Ghost Detectives Bk. 01: Discovery

He knew what John and Carolyn would do. Without hesitation, she would have been dead the minute her seat belt was fastened and her body disposed of without trace; despite his earlier accords about killing her, in the last analysis, they were just remonstrations against her person and actions, for his conscience couldn't go there and thereafter live a contented existence knowing he committed a premeditated murder.

They looked in on her and she was stirring. Asking the women to stay in the other room, he entered the bedroom carrying a cup of water and removed her blindfold. She looked at him with terror in her eyes and turned her head away from the water. "Drink, it's only water you must be thirsty."

"No," she spluttered, letting the water spill over her face. "What do you want with me, money, ransom, sex, what is your end game? My friends will find me and you will pay for this with your life." She gasped contemptuously.

"You are the one tied up so I'm not putting too much brain worry into that last sentence."

"How much money do you want, I have lots of it but you need to let me up first?"

"I have a few questions about Frank Ellis and answers would go down nicely."

She laughed derisively. "I'll tell you nothing," the angry contempt in her eyes blindingly raw and arrogant. "You don't know who you're dealing with, better for you to let me go before it's too late and I'll say nothing. He has enough money and contacts to track you and every member of your family no matter where you hide and you won't like the outcome. State you price?"

"I'll leave you for a few moments; if you make a noise you'll be gagged, so best for you to be quiet." He left the room and went into the kitchen and sat at the table across from the women.

"She's fully awake now and spitting bile by the bucketful."

"We've discussed this at length and we need answers."

James could say no more. "Make sure you blast out the sense from her mind or this will come back and smack you in the face, but don't let on what we have planned. Let me introduce you, so stay behind the door until I call you."

James went back into the bedroom, "I have a surprise, two of your friends are outside waiting to say hello. Ladies!"

They walked into the room and Sandra's face turned pallid and dropped. Her lips moved but not a sound came out.

"Nice to see Sandra, you must be divine coming back from the grave even after your body had been cremated," hissed Jennie, her body shaking with nervous energy.

"I can explain," she said in a whisper, "it's not what you think."

"Clairvoyant as well as divine. Tell us what we are thinking?"

"The blackmailers they threatened to kill me, us, that is why..." she was thinking as she spoke.

James stared her down. "Give it up Sandra, you and Frank Ellis were the blackmailers."

"He made me do it, he said if I didn't go along with him he'd kill me."

Jennie had heard enough of her lies. "You and Frank Ellis are partners, have been since the beginning, murdered your substitute, framed your husband, I can go on and on, you evil bastard from hell."

"Why Sandra? Why? We shared so much for years. We were closer to each other than we ever were to our husbands. After the murder, the three of us were in shock for days and it was all a sham, one big fucking con. You must be some kind of devil to behave that way. Even looking at you now, I still have difficulty in accepting what you have done."

They both stared at her waiting for her to say something. "I fooled you from the start," she mocked knowing the game was up. "Three intelligent wealthy people and I played you like a little girl plays with her dolls."

"How could you do what you did to your husband? You set him up as a murderer and he was innocent. You destroyed him and that poor woman you killed. I'm afraid to even touch you in case your evil rubs off on me," spat Jennie. "You'll rot in hell for your sins."

"You're a sanctimonious cow. You cheat and lie on your husbands, shag each other, and you call me evil."

"I don't murder or blackmail, and I surely don't traffic women into prostitution or deal in drugs; you are an arrogant evil bitch. You little game is finished."

"You seem to know it all, and who's this guy? Someone you've paid to track me down? If I go down I'm taking you with me, the whole fucking lot of you wealthy hypocrites. Your only option to save you and your wealthy private educated friends is to let me go and forget you ever saw me, or you, with the rest of your clan, will be in the cell next to me. The establishment will rock and roll with what I've got hidden away," she lied, giving them a supercilious smirk as if she had won game set and match.

