Searching for Scarlet - part 7

Chapter 27

When they got to the UCLA campus Sabine and Jordan wanted to speak to one man in particular, Professor Hughes. He was in class when they got there, but they were allowed to wait in his office. They only had to wait for about half an hour or so, but it felt like a tortuously long time to both of them, because they were so keen to question him.

‘If she is still alive,’ Jordan broke the silence as they waited. ‘She must have had an extremely strong motive, to not only fake her own death but also set a particular person up for her murder.’

‘Absolutely, I’m guessing he didn’t just upset her a little with a throw away comment.’

‘When all this is done are we going to have a game of golf?’ Jordan asked.

‘Spectacular subject change, well done. Yes that sounds good to me, I haven’t played for a while.’

‘From what you’ve said it will be the complete opposite of the Ryder Cup, with the American hammering the European.’

‘You have such a talent for insults that even your compliments turn into insults.’

‘It’s instinctive, it’s like a gift.’

At this point Professor Hughes walked into his office. ‘Oh hello there,’ he greeted them warmly after the initial moment or two of surprise.

‘Sorry to surprise you like this,’ Sabine said.

‘Oh no not at all, you’re always welcome. Sorry if I’ve kept you waiting.’

‘No worries,’ Jordan said. ‘We know we’re nowhere near important enough to interrupt a University Class.’

‘We’d just like to ask you a few more questions about Sandi,’ Sabine told him.

‘Ask away,’ the Professor said as he lowered himself into his seat, facing Sabine and Jordan who were also sat down. ‘No luck finding her yet then?’

‘No not yet, we are getting a little more optimistic about finding her if a theory we’re working on at the moment pans out.’

‘Oh that sounds promising.’

‘Maybe,’ Sabine said. ‘The thing is we’re wondering if she might have faked her own death.’

‘Really?! That does surprise me, can’t imagine her doing something like that. Why would she do that?’

‘We really don’t know the why, but we were hoping you could help us with the how. Obviously if it’s not possible then we’re on the wrong track and we can start with another theory.’

‘I’ll do my best.’

‘The only way I can think she’s managed to do it is a contrived way,’ Jordan said. ‘Is it possible that somebody could take several blood samples from themselves over a period of a few weeks, keep the blood stored somewhere then pour it all over their bed to make it appear that they have been stabbed to death?’

‘Well now really, that is getting very far fetched.’

‘So was landing on the moon but people did it,’ Jordan said.

‘I suppose it’s possible, providing you keep the blood in the right kind of environment.’

‘So the next question is do you know if Sandi is capable of taking blood samples from herself?’

‘I would guess so yes. Very intelligent girl, I’d say she could do almost anything if she put her mind to it. Wait a minute, hasn’t somebody confessed to her murder? Somebody was saying that in the staff meeting this morning.’

‘Yes they have,’ Sabine said.

‘Don’t get us started on that one,’ Jordan warned.

‘Oh hang on a moment,’ the Professor said. ‘Yes I remember now, it must have been months ago, maybe even the best part of a year, hard to tell because time flies by so quickly these days.’

‘What was months ago?’ Sabine’s patience disappeared.

‘Sorry, I have a habit of rambling. I remember having a conversation with Sandi, she actually inquired about how to take blood samples and whether somebody could do it to them self.’

‘My idea is getting less wacky all the time,’ Sabine said.

‘It’s still immensely wacky, even if it turns out to be true that won’t reduce the wackiness factor,’ Jordan replied.

‘Hope I’ve been able to help,’ the Professor said.

‘I think you have,’ Sabine said.

The Professor shook both their hands and bid them farewell.

Sabine and Jordan sat in her car, in a car park at UCLA, for some more thought time. It was another gloriously sunny day, much more suited to lazing on the beach than driving all around LA chasing ghosts. By now though Sabine and Jordan were so into the case, that beaches couldn’t be further from their minds.

‘You confident enough that she’s alive to tell the police to start looking for her?’ Jordan asked.

‘Not sure about that. Besides, if she is still alive then she is one clever lady and I’m sure she’ll be long gone by now. There’s been one more thing bugging me about that second journal, and I couldn’t quite work out what it was that was bugging me until now.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Just that sometimes, not all the time but in parts of the journal I definitely felt like she was writing it for somebody else to read.’

