Episode 24 - Mistaken Identity

It was surprisingly easy to get into the intensive care unit at Middlethumpton General Hospital. Dorothy pulled out all the stops of grieving and worrying and leant heavily on Cleo to provide evidence that she needed her support for the 'ordeal'.

"How is he, the poor dear," Dorothy asked a nurse anxiously.

"Showing signs of coming out of the coma, but it could be several days. Head injuries are unpredictable."

Cleo thought to herself that they were probably just in the nick of time. Once the man regained consciousness there would be a lot of questions to answer, especially the one about not really verifying the identity of an unconscious patient. Gary would be in the firing line. He was in charge of the case. Cleo’s protectiveness came to the fore. She hated it when he looked devastated.

Cleo and Dorothy acted out the rest of the scenario as planned. Dorothy went up to the man's bed and stroked his hand lovingly. She acted as was expected of someone visiting a very sick relative. She murmured a few comforting words before being led by Cleo out of the ward. A quick shake of the head told Cleo that her hunch was right. The man in that bed was not Patrick Kelly.

With Dorothy still putting on an act for the benefit of anyone looking, Cleo led the way out of the hospital to the car. Only when they had left the precinct did they drop the act and discuss what to do next.

***

"Ring Gary," Dorothy suggested. "He must know about this development."

"You're right. I'll do it now. I just hope he has his Doris cell phone on. It was off an hour or two ago."

"Do you want me to phone, quite innocuously? I've got my mobile with me. Do you know the number offhand?"

Cleo dictated the number. Presently Gary answered the call.

"Dorothy? How did you get my number? I'm not on duty."

"From Cleo. We know that, but we have news for you."

"I hope it's good."

"It isn’t. That bearded person in a coma is not Kelly."

"Can you repeat that? I'm not sure I heard correctly."

"That man in a coma at the hospital is not Kelly," said Dorothy, speaking louder and articulating carefully.

"Why do you think that, Dorothy?" said Gary.

"Cleo and I have just been there. I know Kelly. It wasn't him. And anyway, Robert saw him working on his farm today."

"Are you quite sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. Do you want to speak to Cleo about it?"

"No. I'll come back. Damn the vacation."

"He looks a bit like Kelly." said Dorothy, trying to cushion Gary's reaction. "Wasn't he formally identified?"

"We thought it must be Kelly under the circumstances."

"Thoughts are not always things," said Dorothy.

Cleo took the mobile from Dorothy and told Gary to come straight to her cottage. They would wait for him there. He could have supper with them and sleep on the sofa if he didn't want to go home.

"I've got a guestroom,” said Dorothy. ”Gary can sleep there."

***

And so it came about that Gary, after being forced to suspend his vacation prematurely, found himself lodging at Dorothy Price's cottage that night, but not until after a long discussion and a good meal at Cleo's.

***

Gary had arrived at the cottage just in time for high tea.

"Where've you been, Gary?" Cleo asked.

"Not far. I just needed to have somewhere undisturbed to think."

"About the Burton case?"

"No."

"About your marriage?" Dorothy asked.

"Yes. But I don't want to discuss it now."

"I thought as much," said Dorothy.

Dorothy's perceptiveness impressed Cleo. Robert was less impressed.

"Leave the man alone, Ladies. It's none of your business."

Gary looked thankfully at Robert.

"I'll get some coffee going," Robert offered, glad to have an excuse to get out of the room. You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.

"Want any help?" Gary asked, hoping to get away from these women with their perception and hunches.

"I can manage. Talk to the ladies. Tell them something they want to hear and then they might stop asking questions about your private life!"

***

Gary flopped down on the sofa. The two women watched him closely. Cleo was keeping quiet. She was glad to see him even in such a situation. He felt extremely uncomfortable under Dorothy’s unblinking gaze. Eventually he found a way of breaking the silence. Going on the offensive seemed to be the best solution.

"So you went to the hospital after Robert said he had seen Kelly, I take it."

"Yes. We had to do something."

