Web of Lies

by Sally Rigby

  ‘What have you got?’

  ‘I’ve been at it for hours.’ She paused. ‘In between my proper work, obviously. You’ll be so impressed. I even arrived early this morning to get cracking. Sarge nearly had heart failure when he turned up for the morning briefing and found me sitting at my desk, head down. Don’t worry, he didn’t see what I was doing. I just told him I was planning a new filing system. Maybe he’ll let me out of the office soon.’

  ‘You never know your luck.’

  ‘I haven’t been through the whole list of his investors, but this is what I’ve got so far. One of them is Andrea Wood.’

  ‘She invested one hundred and fifty thousand with Donald, what’s so special about her?’

  ‘She’s Andrea Wood the TV star.’

  ‘You’ll have to enlighten me.’

  ‘She presents the morning breakfast show, Monday to Friday, and has a home locally that she mainly uses at the weekend.’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘One of the girls I play cricket with told me. Her mum cleans for Andrea.’

  ‘Does she come back here every weekend?’

  ‘I’ve no idea. I’ve seen her wandering round the Harborough antique shops in the past on a Saturday. Her name was Ann Smith until she changed it. Why wouldn’t you, it’s hardly a celeb’s name is it? Anyway, I did a bit of research on her and found nothing on her at all for either name. Not even a speeding fine. Can you really get to almost thirty-nine without doing anything? She’s way too perfect if you ask me.’

  ‘Not everyone’s committed a misdemeanour, even an inconsequential one.’

  ‘That aside, I think she’s a person worth interviewing. I also checked out Witherspoon’s friend, Tony Yates. He had a drink-driving charge from when he was a student. Other than that, there’s nothing to report …’ She paused.

  ‘I’m sensing a but coming.’

  ‘This might be nothing, but one of the investors was very interesting. He’s Grant Truss, who also goes by Grant Dixon, a fellow financier who was involved in some dodgy dealings fifteen years ago. What I want to know is, why would he be investing with Donald when he’s a financier himself? He was the director of Victory Finance, a company which went into administration causing many people to lose their savings. It wasn’t a Ponzi scheme like Donald’s but the FCA got involved because the company had misled clients into thinking they were buying into a safe scheme as well as promising them a ten per cent return on their investment.’

  ‘That’s an excellent find. See if you can find out where he is so we can interview him.’

  ‘Already done. I’ll text you his details.’

  ‘I remember his name and know he invested forty thousand pounds on 6 February 2004, and he also invested a further twenty thousand on 30 May the following year. With the initial amount he reinvested the dividends, and the second he opted to be paid annually.’

  ‘You’ve got that all written down in front of you, have you? How could you find him so quickly?’

  ‘No, it’s not in front of me. I remember.’

  There was a few seconds’ silence. He knew exactly what she was going to say next.

  ‘You’ve got a photographic memory?’

  And now he had to explain it.

  ‘No, that’s a misconception. I have a very rare condition known as Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, or HSAM for short. It means I can recall past events in detail, and the exact day and time they happened. Ask me what I had for dinner three years ago yesterday and I’ll tell you.’

  ‘Whoa. That’s amazing.’

  ‘That’s what everyone thinks. But it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. It’s like having a search engine in your head the whole time, only unlike Google or whatever, it can’t be switched off. It can get extremely tiring at times.’

  ‘It must have helped during exams.’

  ‘In a way it did. I remembered the facts I’d read, but they still had to be applied. Studying wasn’t plain sailing for me. I wasn’t a straight A student.’

  ‘Got it. But I still think it’s awesome.’

  That’s what most people thought. They should only walk a mile in his shoes and then see if they had the same opinion.

  ‘I’ll contact Grant Truss and arrange to see him.’

  ‘Do you think Truss investing with Witherspoon was something to do with his company going to the wall?’

  ‘That’s what we need to find out. Whether it’s related to Donald’s death, however, is a different matter. When did Truss’s company go into administration?’