‘You mean like the way Stacie read the other one?’ Jordan said.

‘Yeah, only we know it can’t be Stacie because she had no idea that journal existed.’

‘I’d suggest we be really careful using the phrase “we know” from now on.’

‘Good point.’

‘But I do know what you mean, now you mention it when I read that journal I did get the feeling it was written to be read, rather than merely written for her to empty her thoughts out,’ Jordan concurred.

‘But if it’s not Stacie, and we’re saying there is no Scarlet then who else can it be?’

‘Could just be that she was writing to us, after all she wanted us to read it to lead us to Joe.’

‘You’re probably right, but I can’t help thinking we’re forgetting about somebody,’ Sabine said and ran her hands back through her hair and rested her hands on the back of her neck.

There were a few moments of silent thought time then Jordan spoke.

‘Oh hang on.’

‘What?’ Sabine asked with excitement and impatience in abundance.

‘There is one young lady we have forgotten about.’

‘Who?’

‘Stacie told us that she knew of two other friends that Sandi had, one was Scarlet and the other was an old friend.’

‘Oh yeah, what was her name?’

‘I do believe that was Erica.’

‘That’s it, Erica.’

‘She’s another stone to be unturned if nothing else.’

‘You must be getting excited because your language is getting more extravagant!’ Sabine said with a smile.

‘Considering I’ve been here less than a week you know me too well.’

‘There is at least one other stone that I wanted to turn over today,’ Sabine said. ‘Do you suppose this Erica might have been a tennis player?’

‘I’d say there was a chance, Erica sounds like a sporty name to me. Yeah I can just imagine a doubles team of Sandi and Erica.’

‘All right then, we’ll head to the nearest tennis clubs to Sandi’s orphanage.’

They asked for permission to use the Internet in the UCLA library and were granted it without any fuss. Once they had access to the web they used it to get the location of any tennis club within a few miles of Sandi’s orphanage. As soon as they got those directions they set off, starting with the nearest club first.

When they got to the first tennis club there were only a couple of people actually playing tennis but there were a couple more in the club house. One of those was working behind the bar, the other drinking at it, sat on a bar stool.

Rather than interrupting a game Sabine and Jordan went into the clubhouse to start their inquiries. Sabine went straight up to the barman.

‘Hi there, we’re private investigators looking into the disappearance of a young lady called Sandi Lords. We’ve heard that she played tennis somewhere in this area and were wondering if it was at this club and whether you can remember anything about her?’

‘Lets see, I’m afraid I’m not too good with names,’ the old man behind the bar said. ‘But you’re in luck because Ernie over there has been a member for over sixty years and he knows everything about this place,’ he gestured to the man sitting at the bar.

‘Founder member, don’t forget founder member,’ Ernie said. ‘George I do wish you’d just say been a member for a long time, sixty years sounds so long and it means I can’t lie about my age as much as I’d like.’

‘Sorry Ernie, you’ve got nothing to worry about, you don’t look a day older than eighty one.’

‘You know full well I am eighty one,’ Ernie said then moved his attention to Sabine and Jordan. ‘Terribly sorry, George here is brutal with me, I’m the only person he knows that’s alive and actually even older than him, so he likes to make the most of it. Now how can I help you?’

‘We’re investigating a young lady called Sandi Lords who has gone missing. She’s about twenty one years old now and we’ve heard she played tennis somewhere around here.’

‘Oh yes I remember Sandi,’ Ernie said with conviction. ‘It was only this summer that she stopped coming down here. Good player, very slim, athletic, moved around the court with a balletic grace. Wasn’t the most technically gifted we’ve had here, but very feisty attitude more than made up for that. She rubbed some of the older members up the wrong way, but I liked her. Not enough young people like her playing tennis if you ask me. She grew up in the orphanage nearby you know.’

‘Yes we spoke to a lady there, she remembered that Sandi played tennis, so that’s what’s brought us to you,’ Sabine said.

