Friday
Thursday was spent enjoyably touring Dijon with Pierre after
Gary had left his colleagues at the Gendarmerie with a good feeling of them all
having found Mortimer’s corpse together.
***
So Gary was not yet sure how a safe identification could be
attained. He had to ask himself if the two Mortimer brothers shared Mme Rocher.
If she was too modest to leave the light on, and too naïve to notice which guy
was making love to her, it might have been the case. Or did Mme Rocher profit
from the arrangement?
If it could be proved that one brother had killed the other,
who was who was less important. The surviving brother would be held responsible
and there was a sporting chance that he would confess to murdering those three
other victims in Upper Grumpsfield.
***
Friday saw Gary speeding to Lyon to catch his plane. He need
not have bothered hurrying. His connection was delayed for two hours because very
stormy weather over the whole of France and moving east was causing flight
delays. Gary was two hours late getting back into his car and driving home,
which now meant queuing on the London Orbital because everyone else seemed to
want to get somewhere for supper.
Gary had phoned Roger on Thursday morning, but was planning
to tell the family about his adventure on Friday evening, and now he was
sitting in his car in the middle of nowhere and telling the family that he
would probably be late for dinner.
***
After a quiet few days recovering from the birth of her
twins, Cleo was ready for some shop-talk. The dinner guests arrived before Gary
and voted to wait with dinner until he arrived. They were all looking forward to
a full report on the Dijon trip. Roger was intrigued about the identity of the
Mortimer they had in custody and ready to join Gary for the questioning about
the four murders one of the Mortimers had probably committed. He was also
interested to hear more about Pierre, and would offer him a job, but it would
have to be patrol cars for the time being. There happened to be a vacancy. Greg
and Mia could not go on filling in for missing patrol officers and Nigel had
been officially retired from having to jump in. He was rotating evenings with
Brass at the sub-police station in Upper Grumpsfield and, according to Brass,
making himself indispensable since he straightened out all the left-over
documentation, managed the databases and kept house there.
***
The dramatic news was received with a few chuckles when Mme
Rocher’s love-life was mentioned. There were no chuckles at all when Gary told them that his mission to Dijon
would have been unnecessary if the Dijon murder squad had done their job
thoroughly.
Cleo was ready to defend them.
“Did you tell them they had to find two Mortimer guys?” she
said.
“No Cleo, it’s my fault,” said Roger. ”I just said we were
looking for a man named Mortimer.”
“But surely they should have searched all the buildings,”
said Dorothy.
“Not if they had already found a Mortimer and considered their
job done,” said Gary. “And that’s how it was.”
“Where was the living Mortimer located?” Roger asked.
“Which ever Mortimer it was, at James Mortimer’s house which
makes a case for it being John. He must have gone there after disposing of his
brother. John Mortimer, who was the owner of the house here, was having an affair
with his brother’s secretary and had spent the weekend with her as he
apparently did once or twice a month. He had told her he was getting a divorce
and wanted to marry her. She had offered him her flat for the time she was
going to be away- James was still alive then because he was planning a golf
holiday and she knew about it. I’m inclined to think that John went to James’s
house and they went to the old factory building together, where one of them was
killed by the other. The one left over returned to James’s house. That might
make one think that it was John who was killed, but I suspect a double bluff.”
“Wow,” said Cleo.
“When the rep John visited Mme Rocher at her house it was
two days after killing his family and a day earlier than she had been expecting
him. After he had spent the weekend with her, she left him in her house
thinking he would sleep there until she got back.”
“But surely he would be heading back to Upper Grumpsfield
after the weekend,” said Dorothy.
“Not if he knew his family was dead, Dorothy” Gary said. “And
that is one of the reason he could be the killer.”
“Did she say anything else about him, Gary?” said Cleo. “And
we are talking about John, aren’t we?”
“Yes. She said he was nervous when he arrived.”
“And she would know in broad daylight who was who, wouldn’t
she?” said Dorothy.
“We’re assuming that Mms Roche was telling the truth,
Dorothy, but that may not bee the case.”
“Whoever it was, sounds like a cold fish!” said Cleo. “And the
account so far points to John Mortimer, but which guy is locked up at HQ, Gary?”
“I don’t know for sure,” said Gary. “And what about Suzanne
Rocher? She identified the corpse as
James’s, but only by saying that it couldn’t be John’s. So how well should a
secretary know her boss”
“Pretty well if she was having an affair with him,” said
Cleo.
“If she could not tell the brothers apart in the dark, they
might have been playing a game with her.,” said Gary. “She definitely
entertained John Mortimer over that final weekend.”
“I think there’s scandal in the offing,” said Dorothy. “It’s
a totally weird story and I think the dead guy is James Mortimer. John had
disposed of his family and could dispose of his brother and inherit the toy factory.”
“That’s probably too simplistic an explanation,” said Cleo.
“Of course, the affair with Mms Rocher as presumably
something John lived for,” said Cleo. “ One reason for his trips to Dijon was
to spend time with her. It’s unlikely that she would not know which Mortimer
was her lover, even if she liked it dark, so she should be able to corroborate
his identity.”
“Or we have them confront one another and watch the
reaction,” said Dorothy. If John and she were emotionally involved, it would
show.”
***
“You achieved a lot in two days, Gary,” said Roger.
“In one day, to be exact. Mme Rocher was fairly brazen about
her affair, believed that he was getting a divorce and was sure John Mortimer would
marry her. We could get him on that. He probably would not expect her to talk
about it. I told her that her lover had probably killed his family. I don’t
think she believed me and there was already no way she could confer with him.”