"Information to blackmail with you mean. You're nothing but a cheap whore."

She smiled malignantly. "A whore that fooled you and the establishment for years. What are you going to do kill me? Let me answer, of course you won't, your moral sense of duty won't allow it. The only thing left is to expose me and that means exposing yourselves, your families and friends, bringing the establishment into disrepute, so they'll see what you are really like, and for what, to end up in the exact same place as me? Not a good prospect I'd say. The lot of you have never known what it is like to want for anything and I come along and blow a hole right through the lot of you because you are too trusting - pathetic."

"There is so much hatred in you. I pity and feel sorry for you. In time, I could even grant you forgiveness," knowing her words would boil her to white anger. She had no intention of ever forgiving the murderous witch.

"Fuck you, Jennie, I don't need or want your condescending pity. Let me go back into obscurity and you'll never hear from me again. You have something on me and I have something on you, a double check mate, so we both win, no more blackmailing and you keep your all important status in society," she twittered conceitedly her sickly words like a bitter black crow.

"They might not have the moral fibre to kill you, but have you thought about how I feel."

She was gambling, but she had done that all her life. "You will not allow that, if you kill me the information we hold will be outed, Frank and the others will see to that; your only safe option is to let me go," she spat with renewed confidence, "after I give you some form of written guarantee as your protection, you say nothing, no more blackmail, and you'll never hear from or see me ever again."

"You seem to have covered all the angles, congratulations," James teased, letting her think she had won.

"Untie me and I'll be on my way."

"What makes you think you're going anywhere?"

"You can't keep me here indefinitely. If I'm not back in a few days, I've already spelt the consequences."

He looked reflectively at her. "True, but we can keep you for a few days and then let you go. I think your ex-friends will have a little conference and get back to you a little later after a cup of tea."

"I can wait awhile, as you can see, I'm not going anywhere, but it's your only safe option."

They left the room and sat in the kitchen discussing the risks. After a while James returned to the bedroom. He wanted information, and to get what he needed he had to let her believe he intended to release her and they'd all go their separate ways. "They have discussed it but want proof if they let you go the blackmail will stop and it will be over."

Her confidence was building. "I knew they'd protect themselves, they are pathetic."

"I'm not interested in what you think, answer me. Proof the blackmail will stop. What can you give me to reassure them? Both are in a bad state of emotional turmoil and are finding it difficult to accept the depth of your depravity."

Her lips curled in contempt. "What do you want from me?"

"Your word is pretty much useless, you've lived your life on lies."

"I'll take no moral lesson from you or from the silver spoon brigade next door."

"They know they're beaten and their priority is to protect their backs at any cost, still, I'm intrigued. Your husband and Simon's suicide, it wasn't really that way, was it?"

Suspicion crept into her eyes. "Why do you care?"

A question with another question, subterfuge is her second skin to shed at will to suit the circumstance. He needed to carry on stroking her arrogance. "I was wondering, your lookalike murdered substitute, either Frank, you or both, but probably someone else committed the murder and planted the evidence on your husband but the responsibility rests at your door, but that's by and by now. Just amuse me, it won't go any further, you hold all the cards, but I am intrigued at your and Frank's genius. I take my hat off to you both, brilliant play, I applaud you," he clapped his hands. Why did you have your husband and Simon killed and if it wasn't for luck Courtney would also have been on the slab?"

Her face contorted with self arrogance. "I don't need to say anything."

"True, but the two in the other room just want to forget all about you and move on but they need my assurance that if they let you go you won't send someone to kill them and they are frightened. As a precaution, a sealed letter will be lodged with three firms of solicitors and should I suddenly be murdered or mysteriously go missing for a length of time they'll eventually find their way to the appropriate authorities with pictures of you. Tell me, your husband's demise I understand, you wished to close the book, good move, but the other two, why?"

"Read the papers, they were suicides. Where's the recorder hidden?"

