“I found out that the other Frank Matthews was born on the same day, but one year earlier. To the government, I was that Frank Matthews. So, I started to live his life. I collected the veteran benefits, I attended doctors to take blood tests, I went to support groups, and I even met his long-lost cousin. He had no family, so it was easy to become him. I had an old mate that went to the army, and he checked his army file and found out where he served. It was my life, not his anymore. That happened over twenty years ago now. A moment of perfect luck.”
“But it wasn’t you,” Bill interrupts, still sitting up against the cupboard with blood smeared on his chin.
Frank stops pacing the floor to stare down at his foe. “It’s me now. That’s who I am. The ‘real’ Frank Matthews had moved to Thailand. I looked him up soon after the error, out of fear that he might find me, but I was satisfied that he had fallen off the grid. He bought a farm, married a Thai girl, and lived a quiet life in a different country. I kept an eye on him, regularly calling his farm, and pretending to be someone else. When he passed away fifteen years ago, I felt relief. And then it wasn’t a lie anymore. It was just a perfect coincidence. It was my piece of freedom. God gave me a chance to start again.”
“You lived a lie.”
“But a good one. I was a lonely man with nothing to lose. I started meeting other veterans and kept quiet about my past. They thought that I was keeping quiet because I was struggling with what I saw. The quieter I stayed, the more they liked me. I had never been so accepted in my life. I started attending support groups, and it changed my life. That is where I first met Norman Chester. We really hit it off. Norman was a great man. Then Bud joined our support group, and we founded the charity together.
“Bud managed the charity because he was better at that sort of thing. I was his deputy. When Norman passed, I took over the management of the books. Sure, I took a lot of money for my own use when I first started – after a poor life, it was too tempting. Suddenly, I could afford things that I only ever dreamed about. I traveled. I bought lots of useless things… but then last year, I realized something. I realized that this is bigger than me and this is what I love doing. More than anything else, I love helping people. I love helping these men and women. I love it, Bill. Since that moment of realization, I have donated my every waking second to helping them. This charity is bigger than me. It changes lives.”
“And Jessica was going to take that all away from you. Not because she was going to expose your secret, but because she was going to take the money away.”
“All of it. Without the injection of cash every month, this place couldn’t afford to keep going. We wouldn’t survive without her money. You see, I didn’t kill Jessica for me – I did it for them, the men and women who have served our country. You can understand that can’t you, Bill?”
“Murdering someone isn’t the answer,” Bill states firmly.
“Jessica was on her last legs anyway. She was riddled with cancer, and she didn’t have long left. I just brought her death forward six months. I don’t feel guilty about it. She wasn’t a very nice person.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
“I don’t care if I get charged with Jessica’s murder… but I do care if people find out that I’m not a veteran. This charity can survive a murder charge, but it cannot survive my fraud. I don’t care about me anymore – it’s bigger than that. I want to help people. These people. The one’s that have helped others.”
“You’re a murderer. Not a saint.”
“Jessica wasn’t the first. And by the looks of this current situation, she won’t be the last.”
“If you kill me, the charity folds. No charity can survive a serial killer deputy CEO. One murder may appear like a crime of passion, but not two. You cannot kill me.”
“I disagree. The charity can survive a murderous deputy CEO. They will paint me as the former veteran who lost the plot. We’ll get sympathy for that. It will help people realize how bad it is for some veterans… but the charity cannot survive a fraud. If it comes out that I’m a fraud, the men and women that I have helped loose everything. I can’t have that.”
Frank looks down at the revolver in his right hand, studying it as if it’s the first time he has ever seen it.
“Don’t do it,” Bill whispers. “This isn’t the answer.”
“It is, Bill. I have to do it. I can’t let my secret out. If my secret goes out to the world, then it’s all over. I can’t have that. I can’t let that happen.”
“How did you kill Jessica?” Bill asks.
“I see what you’re doing, Bill. You’re trying to buy time,” Frank responds. He kicks a chair to place it in front of Bill and then sits down, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees. “But I’ll humor you. I’ll let you enjoy your last few minutes before I fire this gun.”
“Don’t do it, Frank.”
“I strangled her. My DNA was all over her clothes. I was wearing gloves, so there are no fingerprints, but I spat on her clothes after she died. I was angry. So angry. I was surprised that the police didn’t come looking for me. I was so surprised that they didn’t match that DNA to mine. How could they miss that? Then I went and took the security footage from her apartment. I knew that she used to record the cleaner with a little portable camera to make sure he wasn’t stealing anything. Our disagreement would have been on that camera. That camera and the footage is still in my apartment, if you’re interested in it, Bill.”
“Let’s go and get it now.”
“Ha!” Frank laughs. “I was waiting for them, you know. Waiting and waiting. But the cops never came. When they arrested Anna, I laughed so hard. I never meant to set her up, but it couldn’t have gone much better than it did. I never liked Anna, so I wasn’t too unhappy that she was charged with the murder. And because she was charged with the murder, the charity will get twenty million, not just ten million. That couldn’t have worked out any better.”