  ‘After he began investing with Witherspoon. Maybe Truss knew his company was on dodgy ground and wanted somewhere to stash some cash without anybody knowing.’

  ‘I’ll find out more when I see him. Keep digging and see what else you can find out. What happened when the regulator got involved in his company?’

  ‘They weren’t prosecuted, but their assets were frozen and they went into administration. I’ll keep looking and update you with what exactly happened. I don’t have a day off until Saturday, so you’ll have to interview Truss without me. Can you manage that?’

  ‘I’ll try my hardest.’

  ‘Keep in touch … crap. Someone’s coming. I’ll text you Truss’s details, let me know how it goes.’

  Within a few seconds his phone pinged, and he’d received a text with the details. Truss worked in London. He called the number.

  ‘Fast Finance,’ a woman answered.

  ‘I’d like to make an appointment to see Mr Truss.’

  ‘What’s it regarding?’

  ‘Finance,’ he lied. ‘Does he have any appointments tomorrow?’

  ‘He’s available at eleven. Shall I book you in?’

  ‘Yes, please. The name’s Clifford. Thank you for your help.’

  He ended the call before she had time to ask for his first name, in case they googled him.

  Things were progressing well. He hoped to have an answer for Sarah soon, one way or the other.

  Chapter 16

  12 May

  Seb caught the nine-thirty train to London and took the Piccadilly line on the Tube to Southgate where Truss was based. His office was above an estate agent in Chase Side, close to the art deco station. Seb pushed open the green door which was in definite need of a coat of paint and headed up the narrow staircase covered in well-worn patterned lino which looked like it dated from the sixties. At the top of the stairs was another door, and in faded gold lettering on the glass was written Fast Finance. According to Seb’s research, the company offered payday loans, mainly operating online.

  He walked in and behind a large cheap looking desk, filling most of the room, sat a woman in her fifties with blonde hair framing her oval face. Her fingers, with long pink nails decorated with gemstones, were frozen in mid-air as she stopped tapping on the keyboard and glanced up, craning her neck until they made eye contact.

  ‘May I help you?’

  ‘I’m here to see Mr Truss. The name’s Clifford, I called yesterday.’

  She rested her hands on the desk and nodded. ‘You were lucky to catch him in today as on Friday he goes to the Bahamas for a month, and he’s been busy getting everything sorted.’

  ‘Will someone be carrying on with his clients in his absence?’

  ‘There’s no need to worry, he can still sort out everything for you. It’s possible to work anywhere nowadays thanks to the internet and having a laptop. We don’t have many face-to-face customers, didn’t you want to apply online? It’s so much easier. Though I never thought I’d hear myself say that. When I first started here, we did everything in person and I was useless on the computer. Mr Truss was very patient while I learnt how to use the software and … I can even help my grandson with his homework.’

  ‘I’m impressed,’ Seb said, flashing a smile in her direction.

  She sat upright, her shoulders back, a self-satisfied expression on her face, and picked up the phone on her desk, pressing one of the buttons. ‘
Mr Clifford’s here to see you,’ her voice boomed out. After replacing the handset, she looked up at him. ‘If you’d like to go through that door, that’s his office’ She pointed to the door to the right of her desk.

  As he walked in, Truss stood up and held out his hand. He was a small man, maybe five feet six, with a rather large protruding belly, short grey hair cut around his ears, and a well-trimmed beard.

  ‘Mr Clifford, good to meet you. Please take a seat.’

  Seb shook his outstretched hand and sat on the chair in front of the desk.

  ‘Thank you for seeing me at such short notice.’

  ‘Can I get you something to drink?’

  ‘Coffee would be lovely.’

  Truss picked up the phone. ‘Violet. Two cups of coffee and don’t forget the biscuits.’ He replaced the phone and then patted his stomach. ‘I can’t miss my mid-morning snack or I won’t be able to concentrate.’ He laughed, and his double chin wobbled. ‘How may I help you? What sort of loan are you looking for?’

