Hot Chocolate, Drinking Chocolate

"I've been working on Julie, taking her out for lunches and having afternoon sex sessions in my suite of offices, and what I'm going to do is to get them to my house and I'll get Julie to give her husband a doctored drinking chocolate. I'll tell her there's only a couple of sleeping capsules in it, but I'll really tip the whole fucking bottle in!

"Of course, he'll die whilst I am fucking his wife all night, but I'll send her in to wake him up with a coffee in the morning and she'll find him dead. Now, this is the genius part of the plan. Because she gave him the drink, that means she daren't say anything, so I will be in the clear. I'm sure I can buy her silence as she really is a bit dim. I might even get her take the rap for him being dead."

DCI Probert put the pages down, shaking his head. "What an arrogant and stupid little fucker he is."

"I agree, Sir," replied Donna. "That's the thing about criminals, even so-called white collar criminals like Habred. They are all either arrogant or stupid or, like Habred, a combination of both!"

"Bloody Hell!" he exclaimed. "The only interesting case we have had in yonks and poor old Steve Collins is on holiday! Bloody typical!"

He stretched and said: "I'd better go and recommence the interview with Julie Claydon. Poor cow."

They were back in the interview room and DCI Probert started asking her questions, again. "Mrs. Claydon, we know that you gave your husband the drink of hot chocolate, but who mixed it? You or Habred?"

"Mallory, Mr. Habred. I was waiting for him, drinking a glass of wine in the drawing room, then he came back to me with the drink of hot chocolate which I took from him and gave to Mike."

"Mrs. Claydon, to your knowledge, how many capsules of sleeping medicine were in it?"

"Two. But I only found out about how any there were later, when I checked with Mr. Habred to make sure they were safe for Mike. Because despite what it looks like, I do love my husband very much. And I hope we can get over this, get through it as a couple. We're planning to have a baby, you know. I mean, I have feelings for Mallory, too, but I'm sure we can work something out."

At this point Sergeant Maltravers gave a distinct snort of derision.

"Mrs. Claydon," continued DCI Probert, "I have to tell you something that will obviously be very upsetting for you to hear. Upon analysing the drinking chocolate that was given to your husband, a sleeping drug called Galanferox, manufactured by Habred Pharmaceuticals, was discovered in it. Unfortunately the amount of Galanferonx in the drink was not two capsules worth, but 1,000mg. About 30 capsules.

"If he had drunk even half the drinking chocolate in that mug he would have gone into severe respiratory failure and by the time you went to wake him up with a cup of coffee, he would have been dead for many hours."

Julie's response was to begin screaming, loudly and repeatedly.

Sat in his holding cell, Mallory Habred heard her screams and instantly knew what they presaged. His ruination. Disgrace, jail time, loss of everything he had built up over the years.

Mallory Habred was, at heart, a coward. Rather than facing the music, he decided to end his life by fashioning an impromptu noose out of his own trousers. However, as he lay, dying, or so he thought, the Custody Sergeant entered the cell and saved his life.

Habred couldn't even get that right.

Sat in his office, at nearly 9PM that evening, DCI Probert sighed. It had been a really strange day, he thought to himself. If Steve hadn't been on holiday, he'd have taken this case!

He stretched, cracked a few of his vertebrae and decided that he needed to debrief Mike Claydon.

The police had an arrangement with a quiet hotel next door to the police station for discounted rooms for VIP guests and visiting police officers, and he had placed Mike in one of those rooms. It seemed the least he could do for him under the circumstances.

They met in the private lounge bar of the hotel and as he told Mike about all that had happened, he saw the dazed look on Mike's face.

"But what a fucking silly idea! Coercing my wife to be his moll, murdering me and allowing the blame to be put on her. He must have been reading too much crappy fiction!"

"Oh, I agree," said DCI Probert. "And to cap it all, it look as if the idiot he was opening his heart to is none other than Roger Smith, his Solicitor! Smith seems to have gone to ground, so I've put out an All Forces Alert notice. He'll not get very far.

"As for Habred, we have had him committed to HMP Bridgeacre where they'll put him in the hospital wing under a suicide watch."

He paused before continuing, somewhat cautiously. "What about your wife? Could you two reconcile, do you think?"

Mike shuddered, involuntarily. "No. Not a chance in hell of that happening. Not only was she screwing my boss, she almost killed me by giving me a poisoned drink. And she only asked him if it was safe after she had given it me! I can't believe she cared if I lived or died, so long as she got her lover to screw her whilst I lay there, helpless or fucking dead!"

