A Genuine Mistake by Ted Tayler (miss read books txt) 📗

He and Rachel had lived together for three years by then, and there were no clouds on the horizon as far as he could see to stop them from staying together for many years to come. Sean was already almost seventeen, and the need for a guardian seemed superfluous. Although Byron was two years Sean’s junior, what could go wrong?

“Eighteen is the age when minors cease to be considered such,” he’d told Rachel. “They can assume control over their actions and decisions at that stage. I’m hoping we can see them married and with children of their own before we worry over the provisions of my will again.”

From the sixth of May 2012, that worry transferred to Rachel Cummins when her partner got killed. It soon became apparent that Belinda Hogan wished to challenge the will. She told friends she believed Rachel hired a hitman to kill Gerry. Belinda thought that was her plan all along; to live with him for a short period and then cash in.

Gus closed the file for now. This case had more angles to it than he’d imagined when the ACC walked through it earlier. He vaguely remembered a bloke in a suit coming to their home in Downton one evening to help him and Tess fill out a form.  In the event of, and so on, but like Gerry Hogan, they’d thought nothing untoward would happen to them.

They expected to grow old gracefully, and when one of them died, the surviving spouse would inherit the lot. In practical terms, that meant they carried on pretty much as before, like millions of other couples whose wills were simple and straightforward.

After Tess died and the usual rush of urgent official paperwork, Gus couldn’t recall what he’d done with their will. He certainly hadn’t thought it necessary to amend it. He was only fifty-eight. What was the rush?

As Gus sat in the Focus, staring at the back wall of the Old Police Station, he realised that he’d better find that brown envelope and start thinking about how the wording needed to change. Suzie might not be in a rush to become the second Mrs Freeman, but there was someone else to consider.

Gus grabbed the folder and travelled up in the lift.

“Welcome back, guv,” said Lydia. “My word, that’s a big one.”

“Don’t even think about saying anything, Neil,” said Gus.

“Me, guv?” said Neil. “I’m pure in thought and mind. That was what the actress is supposed to have said to the bishop, too.”

“We have the murder file here for a financial advisor, Gerald, or Gerry Hogan,” said Gus. “Hogan died on his doorstep at the beginning of May in 2012.”

“That we’re looking at it now implies the original investigation got nowhere, I assume?” said Blessing Umeh.

“You’ve got it in one, Blessing,” said Gus. “Right, the usual procedure, please. Get the crime scene photos up on the walls and whiteboards. We need photos of the key players and their backgrounds—a Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon map that allows us to focus on the murder site on Trowle Common. Luke, you can set up meetings with any witnesses and the surviving family members. Alex, I want you to put Gerry Hogan’s business life under the microscope. I’ll run through the sequence of events in a moment, but if someone wanted Hogan dead badly enough to shoot him in the head in broad daylight, then money probably figures in the affair somewhere.”

Gus opened the large folder on Blessing’s desk, and Lydia joined her colleague to sort through the items they needed.

“I was right. This file carries a lot more detail than we’re used to,” she said.

“At least someone had the decency to prepare an index,” said Blessing. “We’ll find the major items so much easier.”

Gus returned to his desk and rang Geoff Mercer at London Road.

“Geoff, what happened to John Kirkpatrick?”

“He transferred to Portishead,” said Geoff. “John Kirkpatrick’s a Detective Chief Inspector with Avon & Somerset.”

“I can see a pattern developing here,” said Gus. “Every officer I need to contact has got promoted since handling a murder case that the ACC gives me. Is that the reward for failure these days?”

“Cheeky,” said Geoff. “They could have had a decent clear-up rate for all you know. Not as stellar as yours, of course, Gus. You get to tackle the occasional blip in their careers.”

“If you say so, Geoff,” said Gus. “I suppose Victoria Bennison has moved on from being a Detective Sergeant?”

“Vicky Bennison left the police, Gus,” said Geoff. “I can get her contact details to you if you need to speak to her, but I can’t guarantee she’ll cooperate. Vicky transferred to Thames Valley to work in Oxford a couple of years after the Hogan case. In June 2015, she joined officers policing an anti-austerity protest march on a Saturday afternoon in central London.”

“One of those marches that started with good intentions but got infiltrated by anarchists, I imagine,” said Gus.

“There were many undesirable elements that attached themselves to the peaceful protestors, and things turned nasty,” said Geoff. “A male colleague went into the crowd to make an arrest. Vicky saw him quickly surrounded by four or five heavies and waded in to help. Someone behind her shoved Vicky hard in the back, and she hit the ground. While other officers struggled to control the situation ahead of where she fell, Vicky took a severe kicking from the thugs who remained. Every time she opened her eyes to identify her attackers, she saw a sea of mobile phones filming the attack. A dozen officers ended up in the hospital that afternoon. Her male colleague didn’t return to duty for fifteen months.”

“What about Vicky?” asked Gus.

“Like many other officers, she joined the police to protect the public,” said Geoff. “When Vicky shouted for their help, all they did was laugh and keep filming. After the Chief