A Genuine Mistake

by Ted Tayler

  Belinda stopped twisting her handkerchief. Perhaps she expected Gus to sympathise with her lot. He did, but his focus was on finding her brother’s killer.

  “I can’t recall a single occasion when Gerry got angry. It wasn’t in his make-up.”

  “What about your father?” asked Gus.

  “Dad was strict,” said Belinda. “Both of our parents were strict. They didn’t hit us if that’s what you’re driving at. We felt the lash of their tongue from time to time, usually with good reason. Gerry and I learned quickly not to step out of line.”

  “Nick Barrett told us that Gerry was anxious not to attract trouble,” said Gus. “Yes, that fits in with the harsh schooling he endured in his formative years. He didn’t want to upset his parents by getting into trouble and recognised that if he got a black mark on his character, then the successful career he planned would disappear like smoke up a chimney.”

  “Nothing was going to stop Gerry from achieving that goal,” said Belinda.

  “Were you jealous of his success?” asked Blessing.

  Belinda paused and looked directly at the young Detective Constable.

  “I was proud of Gerry. Of course, I wished I had had the opportunity of a golden future as he did. If I was jealous, then what of it?”

  “What were your first impressions of Evelyn?” asked Gus.

  “Evelyn was beautiful,” said Belinda. “I suppose you’ll ask if I was jealous of her too? Evelyn was a tall, tanned Australian woman who loved to surf. She was self-confident, ambitious, and full of drive. Her career as a wildlife photographer so far removed from anything I could ever have hoped to tackle; it was laughable. Of course, I was jealous. I wanted to hate her from the second she burst through the front door of this house with Gerry. He met her off the train just up the road from here. Evelyn had the guts to fly to England alone and take a train to the West Country to be with her man. Gerry had prayed they would meet again after he flew home in November with Nick Barrett.”

  “You said you wanted to hate her,” said Gus.

  “Evelyn sensed how I felt, totally ignored it, and wore me down. She mesmerised Gerry in Sydney, and then she did the same to our parents and me. Dad was glad for them to marry in a registry office despite them only having known one another for weeks. If you had asked me before Gerry went abroad, I would have said my father would never have reacted that way in a million years. Dad’s health had deteriorated so rapidly that he worried he wouldn’t live to see it happen if they had a church wedding.”

  “You told us what happened over the next ten years,” said Gus. “Gerry and Evelyn lived and worked in Bristol while you cared for your mother. In 1992 they moved to Trowle Common, and, sadly, you and Gerry lost your mother the following year. How did things change for you after you found yourself alone in this house?”

  “Losing a parent is devastating,” said Belinda, “but when my mother died, I lost so much more than Gerry. He had Evelyn, his job, even his lifelong shadow, Nick Barrett. I had a few close friends and nothing more.”

  “Then Evelyn gave birth to Sean,” said Gus. “A nephew.”

  “I offered to help at once,” said Belinda. “Gerry was building his business. Evelyn wanted to continue to accept work in various parts of the country. She was freelance and very successful. Giving that up to care for Sean was not an option, even if they could have survived financially without her income. I had nothing but time on my hands.”

  “You provided free childcare,” said Blessing.

  “I was happy to do it. I had a purpose in life again.”

  “Within two years, you had another baby to care for,” said Gus.

  “Little Byron,” said Belinda. “He was a treasure. They were both lovely children.”

  “Did Gerry and Evelyn spend much time with their sons?” asked Blessing.

  “Gerry was always busy during the week. If Evelyn was away working, I brought the boys here. They slept in their father’s old bedroom. Evelyn kept them with her at the Trowle house for the rest of the time. The boys rarely came here on the weekends. Gerry and Evelyn spent as much time with the boys as they could, given their busy lives.”

  “A lot of parents today struggle to pay for childcare,” said Blessing. “How did you feel about not getting paid for the many hours you must have worked? Especially as you didn’t have a job.”

  “That can be explained by the will, Blessing,” said Gus.