"The fact is," said Cleo, "that you seem not to have checked the guy's identity, and I had taken it for granted that it was Kelly. But maybe you don't want us to ask questions about it."

"Ask all the questions you want to!" retorted Gary, wishing he was somewhere else.

"Like why you absconded in the middle of a case?" Dorothy said.

Gary was about to reply when Dorothy gave Cleo a warning look and continued.

"You didn't take time to check his identity, did you"?

Gary felt as if he was going through third degree.

"…and know for certain who the man was?" said Dorothy with heavy emphasis.

"No. If we'd had any doubts, you'd have heard about it."

"Thanks for that," said Cleo. "So the guy found in the car had left his credit cards and other ID documents at home."

"There was nothing on his person to identify him."

"And you were satisfied with a vague description of his looks over the phone," said Dorothy. "Didn't you think it strange that he had no papers with him?"

"That often happens, especially  with farmers, who tend never to carry anything identifiable, and corpses that have often been robbed."

"But the man wasn't dead," Dorothy pointed out.

"I thought it must be Kelly in Kelly’s car with Kelly’s wife. “

“Maybe the guy did not want to be seen liaising with a hooker, so he left his ID stuff at home," Cleo argued. "But he can't have fixed the brakes. He would hardly have got into a car if he'd fixed the brakes, so we are now looking for someone else."

***

Gary hadn't thought things through on any level. His private life, in particular the loss of his daughter, had been consuming all his mental energy.

***

"What if Kelly hired someone to see to the brakes?" Dorothy suggested.

"He had no contact with the outside world for a whole day," said Gary.

“A day isn’t very long for a premeditated crime,” said Dorothy.

“Dorothy’s right. It could have been a planned assassination,” said Cleo.

“Kelly is an odd guy, but he isn’t stupid,” argued Dorothy. “He could have plotted to get rid of Magda before you kept them overnight at HQ."

"But that would be like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs," said Cleo.

***

Gary was now more alert than he had been for days. He did not want to admit it to himself, but these two women were a godsend and he loved them both.

"So who hired Kelly's double, and why?" he asked.

“That might be a job for you,” said Cleo.

"Kelly, I should think," said Dorothy. "Unless the man was a client and the likeness was a coincidence."

“But Kelly must have known that,” said Dorothy. “And used it to get rid of Magda. What happened to the stranger was of no consequence.”

"Good God," said Gary. "That's it. What a cunning plan."

"A coincidence is never a cunning plan, however. And it could have been just that," remarked Dorothy.

"Whose cunning plan?" said Robert, coming into the living-room bearing 4 mugs of steaming latté..

"If Hatherton hired someone to cut the brake leads…"

"… and if Kelly suddenly didn't want to be in the car…"

"…and if Magda wouldn't drive because she'd drunk several double gins…"

"…and pigs could fly," added Robert.

"…we'd have solved Magda's murder, but not Burton's or Shirley's," finished Gary.

“There is a hitch,” said Dorothy. “We don’t know if Hatherton knew Magda’s client, and Magda was not murdered, but killed in a car accident," said Dorothy, who had watched gangster movies in which such scenes were rampant. "On the lines of mistaken identity, I mean. As in spy stories. But that could have been a coincidence. Or Kelly had arranged to have the brakes fixed and wanted to Kill Magda. But he would not know if the accident would be fatal, would he? You don’t necessarily bash into a tree when you have a car accident."

“Apart from which, where were Magda and her client going?” said Cleo. “Not that it’s important unless she was eloping.”

“Let's get back to reality, please," said Gary, overwhelmed by so many more or less plausible explanations.

“Why don’t you just decide it could have been a gang of rowdies cutting brakes for kicks?” said Robert.

“Thank goodness for a bit of sense,” said Gary.

"OK. Say that was the case. The client got into the driving seat not knowing that the car had been manipulated,” said Dorothy. “Do you know where the Kellys went after their release, Gary?”