‘A couple of years ago Sandi was involved in one of my favourite ever matches here. It was the Club Championship Ladies Doubles finals. Two ladies just into their forties had won that event every year for the previous nineteen years. That year they met Sandi and her young partner in the final. A bigger contrast between teams you couldn’t wish to see. The older two were beyond traditional, always dressed immaculately and behaved impeccably on court. At least they appeared to behave impeccably, those of us that knew them well knew that they were masters at many forms of gamesmanship. Nobody at the club had really looked like beating them until then. Sandi and her partner on the other hand were both young, athletic, wore quite daring outfits and were prone to a few verbal outbursts on court that usually included some profanity. The other team didn’t even think Sandi should be allowed in the club, so this final was always going to be a grudge match. On the day of the final Sandi turned up with her hair dyed bright red, I had to go to the gents so I could have a giggle without anybody seeing me. I knew full well she’d only done it to wind up the opposition. Both Sandi and her partner were in the tightest, shortest outfits they could possibly wear and still conform to club rules. Anyway there was a really big crowd of club members to watch the match because everybody knew how much of a grudge match it would be. Certainly by the end there was no such thing as a neutral observer because everybody ended up supporting one of these teams that represented such different extremes. The older players were still technically the better tennis team and they did win the first set reasonably comfortably. But Sandi and her partner had such a determination to win about them that they just refused to be beaten. The second set went to a tie break and the young pups won it and they celebrated with a great amount of noise, enthusiasm and high five’s. They knew that they were much the fitter of the two teams and more importantly they knew the other team knew that. That was the first time this old pair had lost a set for years and you could see the fear on their faces as the match was slipping away. In the end Sandi and her partner just ran the legs off them to win the final set. The other two were so horrified by the defeat that they barely shook hands and they both jumped into the sports cars their hubby’s had bought them and shot off home. Being President of the club it’s my job to present the prizes and I must admit I really did enjoy presenting that winning prize. The runners up trophies are collecting dust in my garage.’

Despite the triviality of what Ernie was talking about in comparison with what they’d come to hear about, Sabine and Jordan found themselves hanging on his every word. The only time either of them took their eyes off him whilst he spoke was when he mentioned Sandi dying her hair red, at that point Sabine and Jordan couldn’t help but look at each other.

‘Did Sandi always play with the same partner? Can you remember her name?’ Jordan asked.

‘Yes she virtually always played with the same girl, they were good friends. Her name was Erica.’

‘Is Erica still a member here?’ Sabine asked.

‘No she stopped coming down after last year as well.’

‘What was she like?’

‘She was lot quieter than Sandi, she wouldn’t talk to you unless you talked to her. Very pleasant young lady though. They’ll be pictures of them somewhere, with the trophies they won. Would you like to see them?’

‘Yeah sure,’ Sabine said then along with Jordan followed Ernie as he got off the bar stool and walked across the clubhouse to the wall on the far side of the room. ‘Here they are, that’s after they won that match I was telling you about.’

Sabine and Jordan looked at the picture of Sandi and Erica and shook their heads, the bright red hair really did give Sandi a different look.

‘Don’t suppose you can remember Erica’s surname? Or where she lived, anything like that?’ Jordan asked.

‘Now then you are testing me there. Never been much of a one for surnames, always seem so impersonal to me, makes me feel like a gym teacher when I use someone’s surname. I’m afraid I don’t know anything about Erica outside the tennis club, she wasn’t an orphan like Sandi, that’s about all I know. Now then I will know the surname, it’s just a matter of remembering it. This is annoying, I’ll know it if I heard it.’

‘So it’s definitely not Lords then?’ Sabine checked.

‘No, she wasn’t related to Sandi.’

‘Bailey?’ Sabine checked again.

‘No, it wasn’t anything as common as that.’

‘Don’t suppose it was Elstob was it?’ Jordan asked.

‘That’s it, I knew I’d recognise it if I heard it.’

‘Wow!’ Jordan spoke for himself and Sabine.

‘Wackier and wackier,’ Sabine added.

‘Have I been of any help?’ Ernie asked.

‘Very big help Ernie,’ Jordan said. ‘I only hope my memory is as good as yours when I’m sixty five.’

‘Sixty five, ha, I like you!’

‘So you can be creative with the compliments as well as the insults,’ Sabine said.

‘Oh yeah, it’s just that the insults are much more fun.’

