by Emily Selby
'She wasn't very forthcoming, but it looks as though Miriam Fischer didn't tell us the whole truth.'
'I knew it!' Katie exclaimed, clasping her hands.
'According to Mrs Patel, her friend was quite tight-lipped about the unexpected visit. But she made some curt comments about how ridiculous it was to marry someone when you’re on your deathbed.'
'So, she did resent the engagement,' Katie said, fighting the anger at her friend. Why, on earth, did Miriam lie to the police? 'What's wrong with marrying someone when you're about to die? People do it all the time, it's actually quite sweet.'
'Well, except for when the very sick person is marrying someone they barely know.'
"Hm.' Katie ran through the wealth of information she had collected over the past few hours. 'Didn't someone say Miss MacGregor and Benjamin Fischer worked together before they started dating?'
'It was that weird solicitor,' Chris said.
'He's not weird,' Jack replied. 'It's his client who was a bit weird. From what I've gathered, Benjamin Fischer didn't have friends but kept his lawyer up-to-date with regard to any serious relationship he was getting into. As Mr Williamson explained, it was in case of any potential claims to his estate. But Chloe MacGregor told me she'd worked in the same company as her fiancé for about three years, initially as a receptionist in the same office, and then as his personal assistant. Again, according to her, they’ve have been "seeing each other" since March last year, more officially since June when they went on a holiday trip together.'
'I see,' Katie said slowly, 'doesn’t exactly sound like "someone he just met".'
'No.'
'Maybe Miriam wasn't happy with a dying Benjamin marrying a pretty, young girl, and I can see why,' Katie stated, trying to keep her feelings for her friend in check.
'For the sake of our overworked brains, can you just say why?' Jack asked, confusion showing on his face.
Katie pressed her lips together. How could she say it without making prejudiced comments about Chloe MacGregor?
'Perhaps Miriam was concerned that the girl was just a gold-digger, particularly since it looked like she would quickly become a very wealthy widow.'
'Good point,' Jack nodded. 'I see it the same way, but it wouldn't have happened very quickly. Benjamin had to get divorced first. Even with the papers signed, it would take months.'
'Which he didn't have,' Katie commented. 'And so maybe Chloe got-'
'A little impatient?' Jack finished her sentence. 'Yes, I've considered that, too. She did prepare the pillbox after all. And if I am correct to read into the message he had left on his solicitor's phone, he wanted to change his will. The call was made shortly before 7 pm. That’s after he signed the codicil. Maybe it wasn't about the codicil and the estranged wife. Maybe it was about adding another person to his will.'
'Julian, his family, or Chloe MacGregor?' Katie asked.
'Indeed.'
'Interesting,' Katie picked up. 'Because, if Benjamin Fischer was about to change his will, he couldn't have done much about his wife, or his brother, because their entitlements are protected in law. But he could exclude Chloe from it. And she stood to lose her expensive London flat. If they’d only lived together since last summer, she wasn't going to get anything from his estate, if he didn't mention her explicitly. If you're not married, you have to cohabit for at least a year, to be entitled, right?'
‘And all this gives Miss McGregor motive, means, and opportunity,' Katie said triumphantly. “The Holy Trinity of detection"!'
Jack nodded. His eyes shone, and he touched his fingers to his forehead in salute. 'I told you she was going to help us think,' he said to Chris.
Chris' scrunched his nose. 'No, I told you, but never mind. I'm glad we've got someone with a working head.' He beamed at Katie.
Katie returned their smiles.
They wouldn't have been so overwhelmed with information to process if they had allowed her to join the interviews with the wife and the girlfriend. But then, she had her own stuff to sort out, and she had to keep reminding herself she wasn’t actually a police detective. She was nothing more than an interested and keen amateur.
Katie blew out her cheeks. 'Okay, officers. Chloe had access to his pills. She had a high stake in keeping the current will. She gains most from Benjamin dying at the moment he died - before changing his will. So, this part of the puzzle is a little clearer. Does she have an alibi for the night of his death?'