***

Dorothy remembered the black and white prohibition era films where you the viewer identify the criminals faster than the cops do and the cops and bandits take aim and shoot. This was real-life detecting, however, and nothing would be handed to them on a plate. Dorothy was sure that the right questions had still not been asked, but what were they?

***

“Supposing the guy was hired by Kelly as a client for Magda?” said Dorothy.

"He might have been waiting for them in that café opposite HQ," suggested Cleo.

“I’ll check," said Gary, thankful that there was something practical he could do even if the women were going to do most of the thinking.

"Get the coma guy identified, Gary,” said Cleo. “That will make things easier. But he’s coming out of his coma and may be glad to talk. It's not every day that you wrap a car round a tree. He had a very lucky escape."

"Assuming he can remember anything," said Dorothy.

"Are you ready for some food, then?" said Robert. "It's ready for you."

"Nearly," said Cleo. "Well just sum up."

"I'll pop down to the off-licence and get some wine while you are summing up. Red or white?"

"Both," said Cleo.

"What are we having?" Dorothy wanted to know.

"Wait and see," Robert replied then let himself out of the front door, thankful to be leaving the three sleuths to carry on theorizing.

***

Gary kicked off his shoes and took off his jacket. Cleo booted her laptop. Dorothy scribbled on the notepad she always carried around. Gary and Cleo wished they were somewhere else –alone  together.

***

“Let's just run down my checklist,” she proposed. “It won't take a minute."

Gary was bored with crime and checklists were a girl thing.

"Some items have been cleared up, but others need us to put our heads together."

“That’s what girls do,” he said.

Cleo ignored the comment.

1: Was the guy Robert saw on the road really Kelly? - Yes, we can assume that."

2: Who is the guy in a coma at the hospital?” We don’t know.

3: Were fingerprints taken?

Gary had to admit that they hadn't been and was awarded some tut-tutting by Dorothy.

"So you just assumed it was Kelly, same age, height, general looks, did you?" she said.

"Yes." Gary could have kicked himself for his carelessness. What sort of a show was he putting on here?

4: Did Magda have a date planned for that evening, or was it all managed on the spur of the moment?"

Gary pointed out that the date could have been made before the Kellys spent Saturday night in the cells. If they had not had the time or opportunity to cancel the date with the guy, that might explain why it took place.

"It gets ever more speculative," said Cleo. "I'm not sure it's relevant now."

"What, for instance?" said Gary.

"We've been through it all," said Cleo.

"Well, go through it again!" said Dorothy.

"OK. We now know that there was no direct identification of the guy in a coma. So:

5: If Kelly arranged for a double to be in the car with Magda. Did he also get someone to fix the brakes?

No comment on that. Dorothy went on and on with her queries.

6: Were there unidentified fingerprints on the brake leads? Could they have belonged to the double?

7: What could Magda have known that could have made her a target for murder?

8: Did Kelly have a reason to kill anyone, including Burton?

"Mind-boggling," said Gary, for want of something to say. He had failed miserably. Like in his marriage, he decided. Not asking questions was the root of all evil. Not asking the right questions was just plain incompetent.

The hardest moment came when Cleo had to ask Gary if he thought he had been negligent. Was that one of the reasons he'd taken a vacation?

***

Gary shrugged his shoulders and Cleo did not press the issue. She would be on safer ground if she got back to the run-up to that road accident. She could not bear to see Gary’ blatant negligence being laid bare. The more he suffered, the more she loved him.

The list of unanswered questions was truly endless.

For instance, did Kelly phone anyone from the police station before he and Magda were sent home? If so, who? And did Kelly and Magda meet someone in a pub or restaurant before Magda and the man got into Kelly's car?

Gary said nothing, but he had taken out a small notebook and was jotting down what Cleo said. That, thought Cleo, was a step forward.

What worried Cleo most of all was the idea that Kelly might have managed Magda's accident and got away with it. If things had gone wrong with the client arrangement, he could always have sent Magda home driving the car and made an excuse not to go with her. There was reason to believe that Kelly was at least indirectly responsible for Magda's death. He might even have put K.O. drops in her drink.

