by Ford,P. F.
“This is news to me,” said Norman, suspiciously. “I’ve been through that first report, and there’s nothing about a taxi, anywhere. I’ve also spoken to Sandra’s mother, and she didn’t mention a taxi either.”
“Sandra’s mother is somewhat sad and deluded where her daughter is concerned,” Bressler said, sighing. “She’s always insisted I murdered Sandra. She won’t mention the taxi because if she admits Sandra and Rose drove away in it, it makes it more likely she did run away, just as I said. She’s always sworn Sandra wouldn’t have done that without telling her father first.”
“I think maybe we’ve got it wrong about what happened back then Mr Bressler,” said Slater, instinctively stepping into “good cop” mode. “And, for the record, we have open minds about who might have killed Sandra. But we’ve also got two murders on our hands and we need some help.”
“Well, thank you for that, at least,” said Bressler. “I’d like to believe it might actually be possible to find out what happened back then – not because I really care anymore, but just to prove to Sandra’s mother that it wasn’t me. So, how can I help?”
“I know you’ve probably done all this before, but would you mind if we start at the beginning?” asked Slater. “Could you tell us about you and Sandra, your marriage, what happened leading up to the day she left, and what you think might have happened back then?”
“What? All of it?” asked Bressler.
“I’m sorry. But you’ve already told us about a taxi that seems to have been missed last time around. Maybe that’s not all that was missed.”
“Okay.” Bressler sighed heavily again. “I’ll tell you what I can recall, but it was a long time ago.”
And so, for the next half hour, with very little prompting, Rudy Bressler told them his story.
He was 33 and working as a GP in a practice in Redditch when he had first met Sandra. She was just 22 and lived locally with her parents. The whole family were patients – that’s how they first met. She was everything he could wish for – young, beautiful and full of life. In no time, they were dating and it soon became obvious to him that she was the girl of his dreams. Within a few short months, he had proposed, and they were married within two years of their first meeting.
Rudy’s parents had died in a car accident when he was a teenager. He had been left a huge legacy in the form of property and investments which he had managed to grow into a sizable portfolio. Money was not going to be a problem for the newly-wed Mr and Mrs Bressler, and Sandra’s father had approved of the marriage, seeing a secure future for his favourite daughter.
Sandra’s mother, on the other hand, had never approved of Rudy and no matter how hard he had tried to meet her approval, he had always failed. When pressed on this matter he could offer no explanation, except that perhaps Mrs Townley disapproved of how he had come into his money.
Once married, Rudy left general practice and set up a small private practice. He restricted this practice to just a few clients – he didn’t really need the money – and intended to spend most of his time with his new wife. They bought a big house a few miles from Redditch and, according to Rudy, for the next two years, they enjoyed a hassle-free, happy marriage.
Then it started to become necessary for him to look after his financial interests and he began to have to spend time away from home, something to which Sandra objected quite strongly. She claimed she was lonely when he was away, and they began to have problems as a result.
Naturally, Slater and Norman wanted to know more about these problems, but Bressler would only say they had arguments about the need for him to be away from home so much. He told them she suspected he was having an affair, but this wasn’t the case. Rudy had never been one for checking up on his wife but, he told them, there were times when he was away that she couldn’t be contacted, and he often wondered where she might be.
And then, three years into their marriage, she had announced she was pregnant. This had come as a big shock to Rudy as he had never wanted children. Sandra had been aware of this and had never previously shown any desire to become a mother. He had made no secret of his displeasure at this turn of events, but he didn’t feel he could push the matter, and he had accepted the situation. He felt it would help solve her loneliness when he was away, and that he would actually enjoy being a father when it happened.
The situation with Sandra’s mother had got no better since they had married, and he suspected Sandra had been telling her everything. This, of course, had only intensified her dislike of him. Once the child was born, Mrs Townley had seemed to be a permanent fixture in and around their house, and her open hostility towards him eventually caused him to stay away more and more.
Things slowly went downhill from there for the Bressler marriage and, Rudy reluctantly admitted, about a year before Sandra disappeared he had started an affair. He never knew for sure if Sandra had known – she had never said as much – but suddenly, out of the blue, she had suggested that if they were going to save their marriage and restore their happiness, they needed to move house. She had said they needed to be far enough away from her mother that it would be difficult for her to visit.
At this point, Slater had interrupted Bressler.
“Didn’t this sudden about-turn seem a little strange?” he asked.
“Of course it did,” Bressler said. “But I put it down to Sandra finally realising that her mother was the poison that was killing our marriage. That woman had effectively driven me out of my own home. I certainly would never have had an affair if I hadn’t allowed that to happen. I saw this as a possible opportunity for us to get back to being happy again. You might find this hard to understand, Sergeant, but I loved my wife very much. I would have moved to the other side of the world if she’d asked me to.”
Slater thought he might have been a bit more suspicious about Sandra’s motives had he been Bressler, but then again, he was trained to be suspicious about people’s motives. He decided to let him continue with his narrative.