‘Thanks a lot Ernie, you really have been a big help, but we really need to get going now,’ Sabine said.

‘Happy to help. You guys play tennis? We’re always looking for new young members.’

‘I haven’t played for years,’ Sabine said. ‘But just because you called me young I’m definitely going to think about it.’

Sabine and Jordan’s goodbye to Ernie and to George was so friendly it was as if the four of them had been friends for years.

‘Can you believe this?’Jordan said just after they both got into Sabine’s car.

‘I’ve been doing this for long enough that I can believe anything, doesn’t mean I don’t get surprised though.’

‘Being best friends with a girl who might well be the daughter of the guy she’s set up for her murder? That could be a lead on the whole explaining the confession thing.’

‘You would think so, still can’t work out an explanation for it yet though.’

‘This catching up to your hit man case yet?’

‘In terms of bizarreness then it’s definitely up there. Actually odd thing is that that case involved a couple of orphans. Damn those parentless kids, they’ve got way too much spare time for concocting ridiculous schemes.’

‘No parental influence to stem the flow of their creativity,’ Jordan suggested.

‘Interesting theory, maybe you could write a paper on it sometime. For now though let’s see if we can find Sandi and Erica. Wait a minute I’ve got a text message from the Doc. It says we have to come round to his and meet him, he’s got some news on the case.’

‘He’s got some news on the case? We’ve been hurtling around LA all day covering more miles than a Tour De France winner, and he’s got some news from sitting in his house all day?’

‘Life can be so unfair.’

Chapter 28

On the Sunday evening Joe Elstob had gone to the police cell to spend the night. He’d been questioned about a murder he knew nothing about and his whole life had been turned upside down. The evidence against him was damning, but he knew he hadn’t killed anybody. Apart from the four stone walls and the uncomfortably firm bed, the only thing Joe had for company that night was a letter, delivered to him by a guard just after he got to his cell.

Dear murderer,

I’ve started this letter like that because you are going to have to get used to being called a murderer. From now on you will be known as a murderer, because tomorrow morning you will confess. You will not only confess to murdering me but also to the murder of my good friend Scarlet, please read on as I tell you why. You see I am one of only three people that know just how evil you have been and that you more than deserve any punishment that comes your way. Whether it’s rotting away in a prison cell for the rest of your life or being electrocuted after a long, agonising wait on death row, you and I both know you deserve a lot more. You’ve tried to get on with your life as if nothing ever happened, to me that only adds to how evil you are. I’d have had the tiniest slither of respect for you had you killed yourself because of what you’ve done, but to just carry on means you are well beyond sick. Erica is my best friend, we met when we were sixteen. By that stage of course she’d left home and you haven’t seen her since. Still can’t believe your wife bought your story of you having lost your temper a little once and slapped Erica gently, and that’s why she left home as soon as she could. Somehow Erica has turned into a tougher than granite, independent young lady. Although after what you put her through I suppose her being independent isn’t surprising because you’ve made it virtually impossible for her to trust anybody ever again, especially any male. Your wife must love you so much for her to believe your story, she’s obviously blinded by love, I’m just not sure whether it’s a love of you or a love of the size of your bank account. I wonder what she’d think of you if she knew the truth, I wonder what all your friends and work colleagues would think? Surely they’d all be repulsed by you. Repulsed by the fact that you raped your own daughter on several occasions between the ages of eight and fifteen. Have you any idea what happens to people like you in prison? Trust me it’s much better to go in there as a double murderer. Like I said I am only one of three people to know about your sick, awful, disgusting, horrific, vomit inducing, vile secret. Erica still doesn’t want anybody else to know, least of all her mother. Of course this is a fact that you have sickeningly used to your advantage all these years, you knew she was just a scared little child. At first you made out that it was something normal and she was young enough to sort of believe you. As she got older you had to change track and make it clear to her just how much trouble she’d be in if she ever told anybody, and how upset all the people who loved her would be, you even threatened to kill her. Whatever sentence you get it will be nothing compared to hers, you’ve given her a life sentence. Any time a guy touches her now in any way, she jumps and gets a horrible icy shiver all the way down her spine. Eternal torture in hell is the only fitting punishment for you, but even I’m not clever enough to pull that off, so I’ll have to settle for you confessing to murdering Scarlet and I. Like I said Erica really doesn’t want to tell anyone else about what happened, she doesn’t want people looking at her for the rest of her life with them knowing what she’s been through and she definitely doesn’t want her Mum to know. However she has got to the stage now where she wants you punished and if you don’t confess to the murders, she is willing to tell people everything. If you’re thinking that it’ll be hard for her to prove after all this time, then I have to tell you that she’s a lot smarter than you give her credit for. Remember that little camcorder you bought for her one Christmas, as one of your many pathetic attempts to create the façade of a happy family? She put it to some good use. That’s right, unbeknownst to you she recorded a couple of your later sessions and as evidence goes it’s as good as it gets.

