The Untimely Death Box Set

by James Kipling

  Ricky agreed. “This is true: my employer detests trouble of any kind. He’s a guy who likes things to run smoothly and enjoys a hassle-free existence.”

  Tim said to Neil, “you’re getting worked up about nothing. We never implied that you’re a killer.”

  Neil gave the ghost of a smile, and then the muscles of his face seemed to relax. “Then you’ve written me off your list of suspects?”

  “I didn’t say that. Everyone is a suspect in the eyes of the law. What I meant was, just because you are a suspect doesn’t mean that you are a murderer and that we’ll arrest you.”

  Neil said sarcastically, “that’s some reprieve you’ve given me.”

  Ricky butted in. “Neil is my employer, but I can tell you that he would never commit murder. He’s not the type of person to harm anyone.”

  Neil flashed him a smile. “Thanks for speaking up for me.”

  Geoffrey said, “do you want to tell us anything more, Neil? Something you forgot to tell us at the time? It could be a piece of harmless information.”

  Neil seemed to hesitate and then said, “I don’t know if this is relevant information but Michelle went around with a guy called Wilbur before me. He was her colleague in a previous job. Wilbur was caught embezzling funds and was fired. Apparently, he blamed Michelle for the charges and even threatened her. He once screamed at her, ‘you’re a two-timing bitch! I won’t let you get your hooks on another guy again, after what you’ve done to me!’ Michelle was shocked and in tears. She tried to convince him, in vain, that she had nothing to do with it. I think that was the last they saw of each other. “

  “How did you learn about it?”

  “Michelle told me, of course. Another incident took place, as well. I’d been going steady with Michelle for some time, when suddenly my mobile rang and a man claiming anonymity began to say that I was going out with the wrong girl, calling Michelle a liar and a cheat, someone who had a habit of leaving guys in the lurch. I was boiling with rage, but before I could give the guy a piece of my mind, he hung up. I tried to call the number again, but when I dialled, a woman’s voice answered. The man who rang me was using someone else’s phone. I now think that the man who rung me was Wilbur.”

  “Did you tell Michelle about it?”

  “No, definitely not. I didn’t want to worry her needlessly. I knew she’d be upset if she heard it. I didn’t want to hurt her. As I said before, I cared for her. At the time, I didn’t give any importance to the guy and dismissed the whole affair from my mind.”

  Tim said, “do you want to tell us anything else?”

  Neil shook his head. “There’s nothing else to tell.”

  Geoffrey nodded. “OK, we’ll be going now.” Neil looked at them, hesitantly. “Has the information I’ve given you been of help?”

  Geoffrey paused and said slowly, “it’s too early to tell, but each and every piece of information is of use.”

  When they went outside, Tim said, “we should have a chat with Wilbur.”

  “Yeah, trace him as soon as possible. He seems to be an interesting guy.”

  3

  Wilbur sat quietly in the bar. He kept twiddling his fingers, while a muscle on his face twitched. At first sight, he appeared to be an inconspicuous sort of guy, with rather crooked features. He was of medium height and walked with a slight hunch. He certainly was a far cry from the dashing Neil. One couldn’t help wondering why a girl like Michelle fell for him, but the moment Wilbur started speaking, it was clear that he was an intelligent man, someone who would have had a certain amount of appeal to a girl like Michelle.

  Wilbur looked at the two policemen in front of him. “I don’t know what you want from me. It’s a long time since I was with Michelle and I haven’t seen her for the last couple of years. I don’t know where she worked or whom she was going around with. You’re questioning the wrong guy.”

  “Well, you knew Michelle pretty well at one point of your life. We want to know about her.”

  Wilbur shrugged. “What can I say? Michelle was an attractive girl with brains. We worked for a period of time in a law firm called Baker and Sons. I first met her in the office, and she was bright but reserved. Slowly, in the course of our work, we got to know each other. I admit that I was attracted to her. You don’t go around with a girl without being drawn towards her. I guess she was attracted to me, too, though I know I’m nothing much to look at. Anyway, I’ve found that women simply love me. We began going out together and that was how our affair started. We were very much in love and we even thought of getting hitched. At the time, I thought there was nobody else like Michelle. We got along like a house on fire. I went to her house and even met her parents, although I admit that I didn’t like them much: I thought them snobbish. But somehow it didn’t last.”

  “Why did you break up?”

  “It was because of her. It’s wrong to speak ill of the dead, but Michelle was a selfish girl. She had her hopes pinned on higher things and she broke things off with me. I guess she wanted someone richer and had her eyes set on our boss, Bryan. I would always find them together. I took it up with her once and we fought bitterly. I told her that she was clearly searching for greener pastures and that I didn’t trust her. Anyway, I finally left the firm as the owners tried to frame me and then got me fired. Sometimes, I suspected Michelle’s hand in getting me fired. We parted and went our separate ways. Since then, I hadn’t heard from her or seen her.”

  Tim put in, “you said you parted bitterly. Did you threaten her?”

