Guy Fawkes Night, page 33
part #3 of Mitchell Mystery Series
‘I’ve still got a ton to learn if I’m going to become a sergeant,’ Sheridan quipped and they both laughed.
Cole’s tactic bore fruit immediately. The sound of the car brought Grimes storming onto his porch, his broad legs planted apart and his hands angrily on his hips, his entire posture demanding an explanation for this intrusion.
‘What the dickens do you mean by parking in my driveway like that?’ he blustered as Cole and Sheridan approached.
‘A dead man by the name of Mark Weaver has me parking in your driveway, Albert,’ Cole answered. ‘So would you like to talk out here where everyone can see you or are you going to invite us inside for a pleasant little chat?’
If steam could ever issue from a man’s collar it would have come from Albert Grimes’ right then, Cole thought.
‘Come inside,’ Grimes muttered, knowing he had little choice.
Cole and Sheridan glanced cheekily at each other and followed Grimes into his house.
‘What is it?’ they heard a woman call.
‘Just some nonsense disturbing a man on his day off,’ Grimes replied grumpily.
Entering the hallway they met the formidable Mrs Grimes, Cole introducing Sheridan to her.
Marjorie Grimes was taller than her husband, a stout woman with greying hair tied severely back. The lines on her face suggested she was some years older than her husband and her manner with him was that of a domineering teacher in charge of a slow little boy.
‘What’s this about then?’ she wanted to know, glaring at her husband as if he should answer.
Cole said, ‘We think Albert might be able to help us get to the bottom of something.’
‘Of what?’
‘Of a man who perished in a fire.’
‘I suppose you want me to leave the room then?’ she huffed.
‘No,’ Cole said, smiling. ‘No. You’re most welcome to stay.’
‘Then that’s exactly what I shall do. We’ll go into the sitting room,’ she announced emphatically, as if that was that. ‘And I hope he hasn’t done anything wrong,’ she pointed at her husband.
Once there, Mrs Grimes didn’t sit beside him but took a chair opposite near Cole and Sheridan as if she were an inquisitor too.
Cole began, ‘Mr Grimes, Gary Weaver and his son visited you in your office around the time of the Sandpiper fire. Do you recall that?’
With his wife eyeballing him from close range, Grimes was already more than uncomfortable.
‘They may have. There was nothing unusual about that, sergeant. I did advisory work for the Sandpiper on occasion and often had cause to speak with Weaver senior or Weaver junior.’
‘I thought Mrs Weaver did the books?’
Grimes laughed dismissively, but with a nervous lilt. ‘It’s why people should always heed the advice of experts. I spend more time clearing up other peoples’ mess than organising businesses in the correct manner at the outset. I expect the Weavers would have gone to see Laurie Heywood, the accountant, first, their workings were in such poor order.’ He used the word accountant as if describing a lesser species of being. ‘My occupation is about more than just simple numbers and sums. There are matters of law,’ he intoned.
‘Except that you aren’t a lawyer, Albert. You’re only a solicitor. You give people legal advice but you can’t ever represent anyone in court can you?’
‘I chose not to follow that path,’ Grimes replied archly.
‘He didn’t pass the exam!’ Marjorie Grimes shot back and Sheridan had to stifle a laugh.
‘So what did the Weavers come to see you about?’ Cole continued. ‘It must have been important if both of them were in your office.’
Disconcertingly for Cole, Marjorie Grimes was leaning forward in the chair beside him, her eyes fixed on her husband as if she might swoop from her chair and box his ears at any moment.
Grimes did his best to avoid her gaze. He said, ‘I’m not sure I should discuss this without Mr Weaver’s say so.’
‘Oh, you will say so alright,’ his wife leapt in. ‘You will answer the questions Albert or so help you God!’
Grimes regarded Cole despondently. ‘The Sandpiper was established as a business, thus there were all kinds of taxation and operational considerations. Mr Weaver senior originally owned the business in his own right but for reasons best known to him — and I never encouraged him to do so — he apportioned half of the business to his son, and the strife began there.’
He paused for breath and Cole said, ‘Go on’, Grimes being his usual long-winded self.
‘Young Weaver appeared to have no capacity for business. None. He was supposed to supervise all functions at the centre because his father believed he needed to be trained for running the entire business.’
‘And that was Weaver senior’s first mistake?’
‘Yes, although it wouldn’t have been the first one. There were many, most of which emanated from the fact that the boy was a spendthrift. And most likely embezzling funds from the business.’
‘You have proof of that?’
‘No, but when taking into account the income earned from functions and then the separate management of catering for them, what should have been going into Mr Weaver senior’s pocket was considerably more than what actually did end up in it. There was some evidence of invoices paid for dubious work done or for work not done at all, with the petty cash account also a seemingly endless drain on the finances.’
‘I presume father questioned son about all this?’
‘In families these matters can be delicate,’ Grimes said as though Cole had no idea of such things. ‘He did of course ask questions, but the son would fly into a rage at the mere mention of them.’
‘What brought them into your office then? Were you going to arbitrate on these disputes?’