Here’s what you’re going to tell them. You admit to the online affair that we actually had, if you haven’t already. On the night of the murder you came round to my UCLA room, you’re desperate to convince me to have sex with you. You insist that you only need to fuck me once, just to get me out of your system. I refuse, saying I could never have sex with a married man. You get very angry at me for denying you sex, you start grabbing me then in a mad rage you grab a nearby big pair of scissors. Whilst still in that mad rage you stab me repeatedly in the stomach whilst I’m still on the bed. After a few minutes of staring blankly at me, trying to come to terms with what you’ve done, you grab a few spare bed sheets and wrap me up in them. By this stage I’ve been dead for a little while and the blood has stopped pouring out of me. You find my keys on the floor and carry me out over your shoulder, locking the door behind you. As you’re putting my body in the trunk of your car you are startled by Scarlet as she appears behind you. Obviously she realises what you’ve done and you have to silence her, you punch her to the ground then strangle her before throwing her in the trunk with me. From there you take us to your boat and you throw us out to sea about a mile or so off the coast, leaving us to the sharks.

If you have trouble remembering all that, just make sure the police understand that you killed both of us. They want to believe you, their trusted DNA evidence is telling them that you did it. Do this right and you’ll be remembered as a guy that lost his temper when a pretty young girl refused to have sex with him. Or you can be remembered as the unbelievably sick pervert that raped his own daughter several times. Your call.

Chapter 29

On the Monday morning Sandi did a little wheel spin as she pulled away from Aaron’s house. Hers was almost the only car in sight as she drove quickly down the winding coastal road. Within a minute or so of setting off, she’d flicked the lever to make the top of her car go down, allowing her hair to be truly windswept. She drove into downtown Los Angeles. Knowing there was no parking anywhere near the bank she wanted to get to, she parked as close as she could and settled for a half mile or so walk.

In the bank she withdrew a large sum of money, almost all of the money she had saved up over the last five years or so from her various ventures. She left only five thousand dollars in the account. Withdrawal was so large she had to show a couple of forms of identification and answer a few security questions. The bank manager himself was called to deal with the withdrawal, whilst he couldn’t quite hide his disappointment at the size of the withdrawal he drew some comfort from the fact that Sandi hadn’t actually closed the account. Another thing he couldn’t hide was his surprise at the image of the person who was making the withdrawal. Young lady wearing denim hot pants, white vest top, with a pair of sunglasses perched on top of her bright red hair was not the sort of person he would have expected to be making such a withdrawal. He managed to complete the transaction without becoming flustered by Sandi’s appearance. When it was all done she got up out of the comfortable chair and gave a big smile to the bank manager as she said goodbye and then left with the cheque in her pocket.

After exiting the bank Sandi stood still for a moment and allowed herself a few deep breaths. She took the cheque out of her pocket to have another look at it, couldn’t help but flash another huge smile. Put it back in her pocket and set off walking down the extremely busy street. Seemed like most people were walking in the opposite direction to her, and that a good proportion of them bumped into her. She took the glancing blows on her shoulders in her stride. The smile, although decreased, never left her face.

When she got to her car there was a young lady sat on the bonnet, eating a donut, with her back to Sandi as she walked up.

‘Excuse me you’re sitting on my car,’ Sandi said.

‘Oh sorry,’ the young lady said without turning round to face Sandi or getting up off the bonnet and continued to munch on her donut.

‘Do you need a ride somewhere?’

‘Anywhere but here.’

