by Gabor Kiraly
"Yes. I do have a suspect actually more than one. Yet, I don't want to concentrate on any certain person, for it carries the danger that by concentrating on one, I can miss something on another one. And that's the reason, I won't tell you who is on my list, I don't want any personal emotion or feeling to send us on a side-track.
If you fallowed my progress, you should have some guesses also, though I don't want to hear names either, for the same reason?"
"Fair enough, and you are right, I do have a person in mind. How can we make sure who is the one we're looking for?"
"Good question! Well, we keep on investigating!"
"Oh, yeah! That's right! So what's next Boss?"
"I think I'm going to see Marika Mezei again?You want to come? Oops! Wait a second, I don't know how she handled last night, after Frank was done with her, she could be anywhere?Well! I'll go and see! So, again: do you want to come?"
"No!"
"Ok, ok! Just asking?"
Chapter 24.
It was mid-afternoon on Saturday, when Joe knocked on Marika's door. Silence. He knocked again, louder and this time he got an answer:
"Yes. Just one minute." Said a sleepy voice. Joe waited.
"Ah. Mr. Bryan. Come on in."
Joe noticed her bruised, swollen face, -she slept in her blood soaked shirt-, the coffee table in the living room was upside down, all around it broken glass, an almost empty bottle of vodka, beer bottles, ashtray, and cigarette butts everywhere. He also noticed the blood on the doorframe. The search conducted by the police, didn't really improved the sight either.
He knew from Frank's message what happened in general, but to see it, was shocking. He also knew that they found some marijuana, not enough to charge Ferber for it.
"Good God, what happened here? Tornado?"
"George was in a bad mood last night."
"Where is he? And where is your daughter?mm?Alexa? What happened to you? The blood on the door?"
"The blood. That's my little darling's blood." She could hardly control herself.
"And now she's gone?she's at some foster parents, and I can't even see her." Her shoulders shaking, she started crying.
"They won't even tell me where. They won't. God, what have I done?"
Joe stepped out to the kitchen and brought in a glass of cold water.
"Here, drink this. There you go?" she gradually stopped crying.
"George, that snake, this is how he showed his gratitude, for letting him into my home! This is the appreciation I got, for letting him into my bed! They kept him at the police, though probably they will let him go?Oh, God?I'm so tired." she said and suddenly looked up at Joe:
"What kind of bad news you got for me?"
"I only got some more questions."
"Then shoot!"
"OK, if you ready?did you ever think about, that it could have been George, who killed your husband?" She looked sharply into Joe's eyes, and answered:
"Not until recently, but lately I thought about it .You know, I have even noticed back then that he was more often visiting us , then their "friendship" would require."
"What you mean?"
"I mean that Robert tried to distance himself from the life he led before, and George was still deep into it. Violence, cheating, wild life. He tried to put an end to George's visits. You know, now that you mentioned it, I can easily imagine George being a killer? or the killer. Maybe if I stayed home, instead of taking a vacation to Hungary, everything would be different now? Right?"
"You see, everything is possible. Anyhow, I think I already overstayed my welcome, you need to rest too?Thank you for your insight!"
"Mr. Bryan, promise me that you will catch this maggot who took my husband's life!"
"I can only promise that I will do my best, which will hopefully be enough, but you never know?You just never know?" and he left. When he was finally out of the house, took a deep breath like a diver coming up for air. He turned off his recorder, and headed home. It was almost dark already, Saturday evening. He anxiously looked ahead to see Katlin again. "Like a teenager?Damn!" Joe thought.
He could smell something good, while running up the stairs, taking two at a time. He would have never guessed, that the smell was coming from his apartment! "Did this wonder-girl ordered out some good stuff for supper? Probably. Well its Saturday who wants to cook?"
Katlin welcomed him, with a wooden spoon in her hand. She was smiling, and had a little reddish 'tasting-moustache', probably from the good smelling food she was cooking.