When Grimes showed a disinclination to answer it brought a sharp rebuke from his wife — ‘Albert!’ — which shook him into continuing.
‘No, it wasn’t intended that I arbitrate on their differences. When they came to see me on that occasion, then, it was to set in motion a refinancing of the business and to have the title reverted back to Mr Weaver senior’s name only.’
‘Young Mark wouldn’t have been happy about that.’
‘He wasn’t. He proposed selling the business with each taking a share and starting again, so to speak.’
‘And then the father wouldn’t have been pleased about that.’
‘No, he wasn’t. It blew up into an argument I could barely contain. It wasn’t agreeable.’
‘So the Sandpiper wasn’t exactly in tip-top shape when I’d been led to believe it was. Would that be your assessment of it too?’
‘I don’t think I’d be speaking out of turn if I said their financial situation was going backwards at an alarming rate.’
‘Then why didn’t you tell me all this before? No, there’s no need to tell me. I’m sure I know why you didn’t. It was a confidential business arrangement. You had to assure confidentiality to your client. I’ve heard it all from you before Albert and it doesn’t get any better in the telling. But you could have saved us a lot of trouble by being honest with us.’
‘Previously, we were only discussing land dealings at the Early Settlers Estate.’
‘Which was my exact point. But you’ve been helpful in your own fashion, even if you hadn’t intended to be.’
*
Cole and Sheridan sat in the car a while before leaving the property.
‘Did you know his wife was going to carry on like that?’ Sheridan asked.
‘I had a fair idea. Like a lot of would-be bullies Grimes is the victim of one himself.’
‘But now the Weavers are well and truly back in the spotlight aren’t they? The business is reeling so they put a match to it and claim the insurance money, and while it isn’t a king’s ransom it at least puts a stop to the financial bleeding and gives them a fairly immediate payout. I think they’ve already received it, haven’t they?’
‘I think so. What Cavallo told us about Mark Weaver and Dragic also makes sense now when them being so close in blackmail means they’d also be thick in other monkey business like burning the Sandpiper down. Dragic most likely was getting a fee for doing it, the Weavers the insurance money.’
‘Only it went wrong and Dragic somehow got caught up in the fire.’
‘Or he was meant to be caught in the fire. We can count out him being drunk in there because there’s no evidence he drank alcohol at all, but he had to have been disabled in some other fashion for him to be found in the toilets the way he was.’
‘He still could have been whacked over the head despite what the autopsy showed. He was that badly burned the inferno would have disguised it.’
‘Maybe yes, maybe no. Dragic being put out of business would have been a godsend to Mark Weaver too. He or he and his father wouldn’t have had to pay Dragic his arson fee and whatever else money Mark might have owed him. But I’d tip it was Mark on his own behind that, and that maybe his father wasn’t involved. What do you reckon?’
‘Hmm. I don’t know. Gary Weaver lied about the state of the Sandpiper’s finances and God knows what else. What did you say earlier — if they tell a small lie they’re capable of telling a big one too?’
‘Something like that. Anyway, there’s only one way to find out and that’s by talking to him.’
‘Again,’ Sheridan sighed.
‘Again,’ Cole agreed.
Chapter 46
The town was still drowsy with Saturday morning and there was more than a hint of summer in the air and of a town stirring to life. There was the smell of grass being mown, a movement of people scurrying about and calling noisily to their neighbours. Men in shirt sleeves, women in bright cotton dresses. It was the kind of day that filled people with hope — of tasks and chores that would finally be attended to, of friends that would be caught up with and invited to dinner, of visits to parks, of barbecues hauled out of sheds and cars washed down in driveways, of children swishing tennis racquets and chasing each other along footpaths drowning in the sound of their own laughter.
Cole, too, thought of those things and wondered how it was that he was going to lose yet another weekend to work.
‘What approach are we going to take with him?’ Sheridan asked as they walked up to the Weavers’ house.
‘We’ll go hard at him this time. He hasn’t been straight was us and we want to know why. Feel free to jump in at any time when I’m questioning him. But if you get a chance to take Karen aside on her own grab it and push her about whether she gave Dragic a key to the Sandpiper.’
Cole rapped loudly on the door and when it began to open he barged his way in, Sheridan following closely behind. There were no offers to be seated this time and the three of them stood in the hallway.
‘What do you want this time? Haven’t you bothered us enough?’ Gary Weaver complained, his chest puffed out, but Cole saw it for the false bravado it was.
‘Are Meg and Karen home?’ he demanded.
‘Karen’s at the shops. Meg’s lying down. Why?’
‘Just leave the questions to me, Gary. You’ve wasted enough of our time as it is with your carry on about how much you love your business and your family. All that gumpf, when people like us are finding out how full of it you are. How many trips are we going to have to make here before you start telling us the truth?’
‘I’ve told you what I know.’
‘That’s not very likely. We’ve just been talking to Albert Grimes. He told us about your and Mark’s visit to see him not long before the Sandpiper burnt down. I have to say, too, that I’m surprised the insurance company paid out so quickly. That’d be a first, but your luck isn’t going to last on that one I’m afraid. You know insurance companies. They’ll want their money back.’