“Jessica didn’t deserve to die for that money.”
“Maybe.” Frank sighs. “And now a second person is about to die for the money in that estate.”
“You don’t have to do this.” Bill judges whether Frank looks like he’s going to pull the trigger. Frank looks vulnerable and defeated, but he’s showing no malice. That gives Bill some hope. He just has to keep him talking.
“I do have to do this.” Frank shakes his head. “If anyone finds out that I wasn’t a veteran, then the charity folds. If it comes out that I’m a fraud, all that hard work is gone. All those people’s lives that I helped change, all that will be gone. If I give those men and women a reason to doubt me, then they will doubt themselves. I can’t let that happen. I can’t have that secret leave this room.”
“For the veterans, I’ll take that secret to the grave.”
“Yes, you will,” Frank states as he stands.
He stands tall and proud, the gun pointed towards the lawyer’s forehead.
Bill looks to the door, but Frank is standing between him and the only exit. Still sitting down, Bill knows that he’s in no position to attack Frank. He will have pulled the trigger before he can reach him.
“Close your eyes, Bill,” Frank whispers as he grips the gun. “I don’t want you to watch this.”
“No,” Bill whispers. “No, Frank.”
“Please close your eyes, Bill. Please.”
Frank’s fingers wrap tightly around the trigger. There is no shaking – he has a sense of complete calm.
Bill’s thoughts aren’t about the revolver gripped in Frank’s hand. They aren’t about his aching head. Not even his escape plan.
Instead, as he faces death, his thoughts race to his past – his memories, his family, his lost loves.
Kate…
“Don’t do it,” Bill whispers, closing his eyes.
The gun hovers only inches from his face.
This is it.
His last breath…
Bang.
CHAPTER 26
Bill Harvey
’s eyes squeeze shut as the shot fires.
The sound deafens him.
The noise rings in his ears.
His whole body clenches in fear…
But he doesn’t feel pain.
He doesn’t feel the sharp impact of a bullet entering his skin.
He feels nothing.
Slowly, he opens his eyes.
In front of him, lying on the floor, is Frank Matthews.
The moments of life slowly tick past as he watches the motionless body.
With the caution of a man who has just faced death, he moves towards the body.
Time is suspended as he kneels next to the man with a gun.
Frank Matthews’ face is empty.
Vacant.
Soulless.
A slow creeping red flow runs over the carpet. The gun is still lying in Frank’s loose right hand, lying on its side, pointed towards the door.
Under Frank’s chin is a hole large enough to fit two fingers. Bill Harvey can’t bring his eyes to look at the wound. Instead, his vision is drawn to Frank Matthews’ eyes.
The eyes are wide open, lacking any movement, any sign of life.
Where there was once life, there is now nothing. There is no connection to the world. No depth. No emotion.
The overpowering smell of the gunshot fills the room, and it brings Bill back to reality.
Still in shock, he pulls Frank’s left wrist towards him, checking for any sign of a pulse.
There is none.
Gently, he rests the wrist on the floor.
Leaning back on the heels of his feet, with his knees still on the ground, he stares at the figure in front of him.
His mind is empty.
Lost.
“Bill?” A hand shakes his shoulder. “Bill?”
Looking up, he sees the figure of his friend, Jack Grayson, standing over him.
“Bill, are you okay?!” Jack asks. “I heard the gunshot.”
Bill nods, bringing his eyes back to Frank Matthews.
He has seen death before, but never this personal.
Never this close.
“I’m not hurt,” he finally mumbles.
“I came as fast as I could. When you didn’t answer your phone, I thought there might be trouble. I called the police, and they’re on their way. Did he say if he had anything to do with killing Jessica Lempare?”
“Yes.”
“Can you prove it?”
“The hidden camera is at his apartment. And his DNA was on Jessica’s clothes. We can prove it, Jack.”
“But the DNA would be of someone else, another Frank Matthews?”
“No. All the medical records exist under this Frank Matthews. He lived that lie for twenty years. All the DNA evidence will point to the Frank Matthews lying in front of us. That’s why he turned the gun on himself.”
“Why?”
“It was to save the charity,” Bill whispers. “To save the people he has helped. He didn’t want the world to know what he had done.”
“I don’t understand.”
“No one can ever know his true identity, Jack. Nobody can ever find out that he’s not the Frank Matthews that he said he was. Nobody can ever know that. That’s a secret that you and I need to take to our graves.”
“What?” Jack is confused.
“If his fraud is uncovered.” Bill continues to stare down at the dead body in front of him. “Then the hard work of this charity will be for nothing. The charity will lose everything if he’s proved not to be the person he said he was. We cannot let that happen, Jack. Every person that he has helped will doubt themselves, and every person that they are helping will lose the support they so desperately need. Nobody is to ever know who he really was. Never. His secret died with him.”
“He shot himself so he could keep his secret?”
“Yes, Jack. He died for the greater good.”
“And if someone else finds out the truth about his identity?”