“Of course, being French she probably does not mind others
knowing about her affair,” said Dorothy. “Some Europeans are like that.”
“Not just Europeans, Dorothy,” said Cleo, disapproving of
her friend’s xenophobic comment..
“Don’t generalize, Dorothy,” said Gary. “She believed he was
getting a divorce and would marry her. That has nothing to do with her
nationality.”
“So Mortimer’s family was in the way of his bright future
with the French woman,” said Cleo. That sure is a motive, folks!”
“But he left her flat, and went to live in his brother’s
house, or was killed. One of the two,” said Dorothy.
“We don’t know the order of events, Dorothy. “We need to
work that out. To sum up, John Mortimer arrived in Dijon on Thursday March 27
and went straight to Mme Rocher. He was still there when Mme Rocher left for
Marseille on the following Tuesday I questioned Mme Rocher in such a way that
she would have told me if she had had any doubt about it being John.”
“Wow!” said Cleo. “I wish I’d been there.”
“I tried to imagine you were,” said Gary. “I’ve learnt a lot
from your interviews, my love.”
***
“To continue: Let’s presume that both Mortimers were still alive
then. We don’t know exactly what the surviving Mortimer did between Tuesday and
when he was picked up at James Mortimer’s house by the Dijon police a week ago,
but we can fill in some of the gaps because during that time the other Mortimer
must have been killed.”
“So the surviving Mortimer made his way to the factory or
was already there. The story put around that he was on a golfing holiday in the
UK came from Mms Rocher’s lips.”
“What if he visited Mrs Mortimer?” said Dorothy. “Neighbours
could not tell the brothers apart.”
“Awesome, Dorothy!”
“John went to the old factory with or to meet his brother,
tried to get support, was turned down and killed him,” said Dorothy. “I wonder
why? Was it a confession? Drugs? Did he want a bigger share of the profits? ”
“Confession to what, Dorothy,” Cleo asked.
“Supposing the brother was really the father of those boys,
Cleo? Mrs Mortimer had had an affair with James. John discovered that when they
married, and went to his brother to confess to what he had done to his
brother’s children.”
“That is very convoluted and there is not even a hint of
that, Dorothy,” said Gary. “You’ll have to start writing crime fiction.”
“But DNA tests would tell us who could not be the father,”
argued Dorothy. “We know it was not John because the boys were not adopted and
went by the name of Scott, which was Mrs Mortimer’s maiden name.”
“You’ll have to put that detail in your first novel,
Dorothy,” said Cleo. “It’s too far-fetched for the Mortimer case and I’m not
sure if DNA from identical twins can be separated.”
“What if it isn’t?” said Dorothy. ”I read that monozygotic
twins do have slightly different genes. They can even stop looking identical.
Will you follow that up? I’ll find the reference when I get home.”
“We are definitely going down that trail, Dorothy,” said
Roger. “We have nothing to lose and I’m deeply impressed with your research.”
***
“Next question” said Dorothy, who seemed to have taken
control of the discussion. “How did the corpse get into that old building, Gary?”
“Maybe it had something to do with drugs rather than a
murder plan,” said Cleo. “And maybe the brothers met there.”
“I think that John Mortimer lured him there,” said Dorothy.
“Wow, Dorothy,” said Cleo. “Your imagination is working
overtime!”
“You both may be on the right track,” said Roger. “Have they
looked for drugs in that building?”
“I doubt it. I’ll have to ask Pierre. We decided that a
drug-tracker dog should be given the run of the place. I dare say that has not been
done yet. The wheels grind slowly in Dijon.”
“What is the next step here in the UK?” Cleo asked.
“I don’t think we can wait for a forensic report from Dijon
before we talk to John Mortimer. We could do that tomorrow morning if you have
time, Roger,” said Gary.
“I’ll make time!”
***
Cleo’s mobile rang. It was Frank Wetherby with news on the
Palmer case. Cleo handed the phone to Gary, who arranged for Frank to go to
Headquarters for about midday next day. They would discuss the status quo and
decide on the next step. Frank said it would be a police matter. Gary was curious
but did not ask questions. Private eyes had only limited powers and resources.
If he had reached the end of his, he would need to hand over the case without
delay.
***
The rest of the evening was given over to more discussion of
various past cases and current ones. Roger was impressed with the speed at
which the Hartley Agency had worked despite the impending wedding. Cleo
announced that the twins would be hungry, so she would tend to them. The guests
left and Gary could at last devote himself to his family.
***
Grit had listened in to the crime talk, but sat in front of
a blazing log fire to do so.
“Roger is very pleasant,” she said.
“You should get to know him better, Mother,” said Gary. “He
needs someone to be with so that he stops brooding about his nasty ex-wife.”
“I’m intrigued,” said Grit.
“She got a life sentence for murder, Grit. Roger was totally
blind to his wife’s behaviour. He was under suspicion because he had turned to
his assistant for friendship. An affair had ensued and Roger’s wife shot the
woman with Roger’s police weapon. I’ll give you the case report to read,” said
Cleo.
“Thanks,” said Grit. “I’d like to talk to him. Should I
phone him?”
Grit did not need to. Roger phoned and made a date to have
coffee with her the following afternoon.
“That’s a turn-up for the books, Mother,” said Gary. “You
have obviously made a deep impression on him.”
“And he on me,” said Grit.
“That’s fabulous!” said Cleo.
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