“Did pathology analyse Magda’s blood, Gary? Maybe for KO drops, or maybe the guy in the hospital had taken some, but that would be too long ago for there to be any traces left in his blood.”

“Yes Cleo. Magda collapsed in the car, fell against the man driving, he swerved and that’s how the crash happened,” said Dorothy.

Now Gary was fully alert. He suggested that if someone had tampered with the car brakes while the two were in custody, the whole thing could have been planned beforehand and the Kellys trailed by the person who did the tampering. He was relieved to have contributed a little to the discussion.

"So who is the real devil in all this?" Dorothy wanted to know.

"Let's start again," Gary proposed.

"No, don't!" said Robert, coming back into the cottage with three bottles of wine wedged under his arm. "I'm totally out of my depth with all this sleuthing, and Cleo never has time to keep me up to date."

"You are up to date, Robert," retorted Cleo. "We are speculating."

"It's like this, Robert," said Gary. "The reason Kelly negotiated with a client of Magda's - if that's who it was - could have been to get the cash first. After that, he might not have cared what happened to the client.”

“What cash?” said Dorothy.

“And why kill her when she was providing him with extra income?" Robert asked.

Another valid question.

"Perhaps he wasn't planning to have her get in the car," said Gary.

"You mean fake his identity and have himself declared dead?”

“Something like that." said Robert.

“That’s silly,” said Cleo. “Why would he do that? He could not control what the stranger did if the brakes failed.”

“So Magda must have insisted on going with him,” said Robert and that was quite a feasible theory.

"How long did they say the mysterious man would be in a coma?" Gary asked Cleo.

"Not much longer."

"But even if he talks, it doesn't mean he'll tell the truth," said Dorothy. "Or he might have amnesia and not say anything useful."

 "It might help if we knew who released the Kellys and why,” said Gary, “but I can’t see that happening.”

“Can we assume that there is a totally corrupt element at HQ ready to sacrifice anyone who might be an obstacle?” said Cleo.

"We need to find that out," said Gary. "One thing is certain. We need to know who Magda's lucrative clients were. What if they were at HQ?"

“I’ll ask Kelly,” Dorothy said.

“No you won’t,” said Gary.

“Definitely not,” said Robert.

"Can you make me a copy of your list, Cleo?" Gary asked, hoping Dorothy would not insist on her plan while nevertheless realising that it might be helpful.

"Sure, Gary. E-mail or paper?"

"Both would be good."

Cleo was amazed at Gary's humility. He'd been taking notes, and still wanted the list. Gary looked at her pleadingly. What was wrong with the guy?

***

"Can we have the food, now?" said Robert. "I don't know about you, but all this detective stuff is making me hungry and ruining the dinner.

"Just one more point," said Dorothy. "What if that stooge kidnapped the car and Magda? He could have been absconding. That would explain why he didn't know the brake leads had been cut."

You’re in excellent form tonight, Dorothy,” said Gary.

"I am certain that Magda didn't know about the brakes," she commented. “But she knew a client when she saw one.”

“Feeding time, Dorothy” said Robert.

"Assuming Kelly didn't stage the whole scenario, what if…?"

"The casserole is crying out to be eaten," Robert interrupted. "If you want shrivelled food, keep this discussion going for a bit. I'll have my dinner standing up in the kitchen."

“I’ll join you, Robert,” said Gary.

***

To everyone's surprise, Gloria chose that moment to return from getting things sorted out at her new flat. She was in a foul mood. For something to do to, Robert opened the first bottle of wine and started pouring it out.

"Let's bring out a toast for Gloria's last night under our roof," he said, hoping to clear the air of crime.

"Not so fast," said Gloria. "What shall I do with the famous Phyllis? She still has a key and turned up saying she had been thrown out by her latest lover and where the hell was Gareth. She said she would sleep in his bed for the time being. She’s expecting his baby, she said."