  ‘I’m actually here for a chat.’

  Truss frowned. ‘Didn’t you tell my assistant you were here about organising some finance?’

  ‘That’s correct and I’m sorry to have misled her, but I wanted to speak to you about Donald Witherspoon and I wasn’t sure that you’d agree to see me if you knew the real reason for my visit.’

  Colour drained from Truss’s face. ‘Are you the press?’

  ‘Most definitely not. His wife has asked me to investigate her husband’s death as she’s not convinced it was suicide.’

  ‘What am I to do with that?’ His voice was stiff and stilted.

  ‘Going through Donald’s records, I can see that you invested with him on a couple of occasions.’

  ‘And let me guess, because of my background, you thought I was something to do with this Ponzi scheme he was operating. Well, let me tell you, I had nothing to do with it. I lost everything I’d invested with him, along with everyone else.’

  ‘Why were you investing with him at all, if you had your own finance company and the knowledge to make investments?’

  ‘When I was a director of Victory Finance, I decided to keep some of my investments private so I invested it in a variety of different places, including with Donald.’

  ‘What made you go with Donald out of all the investment companies around? Did you know him before you invested?’

  ‘We went back a long way from when we both worked for the same loan company back in the nineties. We both left the company to work for ourselves. I bought into a finance company that gave loans, and he decided to go it alone. We kept in touch over the years. Not regularly, but maybe every six months or so.’

  ‘What other places did you invest in on the quiet?’

  ‘That’s nothing to do with you and not relevant to this.’

  ‘Did you keep some of your investments separate for tax purposes?’

  He didn’t expect the man to tell him, but he asked, anyway. If he was operating a tax dodge and Donald was in on it, that could be an angle to investigate.

  ‘I don’t discuss my personal taxes with other people.’

  ‘Did you take dividend payments from the investments with Donald, or reinvest them?’

  He knew the answer, but wanted to check that Donald’s records were accurate, or that Truss was telling the truth.

  ‘The initial investment I took out was one hundred per cent reinvested. The later one I took an annual dividend as it helped with my cash flow.’

  That matched with what he’d read.

  ‘Did you know or suspect that he was operating a Ponzi scheme?’

  ‘No. And he certainly wasn’t doing it originally, I’d stake my life on it.’

  Seb scrutinised Truss for any telltale signs of deceit, but there were none. His breathing, eye contact, blinking, and overall body language didn’t give him cause for alarm.

  ‘How can you say that so categorically?’

  ‘I knew him well, and it wasn’t how he operated. When we first started working together, he was shit-hot on following the rules and regulations of the industry. I’m sure, initially, his investments would have been legitimate.’

  ‘In which case, what happened to make him switch to doing something illegal?’

  ‘I can only guess, but it could have been because the bottom fell out of the financial market. Interest rates plummeted, and investing was a nightmare. It was impossible. He had a certain lifestyle which he needed to maintain, and that was the only way he could do it. I don’t know for sure, but he might have initially done it just once and one thing led to another until he used the money from every new client to pay the existing ones.’

  He had repeated Seb’s thoughts exactly.

  ‘Were you struggling at the time, too?’

  ‘No, if anything my business increased. I offer payday loans and the market for those tends to increase during times of recession when people find it hard to go from week to week.’

  ‘When it came out about the Ponzi scheme did you come forward and speak to the FCA and register your claim against the company?

  ‘It would have been pointless as there were no funds available to pay creditors and I had no desire to be on the FCA’s radar again.’

  ‘When was the last time you spoke to Donald?’

  ‘Several months ago when I asked him for my money back. I …’ His voice fell away. Had he not meant to disclose that information?

  ‘You hadn’t mentioned that.’

  ‘I have now,’ he muttered. ‘Donald explained that he couldn’t get it straight away and asked if I would mind hanging on for a while longer. I had to agree, I had no choice in the matter.’