‘Anywhere but here? Always wanted to go there.’

‘You heading north or south?’ She remained sat on the bonnet with her back to Sandi.

‘It looks like you’ve not packed much, guessing it’s full of bikini’s, light skirts and T-shirts, so I think south.’

Finally the young lady got up off the bonnet and turned to face Sandi.

‘How you doing Sandi?’

‘I’m doing fine Erica, how you doing?’

Erica licked her fingers after finishing her donut and then produced a dazzling smile, that was matched by Sandi and the two of them had a big, emphatic hug.

‘I heard your signal correct last night didn’t I?’ Sandi checked after the hug was broken after about a minute.

‘Yes you did.’

‘So he got the letter?’

‘Yeah, he’d have got it last night.’

‘That means he should be confessing right about now.’

‘You get the cheque?’

‘Oh yes,’ Sandi said then got the cheque out of her pocket and showed it to Erica. ‘How pretty is that?’

‘Pretty, pretty, pretty. So no problems with the kidnapper?’

‘Oh no, he was a sweetie.’

‘Professional killer and a sweetie? Sounds complex.’

‘He was actually. A lot like me in fact.’

‘Please don’t tell me you were attracted to him.’

‘Oh no not really, decent bit of eye candy I suppose, but no connection along those lines.’

‘I’ll believe you.’

‘You ready to head south?’

‘Definitely, there’s a beach in Acapulco that I can hear calling me.’

‘Then jump in.’

Both of them got into the car.

‘Like the hair by the way,’ Erica said. ‘Reminds me of that ladies doubles final we won.’

‘Oh yeah, I can never forget that because my back is still sore now from carrying you that day,’ Sandi said with a hint of a smile.

‘You must be kidding, because I know your memory isn’t that bad. Your first serve that day was so bad you couldn’t have hit water if you were serving off a boat.’

‘Who won us the tie break?’

‘Oh here we go, tell me all about that running forehand you hit on set point. How far out of court were you? It must have been five yards, because it goes up by a yard every time I hear you tell this story.’

‘That was the match right there in that one shot.’

‘Oh I know, miss it and we lose, make it and we win. I’ll just get my light pen out so I can circle that shot.’

‘Have I told this story before?’ Both of them couldn’t stop themselves from bursting into laughter.

Chapter 30

When Sabine and Jordan got to the Doc’s house there was no answer when they knocked on the front door. They correctly guessed that this meant he was sitting out in his back garden.

‘Hello young ones,’ the Doc held up a drink in his hand as if he’d just proposed a toast but didn’t get out of the deck chair he was sat in.

‘Hey Doc,’ Sabine said. ‘You are not going to believe what we’ve been finding out today.’

‘Oh I might,’ the Doc said as he held up a piece of paper.

‘What’s that?’ Sabine asked.

‘Arrived this morning.’

‘Not sure I want to read it, after what has happened since I last read a letter addressed to you,’ Jordan said.

‘Oh I think you’ll both want to read this one.’

Dear Doctor Hall,

Firstly let me convey my sincere apologies for not being truthful with you in my last correspondence. You should take it as a compliment that I chose you and your assistant Sabine to send that letter to. I knew that sooner or later she would find my “journal”, and that would lead you to Joe Elstob. Actually I figured it would have been a little sooner, but not to worry you got there in the end. I know you’ve both got reputations for not letting cases die, even when everybody else thinks you should. So just in case you do some extra digging after he’s confessed, I will be totally truthful with you now. I haven’t been murdered, nor has my alter ego Scarlet. Therefore of course Joe Elstob is not guilty of murder. But before you use this letter as evidence to free him, let me tell you what he is guilty of. He has a daughter, sadly after what he’s subjected her to over the years, the only way in which he is a father to her is biologically. When she was between the ages of eight and fifteen he often raped her. I’ll make it clear that I am not his daughter, but I do know her and we have become sisterly like close. Close enough for me to become the only person she has ever told about this horrific past. She doesn’t want anybody else to know about what happened to her. So instead of having him arrested for repeated rape of his own daughter, we’ve had him arrested for double murder. He knows I know and that, if he forced her to, his daughter would tell the police, and she’s able to prove his most heinous crime. That is why he confessed.