Jack grinned. 'She does. She was with a friend in London, and the friend confirmed it. She claims to have arrived in Sunnyvale last night after receiving my phone call. I bet you can challenge it.'
Katie shrugged. 'She prepared the pillbox. Are you checking if my brain is working?'
'Gee, boss, she can see right through you,' Chris said, chuckling.
Jack joined in. 'No, not checking you. Just making sure, we've covered all the bases.'
'If this is the case, what about access to that beta blocker medicine which stopped Benjamin's heart?' Katie asked.
'Checked,' Jack nodded. 'Chloe claims she doesn't know if the medication is somewhere in their flat, but she admitted Benjamin had a number of bags with old medicines in them. She never looked inside, or so she says.'
'And old packets of that beta blocker might still be in the London flat?' Katie asked.
'Exactly,' Jack replied.
'What else? Any news on that codicil letter?'
'No news from Mr Williamson,' Jack said. 'As for more puzzles, here's another one.' He reached for his notebook and started reading. 'Mrs Fischer, the widow, said she saw a car driving in the opposite direction while she was standing by the road waiting for Benjamin to settle in the seat and put his seatbelt on.'
Katie sat up. New trail to follow or a red herring?
'Did she see the car clearly?' she asked.
'I quote: "A white Chelsea tractor",’ Jack said.
Katie blinked. 'A white Range Rover?' she said through a tight throat. 'Ally Baker's by any chance?'
'How can you possibly know that?' Jack looked at her from behind his glasses.
Katie took a breath, counted to five and released it. 'Ally Baker left the Craft’s Club meeting and went for a drive. But did she say where to?' Katie asked.
'She says she'd drove around town until she'd calmed down. We've checked her phone logs and, indeed, she received and made calls as she claimed. During the interview, she denied knowing the victim, so we left it at that.'
Katie took another deep breath. Her stomach was heavy, and the familiar sensation was tugging at it. Something wasn't right here. Ally Baker didn't usually lie. She was a normally straight-up kind of person, but why didn't she tell the police where she went for the drive?
Or was it only a coincidence?
'I have a hunch,' Jack said quietly.
Katie and Chris stared at him, both wide-eyed. It was still unusual to even hear the word 'hunch' coming from his mouth. Since his arrival in Katie’s life, Jack had been a logic-and-evidence type of investigator. How times change.
'A hunch?' Katie asked, her voice pitched a little higher than she would like it. 'What is it telling you?'
'I wonder if she would say anything different today if we were to question her again, but this time we’d be more forceful.'
Katie swallowed hard. 'Actually, I wonder too. I think you should call her.'
Jack nodded. 'Chris, can you please, find me the number?'
'No problem, sir.'
Chris and Jack turned away to make the call. Katie massaged her stomach.
Ally Baker's car?
16
Katie sat tight while Jack talked to Ally, who confirmed that she had, indeed, gone for a drive after receiving a distressing call from a good friend. She might have driven past Une Tasse...
No big deal.
At least that's what Katie kept telling herself, long after Jack finished the call, going over and over her virtual list of suspects. The more she thought, the less clear it all
became. And when the clock's hands approached ten to five, Katie got up, and then, her phone rang.
It was Ally.
'Hi Katie, are you at work?' Ally's voice brimmed with anxiety. 'At the station that is? '
'As a matter of fact, I am.' Katie replied quietly, but Chris and Jack had noticed, and they both glanced at her.
'I'm outside. By the staff car park. I can see your car. Can you come out?'
'Wait a second, I'm on my way out. I need to pick up Julia.' Katie nodded at her colleagues, hoping that the overheard snippet of her conversation was enough of an explanation for her sudden disappearance.
She disconnected the call and left the building.
It was dark outside, but in the dim light of a streetlamp, a tall, hunched silhouette waved at her from behind the fence.
Katie strode across the car park to her Micra.
'Sorry to bother you, Katie,' Ally said when Katie approached her. 'I don't want to be seen.'