“We will deny that we ever knew about it.”
The two men stare at the body as the faint ring of police sirens come closer to them.
Jack nods. “For the greater good, Bill.”
“For the greater good.”
CHAPTER 27
One month later…
“I have a present for you.” Bill Harvey opens a file as Anna Lempare sits across from him in his office.
“What is it?”
With a smirk on his handsome face, Bill opens a large envelope, revealing Anna’s much loved, and very well-used, passport.
“Oh my gosh! Thank you, Bill! Thank you.” The tears begin to well in her eyes. “This was the best present I could ever receive.” Anna grips the passport tight in her hands, staring at it with the same combination of shock and glee that a child does to their dream present on their birthday. “This is my life’s work, Bill. It is everything to me. Everything.”
“It’s my pleasure,” Bill says with another smile.
In a rare show of genuine emotion, Anna runs around Bill’s large desk and grips the man in a tight hug. After she has almost squashed Bill with enthusiasm, she releases her grip, before moving back around to the other side of the table.
“Sorry.” She giggles. “But… thank you. Really, thank you. I can’t thank you enough.”
“I’m just doing my job.”
“You did more than that,” Anna says. “What happens now?”
“The charges have been dropped against you after I detailed Frank’s confession to the police. They found that Frank’s DNA was all over Jessica’s clothes, and they found the video evidence of Frank entering the apartment at the time of the murder. In the missing footage, you could even hear the moment the murder occurred. It was very damning evidence.”
“Why didn’t they find that the first time? That would have saved us a whole lot of trouble.”
“They didn’t look. And they didn’t have to. As far as they were concerned, they had their murderer. Everything pointed to you. They dismissed the extra DNA on the clothes as unimportant.”
Anna shakes her head. “Unbelievable.”
“Not at all. I would have done the same if I were the police. Most of them are good people, Anna. It’s a hard job, and they do the best they can. But, sometimes, things don’t quite fit, and that is why we have a justice system. And that is why people like me have jobs."
“You’re too positive about the world.”
“No, Anna. I’m a realist, nothing more,” Bill replies. “What are you going to do now that you have the ten million dollars from the will?”
“The money arrived last week. Ten million dollars went to the charity, and the other ten million came to me, just like the conditions noted. But after I made your payment, eighty percent of the remaining money is already gone.”
Bill’s eyes almost fall out of my head. “What did you do?”
“I donated it.”
“Donated it?” Surprise sinks in for a second time. “To who?”
“The charity, Recovering Veterans. They’re good people Bill, and they do good things. Now that Frank Matthews is gone, I have complete faith in that place. And despite what Frank did to my aunt, he did it for the charity. Bud is a good man, and he will help the people that need it. The charity supports people that need help. That’s important.”
“So even after all this, you still donated your inheritance?” Bill shakes his head.
“Maybe this experience has taught me something,” she states. “I can see why the charity was so important to my grandfather now. They help the people that helped us. That means something, Bill. Something bigger than me.”
“And what about your distrust of the army?”
“It was never about the individuals. The individuals are great people. They need help. My anger was against the authority, and the politicians running the army. I want to help the people that helped us.”
With a touch of pride, Bill smiles broadly. “That’s nice to hear, Anna. Really nice.”
“And I don’t need the money,” she continues. “I want adventure in my life, not possessions. I have enough to support me, but I don’t want to use it. I want to work in remote parts of the world and struggle from time to time. That’s what life is about. It’s about adventure.”
“So where to next for Anna Lempare then?”
“Australia. I have never been there, and I’ve always wanted to cuddle a koala.” The smile on her face spreads out into full blown joy. “And I hear that there’s a small little island called Tasmania that has the purest air on earth. After the threat of going to jail, that’s the air I want to breathe.”
“Well, Miss Lempare, I wish you the best of luck.”
“Thank you, Bill. For everything that you have done for me, thank you.” For the first time in months, Anna’s shoulders relax. She walks out of his office with her head held up high; her confidence returned.
Leaning back in his chair, Bill rests his feet on the desk.
He has an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, not just in winning the court case, but also in having an influence on a young woman’s life.
As Bill is smiling smugly and staring at nothing, his assistant, Kate Spencer, enters the office. “Anna looked very happy, but I suppose she would be if she just banked ten million dollars.”
“She didn’t bank it,” Bill quips. “She donated most of the money back to the charity, Recovering Veterans.”
“What? Are you serious?” Kate asks in surprise.
“I think that girl has learned a lot about life in the last few months. When faced with a life in prison, I think she began to understand what is important in life. It was never about the money for her.”
“Then why dispute the will at all?”
“I think she felt obligated to dispute it. She was always fighting with her aunt, and if her aunt wanted one thing, then Anna would naturally dispute it.”
“So two people died for nothing?”
“None of the deaths were Anna’s fault. You must remember that, Kate.” Bill replies. “And the money found its way to good use in the end. The money will be able to help so many people now.”
Will of Justice_A Legal Thriller Page 15