"You don't mind that I borrowed ?mm ...some of your ?mm ?stuff!" and her gesture showed what she meant? She wore a white apron with bright, red polka-dots, "I'M A GOOD COOK! WHAT! ? OH, SO YOU TRIED?" printed on it, plus she had a white, thick, fluffy haired, bunny faced pair of his slippers on. The cute bunny ears made the sight complete.
Joe just wanted to find a deep hole and hide in it to never come out again. When Katlin saw him blush, she tried to save whatever dignity Joe has left:
"You know, the slippers are really nice and warm? I think I will even get a pair for myself?mm?one day!" though it didn't help. She was caught in a downward spiral of uncontrollable laugh, which finally broke out. Joe just stood there, with a week, half smile watching her laughing, from her heart, touching her head with one hand, and hitting her thigh repeatedly with the other. Some words came with the great lough:"Noo? I gonna die? oh, my God? oh, man? please?" then finally she calmed down.
He reached out for Joe's hands, held them, and with her warmest ever smile, looking straight into his eyes she said:
"It's so you! Dear, dear Joe? Come on, sit down. I made supper for us. Come! You will like it."
Joe did like it, though if you'd have asked him, he couldn't have told you what it was. He was taken away by Katlin. Far away.
After supper, they had a cappuccino on the balcony, and listened to some slow, calm, classical music, coming from the living room. The phone rang, shuttering their peace.
"Yes?" Joe answered it.
"Joe? Hi, it's Frank! Can I come up and see you at your place? I got the final details you asked for?"
"Come on now! Frank, when did you have to ever ask for my permission! Yes, come on up! Better hurry!"
Frank was there in two minutes. He looked only a little surprised to see Joe's 'apprentice' being absolutely comfy, giving the impression she belonged here. "Actually, I think you do belong here?" he thought." Joe you are a lucky dog", then he accepted their hot chocolate offer.
Frank got to their business right away:
"I got the last details of what you asked for, namely the list of phone calls. Bell did a good and speedy job. I don't want to go to details, but you were right. Here? and here, you see? And here, just like you expected." He showed pages from the Joe-file "I don't know how you do it, but it works?"
"Well, I'm good?plus I don't have to deal with reports, duty roster and stuff, all those administrative things beside the case, and many other cases at the same time! I couldn't do it that way?"
"I hear you? well thanks for the hot chocolate, if there is nothing else?"
"Actually there is! Make yourself available tomorrow evening around seven, I would like you to be at Gabby Herzog's house, in plain clothes, but ready to make arrests. Better have a cruiser with officers waiting around, though not showing themselves. Also I would like you to let Ferber go early afternoon, but he will be here too, don't worry though keep an eye on him."
"You mean tomorrow we can close this case? Man, I love you!"
"There is a good chance! But you never know? You ?" he said
"?just never know!" Katlin and Frank finished his famous sentence for him in unison.
Than Joe made himself busy, it wasn't too late yet to phone anybody, so he started calling.
He called Marika, and made sure she will be at the Herzog's tomorrow. Then he called Hajnalka Borsi, she called the Herzogs, he spent quite time on the phone.
Finally he asked Katlin:
&
nbsp; "Are you ready for tomorrow? You will meet people you normally would want to."
"You will be there with me. I am ready!"
"Thanks for your confidence dear. You never listened to the recordings I made at Marika's place this afternoon. You never even asked for it? Are you ready to hear it now?"
"No, and I don't think it's necessary anymore. Tomorrow we will know what happened, I actually gave up my private eye dreams for now, for now "she put the emphasis on these words" I lost the thread days ago, and I wouldn't want to slow you down with my questions. And I say it again, I don't want to hear the conversation, or your explanations with it. I want to forget that this kind of life exist, and I don't want to think of it that it took a miracle, and my 'peasant' mother's love for me not to end up like that. No, Joe? I just want it to end soon so we can forget. Maybe forgive."
Chapter 25.
Sunday noon. The first to show up at Gabor, and Gwen's place were Katlin, and Joe.