I acknowledge that in the strict eye of the law what I have done is wrong. But on any other level I really can’t consider what I’ve done to be anywhere near wrong. Hope you feel the same. By the time you get this letter I’ll have left the country, please don’t waste your time by trying to find me.

Please find enclosed a cheque for five thousand dollars, I hope you see that as significant enough payment for less than a weeks work. Thanks for your help.

Yours apologetically,

Sandi and Scarlet.

Sabine and Jordan both read the letter at the same time.

‘You got a paper shredder inside Doc?’ Jordan asked as soon as he had finished reading, both his fists were clenched tight and he was taking a few deep breaths.

‘Hang on,’ Sabine said. ‘Why do we believe her all of a sudden?’

‘I believe her,’ Jordan said. ‘Why else would he confess? It had to be something almost unimaginably serious for her to go to all that trouble.’

‘Your shredder is in your office isn’t it Doc?’ Sabine checked.

‘Yes just by the door, on the right as you go in. Does the letter sum up everything you were about to tell me?’

‘Yeah pretty much,’ Sabine said. ‘We were confident that Scarlet didn’t exist and we also found out that Sandi’s best friend was actually Elstob’s daughter. We just didn’t know about the rapes.’

‘I’d love to have half an hour in his cell right now, just him and me,’ Jordan said.

‘And I’d love to watch that,’ Sabine said. ‘But shit things happen and I don’t mean to get all senior partner on you, but you’re going to have to get used to hearing about things like this if you’re going to do this job.’

‘You’re right, I know you are,’ Jordan said and took a couple more deep breaths. ‘At least in this case it looks like the bad guy has been caught in the end, even if the process was extremely odd.’

‘End justified the means,’ the Doc said.

Chapter 31

Monday 18th September.

Freed myself from my kidnapper, after getting the signal from Erica the night before. He’s understandably taken aback by the whole thing, but he doesn’t make too much of a fuss and lets me go without any problems. Turned out that not only was he excellent and professional at his job, he was actually pretty good company too. So as being hostage goes, it really wasn’t all that bad a few days.

Make my planned big withdrawal from the bank. The Bank manager deals with me himself and manages to refrain from leering at me too much. He’s disappointed at the size of the withdrawal but consoles himself with the fact that I don’t actually close my account, ignorance really can be bliss. As I walk from the bank back to my car, looking at all the stressed out people I’m sharing a street with, I have such a great feeling of freedom. Lose count of the number of glancing blows my shoulders receive, as these tunnel vision people take turns in not quite avoiding me. Of course I have no way of knowing the reason for the stress in each individual case. One thing I feel sure of is that I’m never going to feel that sort of stress for the rest of my life. None of the bumps I get come close to annoying me, I’m as far from being irritable as I can ever imagine being.

By the time I get back to the car Erica is already there, not too surprisingly eating a donut, some of us have to work hard to be slim, whilst others are sickeningly natural at it. There’s no last minute change of plan, we drive down to Mexico. It’s an enjoyable drive, no traffic jams, top down and wind in our hair. Whilst never losing sight of the horrors that have made us venture down this path, Erica and I have resolved to make sure we have fun the rest of the way.

We get to Mexico in time to book into an hotel room, tomorrow the house searching will begin. From our research we shouldn’t have any problems finding a good house located near some spectacular beach. Erica is lying next to me, fast asleep as I write. After the last nine months or so I’ve conditioned myself to only need four hours sleep a night at the most. I’m sure Erica’s happy to spend the rest of her life relaxing on beaches, wearing nothing but bikini’s and sun cream. After what she’s been through, nobody could deny her a life of leisure. I’ve collected more than enough money to buy a house down here and still have plenty to spare. Erica’s saved up a decent little sum of her own. Not got enough between us so we can afford to never earn any more, but the Swedish Ice Hockey League is starting again soon, not to mention the Danish handball season. If the worst comes to the worst we can both handle serving up a few cocktails at some exotic beach bar.

I’m going to miss playing the roles of Scarlet and College Sandi, both of them were a lot of fun in their own ways. Now there’s no reason for me to be anybody but the real me. Who is the real me? To tell you the truth I’m not really sure myself anymore, what with all the confusion.

THE END.