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by Gwyn GB

  Behind her, Gillian was being read her rights by the officers who’d arrived on the scene first. Claire realised that Bob's arrival was imminent. Her theory about Gillian Faber might just be about to solve their case, but she'd got no idea how she was going to explain why her dad was in Gillian's flat.

  As her father was stretchered away, Claire closed her eyes and breathed. Then she heard Bob's voice coming up the stairs. She shook her shoulders to ease the tension in them and braced for her boss.

  'What is going on?' he said to her as she headed out of the bedroom and towards the flat door. She was mindful of the forensics as was Bob, so the two of them went onto the landing.

  'I think Gillian Faber is Melusine,' she told him.

  A look of incredulity crossed Bob's face.

  'How did you come to that conclusion?'

  'She cleans at the Parkin household, she has access to all their computers, phones, everything. Her son Peter has done a bunk, he's a computer genius and I reckon he was helping her, that the two of them were working together and put the spyware onto James's laptop.' She paused for reaction.

  'Go on,' Bob said.

  'We need to find out where the others she cleans for work, I'd like to bet that their companies are the sources of the other information that she's been using to make trades.'

  'I get the money motive, but is James in on it? How do you explain the Swiss account?'

  'I think she's set him up. She's his half-sister, he inherited everything, she got nothing. From what she told me, he didn't give her a penny just gave her a job as his cleaner. I think it's pay back.'

  'Ok, so who was the man they've just taken away on a stretcher?'

  That was the question Claire had been dreading.

  'That was my dad. She'd knocked him out.'

  'What was your dad doing here?' Bob asked shocked.

  A wave of exhaustion flooded over Claire, the adrenaline had worn off, the emotional upset was taking its toll and now she was going to have to find some way of telling Bob that her dad had been interfering in their case. Then there was Rachel, at least she could clear that up. Even if she was now in trouble for her dad, she could at least get some respect back by telling Bob that she wasn't wrong, Rachel was in Jersey and she had been seeing her mother. They needed to go and pick her up now, stop her from getting on a flight out of the island before they lost her again.

  ‘Di Falle? Why was your father in Gillian’s flat?

  ‘Because I think somehow a note I wrote with Gillian’s address on it, got mixed up with the address of a friend. I’d asked him to drop something off. My guess is that when he got here and Gillian realised who he was, she panicked. Perhaps he saw something, or heard something.’

  Claire’s mind was working overtime. She knew not to make the story too complicated, that’s how people got caught out when they lied. Make the story too difficult and you forget bits. All she needed to do was to tell her dad that he’d found the address on a note and thought it had been left out for him.’

  When she finished Bob didn’t look overly convinced, but he cut her some slack. Now for her grande finale, telling Bob that she’d been right about Rachel all along.

  ‘Anything else I should know?’ he asked, ‘I’d better get back and start looking into Gillian’s history. Are you going to the hospital?’

  ‘My mum’s with my dad, I’ll come back with you first, give them some time to assess him,’ Claire said. Right now she could do with some time away from emotional stress.

  ‘OK then,’ Bob replied and after a quick look in Gillian’s flat, he started back down the stairs. ‘You coming?’

  Claire hesitated.

  ‘Is there something else?’ Bob asked, stopping on the stairs and looking up at her. ‘You OK?’

  ‘Well…’ Claire’s mind was a battle scene, Rachel’s phone call was playing in her head. ‘I… No, nothing else. Sorry I’m just a bit shocked, that’s all,’ Claire replied. She wanted to tell him. Wanted him to know that she wasn’t wrong, that she wasn’t obsessed, but the words just wouldn’t come out. Rachel had put her trust in her, she’d come out of hiding to warn Claire that her dad might be in danger. Without her, he could be dead right now. Claire stood a few seconds more, a million thoughts rushing around her head. As Bob said, there are no criminal charges against Rachel, no evidence that she’d done anything wrong. They’ve just been looking for her because they believed that she drugged Claire and ran away. They’ve been concerned about her safety, just like Claire had been concerned about her before they knew who her stalker was. As Claire stood there, her mother came to mind, something she always said. What's done is done.