"No recording," showing her his clothes. "See! Simon was laundering money for Frank, isn't that it?"

She crowed. "Maybe."

"Why Courtney?"

"A disgruntled criminal decided he didn't like her," winding him up.

"Let me wipe that smile off your face. I have a distinct lack of conscience, so unless we can close this down and I feel safe, forget what your old friends decide or don't decide. I need to be sure I'm protected and until we reach that point, the only way you'll be leaving is in a body bag heading for a hole in the ground. They are paying me to investigate Simon's suicide, thinking they are helping Courtney, and had no idea about you or Frank. I exposed the two of you and you know who I am but Frank doesn't, so you see the problem. I could kill you and those two out there and safely walk away, but I haven't been paid all that's owning so that option carries little attraction."

Her mind spun, sensing an opportunity. "I will pay you double what they paid you and we both walk away."

He went to the door, opened it a little, listened for a few seconds and closed it again. "How do I know you will pay me?"

"A hundred thousand pounds, how does that sound?"

"Music to my ears, double it and we may have a deal?"

"Hundred and forty, cash. It'll take a few days to sort."

"Add another ten and we can move a step up."

"You've got it, in fifty and twenty pound notes."

"I can close on that, but now we have a trust and delivery problem. Quite frankly my dear, I don't trust you."

"James, if that's your name," she said sweetly, "I will make a few phone calls and we can collect the money together. I walk one way and you the other."

"Getting a bullet in the back of my head as we wave goodbye. I want a better guarantee than that. Debra and Jennie are talking about turning themselves in and telling all. The longer this goes on the greater the danger of them exposing me. One phone call is all it'll take for the cards to tumble. Before that happens, I'll kill the three of you. I've spent most of my time out there talking them out of it. At this stage in the game they are a greater danger to me than you."

"Give me some concrete guarantee I'll go free, but be quick in case they come into the room."

He walked to the door opened it a little to listen and returned. "Can't be too careful. I'll place a camera in here, give you a gun and you kill them and when I receive my money, I'll give the recording to you."

"You could make another copy."

"I'll be in it, so if it gets seen, I'm outed as well and after I'm paid, you destroy the video."

"The letters?"

"They stay as my guarantee."

"Set it up."

"It'll take a little time, but you need to play along until tomorrow afternoon so I have time to get everything into place." He was talking the same language letting her believe she had found a kindred spirit. Now he intended to go after the information he needed but would leave it a little while. To jump straight in for incriminating information against her would give off the wrong impression and engender suspicion. He would build her confidence and trust that little bit more not for her to suspect his real motive and to divorce the one conversation from the other by delay. He left the room and told the other two about the conversation and they blanched at what he told them. The treatment would start the following afternoon, by then he should have the information needed.

He returned to the bedroom later that evening with a drink and some food and helped her to eat and went over the plan for the following day, what he needed to prepare in setting up the video and how and where to dump the two bodies. The other women were in and out of the room and took her to the toilet but said very little to her leaving James and her together for most of the time.

"We stay together until I have my money."

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

"You did start to tell me about you husband, let me take a stab at how I think you did it."

She had that smug confident look on her face. "Tell me."

"Not a lot to tell, you paid one of his handlers to poison him."

"And?"

He pretended to think for a moment. "You made it seem instead of him taking his daily medication he hid them and when he had sufficient, overdosed on the tablets. That's my best assumption, am I near?

She gave him a half smile and nodded her head. "If I were to do something like that, your hypotheses would be an almost straight line."

"Simon?"

"I believe he hung himself. No proof it was any different." Raising her eyebrows in challenge.

"Let me have a go at it. He caught on about your money laundering and instead of reporting it to the authorities asked Frank for an explanation which was his death warrant. Frank somehow accessed his client account and made it look as if he siphoned the money offshore for himself. From what I gather just enough of the money had been recovered to secure his criminality; handy, don't you think?"

"If you say so, I'm waiting. Is there more?"