Bressler had jumped at the idea of escaping from Sandra’s mother, and the idea of going back to how they used to be was something he had often dreamed about. He would have happily moved anywhere, but again Sandra surprised him by finding a house just a couple of miles outside Tinton. Having been raised nearby, Bressler knew the area quite well and had no objection – it had seemed a perfect opportunity to start again.
Sandra had insisted Rudy was far too busy with his work, and had taken on the project of finding a house and organising the move. All he had to do was finance the whole thing, which he was more than happy to do. With his wife apparently prepared to do so much to try to rebuild their marriage, he had felt it only right that he should end the affair he had been conducting behind her back. So, now they could move to Tinton and start again with a completely clean sheet.
At the time of the move, Rudy had been at a medical conference. Although he had his investments and just a few private clients, he thought it only right and proper that he should keep informed and stay involved with the medical community. He could lose his wealth tomorrow, he told them, but as long as he kept his hand in, he could always go back to being a doctor full time. He had considered cancelling his trip, but Sandra had insisted it wasn’t necessary – she could quite comfortably organise and supervise everything.
He had been in touch with her constantly that week, right up until the move. Then, typically, when she got to the new house she had discovered the landline had not been connected and the mobile phone signal for her service provider was non-existent at the house. She had had to travel into Tinton to contact him to tell him all this, but he would be home in just three days, so he had reluctantly accepted the fact that they just wouldn’t be able to speak until then.
And so he had heard nothing more until he’d finally arrived home to find Sandra and Rose had vanished, along with all their clothes and belongings. All his spare cash was gone. When he told them this amounted to about £10,000, they were both quite startled
. That was a lot of money to have just lying around.
He’d called in the police, but they seemed to think it was just a case of Sandra doing a runner. He’d found out for himself that a local taxi company had picked up Sandra and Rose and a lot of luggage and taken them up to Heathrow airport. When he relayed this on to the police, it seemed to be enough for them to conclude she had to have another guy somewhere. He had no idea they hadn’t even bothered to speak to the taxi driver themselves.
Sandra’s mother had done her best to convince one and all that Rudy had done away with his wife and daughter, but the police had checked his alibi and dismissed her claims.
“Although, you know yourselves she’s still trying to pin the blame on me,” he had concluded.
“So what did you do after that?” asked Norman.
“Detective Sergeant Nash convinced me Sandra had planned the whole thing. When he put all the evidence to me, it certainly pointed that way. He suggested that the whole idea of moving house had been part of an elaborate plan to deceive me and her parents, and frankly I was so shocked by it all I believed him. There didn’t seem to be any reason to suggest he was wrong.”
“That must have been hard,” said Norman.
“Finding your parents have been killed in a senseless accident, when you’re just 17 years old, is hard, Sergeant.” Bressler sighed. “When you’ve been through something like that, and come out the other side, you develop a tough outer shell that can get through most things.”
Norman looked slightly uncomfortable, and Slater knew he was thinking of his own separation from his wife.
“Finding out my wife had betrayed me was very disappointing,” Bressler continued. “And at first I found it hard to accept. But I’m not one for self-pity. Some people think I have no feelings, but, like I said, life has made me tough. And anyway, life has to go on, and within a week I had accepted the situation and it was business as usual.”
“You’re certainly right about the self-pity,” Norman said, nodding. “It solves nothing and just gets in the way.”
“Yes. Well,” said Bressler. “Talking of getting in the way, I have to make some overseas calls.”
“On a Saturday?” Norman raised an eyebrow.
“They never stop working in the Far East, so if you want to deal with them you have to be prepared to do the same.”
“Right. Yes, of course,” said Slater, catching the rather obvious hint. “Thank you very much for your time, Mr Bressler, we really appreciate it.”
“That’s okay,” said Bressler, getting to his feet. “If there’s anything else I can do, just let me know.”
“There is one thing that would help us, if you wouldn’t mind.” Slater wondered how he would take the request.
“What’s that?”
“Could we take a DNA sample?”
“Am I some sort of suspect?”
“Not at all. This would be more for elimination purposes.”
“I don’t see how it will help,” said Bressler. “I wasn’t even there at the time. But, there again, I’ve got nothing to hide. Do you want to do it now?”
“It’ll take just one minute,” said Slater, “and then we’ll get out of your way.”
As they got back into the car, Norman turned to look at Slater.
“You didn’t mention anything about asking for a DNA sample when we were talking before we got to his house,” said Norman, before putting the key in the ignition and starting the car.
“It was a spur of the moment thing,” Slater said, truthfully.
“But we don’t need it. We already know who the daughter is from the match with her mother’s DNA.”
“I know, I know. I was just taking a leaf out of your book and being proactive. As you yourself would say, ‘you never know when it might come in handy.’”
“You got me there,” said Norman with a grin. “It’s good to hear you feel you can still learn something from an old codger like me.”
“I’ll never stop learning from you, Norm,” Slater said, laughing. “Being with you is one long educational experience.”