  “You’re right, Mr Freeman,” said Belinda. “When Dad died, everything passed to Mum. When Mum died, everything was to be split evenly between Gerry and me. In 1993, this house was worth a lot less than today, but I couldn’t afford to give Gerry half. I needed my share of the rest of her estate to provide a modest income. The will stipulated that I should live here until I died, so our hands were tied. I could have sold up in other circumstances, bought a smaller place on one of the new estates in town and given Gerry his share. But my mother amended her will to give me the security of always having a roof over my head. It was her way of thanking me for giving up my hopes and ambitions to look after her and Dad. Mum knew Gerry was a wealthy man. He could afford to wait.”

  “Did you and Evelyn meet up often?” asked Gus.

  “We didn’t have coffee mornings or do lunch, if that’s what you mean. I saw Evelyn when she dropped the boys here on her way to the airport or when I returned them to Trowle Common a day or two later. Any spare time Evelyn had, she spent with Gerry and the boys.”

  “So, she never mentioned that a charity based in New South Wales offered her a well-paid job three months before she returned to Macquarie Pass for the last time?”

  “No, she didn’t,” said Belinda. “Nor did Gerry.”

  “Evelyn turned them down,” said Gus, “but she hoped that trip was the first step in making a permanent move back to Australia.”

  “I don’t believe you. Evelyn was happy here. She loved Gerry and the boys. Gerry had given her everything she asked for with the improvements he made to the house.”

  “Sorry,” said Gus. “What I meant was that the trip was a first step in moving the whole family back to her homeland. Evelyn wanted her boys to grow up on the beach in the sun, not the grey, damp winters of the UK. She reasoned that with the internet, Gerry could run his financial business from anywhere in the world.”

  “Well, that’s the first time I’ve heard that. Did Gerry know? Was he in favour?”

  “We don’t know, Ms Hogan,” said Gus. “How would you have reacted to that news if you’d learned it in 2001?”

  “It would have been devastating,” said Belinda. “I would have hated to see my boys disappear to the other side of the world. I don’t know what I would have done.”

  “Where were you when Gerry received news of Evelyn’s death?” asked Gus.

  “Evelyn’s car crashed over the safety barrier after she’d finished work for the day,” said Belinda. “Over here, that was at seven in the morning. The boys were staying with me. I got them ready for school, and they left the house at the usual time. The police called Gerry at the office at one o’clock in the afternoon. He came straight here with the news. He was in tears. We collected the boys from school together. It was a dreadful time.”

  “I can imagine,” said Gus.

  “Gerry flew out to Sydney and met with Evelyn’s parents,” said Belinda.

  She struggled to contain her emotions.

  “Nick Barrett has told us the details, Ms Hogan,” said Blessing. “There’s no need to distress yourself. Gerry and Evelyn’s parents scattered her ashes in the park.”

  “You cared for the boys while Gerry was in Australia,” said Gus. “He didn’t return until the middle of March, I believe?”

  “That’s right,” said Belinda. “It was just the three of us for weeks. A sad yet happy time.”

  “Nick Barrett told us that when Gerry got home, he tried to be a brilliant father to Sean and Byron.”

  “I thought he would throw himself into his work to cope with
the loss of Evelyn, but he spent every spare minute with those boys. There were still times during the week that Gerry needed my help, but he devoted his weekends to Sean and Byron.”

  “He met Rachel Cummins five years after Evelyn’s death,” said Gus. “That seems a reasonable length of time to wait before moving on.”

  “That woman was almost twenty years younger than Gerry. What could they possibly have in common? Evelyn was a renowned wildlife photographer. I don’t think a fitness trainer has the same gravitas, do you? Gerry ran a successful professional firm. He deserved a better class of person by his side.”

  “You filled that role to some extent for the previous five years,” said Blessing. “You must have been annoyed.”

  “Annoyed? I was livid,” said Belinda. “After everything that I’d done for him. The first pretty girl to flash her eyes at him, and Gerry jumps into bed with her. A leopard doesn’t change its spots.”

  “Gerry certainly had a few girlfriends over the years,” said Gus.

  “Not while he and Evelyn were married, he didn’t,” said Belinda. “Why couldn’t he see that Sean and Byron were happy with having their Dad’s attention far more than they ever had, plus the love of their Auntie Belinda. They knew they could wrap me around their little finger, but I would have done anything for them.”

  “Gerry needed something that you couldn’t give him,” said Blessing.

