The Key (7 page)

“Great shame,” teased Flanagan.

After leading the protesting Vincent to
his
cell, Flanagan phoned through to
his colleagues in
Harvest Spring Junction to
give them the good news. “We’ve arrested that pompous twat, Halliday. He’s not going to get out of this one.
And his
lawyer can’t get here until tomorrow.
”

“That’
s great,
”
sniggered
Detective
Abernethy. “
Hopefully he’ll be ready to sing like a canary by then.
Give us a call
in the morning
after he’s spoken with his
slimy lawyer and we’ll come over
to collect him then.
”

Flanagan nodded.
“Will do, Abernethy.
Everyone here is
looking forward to seeing the humiliation on his
know-it-all
face as he’s taken
away in cuffs
.
See you tomorrow.
”

Carly could hardly keep her eyes open, but she wanted to see what was happening in the news. She knew it was unlikely
,
but maybe
the
story would hit the headlines quickly and she’d see that Vincent had been arrested.

The hours ticked by but nothing appeared
,
and Carly began to wonder if something had gone wrong.
I’ve
heard stories about wealthy
people ‘
getting away with murder
’,
but not literally.
Surely?
M
inor crimes
,
maybe
.
B
ut this was no minor crime.
I can’t believe V
incent
could t
alk his way out of this
.

After a restless night and only a few hours sleep
,
Carly turned on the TV to see if there
were
any developments.

Still no news
, she uttered to herself.

Her hands were tied. She couldn’t jump on
a
bus to see
Scott
. By now he’d be wide awake and aware of what she’d done. He’d be angry with her, and she still felt guilty about deceiving him the way
that
she did. He’d trusted her e
nough to give her a job, and
now
she had betrayed him.

Carly sat quietly for a while and pondered over things until her head cleared.
“
Que
Sera
Sera
, as granny used to say. W
hat will be
,
will be.” Carly was talking to herself again.
She
knew that she
had done the right thing by going to the police
. A
nd
that
was that, as far as she was concerned.

I have no choice now. I just need to
hang around the apartment watching the TV until the story
breaks
.

It was
8
.05
a.m.
when a red faced and flustered Edwin Cornelly
rushed
into the police station
, brown leather briefcase in hand
. He
wasn’t looking his normal dapper self; it almost seemed as if
he’d slept in his
$2000 pin-striped
suit
.
“Where’s my client
,” h
e
panted, slightly out of breath.

By
8.55
a.m. Cornelly had
finished speaking
with Vincent
.
Detective
s
Abernethy and Murphy from Harvest Spring Junction had arrived
earlier
to fill in
all the relevant paper work
, and by 9.05 a.m. they were back on the road
with their prisoner.

The uneventful journey to
Harvest Spring Junction
took about half an hour, and there was a welcoming committee waiting to greet them. Everyone reckoned that Vincent would just admit his guilt as it was a ‘cut and dried’ case.

Excitement levels were riding high in the station, because crimes such as murder didn’t really happen in places like this, and by
10
a.m., Detective Murphy had started the interview tape.
After asking several questions regarding the last time Vincent saw Tracey Dawn Jackson, Detective Abernethy produced the attaché case.

Vincent’s
eyes opened wide and his
jaw dropped!

“I’m now showing the suspect one
Samsonite
aluminum attaché case with the initials L.H. on it. Have you seen this attaché case before, M
r.
Halliday?”

“Yes, that’s
my case; where did you get it?” said Vincent nervously.

Ignoring Vincent’s question,
Abernethy
opened the case and continued.
“Have you seen the contents inside this case before?”

As the detective
was asking
the question, he slowly
started to remove the contents from the case, which were now protected by plastic evidence bags.
One by one he laid them on the table.
After doing so,
he
verbally
listed the
items
for the benefit of the tape.

“Three envelopes addressed to M
r.
V. Halliday. Three large photographs of M
r.
Vincent Halliday
in uncompromising positions
with an un
known
woman
…
.
”

“Yes, yes, they’re mine,” Vincent interrupted impatiently.

“I haven’t finished yet
, Mr. Halliday. M
ay I continue? One pink ribbon, one red ribbon, one silver colored ring with a blue colored stone, one
gold colored bracelet with charms attached, and one gold etched locket with the name
‘
Tracey
’ engraved on the back of it.
”

Vincent felt an uneasy feeling in the pit of stomach the moment he recognized the gold locket from recent news bulletins.
“Now just hold on
a minute!
Stop right there. The envelopes and photographs are mine, but that other stuff
;
no way.
Never seen
any of it
before in my life.
”

Cornelly cautioned his client.
“Vincent, that’
s enough. We talked about this.
Don’t say another word.”