  They walked back to the station while forensics took over Gillian's flat. It was clear that there were computers missing and the team were busy tracking down Gillian’s son, but in the meantime, they scoured the rooms for other evidence.

  At the station, Bob shared Claire's theory with the rest of the team. It took just minutes to score a hit, one of the husbands of the other ball committee members Gillian also cleaned for, Jane Carter, worked at a bank which had helped arrange financing for lots of takeovers. They found transactions in Terry’s accounts which related to the ‘fake’ individuals. Claire also spotted the name Nelson Bank on the board list and remembered that Anna’s husband worked there. As the teams in both London and Jersey got stuck into linking Gillian to the Melusine network, Claire took the opportunity to go down to the hospital to check on her dad and mum.

  Claire walked to the hospital. She needed the fresh air and some time alone. She had just lied to her boss about the fact her father had been meddling in their case and nearly got himself killed. Not to mention that she’d also failed to tell him about the whereabouts of someone they’d been looking for. She couldn’t believe that after all this time trying to find Rachel, she’d just let her leave. Right now she was putting this all down to stress. She’d psychoanalyse herself later, but one of her first priorities was going to be persuading her dad to tell the same story. She hoped that he was going to be grateful she’d saved his life.

  Her mum, Richard, Don and Fran were sitting around her dad’s empty bed. They'd been told to wait while he was taken for a scan. Her mother had obviously been crying, but otherwise she seemed in remarkably good spirits, and she was lucid.

  'They think he's going to be fine love,' she said to Claire. 'He was dehydrated and obviously had a nasty blow on the head, but he's already much better now they've had him on fluids.'

  'Thank goodness,' Claire gave her mum a big hug.

  'What was he doing? Why was he in that woman's flat and how did you know he was there?' her mum asked.

  She knew these questions were coming, but it didn't make it any easier to explain. She told her mum the same lie, only this time she brought Theresa into it. She told her she was the one she’d intended her father to take something to, but somehow her address had got mixed up with Gillian’s.

  ‘I wanted to send her a little gift to say thank you for taking you out mum,’ Claire felt the guilt creep through every molecule of her body. The lying came so easily. ‘I’m sorry I’ve not been able to spend time with you since coming over, and I know you’ve had a nice time with Theresa.’

  ‘Oh that’s such a lovely thought darling,’ her mother said smiling at her.

  Her mother’s innocent face and look of admiring love made Claire feel even worse, but she was relieved that her story was accepted. Just one final hurdle.

  Her father was brought back in a wheelchair. He looked terribly old and tired, bent over in the seat. His head had been shaved slightly around the hairline so they could get access to the wound. A three inch line of angry bruise and cut clearly visible.

  ‘Claire!’ he said when he saw her, and smiled.

  For once in her life she felt like her dad was actually pleased to see her.

  ‘You worked it out too didn’t you? I told you it wasn’t James.’

  Claire didn’t want to take advantage of hi
s vulnerability and start tearing a strip off him in front of his friends, so instead she just agreed with him. She also didn’t let on that in fact she hadn’t worked it out at all. That if it hadn’t been for Rachel, he’d be dead and they’d still be looking to James Parkin as their main suspect.

  She sat for another twenty minutes while her mother fussed and Richard and Don cracked jokes. Finally they all agreed to leave him to sleep. Don had offered to take her mum home so she could get some clothes and things for her dad and then he’d drop her back in later.

  ‘You go on ahead,’ Claire said to her mother, ‘I just need a quick word with dad.’ Finally, she had him on his own.

  ‘She’d have killed me if you hadn’t come,’ her dad said, the second the others were out of earshot.

  ‘I know. What the hell were you thinking? You could be dead and I could have been thrown out of the police force.’