DCI Probert nodded before replying. "It's not really possible to get over something like that. And I speak from bitter personal experience. Oh, don't get me wrong, there was no poisoned drinks, but my wife was a head of a department at a local school and I caught her and her headmaster at it like a pair of ferrets. And on school premises, no less! I'd only gone there to drop off her packed lunch that she'd forgotten!

"The divorce was messy and because they were having sex on school premises when the school term was on they were both fired for gross misconduct. The Teaching Regulation Agency barred them from the profession. I'm not equating what my wife did to what your wife did, but if I could not forgive my wife for cheating on me, I can perfectly understand why you'd not be able to forgive your wife. Only natural really."

"Yeah" said Mike, thoughtfully. "I'd never be able to trust her with any meal she cooked or drink she prepared. I'd be living in fear for my life, and I'll not do that. Not live like that.

"Anyway, what do you think she'll get?"

"God alone knows." Said DCI Probert. "It'll be in the hands of the Clown Prosecution Service as we cynical coppers call them. Conspiracy to administer a noxious substance, plus the administration of it.

"And as for Habred, with the idiot's emails there's almost certainly going to be a charge of attempted murder plus various conspiracy charges and our Economic Crimes Unit will have a field day going through his financial records."

"I'll be only too pleased to help" said Mike. "I think he must have been messing around with various elements of the company that were outside my brief. It was only because I needed the signature of a company owner on an urgent document and he was on holiday and couldn't be contacted that I had to get in touch with his father. If that hadn't happened, none of this would have come out."

DCI Probert finished his drink. "The one thing you'll have to watch out for is the reporters. They'll be all over this case like a rash. Unfortunately, the case has got everything they want, attempted murder, sex, even a bit of fraud thrown in. Our press office can help you field the questions, if you'd like."

DCI Probert's prediction proved correct and the story made headlines in all of the tabloids and also the broadsheet, quality press. Even The Times, Telegraph and the Guardian used bold "screaming headlines" to promote the story. It even featured on the TV news, too. Mike found the help and advice of the police press officer to be a Godsend.

George Habred had fired Mallory for gross misconduct and, as Malvirta was actually owned by the company, Mallory had to leave the property immediately.

"As a result he was unable to use the legal resources of the company, meaning he had to rely on a solicitor provided by Legal Aid. She wasn't a bad solicitor but with the mass of evidence she, and his Legal Aid barrister convinced Habred to enter a guilty plea, not that it did him much good.

Julie Claydon was jailed for five years for conspiring to administer a noxious substance to her husband and for administering same.

Roger Smith got a six year sentence and was struck off by the Law Society, meaning his career in the law was finished, and Mallory Habred was convicted of attempted murder. Under the sentencing guidelines he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Due to the circumstances of the case, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Crown Court judge decided Habred's offence was a Level 1 offence and thus on the more serious end of the spectrum, under the Criminal Justice Act 2003.

Habred was informed by the judge that he was being sentenced to a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 20, but that on release he would remain on licence for the rest of his life.

He nodded, dumbly. He knew he was fucked.

Although Julie was not impregnated by Habred, she discovered that was only as a matter of chance as Hebred was not, despite his claims, sterile.

Mike divorced Julie on the grounds of adultery and unreasonable behaviour, and he had the house sold. Julie's share of the proceeds was put into a holding account whilst she was in prison.

George Habred moved back to Malvirta and scoffed when Mike mentioned the story Mallory had spun about Safira Sweet, the British film star.

He roared with laughter. "What a load of old bollocks!" he said. "It was built by a wealthy Norwich coal merchant who retired here after he had it built in the 1930s! He always was one for making shit up, my son!"

Working under George's direct instructions, Mike employed one of the UK's top forensic accountancy firms, Topper, Willis and Walton, to carefully go through all of the firm's accounts both local and overseas.

George made Mike his Director of Operations at a vast increase in salary, part out of recognition of his efforts in the accounts department, and partly due to feeling guilt over what his son had done to Mike.

It transpired that Mallory had managed to steal £750 million from the company, which Mike was easily able to repatriate once he could see how it had been moved.

Mike gained real pleasure from handing the information over to DCI Pobert and his colleagues In the Economic Crimes Unit. They and the Serious Fraud Office would have fun taking Mallory to the cleaners.

One day, Mike knew he'd be ready to start dating again.