"He disappears, his criminal activity is reported to the authorities, an investigation is started and a few days later he is found hanged at that warehouse, an empty bottle of whiskey with a suicide note explaining his guilt and how he couldn't live with it."

"I'm impressed. It's done, do you care?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Not really, the others are right to be afraid of you."

"I take that as a compliment, thank you," she smirked. "I try for perfection."

"You have it, three murders and nothing pointing at you or Frank other than he was in the frame for money laundering and under investigation for a while but that was quickly closed down and they are still trying to trace most of the missing money; absolutely brilliant! At your house, a man was seen placing a large parcel in the boot of your husband's car and driving away. It was Frank, and you had your friends there so they could confirm your husband was there and his condition in case they were needed, but as it turned out that information never surfaced and of course, your three friends were not going to say anything."

Cackling like a hen that's just laid a golden egg, she said. "Your fairy tale could well be true. What's that saying by Malvolio, in my stars I am above thee, but be not afraid of greatness, some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. We are survivors, you and I."

The blind braggadocio of this woman knew not an atom of morality. He had to count to ten in his mind to calm himself before speaking. "Courtney didn't believe the suicide and started digging and needed to be silenced, am I on the mark?"

"Call it unfinished business, a little tying up of a few loose ends."

"Two attempts, recovering and now alerted something is afoot. Not even you can get to her now, and that could well be your undoing."

"Are you sure of that? Catering staff are paid so little and she needs to eat," she hissed, contemptuously. "That little anomaly will soon be ironed out in the next few days."

"The more I speak with you, the more incredible the conversation becomes, you are like a black hole sucking everything that comes near down into oblivion."

"So many compliments in such a short time. There's a lot we could do together after this is over."

"I think I'll pass on that one, that black hole looks awfully dangerous.

"Not if you circulate around it with myself next to you and not fall into the centre. The offer is there for you, at least think about it. With your talent for profit there's millions of pounds out there waiting for you to claim."

"Let's finish what we have here first and I'll revisit it perhaps over a dinner together." He was getting so good at the lying game.

He explained to the others what he'd discussed with Sandra and they looked at him horrified, advising them they need to let Courtney know and to have a permanent guard assigned to her and have her food checked. Jennie phoned a private security firm she knew and immediately set the protection in motion in addition to the police presence already assigned.

He had the information he needed and the injection was administered into a struggling Sandra and every few hours after that for three days. At the end of it she was little more than a babbling moron. Debra administered a barrage of tests and was convinced the strategy had worked. Suitably disguised, they returned her to her flat in the middle of the night and administered a sleeping draught, undressed her and placed her on the bed careful to leave no fingerprints and journeyed back to James' flat. He had been away from his dimension for several days and needed to get back. He told the two women he needed to go away for a day or so and for them to stay at his flat until he returned.

Chapter Twenty-six

Carolyn stayed with Frank until the following afternoon and left saying she had work to complete and would meet him in a few days. She and John hadn't heard from James and had no way of contacting him. Frank phoned her that evening and ask her out to dinner the following night as he would like to introduce her to Chantelle a business colleague. She declined, making the excuse that she'd be busy and would phone him the following day when she had a better handle on her diary.

Another day passed with still no word; serious concern had set in and when another day went by it intensified. Later that evening James walked into the room. Carolyn was quickly on her feet holding and hugging him and chastised him for staying away for so long. John remained seated and toasted him with his glass of whiskey and they filled him in on their developments and he reciprocated his adventures.

"We have a matter of days to take both out," said John.

"I can take Frank out with little trouble," grinned Carolyn.

"What is the situation with her Courtney, John?"

"She is causing a stir over her brother, saying it was murder not suicide and people are taking notice and digging deeper. She has employed her own investigative team to delve into Simon and his law firm and is making enemies all over the place. There are a growing body of people who are taking her seriously especially in the House of Lords and the opposition party in the Commons are increasing their questions."