Broken (31 page)

"Again I have to say that I
don't even remember the day." I said. "So I wouldn't have the
faintest idea of where I was that morning."

"Were you at work?" the
policeman asked.

"No." I replied. "At the moment
I'm unemployed."

"The third robbery took place
two weeks ago." Captain Williams said. "It involved a money lender
by the name of Bogdanovic and involved considerable violence.
According to Bogdanovic's records, you borrowed ten thousand Rand
from him six weeks before the robbery."

"That's right." I said. "But I
paid him back."

"We find it interesting that you
paid Mister Bogdanovic in full eight weeks earlier than arranged."
the policeman said. "In fact, you paid him eight thousand eight
hundred Rand two days after Mister Whiteside was robbed. Where did
you get the money to pay back such a large sum in one payment?"

"I won it on the horses." I
said.

"Can you prove that?" Williams
asked. "Do you have the payment slip from the bookmaker who paid
you out?"

"No. I threw
them
away." I said.

"Can you tell us which book
maker you placed the bet with?" Williams asked.

"It was
some
of the bookies at the Turffontein
Race Course." I said. "I don't remember which ones though. There
are dozens of them. I always spread my bets over a number of
bookmakers so that I don't upset the odds."

The two policemen stood up.

"Thanks for your time, Mister
Gilmore." Captain Williams said. "If you think of anything that
might help us in our investigations, please contact me."

The policeman handed me one of
his business cards and he and his companion left.

***

So as not to frighten her, I
didn't tell Cindy about the visit by the two policemen. I knew that
they didn't have anything that they could pin on me or Cindy.
Obviously they were hoping to frighten us into doing something rash
but, as I was certain that I hadn't left any evidence of my
complicity in the robberies, I relaxed. They would never catch
me.

Two days after the policemen's
visit Cindy and I were sitting in the lounge watching the early
evening news on television when someone knocked on the front door.
I gently eased one of the curtains aside and peeked out onto the
veranda. Captain Williams and four other men stood watching the
door expectantly. I closed the curtain carefully and went to where
Cindy was sitting.

"It's the police." I whispered.
"But don't worry. Just relax. We know that they've got nothing on
us. Leave all the talking to me and if they do ask you anything
just play ignorant."

I walked to the front door and
opened it.

"Good
evening, Mister Gilmore." Captain Williams said as he held out an
official-looking document towards me. "We have obtained a warrant
to search your house. Please let us in."

I looked at the document and
shrugged my shoulders. I stepped aside.

"Please come in." I said.

The five policemen walked into
the house. I closed the door. The captain nodded to Cindy.

"While we're searching the house
I think that it would be best if you and Miss Bedford sat in the
kitchen." Williams said. "We'll be as quick as we can but the
search may take a considerable time."

Cindy stood up from the couch
and we walked along the passageway to the kitchen.

"One of my men will stay here
with you while the rest of us search the house." the captain
said.

"May I get myself a beer?" I
asked.

"Yes." Williams said and walked
out of the room. He joined the other three men and I heard them go
into my old bedroom.

"Would you like a beer?" I asked
the policeman standing with us. He shook his head.

I tried to
appear as calm and
relaxed as I could,
hoping that it would help Cindy to relax. I heard the policemen
moving about and talking quietly. They moved into the main bedroom
and I heard them moving the furniture and opening the cupboard
doors. Then they moved into the lounge. I heard them moving the
furniture and then I heard them talking quietly amongst themselves.
A short while later Captain Williams walked into the kitchen. He
held out his hand. In his fingertips he held a delicate flat
item.

"What can you tell me about
this, Mister Gilmore?" he asked.

***

"Your
Honour." Paul Greave said looking up at Judge
Best
er. "I would like to interrupt Garth
Gilmore's testimony at this point and call Captain Williams of the
South African Police Service to the witness stand."

"You may, Mister Greave." the
judge said.