  Wilbur was taken aback. “Certainly not, although we exchanged heated words, certainly. I told her very clearly that I felt that she was behind my dismissal on a trumped up charge and that I didn’t want to see her again. I never looked back. I believe in moving on in life. I simply cut off my ties with her and carried on.”

  “We’ve been told that someone threatened one of Michelle’s boyfriends over the phone. Are you sure it wasn’t you?”

  Wilbur turned red. “Are you mad? Why would I threaten Michelle’s latest guy when I cut off all ties with her? I told you I don’t believe in carrying baggage. I haven’t seen or heard from Michelle since my last meeting. I later heard the news that she had been murdered in a park, and I felt sorry for her, for old times’ sake. No girl deserves that fate.”

  Geoffrey’s next question came suddenly. “Do you know anything about poisons?”

  Wilbur’s face registered shock. He said in a whisper, “just because I have worked for a year in a chemist shop, you’re holding it against me? But even at the chemist shop, I dealt with only prescribed medicines – nothing to do with poisons. You don’t think I’m the serial killer, surely? I have no real reason for killing any of the girls. I am a perfectly sane man, not a mad hatter. I told you I had lost all contact with Michelle for the past couple of years. I don’t have any knowledge of poisons or darts.”

  Geoffrey smiled. “We never implied that you were the murderer.”

  Wilbur got up with clenched fists, shouting, “so you laid a trap for me? I didn’t know the police could stoop so low. I made a mistake by agreeing to meet you. I don’t want to say another word. Just leave me alone and go.”

  Geoffrey said firmly, “we are the police. We are investigating a case and you simply have to cooperate; I’m afraid you have no choice. If you keep your mouth shut, it will go against you. We can ask whatever questions we want.”

  Wilbur sat down, dejected. All the wind had gone out of him. He said morosely, “all I can say is that I am innocent. I guess you’ll hold the old case of embezzlement against me… well, I know you’ll find it hard to believe, but I’m speaking the truth when I say that I’m an honest guy. I could never murder anyone. Believe me, I did love Michelle at one point, and I would never have done anything to hurt her. That’s all I can say. I’ve got into trouble before and I don’t want to get into trouble again. I am well settled in life: I have a job and I’m thinking of starting a family. I
have met a very nice girl whom I want to marry. I love her, and the last thing I want is trouble. I swear I have no knowledge of poisons, although I worked in a chemist shop. I was nowhere near the park when Michelle died. I was working in my current office, and you can ask my colleagues about it if you must.”

  Geoffrey smiled. “If you’re innocent, you have nothing to fear. We don’t believe in harassing innocent people, but do tell us if you remember anything important which might help us to track down the murderer.”

  Chapter 13

  September 15

  Alice Jackson was in her home, sitting around and doing nothing in particular. It was Sunday and she had very little to look forward to. Her life seemed miserable. She had lost her job, and money, she knew, wouldn’t last forever. She was at a loose end.

  Alice had come from a large, rather poor family, with four siblings. As a child, she had witnessed the struggle for existence. Whenever he was flush with money, her father would come home drunk and start singing loudly and then later fall in bed asleep with his clothes on. Her father was in and out of jobs because of the drinking. He was always fired, sometimes for reporting to work in a state of drunkenness, quarrelling loudly with his fellow workers, or for simply neglecting his duty. From early childhood, Alice had carried the image of her mother as a harassed woman who always seemed to be at her wit’s end and who was always mad with worry.

  She was a rather frail, delicate woman with fine bones who belonged to a decent and honest family. She had fallen in love with Alice’s father because of his rugged handsomeness. He could also be quite charming when he chose to be. At that time, James Jackson, Alice’s father, wasn’t the habitual drunk that he became. James, too, fell in love with the petite woman named Pauline Taylor. She looked good and laughed a lot. She was at that time a happy young woman. One day, James proposed and Pauline gladly accepted. Pauline’s parents, however, disapproved of the match as they felt that not only was she marrying beneath her, but that the man she cared about was rotten to the core. Pauline didn’t listen to her parents, however. Instead, one night she took a decision which changed her life forever.

  She eloped with James and left with only a few belongings, and they tied the knot at the registrar’s office. Pauline had told Alice that she was happy in the first few months of their marriage. James was then working in a garment factory, the couple was very much in love, and James came home religiously every evening.

  They would sit together in the living room while Pauline would pour out the tea in a new porcelain tea set she had bought. They lived in a small two-roomed apartment, but Pauline was happy enough. She was busy setting up her own house, attending to James, and making love to him. During those days, James often took her out to dinner.

  Soon, Pauline was heavy with child, and she was thrilled at the prospect of becoming a mother. James continued to be attentive and caring, but at times Pauline was worried about money; they seemed to have very little. Her first child, little Robbie, was born and Pauline became immersed in her new duties of caring and tending to her baby. She had never been happier in her life. She was so engrossed in her life as a mother, in fact, that she often overlooked certain things – like James coming home late smelling of drink, his careless habits and forgetfulness, and his constant grumbling that she now cared for her baby only and had forgotten all about him. One evening, he came home roaring drunk and created such a ruckus that the baby started crying and wouldn’t stop. Pauline was mad with anger and shouted, “look what you’ve done! Now he won’t sleep for hours. Don’t you have more sense?” They had a huge fight but Pauline excused him saying that he was a man after all, and men would be men.