  ‘Were you worried?’

  ‘A little. I needed the money to pay off my mounting debts, thanks to having a young wife who doesn’t know the meaning of the word restraint. She thinks because I’m a financier I have a bundle of cash burning a hole in my pocket.’

  ‘When your old company went under, you left a lot of small-time investors with nothing. Like Donald has done with his company. What I don’t understand is why you put your trust in Donald and didn’t realise there were issues.’

  ‘My company was different from Donald’s. We weren’t operating a Ponzi scheme, so I didn’t see any signs when dealing with him.

  ‘Regarding the debts you mentioned, surely it can’t be that bad if you’re planning a month in the Bahamas.’

  ‘I make investments in my wife’s name, so we always have some backup funds. But I’m telling you now, we’re not rolling in it.’

  ‘Where were you on Saturday, 10 April, during the day and into the evening?’

  ‘I don’t know offhand, let me look in my diary.’ He opened his phone. ‘At home.’

  ‘Can anyone vouch for you?’

  ‘My wife was there. The dogs, too.’

  ‘We’ll be …’ He was about to say checking, but of course he couldn’t. He was no longer in the force. ‘Thank you for your time.’

  On the train on the way back, he gave Birdie a call.

  ‘How did it go with Truss?’

  ‘There was definitely something underhand going on there, but I don’t know that it’s related to Donald’s death. As far as their relationship is concerned, they’ve known each other for years, since working together at a finance company. Truss now does payday loans out of a run-down office in Southgate. He claims to have a mountain of debts, but he’s off to the Bahamas for a month. It’s a shame we don’t have access to his financial statements.’

  ‘I could try, but I’d have to be careful in case I get spotted.’

  ‘I don’t want you to put yourself at risk. There was nothing that alarmed me about his relationship with Donald, and he has an alibi for the day of the death, so let’s leave it.’

  ‘What about the friend, Yates? We got sidetracked yesterday and you didn’t tell me how the meeting went.’

  ‘Again, another person who’d known Donald for a long time, sinc
e university in fact. They saw each other rarely these days, yet according to Yates they had a deep friendship.’

  ‘Deep enough to invest two hundred thousand pounds at a time when Witherspoon was on hard times. He must be loaded if he could afford that.’

  ‘He didn’t have the money to invest. He took out a bank loan.’

  ‘Whoa. That’s a whole different story. Who on earth goes into hock for that much money, even if Witherspoon was his friend? Unless … Do you think Donald could’ve been blackmailing him? Donald might have known something so bad the only way Yates could keep him quiet was to give him the money. Then again, he could’ve murdered Donald and saved the money. So that doesn’t work.’

  ‘That thought had crossed my mind but, like you, I couldn’t see any sense to it. You don’t loan a huge amount of money then kill the person before you get a penny back.’

  ‘Maybe they really were good friends, and Donald had helped him out in the past and so he was returning the favour. He could have done it out of duty.’

  ‘It’s possible. I’ll see if there’s anything in Donald’s files showing a payment made to Yates in the past.’

  ‘Can you go back to him and ask?’

  ‘I could, although, he didn’t appear pleased to learn that we were investigating the death. I asked why he didn’t go to the funeral and he said he couldn’t bring himself to. He also mentioned that his wife didn’t like Donald.’

  ‘We should interview her. She might have had something to do with it.’

  ‘Yes, I agree. But we’ll have to tread carefully as we have no reason, and she could easily report us to the police.’

  ‘You mean she could report me to myself.’ Birdie chuckled. ‘Did he have an alibi?’

  ‘He avoided the question, but it wasn’t something I could push as I’m no longer in the force.’

  ‘Where to now? It seems to me that we’re going around in circles. Have we moved forward at all?’

  ‘Not forward but we have gone deeper. We have his brother and best friend lending him money in the guise of an investment. He’d approached people he knew who could help him out. We know he’s very persuasive and a good salesperson, so did he borrow from anyone else?’