Katie ignored the "why not?" question pushing into her mouth and opened the gate to the compound. 'Let's sit in my car,' she said.
They climbed into Katie's Micra. Ally's face was pale, she was wringing her hands.
'What's going on?' Katie asked. She could probably guess, but it was better to hear it straight from her friend.
'The guy who called me, what is he actually doing here?'
'DI Heaton is investigating the mur- the death of Mr Benjamin Fischer.'
'Ben's death?' Ally's eyes popped out. 'But why? Ben was very sick and died of a heart attack. I thought it was suicide. This shouldn't be a police matter.'
Whatever Ally's sources were, she seemed quite confident about them.
'It's not up to me to make a call whether it was a death of natural causes. Obviously, DI Heaton thinks he has enough evidence to believe it needs investigating. Why are you asking?'
Ally's temples glistened.
'Do you think he might have been murdered?' she asked, her jaw tensing.
'I can't comment on that.'
'What time did he die? It was you who found the body, wasn't it?'
'Yes. He died around seven o’clock, and I found his body at seven thirty-five. Why are you asking?'
Ally looked away, a line etched on her forehead.
'You found his body near the Community Centre, right?'
Katie nodded, checking the dashboard clock and thinking about Juila.
Ally leant back in the seat. 'Seven thirty-five at the Community Centre. That's okay then.'
'What's okay?'
'Nothing, I'm just thinking aloud.'
'Why? Were you at Une Tasse at the same time as Benjamin Fischer?'
'No!' Ally sat up straight, her face tense again. 'I wasn't there... I mean, I drove past there later. Hadn't he left before seven? I was there around maybe ten past seven. Did you notice what time I returned to the centre?'
'I heard a car a few minutes after I made the call to the emergency services.'
'I'm sure it was me. No one else was driving around the centre at that time.'
Ally's narrow shoulders shook. She hunched and covered her face with her hands. 'I just... I-I didn't know...'
Katie touched her friend’s arm. 'Ally, I can tell something's wrong,' she said calmly but firmly. 'What's up? Is it about someone seeing your car?'
'Yes.'
'What were you doing in the car?'
'As I already said, I had a call from a friend... A friend in distress. And I needed to cool down because I was angry with her. That’s why I went for a drive. I needed to clear my head. I was already stressed with all that voting and stuff going on that night.'
'Okay. Did you tell that to DI Heaton?'
'I did. But I didn't know it was something to do with Ben's death. I swear I didn't know. I've got to go now.'
Ally opened the door and jumped out of the car. She strode towards the staff entrance, her tall silhouette dark against the motion-activated lamps that flicked to life on the building. Without a staff ID she wouldn't be able to open the door. Or leave the car compound.
Katie rang the station.
'Hey, Chris. Ally Baker is at the staff entrance, quite upset. She has something important to tell Jack. Can you let her in?'
'No problem, lass. Any other wishes?'
'Could you ring me later and tell me what it was all about?'
Chris laughed. 'I'll get Heaton to follow up on that. I'm sure he'll be delighted to have an opportunity to talk to you.'
His remark landed as a punch right into her already sore stomach.
She wanted to shout at him, but her phone pinged with the reminder that she had to pick up Julia. The hurt pride had to wait.
Katie drove out of the car park, trying to ignore Chris' words, which were still echoing in her head.
Tell your colleagues you are in a relationship - easier said than done.
How was she supposed to do that, huh?
17
Jack did ring! She was walking from her car, following Julia, who was dancing and singing - no doubt a sign she’d enjoyed her first music class.
'What's the news?' Katie simply asked.
'Your friend, Ally Baker, has just given us some interesting information.'
'That she was there, by the café at the time of Benjamin's murder?'
'Suspicious death,' he corrected her. 'I'd like to see more evidence.'
Not again...
'I thought we agreed it was murder,' Katie replied calmly. 'What makes you doubt it again?'
'Although we have no evidence that he was planning to take his own life, very shortly before his death, he did act as if his death was imminent.'