"Hi guys! Thanks for letting do this in your?" started Joe, but Gabor stopped him:
"You know that we wouldn't have it any other way! So just get on with it, and do whatever needs to be done!"
Not long after the camera crew arrived from Barrie. As Joe promised they got the 'exclusive'. Joe agreed that they won't show themselves, they will work with concealed equipment, and nobody will notice nothing.
It took them two hours to wire the living and dining rooms, they checked everything, probed the microphones and cameras, and when everything seemed working in order, they disappeared in an upstairs bedroom, where their temporary studio was set up.
The time was slowly ticking by. Gwen was baking in the kitchen, Gabor helping her. Joe and Katlin sat down by the living room window.
"How you doin' dear?" Joe asked
"Anxious, impatient, and I believe I was thinking too hard, I have a mild headache?Oh nothing that a good coffee couldn't fix!" said quickly seeing his worried face. Joe asked for a coffee from Gwen.
"And what are you thinking of this hard!"
"I thought of my Dad, how little time was given to us to enjoy?I thought of my childhood with him, and I thought about today, and even about tomorrow, and after. I'm confused, though not very much. You see I can't change the past, but I make my own future, and I've decided how it will be. So there is nothing more to be afraid of."
"And you are sure about your future? It could depend on so many things?"
"Yes. I don't know the details, though I know the important part of it."
"Would you tell me about it?"
Then somebody started banging on the door.
Chapter 26
George Ferber kicked the door shot behind himself, and yelled into the apartment:
"Are you home?"
"Yes." Came the answer.
"Get your stuff together, we're leaving!"
"No we're not. At least not yet."
"What you mean no? What is it?"
"We have an invitation to the Herzog's for tonight, and I'm supposed to be there!"
"What the hell for?"
"Gabor told me that there are new, important details about my husband's murderer, get it, my husband's. I don't want to go either, but I got to! I don't want anybody to think that I'm not interested in the case? and you come with me. Before we leave we can put together what we need, take the stuff to my van, and when we're done with the Herzog's we can go right away down to Hamilton."
They finally agreed, so George went to take a nap, and Marika started packing. They had about 4 hours before they were expected at Gabor's house.
Chapter 27.
Joe toke over the host's role, and answered the door. Hajnalka Borsi stood in the doorway.
"Hi! Come on in!" invited her "I'm glad you made it, I really am!"
"I wouldn't miss it!"
He led her in and introduced to the people already there. Katlin and Hajnalka seemed to be happy to see each other again.
Then arrived Frank with two of his 'friends'. They both had a shoulder wide as the door, they had to turn sideways to come in. Joe was happy to see Frank's 'friends', just in case? then the neighbors arrived from next door, and then the others from the other side of the house. At last Marika, and George got there. You could tell they did not like the crowd, but it was too late to turn back.
Gwen with the instinct of a real host astonishingly found a seat for everyone, and after a while they got quiet, and looked at Joe.
"Welcome everybody and thanks for being here today. I believe almost everyone familiar with each other here. However these two young ladies need to be introduced, for they do not reside in this town?This is Hajnalka Borsi, a loving girlfriend of the late Robert Mezei and we are not here to judge Robert's private life, though we need to know about certain details of it to fully understand his death. And right beside her is Katlin Mezei, Robert's older daughter from his earlier marriage. Frank, don't look at me like that, I will explain it to you later."
Frank looked hurt for not knowing every details right away. Marika was red, probably not from the heat, and watched the two girls, like a vulture, with hatred in her eyes. Joe carried on:
"Very soon you will understand what happened at that vengeful night. We all know that we got our answers to some of our main questions, "what, when, where'. But 'why' and 'who' needed to be and will be also answered.
Maybe it's just me, but I do have an opinion why people still murdering each other. Almost every time, it's the two, ages old reason: flash and gold. In today's language: Passion and power! Sex and money! This is where I started my investigation, for what else would be the reason to kill a peaceful, good-willing, quiet person, with no enemies.