“That’s what I’m here for.” Norman smiled, looking happy. “Anyway, what did you make of all that?”
“You mean Bressler’s story?” asked Slater. “He seems quite candid. A lot of people wouldn’t have admitted they were having an affair, would they? But I think if it had been me, I would have been a heck of a lot more suspicious about Sandra’s sudden desire to move away from her mother.”
Norman took a quick sideways glance at Slater as he drove.
“But then you, my friend, have never really loved a woman, have you?” he said.
“What does that mean?” asked a puzzled Slater.
“Take it from me. When you really, really, love a woman, you’ll do anything to try and keep her happy, especially if you’ve been going through a rough patch. When you see an opportunity to get the train back on the rails you don’t question it, you just grab it with both hands.”
“I think if I really, really, loved a woman I wouldn’t be having an affair behind her back,” Slater said, shrugging. “The two seem incompatible to me.”
“In your ‘ideal world’ view, maybe they are,” said Norman. “But in the real world, that’s how some people deal with loneliness and unhappiness. In fact, that’s how a lot of people deal with it.”
“If he was that unhappy, why not just boot the mother-in-law out and tell her to stay away?” Slater asked.
“And risk pissing off his wife? The woman he would do anything to keep happy?”
“Yeah, but-” began Slater.
“Trust me,” interrupted Norman. “You would rather allow yourself to be miserable, and find some way of making that bearable, than risk making her unhappy. That’s where the affair comes in. It’s a diversion that makes the misery bearable. It’s why the guy can tell you he loved his wife, even though he was having an affair, and mean it. The affair was the diversion that helped him cope with the misery and loneliness.”
Slater sat back in his seat and looked across at Norman, not quite sure what to think. He was surprised at the depth of Norman’s feelings, and his passion on the subject.
“Are you justifying people having affairs?” he asked.
“No, certainly not,” said Norman. “I’m not justifying anything. I’m just suggesting there’s a lot more to it than simple black and white moral standards. People and relationships are much more complex than that, and we need to be aware of it.”
Slater continued to stare at Norman’s profile.
Norman glanced back at him.
“What?” he asked Slater.
“Are you sure you don’t write an agony aunt column? Because you sure sound like one.”
“I’ve just been around longer than you, that’s all,” Norman said. “I’ve been married, and loved someone so much it hurts. I know about these things, alright?”
“Ah!” The realisation suddenly dawned on Slater. “You mean your wife-”
“Who is not relevant to this inquiry and is not up for discussion anyway,” interrupted Norman, killing that particular conversation stone dead.
“Right,” said Slater. “Point taken.”
Now he thought he understood exactly why Norman knew so much about this particular subject. He knew Norman’s wife had refused to move from London to Northumberland a few years ago, when he’d been transferred up there. Now he figured he’d just discovered why he never seemed to have anything to do with her now he was in Hampshire, just an hour or so away from her up in London.
He sat in silence for a minute or two before he changed the subject.
“So, do we think Rudy Bressler’s a suspect?” he asked.
“I think we’d be making a mistake to assume anything was done right in the first inquiry,” said Norman. “So I think we have to regard everyone as a possible suspect right now. My gut tells me he’s not our man, and his alibi will probably prove to be genuine, but my head tells me he has the money to pay
someone else to do the job for him.”
“We’ll get Steve to do the business on him when we get back.” Slater agreed with Norman’s appraisal of Rudy Bressler. “He might not be our murderer, but I get the feeling there’s something going on with him. He claims to be a part-time doctor with some investments. They must be bloody good investments to fund his lifestyle.”
“You’re telling me,” Norman said, letting out a whistle. “Some of those books are worth a fortune. I’m no expert, but I’ve been on a few forgery cases over the years and one of them was all about old books. I had to learn a bit back then and it’s stayed with me.”
“Wow!” Slater grinned at him. “Is there no end to your talents, Norm?”
Chapter Sixteen
Over at Trapworth airfield Steve Biddeford and his new pal Phil had found Captain Smithers in the control tower on the upper floor of the pavilion. Biddeford had been relieved at this – he didn’t like the look of that wreck of a barn and really didn’t fancy being under that sagging roof.
“Ah hello, old boy, do come in,” said Smithers, shaking Biddeford’s hand. Then he turned his attention to Phillipa Flight, evidently finding her much more interesting.
“Well, hello,” he purred, taking Flight’s hand and holding it for much longer than was necessary. “Well, you certainly bring some sunshine to a dull day.”
Biddeford saw Flight smile sweetly at him, but immediately caught on to the frosty atmosphere emanating from her. This time, though, he could fully understand it. Captain Smithers was behaving as if he had just escaped from some sort of time warp where they all behaved as if they were in old Carry On films.
Surely he must be aware how obnoxious his behaviour is, thought Biddeford. He had the distinct feeling that if he couldn’t keep the captain away from her, PC Flight would shortly be drawing his attention to it, probably with a swift kick in the goolies.
“Would it be alright if my colleague takes a look around while we talk?” he asked Smithers.