“No way, I’m not sitting here and
getting accused of doing
some
thing that I haven’t done.
Yeh
, that’s my case.
Yeh
, they’re my papers. If you must know
,
someone has been blackmailing me for years. Caught me ‘with my pants down’, so to speak. I couldn’t let my wife and kids find out
;
it would destroy them.”

What he really meant was that he couldn’t let his wife find out
,
or his money flow and his lifestyle would come to an abrupt end.

Looking visibly shaken
,
he continued, “I figured
that
once the kids grew up, I could find out who was blackmailing me.
Until
then, I was keeping the stuff hidden at my brother’s place. I gave it to
Scott
and he said he’d keep it safe till I needed it. Someone must have stolen it
and the rest of the stuff belongs to them. Take my fingerprints. You might find my prints on the papers, but there’s no way you’ll find them on that other stuff
.
I’ve never seen it before. Well, that’s a lie. I do know that Tracey did wear a necklace like that one, but I never took it, I didn’t put it in my case
, and I didn’t kill her
.”

“Interview suspended,” said
a
straight faced
and disappointed Abernethy
. He placed the items back into the attaché case and closed the lid.

Abernethy and Murphy looked at each other, but didn’t say a word
until the prisoner had been taken back to his cell.
“Let’s bring in
Scott
Halliday. Vincent might be able to keep up the pretence, but
Scott
’s another story. I’ll give him half an hour in an interview room and he’ll tell us everything we need to know.
Can you believe the nerve of that
Vincent
guy? Someone must have stolen the c
ase. He must think we’re stupid,
”
Murphy argued.

Abernethy was fuming. He’d known the Halliday brothers for years, and he knew that while Vincent had repeatedly flaunted the law,
Scott
had never stepped out of line. The most he’d done was get into a fight here and there; and that was always when he’d had a drink. Still, thanks to Vincent implicating hi
m,
they had grounds for bringing
Scott
in.

Abernethy and Murphy
wasted no time and immediately sped off to the
Cabbage Tree
to locate Scott Halliday. I
t was
eerily quiet there when they arrived a few minutes later.
They knocked on the door and shouted up to the
slightly
open window, but no one
responded
. They walked round to the side door and tried the handle; it opened.

“Scott. Scott Halliday.”
They repeatedly called
out
Scott
’s name
as
they walked through the bar and
up
the stairs. Each room was empty; but in the bedroom they
noticed some
clothing and other belongings scattered on the floor.

“Maybe
Vincent
was telling the truth. Maybe the place was robbed?” said Murphy.

“Or maybe
Vincent
Halliday’s
wife or
Cornelly
phoned
Scott
to tell him
we’d arrested Vincent. Maybe they told him to clear off, so he wouldn’t
be able to
say anything
that
he shouldn’t. We need to put out an APB on him,” replied an irate Abernethy
, “I’ll give the station a ring now.”

Abernethy and Murphy
continued to look around,
but
eventually concluded that
if there had been anything else left
here
by Vincent, that
Scott
would have been ordered to remove it before he left.

As they walked
back to their car,
Murphy
came to an abrupt stop.
“I wonder who the other stuff belongs
to
?
The ribbons and things.
We’ve been so busy concentrating on the locket
that
we’ve never checked out the other
items
. Still, if we get to
Scott
quick
ly
enough he might
be able to
fill in the blanks for us.
”

By 10.40 a.m. the station had put out an APB, and notified the news channels and the local radio station. The quicker they got Scott the sooner they’d get what they needed to charge Vincent Halliday with the murder of Tracey Dawn Jackson.

After busying herself for as long as she could, Carly once
again started to cycle
through the
news
channels.
At 10.5
1
a.m. the story had hi
t the news, b
ut the face
that she saw
on screen wasn’t Vincent’s as she’s expected
. I
t was
Scott
’s!

Feeling like she’d been hit by a truck, Carly dropped to the sofa in shock.
“No
. No. No. W
hat are you talking about? You don’t want
Scott
, you want Vincent!” she
yelled
at the
TV expecting it to understand
.