'You believe his wife’s story?'
'It wasn't just the wife, Katie,' he said, a note of impatience creeping into his voice. 'It was his insistence on changing his will right and having it sent off the same evening as if it couldn't wait for the following morning. I've heard the same thing from two independent witnesses.'
'Okay, I take your point. By the way, have you checked the wife's alibi? Have you talked to her sister yet?'
'Yes, I have. It was somewhere between interviewing the wife and the girlfriend.' There was a long, heavy sigh at the other end of the line. 'Her sister confirmed that she had received a phone call from Ava's mobile at 7.05 pm. Ava left a message, rather long, which the sister played back to me. In the message, Ava rattled on about the meeting with Benjamin and how it upset her because he looked so ill. She also said that Benjamin had talked about his death and that she was worried about him committing suicide.' Jack paused for a moment, possibly to take a breath before continuing. 'The sister picked up the message a minute later and rang back. They talked for about fifteen minutes. This is what Ava's phone showed as well.'
Katie chewed on her cheek. Was her suspect Number One sliding off the list?
'Well, she could have had the phone conversation while he was dying in her car.'
'Theoretically, although she did sound quite upset in that message. Having said that, I have no idea how good an actress she is. She might have rung the sister after the fact, asked her to record the message, and then told her whatever suited her cover story.'
'Is there a way of checking if the recording on sister's phone is real?'
'Ideally, I'd like to go over to Dublin, but that'll take time. So, I've also asked my boss to ask the local police team to check it for us and take the sister's statement in the meantime.'
Katie chewed on her cheek for a little longer.
'You were going to tell me about Ally Baker. What did she have to say?'
'That she went to Une Tassede Bonheur at around 7.10 pm to pick up a friend of hers.'
'A friend in need? An emergency situation?'
'A friend with a wardrobe malfunction.'
'Wardrobe malfunction? What, A broken stiletto?'
'A little more intimate and less glamorous, I'm afraid.'
'The friend got her knickers in a twist?'
Ja
ck chuckled. 'I think it was Ms Baker who got her knickers in a twist. But I see you're absolutely not interested who of your friend's friends had an emergency situation with her underwear?'
'I am. If it's of any relevance.'
'I think I'll let you be the judge of that,' Jack said with a note of amusement in his voice. 'This friend's name happens to be ... Chloe MacGregor.'
Katie inhaled sharply. 'Benjamin Fischer's fiancée?'
'Exactly!'
'What does she have to do with Ally Baker?'
'They're friends, but on top of that, Chloe MacGregor is Ally Baker's sister-in-law.'
Katie steadied her breath. The plot thickened. More of her friends and acquaintances appeared involved and her suspect list may have gained another member, Ally. But they were still not close to deciding if Benjamin Fischer killed himself, or someone helped him leave this world before his time was up.
'So, despite her claims, Chloe McGregor wasn't in London at the time,' Katie said, trying to keep track of various thoughts crossing her mind at the same time. 'Even if she hadn't messed with his medication back home in London, she could easily have done it in the café. What was she doing by the café whatever with her so-called wardrobe malfunction, and why didn't Ally tell you about it during the first interview?'
'Because her dear friend, Chloe, had sworn her to secrecy. Apparently, Chloe was spying on her fiancée, when her bra snapped. So, she had to go into hiding to fix it. I'd like to talk to Miss MacGregor about this misfortune as well, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was more to that story.'
'When are you going to talk to her?'
'Very shortly.'
Her throat tightened.
'It's been a long day for you, Jack. You remember about our dinner?'
'I do,' he said softly. 'I can't wait, but I have some work to do first. It'll be as quick as I can. What are you going to do?'
'I was planning to pop into The Sunny Corner Hotel to leave my CV and chat with Mr McBride, the owner. But I'd have to find someone to watch Julia for an hour or so. I can't drag her with me. Poor girl... I've been an awful mother.'
'Katie, you're an awesome mum, and Julia is a happy little girl.'