  “I’m sure he could have found someone his own age,” said Belinda.

  “Rachel Cummins told us that there was an instant attraction between her and Gerry,” said Gus.

  “Huh! She saw a meal-ticket. Gerry was a widower who ran his own firm. She made a few phone calls, asked her clients for information, and discovered Gerry Hogan had money and property. Gerry was vulnerable. An old fool hypnotised by a young, firm body.”

  “Things must have changed for you when Rachel moved in with Gerry?” asked Gus.

  “They had changed already, Mr Freeman,” said Belinda. “Sean was thirteen and Byron eleven. They didn’t need their Auntie Belinda as much. Gerry never left them alone at weekends. They went everywhere together—Football, cricket, rugby, stately homes, country parks, and the seaside. Oh, and there was the snooker, too, even before Byron became so good. They played all the time at home and then attended matches at various venues around the country whenever they could.”

  “After Rachel moved in, Gerry extended the kitchen and added the gym,” said Gus. “Did you ever get to see those improvements?”

  “That Cummins woman would never invite me over,” said Belinda. “I didn’t go there more than a handful of times when Evelyn was alive, but I saw what Gerry had done to the place. I often dropped in after Evelyn died because the boys had so many things at the house. They didn’t like my small TV when they had satellite TV at home. I didn’t have the computer games they enjoyed either. You know what teenagers are like these days.”

  “Not in a domestic situation,” said Gus. “I meet them when they’ve broken the law.”

  “You never had cause to visit Trowle Common while Rachel lived there?” asked Blessing.

  “Why did I need a reason?” asked Belinda. “Gerry was my only brother. Sean and Byron are my nephews. No, Rachel turned Gerry against me.”

  “Let’s turn our attention to May the sixth 2012,” said Gus. “Where were you that night?”

  “I was here watching TV. Alone, as usual.”

  “When did you hear Gerry was dead?”

  “Not on Sunday evening,” said Belinda. “I didn’t hear until almost lunchtime on Monday.”

  “Rachel found Gerry’s body outside the house at a quarter to seven,” said Gus. “Her screams brought Sean and Byron to the door.”

  “Typical of the woman,” said Belinda. “They should never have been allowed to see their father like that. They had already had to suffer the trauma of losing their mother.”

  “Rachel told Sean to call the emergency services,” said Gus. “Nobody called you, Gerry’s only blood relative?”

  “The police stood by until the paramedics had left and then got the body moved to the morgue. It was too late to do much more that night. A DS Bennison phoned on Monday to arrange to speak with me. She told me the terrible news and took my statement.”

  “That’s still a long time, Ms Hogan,” said Gus. “I wonder why Sean or Byron didn’t call?”

  “No doubt Rachel Cummins put a stop to it. The poor things must have been traumatised. They needed their Auntie Belinda, just like they did after their mother died.”

  “When did you meet with DI Kirkpatrick?” asked Gus.

  “The female detective who first phoned me was more sensible. She understood what I was going through. Her boss, however, didn’t listen to a thing I said. I told him on Tuesday evening to look more closely at Rachel Cummins. She must have paid someone to shoot Gerry. Now you’re looking into the murder again and making the same mistakes. I suppose she has you wrapped around her little finger, too, just like she had Gerry. Who benefitted from his death? As soon as that woman had persuaded Gerry to alter his will, that sealed his fate. It stands to reason.”

  “Let’s consider those points one at a time, Ms Hogan,” said Gus. “John Kirkpatrick checked into Rachel Cummins and everyone else that had links to Gerry. I’ve not met a hired killer yet who does a job without payment. They checked Ms Cummins’s bank account, looking for evidence of bank transfers or cash withdrawals of large amounts. They found nothing. We’re taking a fresh look at Gerry’s death, but we’re not religiously following the same lines of enquiry that Kirkpatrick and Bennison followed six years ago. Rachel Cummins gets treated in the same way as any witness. We don’t have favourites, nor do we give anyone a free pass.”

  “That’s as maybe, but there’s no getting around the will,” said Belinda.

