s just try to enjoy some peace and quiet. After all that’s happened, I’m sure you must feel the same.”
“Yes of course, I’d be mad not too” Bridget replied, picking up a book.
“Gil” she said five minutes later, putting the book down again.
“Yes Bridge?”
“Are you doing anything tomorrow?”
“Why do you ask?” Gil replied warily. He had learned over time that when his sister asked a supposedly innocent question it was often no such thing.
“You know I said it was too early to look for another car. Well I’ve been thinking. You know what they say when you fall off a horse, or is it a bike? Anyway, the best thing is to get straight back on otherwise you might never do it. So, I’d like to go back to the garage tomorrow, just for a look of course, I mean I might not find anything that takes my fancy.”
“Good idea. You never know, that little blue hatchback might still be for sale.”
“Well you buy it then if you’re that keen but I’m looking for something with a bit of, er, oh I can’t find the right word.”