  Things got worse. James began to stop at bars after work and often arrived home late, where he would frequently swagger in completely drunk. Pauline couldn’t understand the change in him. She was heavy with child again. Soon James lost his job, the first of a series of jobs he lost after marriage. Pauline had a hard time trying to make the ends meet, and she took up odd sewing jobs which she could do from her home. James stayed at home sulking, acting like a bore. When he found another job, things were slightly easier for Pauline, although he continued to drink. Pauline had four children – two sons and two daughters – within a decade of marriage. Alice was the third child and the first daughter.

  Alice learned to help her mother doing odd jobs about the house even as a child. She feared her father and his bouts of drunkenness but she realised that he could be affectionate and kind when he was sober, often petting and cuddling her. By the time she was ten years old, her mother was a shadow of her former self. She was thin and frail and worked all day sewing clothes and selling homemade cakes, which brought in a little money. Sometimes the situation was so bad that they had to survive for a week on bread and potatoes until her father found a job again.

  The situation became better when the children started earning. Her two brothers had started in life and brought home some money before they moved out. After she finished school, she took whatever jobs came her way. She then trained in a beauty parlour, which was her current job.

  Alice’s father died of liver damage from too much drinking when she turned 18, and her mother followed five years later; she had suffered from heart problems for years and finally passed away after a massive cardiac arrest.

  By that time, her brothers and sisters had all moved on in life and so had she. She had met Victor while still at school. They were classmates. Victor also came from an ordinary home and had a troubled domestic life. He was a lonely boy, tall for his age, and Alice couldn’t help but be drawn to him. She sympathised with his problems (there was no peace in the house as his parents fought all day) and gradually their relationship moved from friendship to love.

  They went on steadily and later moved in together. However, after living together for some time, she discovered that the man she loved had feet of clay. He was also extremely hot headed and impulsive. Worse still, he too loved his drink and sometimes lay in a drunken stupor in the house. In many ways, he reminded her of her father, though such instances were rare. She had seen her mother struggling day in and day out and she didn’t want that kind of life, even though she still had strong feelings for Victor.

  She tried to mend his ways and that tore them apart; Victor resented her interference. The more she tried to correct him, the more they drifted apart. They fought bitterly and Victor began to spend more nights outside. Alice moped around, and after two years, felt she’d had enough. She walked out of the relationship and decided to move on.

  She then met Phillip. He was a tall, fair-haired man with a harmless face, who wore horn-rimmed spectacles. He was earning some money as an accountant, and Alice had high expectations for the relationship.

  Philip seemed the caring sort and she expected that their relationship would end in marriage. She yearned for a more settled life with a small house of her own, a husband, and two small children. She would look after the house, perhaps take up a job to help her husband, and take care of the kids. They would live quietly and she would spend her days with Philip, growing old together. It would be a pleasant life.

  She soon realised that it was all a dream. Phillip went away from her life as quickly as he had come. One day he rang to say that he was ending their relationship, as he was in love with someone else and was going to marry her. She listened to him, stunned with shock, while tears rolled down her cheeks. At first, she was so choked up with emotion that she couldn’t speak. Then she found her voice.

  Instead of anger, she found herself grovelling; begging him not to leave her in the lurch so suddenly, begging him not to cut off their ties, telling him that he had made a ghastly mistake. He was not moved. He kept saying sorry but he also made it clear that he had moved on and that he loved someone else.

  He said that Alice had the wrong idea and that he felt they were totally mismatched. She then screamed at him that he couldn’t do this to her. She said she had never done anything wrong and
that they were perfectly suited to each other. When he hung up, she collapsed on the floor crying.

  Alice thought that this couldn’t be happening to her – two relationships she had set her heart on couldn’t end in failure. She was depressed for days. Then slowly, with time, she got over it. She told herself sternly that she had to shake herself out of it. Slowly, she picked up the pieces of her life, took up a new job and plunged herself into work.

  She became busy taking care of women doing waxing, pedicures and manicures. Some of her customers were demanding while others were easy-going and talked to her warmly. Some would even discuss their problems with her and she would lend a sympathetic ear. She worked hard and made a place for herself in the beauty parlour. She dreamed of one day opening her own.

  Eventually, Alice forgot about Phillip and started dating other men. She smiled more often. Then for no reason, she lost her job. She was shocked, but she had no other alternative than calling it quits. She later found out that one of the customers had complained about her, claiming that she had handled her roughly. She knew it was false. It was a trumped-up charge. She had always tried to please the customers and treated them gently and with all possible care at all times.

  Alice felt dejected. Just when things were looking up, she was knocked down. She tried looking for another job but was unsuccessful. She desperately needed a job because the money she had saved would soon run out.

  It was 11:00 o’clock in the morning. She usually went to the Santiago department store to pick up a few things for the next week, and although she felt down and out, certain things had to be done, and so she headed for the department store.