Now, did he have money? Not that I know of, although he had a life insurance policy, so he was more valuable dead than alive. Follow the money, I said, who benefitted from the insurance? His daughter, Katlin. I didn't believe that she would kill her own father for money, though I needed proof, of any kind that it was not her. That's why I asked my friend Gabor, to check out something for me. At that time she attended university in France, and on the internet he could check it for me what kind of classes she was supposedly taking that day. But the schedule alone did not prove nothing, so Gabor contacted Katlin's mother in France, and she provided proof that showed that it was impossible for her to be here at that time.
Sorry Kat, I had to do it and I know you understand. Anyhow, following the money did not help. So I thought if it's not the 'gold' then it must be the 'flesh', I started following that trail, and found this other suspect Ms. Borsi. Beside other information, she provided me with another important detail, she has no car, or even driver's licence. She couldn't be driving the car on the surveillance footage. So, she could not help me either.
What left? The wife? which was another dead end, she was 7.000 miles away in Hungary. Now what!"
The people in the room turned their attention towards George Ferber. What happened next, was the classic case of what would occur when they take the cub away from a mother tiger. The three young women reacted right away in unison.
Marika tried distance her seat from George's while hissing at him:
"Oh you worthless piece of?" when Hajnalka started yelling:
"How could you, you garbage of a man?" and she stood up from her chair, but was pushed back by Katlin, who was already walking towards him quietly murmuring: "I'm gonna kill you...I am gonna kill you! You're done! I will kill you right now!" with white face and white knuckled fists.
"Whoa! Whoa! Stop! Frank, stop them!"
"Stop! It wasn't him! He could be everything bad you can imagine, but he did not kill Robert! I checked the time -actually Frank did it for me- with the Hamilton police. He was in police custody that Friday all day, until Saturday noon?He is innocent ? at least of this!"
Frank and his two friends held back the women, though they were not fighting anymore. Every move stopped, every eyes in the room were fixed on Joe. Joe looked slowly into every eyes in the room fo
r a second. They waited in silence to hear his next words. "If anticipation could kill, I would be dead already" ran thru his mind.
"The killer is our grieving widow!" the held back tension finally found its way out, and exploded into the quiet room. Everybody talked, yelled, asked each other and Joe at the same time. He had to raise his voice, and asking them to be quiet. Even with Frank and Gabor's help, it took a while.
"Listen to me! Listen! I will answer every question but let's try to do it in a civilized manner."
"What a hell are you talking about?" came the first question from Marika. "You know I couldn't do it, I simply was not here!"
"Yes, that's what I believed for some time? but yes, you did it! And if you all give me several minutes I will tell you what happened and how.
Our story started, when Marika decided to take a holiday in Hungary. Robert already was seeing his girlfriend, for some months. On a regular Monday, after Robert visited Orillia, where Ms. Borsi lived at the time, he got home and learned the date, when his wife will leave the country, for a beautiful, long month.
Sorry! Frank would you ask your friends please to take their place closer to Mrs. Mezei, I don't want any surprises?Thank you. So, he learned the date, then made a fatal mistake and called his girlfriend with the good news and asked her to visit him in his home in Parry Sound and they even agreed on the date, which was the date when Robert got killed.
He was happy, and careless. He made the call from his cellphone, but at home, what he did not do before, and early, when the family-members were still awake. This time he was not lucky, Marika overheard the conversation.
You remember what you told me, how that conversation ended, Ms. Borsi? Please repeat it, if you would."
"Mm, we were always speaking Hungarian between each other with Rob. He abruptly ended our conversation in English, saying something like OK buddy I will be there? it seemed a little strange but I never gave it any serious thought."
"Did any other strange thing occurred that week?"
"Yes, actually did. I got several phone calls from Robert cellphone, the first one on the same night when our conversation happened. It was late night. Like 11 or so, and I had a special ringtone for Rob's calls, so I always knew right away that it was him calling. I answered asked if it was him, though never got a word out of the caller. It happened at least two more times"