  ‘I was trying to help,’ he replied, but not with his usual arrogance. ‘I’m glad that I didn’t need to, that you worked it out for yourself. You’re a chip off the old block. Always look at the disgruntled family members first – cardinal rule of policing, well done my girl.’

  Claire liked being his hero. It felt good. Finally, he was showing some respect for her as an individual. She told him how much trouble they could be in if the truth came out, and it didn’t take much persuasion for him to agree to follow her story.

  Claire left the hospital after an exhausting day, elated that she’d found her father and he hadn’t ruined her career, and with the added bonus that she was now the hero of the day, having solved the case and rescued him.

  Her mind drifted to her flat and the board hidden in her bedroom cupboard. When she got home, she would destroy it and start getting on with the rest of her life.

  47

  Claire, Sunday 12th November 2017, Jersey

  The one thing which could ruin Claire’s carefully constructed plan, would be if her father’s name and photograph got into the media and Melanie Parkin or someone he’d talked to, recognised him. The gash on his head had done her a favour, it made him look quite different to the usually smart, clean cut man he was. She emailed the police communications team in Jersey and told them her father didn’t want any publicity.

  She was still angry at him, and he still hadn’t said sorry - but if she was honest with herself, she never expected him too. It was also difficult for her to stay angry with someone when they’re vulnerable and you nearly lost them. There were a lot of things she needed to talk over with him once this case was put to bed, not least her mother. Maybe this whole incident would make him a little more appreciative of his family.

  Claire left her dad to sleep and walked back to the station. A little part of her was nervous as she arrived, just in case somehow Gillian had said something which exposed her. She needn’t have worried.

  ‘Here she is!’ Bob said as she arrived, ‘The hero of the day,’ and he wasn’t being sarcastic.

  When Claire looked at the board she saw the network around Melusine had become a complex web with a whole host of names and faces added. Bob folded his arms across his chest and looked at her, waiting for the reaction.

  ‘Yup, you are absolutely right. Turns out our Ms Faber used to work in finance and she’s a bright cookie. That story she told us about having to take a cleaning job because of her son, well that appears to be true. He was very troubled when he was younger and didn’t settle with anyone other than Gillian. She devoted her life to him. Clearly had a few resentment issues though because she used her old contacts and her cleaning job to plant spyware on senior exec’s laptops and phones, then must have listened in and profited from the advance news. She was also clever enough to make sure the transactions were all small enough not to be noticed.’

  ‘So I guess, David must have worked it out somehow,’ Claire says to Bob, mirroring his crossed arm stance as she stands staring at the board.

  ‘It appears that way. He started copying some of the trades, that’s how he amassed the money we found. We’ve not got any evidence as to whether he contemplated blackmail, but my guess is he must have contacted her as that’s why he ended up dead. The biggest issue we have is that we can’t find her money. She’s hidden her tracks really well. We think she must have laundered the money somehow - but how is the mystery. At the moment we have motive, we can see how she did it but we are a little short on the final evidence.’

  Claire and Bob’s conversation was interrupted by Lew, who bounded up to Claire and slapped her on the back.

  ‘Congratulations Baton, you’ve nailed it.’

  Claire smiled at her colleague, ignoring the Baton Babe nickname she hated after appearing in the tabloids a couple of years ago.

  ‘Lew, welcome to Jersey.’

  ‘Thanks, looks like I’m just in time,’ he smiled back, ‘The team in London have pulled in a couple of individuals for questioning, her network included some former colleagues in finance and various traders. We’ve used the information from David Lyle’s work computer and it’s all falling into place.’

  ‘Up to a point,’ added Bob, ‘What we can’t work out is what she’s done with the money.’

  ‘Does the son have it?’ Claire asked.

  ‘From what we can tell so far, he’s in a rented villa and we’re finding nothing in his name with regards to money apart from a few hundred quid.’

  ‘It’s got to be in a Swiss bank account,’ Claire added.

  ‘If it is, then we can’t see how she’s got it there. Right now, the only financial trail leads firmly towards James Parkin, which if we’re right and she’s framed him, means she’s done a good job.’