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Weaver scoffed.
‘Not much I don’t. Grimes said you were taking Mark’s name off the title and we know how that would’ve gone down with him. But you lied about how well the Sandpiper was going and for a while there I believed it myself. We knew you hadn’t bumped up your insurance premiums or anything like that in the time before the fire and you were clever about that I’ve got to admit. You were smart enough not to get too greedy and to avoid the mistakes most arsonists make when they burn down their own business.’
‘Bullshit! I never burnt down anything! Why would I do that?’
‘I just gave you the reason. The Sandpiper was a basket case and going backwards at a hundred miles an hour. You were cutting your losses and going to take whatever you could with the insurance money. And by the way,’ he added when Weaver was about to object again. ‘Grimes told me how much you were losing so don’t think I don’t know. Mark was stealing from the business on top of that and you knew it. You probably knew, too, that he wanted to develop the site. Your big shiny idea about father and son running the business together was dead in the water and you knew if you didn’t act quickly you’d lose everything you’d spent your life building up.’
‘No. You’re wrong about that.’
‘Which part, Gary? The part about you and Mark not getting on but, hey, things were going to get better, all nice and rosy weren’t they? Here’s the thing. You told us he and Anton Dragic did stuff together but you weren’t quite sure what and all the time your attitude to me was, Well anyway, it can’t have been anything too serious. But it was serious, really serious, and I reckon you knew that as well. You know Tito Cavallo, runs a small farm just out of town?’ Weaver nodded dismally. ‘Mark turned up at his place one day with Anton Dragic. They were threatening to blackmail him over some involvement Dragic had with one of Cavallo’s daughters. So Mark had to know exactly what was going on there and following on from that where Dragic was doing more of the same.’
‘I wouldn’t reckon.’
‘Mark must have had a tricky relationship with Dragic and I think I know why. Mark was living beyond his means, something you were aware of, and he doesn’t seem to have been inclined to take a normal job like most people. He thought he was above it. So he looks about him seeing where else he can make a few easy dollars. We know from an informant that Mark was buying marijuana from someone …’
‘Never proven!’
‘ … and given we know Dragic was growing marijuana in the orchards just out of town it doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots. But the marijuana itself probably wouldn’t have given him enough money to keep him going. He tried to borrow from you and he’d done it so many times before and not paid you back that you were up to here with it, so you wouldn’t give him any more. So where does he go then? Back to Dragic. Dragic was standing over people, threatening them and their businesses with violence if they didn’t pay him and keep their mouths shut. It’s a fact that Mark had some part in that now too. And before you say anything, that is proven. But when you start dealing with the devil there’s always a trade-off isn’t there? And what was it with Mark? Did he know that at some point Dragic had a relationship with Karen? Of course he had to know. It’s his family. It’s a small town. Everyone gossips to everyone and their dog. And by now he knows how Dragic operates. For all his failings Mark’s no dill though. He understands that Dragic can turn violent at the drop of a hat and he has to be careful about that. It’s common knowledge in town that Dragic also turned that violence against young women. Which you also know, first hand. Which then leads me to ask, did Mark jack up about that or was it you who did? Was Karen’s treatment the final straw for you, the thing that made you entice Dragic to the Sandpiper and do him in?’
‘You got no idea.’
‘You were already unhappy you missed out on the estate tender when by all rights you should have won it. Then you see Mark messing around with Dragic. And then Dragic messing around with Karen.’
‘That’s enough rubbish! I’m not listening any more!’
‘You are and we’re not going anywhere until you cough up the truth, Gary. Dragic pushed you that bit too far didn’t he? And when he started dragging your kids into his sticky web that was way too much wasn’t it?’
‘No, no. I did what I could didn’t I? Didn’t I try to do the best I could?’
Confronted by Cole’s account of his children, Weaver was hit by it now. He was wheezing and snagged between blind anger and tears.
‘And was your best good enough, Gary? Did you try to do something about it or did you just bury your head in the sand and think it would all go away, that it was some kind of bad dream?’
‘It was a nightmare, a bloody nightmare! My kids, those bloody kids. How could they get themselves into so much trouble? Didn’t me and Meg do all we could?’
‘So what did you do, Gary? How did you get Dragic to hang around after the cabaret or come back to it later? Was he blackmailing you over Karen?’
‘No! I didn’t do anything!’
‘Senior Constable Sheridan, show Mr Weaver one of the magazines Dragic had the girls in please.’
In the narrow confines of the passageway it felt like the walls were closing in, that they were breathing each other’s air. Sheridan produced the magazine and held it open on a page showing Karen Weaver.
‘Jesus Christ! The bastard!’ Weaver rocked and for a second Cole thought he might collapse.
He reached out a hand and steadied him.
‘He was blackmailing you over this wasn’t he? He would have tried it with Karen first and maybe he got nowhere with that, or maybe he did. What matters is what happened next, what you did about it, so let’s hear you talk about that. Put an end to this once and for all.’
And then Gary Weaver slumped against the hallway wall. ‘I was too weak,’ he sobbed. ‘I was just too weak. I didn’t do anything.’