  “You asked who benefitted,” said Gus. “Well, you did, Ms Hogan. You received the sum of two hundred thousand pounds, I believe? Gerry recognised the love you had lavished on his boys whenever the need arose. That bequest allowed you to improve your annual income. The monies held in trust for Sean and Byron are due on their twenty-fifth birthday. No doubt that will be welcome news for Sean if he’s thinking of getting married to Clare. What a great start to their married life. Byron is attempting to hit the heights in a profession where he can travel thousands of miles to play in a tournament, only to lose in the first round and earn nothing. Both boys will need a place of their own one day. Gerry set them up to receive a tidy sum when they were old enough to use it wisely.”

  “Gerry left her the house,” said Belinda. “That’s an awful lot of money for just five years keeping a middle-aged man happy.”

  “You haven’t stepped inside that home for years, Ms Hogan,” said Gus. “Gerry kept Evelyn’s studio locked. Nothing was ever to be touched. He added the sunroom and games room at the rear for all the family, but two rooms on the ground floor were Evelyn’s domain. Rachel never goes there. Every time she steps outside the front door, the nightmare returns. I doubt that Sean and Byron will ever erase the memory of their father sprawled on the gravel that night. When the boys get settled, Rachel will sell up and move somewhere smaller. Gerry left her that option. No matter what you think of her, Ms Hogan, she’s considered the feelings of those boys every step of the way.”

  “So, she’ll get away with murder. I might have known. Another man blinded by her good looks.”

  “We follow the evidence, Ms Hogan,” said Blessing. “No matter how much you want it to be the case, there’s nothing to suggest that Rachel Cummins had anything to do with your brother’s death.”

  “DC Umeh is correct,” said Gus. “We keep probing for the truth in this case. Everyone we’ve spoken to paints the same picture of Gerry Hogan. Either they’re all lying, or he really was a saint. I’ve been at this game for a long time, Ms Hogan. It’s rare for me to fail to spot a crack in the different accounts that people provide. Why would Nick Barrett lie about a man who was his only real fr
iend? Why would Rachel Cummins lie about the man she loved? Now you, Ms Hogan. You don’t have a high opinion of Gerry’s best friend, Nick. You think even less of Rachel. However, your account of everything that Gerry did from his schooldays to the day he died matches what we’ve heard from the others. Ever since I started looking into this case, I’ve been searching for a person, an event, an argument, something that might have lit the fuse that led to Gerry getting shot. Where else is there is his life left to look?”

  “You’ll never shake my belief that that woman was behind it, Mr Freeman,” said Belinda Hogan.

  She stood and waited. Gus realised Belinda believed this meeting would serve no useful purpose. He decided there was little point in asking her further questions. They needed to meet with Sean Hogan and then get back to the office to check on the Hub's progress. The truths he sought had to lie somewhere.

  Gus and Blessing walked into the hallway in silence. Belinda Hogan opened the front door and watched them set off towards the river bridge. After they disappeared around the corner, she entered her lounge and picked up her mobile phone.

  “Sean? It’s Auntie Belinda. Hello, darling, how are you? Watch yourself this afternoon. The police are intent on a cover-up again. They’ll write off your father’s murder as a mystery they couldn’t unravel, and we’ll never know the truth.”

  CHAPTER 10

  “I can see why you walked out on her, guv,” said Blessing.

  “We had little choice, Blessing,” said Gus. “I thought it best to avoid antagonising her further by saying we might be back with more questions.”

  “Is it possible that everyone is lying, guv?”

  “I don’t think so,” said Gus. “You get a feeling for a witness in the first few minutes of meeting them. Nobody I’ve spoken to this week struck me as trying to hide something. I accepted Nick Barrett’s words as gospel. Rachel Cummins also seemed an honest person to Luke and me. As for Belinda Hogan, well, she’s evenly balanced with a chip on both shoulders. Her parents started the descent into the bitter woman she is today. I wonder what the customers at that bank where she worked thought of the eighteen-year-old cashier that greeted them with a smile every morning? A decade later, she was housebound with an ailing mother. Then a light shone in her life. Sean and Byron needed a nanny so that Evelyn could continue to pursue her career. After Evelyn’s death, Belinda expected Gerry to rely on her even more; instead, he did his utmost to be father and mother to the boys. Belinda’s hopes got crushed after Rachel and Gerry met. Losing Gerry was the final straw.”