  ‘We have made headway on pizza man though,’ Lew confirmed. ‘Rufus Watson is currently believed to be in Europe. The boat he sailed from Weymouth to Jersey was found at a small harbour just round the coast from here. Interpol are on the case.’

  ‘So are you ready to come and interview Gillian Faber with me?’ Bob smiled at Claire.

  Bob and Claire headed down to the custody suite.

  ‘How’s your dad doing?’ Bob asked.

  ‘He’s going to be fine thank you.’

  ‘Good, you know we will have to conduct an internal investigation into how he got there don’t you?’

  Claire nodded.

  ‘Gillian Faber also said that you started searching her property without a warrant. Did you know your dad was there?’

  Claire could feel Bob’s eyes on her.

  ‘I didn’t,’ Claire thought quickly, that wasn’t a lie, she hadn’t been sure. ‘I wanted to ask her some more questions, test her reactions on a few things that were niggling me. While I was there I heard someone groaning and what I thought was a cry for help from the bedroom. It was a legitimate need to investigate what I believed to be someone in distress.’

  Bob nodded, ‘OK, well that’s going to be your word against hers so as long as you’re clear on what happened. I need you to do a full statement before you leave tonight ok?’

  Claire realised she wasn’t out of the woods yet.

  Gillian Faber had turned into a bitch with attitude. She sat opposite Claire, glaring at her with enough malice to melt her skin.

  ‘I’m making a formal complaint,’ she said, the second they sat down. ‘You searched my flat without a warrant.’

  Claire let Bob answer, experience had taught her that if the accusation was aimed at you, it’s best to let someone else mount your defence.

  ‘You voluntarily allowed DI Falle into your property, Mrs Faber. My detective then legitimately investigated what she thought was the sound of someone in distress.’

  ‘He was a burglar, he attacked me,’ Gillian turned to her solicitor now.

  ‘We’ve found no evidence of forced entry Mrs Faber. My detectives will be interviewing Mr Falle about how he came to be there and what took place, but for now we want to concentrate on our other enquiries in this interview.’

  Claire felt a cold shiver run through h
er. She hoped her dad held it together and remembered what she’d asked him to say.

  ‘I have here a sheet that details various share transactions which have taken place as the result of information gleaned from spyware on computers and phones. We believe you are responsible for putting that spyware on and taking advantage of that information.’

  Gillian shook her head. ‘How would I know how to do that and if I’d done all this, why would I be living in a grotty flat? It’s not me.’

  Bob continued, ‘We believe that you used your cleaning job, and your status as a trusted employee, to access the homes of the individuals concerned and their computer equipment. We have found spyware on various laptops and phones.’

  ‘It’s not me,’ Gillian continued, crossing her arms and staring at Bob defiantly. ‘This is victimisation. Just because I can’t afford a long legal battle and I haven’t got friends in high places, you’re targeting me.’

  ‘I assure you that we are acting on evidence Mrs Faber,’ Bob continued.

  ‘Yeah? Well in that case, show me where all this money is I’m supposed to have made. Go take a look at my bank accounts and see if you can find it because I know that I struggle to make ends meet. Do you know I’ve been saving up for years so that my son and I can go on holiday. He’s there now and I’m supposed to be joining him in a few days. I couldn’t even afford to take off more than a couple of weeks holiday.’

  The interview went round and round in the same circle until Bob decided to call it a day. They’d got nothing out of her. It looked like she’d done it, but they’d still no hard evidence that Gillian was Melusine.

  48

  Claire, Monday 13th November 2017, Jersey

  Claire’s father had a good night, and by the morning they’d had confirmation that he was coming home after the consultant had given him one last look over. Bob told Claire to take the morning off and while part of her was nervous about not being there in case something happened which exposed her story, another part of her was very relieved. She slept in until gone nine am as did her mother. It was her father ringing from the hospital to tell them he could come home later, which woke them up.