The policeman was neatly dressed
in beige slacks, a white shirt, red tie and a pale blue jacket. He
took the stand and was duly sworn in.

"Captain Williams." my attorney
said. "You are the officer in charge of the investigation into the
three robberies that took place in Rosettenville during the last
six months. Is that correct?"

"Yes." the policeman
replied.

"Please tell
the court how you came to obtain a warrant to search the defendant
Garth Gilmore's house and what the outcome was." Paul Greave
asked.

""Right from
the beginning of the investigation I realised that we were dealing
with a very meticulous individual and that we were unlikely to find
any evidence that would lead us directly to the perpetrator."
Captain Williams said. "And, as the investigation continued this
became more and more evident. There were no fingerprints at any of
the crime scenes and in each case the perpetrator had planned his
escape with meticulous care. As we moved forward we realised that
we had to change our focus and begin looking for anything and
anyone that might be common to the three crimes. We were convinced
that all three robberies had been carried out by the same
individual. We began to look carefully at all the people who had
had dealings with the three victims and gradually we whittled the
number of people down to one person: Mister Garth
Gilmore."

"Mister
Gilmore had had dealings with all three victims?" Paul Greave
asked.

"Not
exactly." the policeman replied. "He had dealt directly with the
book maker Mister Eksteen and with the money lender Mister
Bogdanovic, but not with Mister Whiteside, the owner of the dry
cleaning business."

"So what was the connection
between Garth Gilmore and Mister Whiteside?" Paul Greave asked.

"Mister Gilmore's girlfriend who
lived with him, Miss Bedford, was employed by Mister Whiteside at
the time that he was robbed." Williams said.

"And on the strength of this you
obtained a warrant to search Mister Gilmore's house?" my attorney
asked.

"That's correct." Captain
Williams replied.

"And what did you find during
the search?" Greave asked.

""Lying on the floor behind the
couch in the lounge of Mister Gilmore's house we found a small
piece of blue carbon paper." Captain Williams replied.

"And could you read anything on
the piece of carbon paper?" Paul Greave asked.

"Yes." the
policeman replied. "Fortunately the carbon paper had only been used
once and the words
Edward
Eksteen - Bookmaker
and the amount of
eight hundred and fifteen Rand could be clearly seen. There was
also a series of eight numbers. Later we checked Mister Eksteen's
bank account number and it was the same as the eight numbers
written on the carbon paper."

"And what happened when you
showed the piece of carbon paper to Mister Gilmore and Miss
Bedford?" my attorney asked.

"Miss Bedford immediately broke
down, began to cry, and said that she wanted to make a statement."
Captain Williams replied. "I read her her rights and she confessed
to having known about the robberies of Mister Eksteen and Mister
Whiteside and had taken part in the robbery of Mister
Bogdanovic."

"And Mister Gilmore?" Paul
Greave asked. "What was his reaction?"

"At first he
was defiant and claimed that Miss Bedford was lying." the policeman
said. "But when I persisted with my questioning about the presence
of the piece of carbon paper in his house with Mister Eksteen's
name on it as well as the man's bank account number, he confessed
to being the perpetrator of the three robberies."

***

"Your
Honour.
That concludes this hearing with
regard to the effect that the traumatic events that Miss Bedford
and Mister Gilmore experienced during their formative years had on
them during their later years." Paul Greave said, addressing Judge
Warren Bester. "Although both Miss Bedford and Mister Gilmore
pleaded guilty to all the charges brought against them, my
colleague, Mister Foster, and I hope that this hearing will have
shed some light on the devastating effect that child abuse in any
of its forms can and does have on its victims. Whether child abuse
will ever be eradicated, I don't know but we strongly believe that
we all need to become more aware of the traits that child abuse
victims display so that we can steer them towards the help that
they so desperately need. We have not used this hearing to try to
make excuses for our clients' behaviour but we hope that the
horrors that they experienced in their early years will be used as
mitigating circumstances when you consider their
retribution."