the numbers 8832?”
“Yes. How did you know?”
This watch was bought by Maeve. A twenty grand watch bought on Maeve’s secret credit card less than two weeks ago? Maeve said she hadn’t seen him in a year but that now looked like a lie. But why lie when the man was already dead? “Thanks Watson, that’s a big help.”
She wandered into the adjacent room; an office filled with papers, a computer and a small printer. She pressed the reprint button on the printer and picked up the paper. Plane tickets. The last thing to come out of his printer were plane tickets, not a suicide note.
She began opening drawers and cupboards in the bedroom and looked under the bed. There were two plastic bags from Ned’s Guns and Ammo. She pulled them out and tipped out their contents.
Bullets. Live bullets and blanks… Blanks!
The restaurant shooting was fake… blank bullets?
She sifted through the pile of blanks examining each one and tossing it aside. There was a receipt in the bottom of the bag, and she pulled it out. She looked at the credit card receipt. The number ended 8832, just like the watch. They had been paid for by the same credit card.
“Oh, my God.”
Maeve had bought the bullets for the fake shooting.
----- X -----
Harriet called Palmer as soon as she got into the car. She had the receipts on the seat next to her and put the phone on loudspeaker and started driving. Palmer picked up straight away. “What is it?”
“I was just at John Willis’ house, and I found something.”
“The case is wrapped up, Harriet. There isn’t anything left to find.”
“Maeve lied about when she last saw Willis and about ending the affair. I was always suspicious of the restaurant shooting, something not right about it. I found blank bullets in John Willis’ apartment.”
“Why is that important?”
“The restaurant shooting was fake. There was no damage. The shooter fired right at Edward and Maeve Sparks but nothing was damaged. It wasn’t damaged because he used blanks and in the apartment of John Willis are blank bullets bought using Maeve Sparks secret credit card. They were bought only two weeks ago.”
“What? But why? Why fake that?”
“Who knows what the reason is, maybe it was to deflect attention, but everything she told you in that meeting was a lie. Her credit card was used to buy Willis a twenty grand wristwatch just a few weeks ago, too. A gift perhaps, or a reward. Something to entice him. But the point is she was still seeing him, spending money on him and buying blank bullets.”
“Okay… I’ll send officers round to her house now.”
“I'm already on my way.” Harriet said.
“I’ll meet you there, I’m only a few minutes away. Don't do anything stupid.”
----- X -----
Harriet arrived outside Maeve’s house as the electric gates opened. Maeve drove out in a red Ferrari heading away. Harriet beeped at her, driving close behind and flashing her lights. The Ferrari stopped.
Harriet got out of the car. Maeve wound the window down and smiled at Harriet. “Miss Smotes, what can I do for you?” she asked. Her hands were clutching the wheel.
Harriet leaned against the low window frame. “You lied in that meeting, Maeve. Why did John Willis shoot at the restaurant with blank bullets?”
Maeve said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about?” Her face had suddenly turned white. Her voice broke. She was visibly afraid.
“Did you arrange it together? Did you arrange to fake a shooting to… of course… He shot at you at the restaurant to give you an alibi. Nobody would then suspect you in the death of your husband.”
Maeve shook her head and reached for her handbag on the passenger seat. She pulled out a gun and fired quickly. The shot whizzed past Harriet who dove away from the window. Another shot hit the ground as Maeve reached through the window, trying to aim as Harriet scrambled back behind the car.
Maeve stepped out of the Ferrari with the gun. “I’m not going to let you get in my way!” she shouted and fired at her again. Harriet saw another car approaching. Palmer. It was Palmer.
He opened the door of his car. “Drop the gun, Maeve,” he said.
Maeve pointed the gun at him and fired again, the bullet going wide to smash through the front window of his car. Palmer ran to get behind the car for cover as Maeve climbed back into the Ferrari and gunned the engine.
Palmer called out to Harriet, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said.
Palmer picked up his radio. “Officer needs assistance, shots fired, repeat shots fired. In pursuit of red Ferrari heading West out of Kingsbury Suburbs. Suspect is Maeve Sparks, armed and has fired at a police officer, over.”
----- X -----
Maeve sped down the main road, overtaking the cars in her way. I have to get away, she thought, I have to get away. She could hear the sirens not far behind her. “No, no, no,” she muttered under her breath. The car was fast, but the traffic and roads were slow. Flashing lights were in her rear-view mirror. The police cars had her in sight yet she couldn’t get a clear road to use the power of the car to escape.
On the edge of town she approached the first wide open road, but the police had gotten there first and two cars barricaded her route.
Oh, God, No. Trapped.
She put her foot down and spun the car to head back the other way, breaking out onto a minor road and heading back. The police did the same. She cursed under her breath. The cars coming the other way jerked to the side to avoid her.
She was heading back into the city. This was pointless. Stupid. Oh, God what had she done. The police were getting closer.
She broke out onto the main road by the tourist deck of the waterfall. The police had already sealed the road ahead of her. A line of cars and policemen holding guns. She gulped and slowed the Ferrari down as other police cars rushed in behind to box her in. It was futile. She was hemmed in with nowhere to go. With the gun in her hand she stepped out of the car and walked to the barriers at the top of the waterfall.
The police moved in cautiously.
Palmer was already there when Smotes arrived. Maeve still had the gun in her hand and the police were poised to shoot back. “Stay back!” she shouted.
“Maeve, stop this.” Palmer said.
“Stop this? It’s too late to stop.” She pointed at Harriet. “I had to kill John because of you.”
Harriet stepped forward. “Did John kill your husband? Or did you kill him?”
Maeve looked down. Her shoulders drooped as some part of her accepted defeat. “John killed him.”
“And the restaurant? Did you fake the restaurant shooting together to take the suspicion away from you?”
Maeve nodded, then wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Maeve…” Palmer called out. “Maeve… It’s time to stop… Drop the gun.”
Maeve dropped the pistol and stepped away. She cried softly as Palmer moved towards her, but when he pulled out the handcuffs, she reacted. The realisation of it all. She was going to prison for a very long time.
She stepped back. She looked around, desperately seeking an exit.
She saw one.
Maeve ran hard and fast to the waterfall. She climbed the railings.
Palmer yelled, “Stop!”
Smotes yelled, “Maeve, don’t!”
It was too late. She launched herself down into the waterfall and the ragged rocks below.
----- X -----
Harriet Smotes sat in the police station with Palmer in front of her. He cleared his throat. “This is the witness statement of Harriet Smotes.” He motioned to the recorder. “Can you say your name for the tape please?”
“Harriet Smotes.”
Palmer nodded and motioned for her to begin.
“Maeve Sparks was having an affair with John Willis. But, she wanted her husband’s wealth and company as well as a new husband, so she convinced Willis to kill Edward
Sparks so they could be together, enjoying her dead husband’s wealth.
“The restaurant shooting was set up to divert suspicion from Maeve. They knew the spouse is normally the prime suspect but no one would suspect her after she had been shot at in public,” Harriet said. “She then began trying to convince people that Arenke was the likely suspect. People found the story of a business rival easy to believe. Then Maeve persuaded her husband to go to their secluded cabin where John Willis was waiting. She had her story prepared. She would say she saw an Arenke van with the logo on the back doors.”
“Except the van didn’t have a logo on the back doors.” Palmer said.
“That’s right. The van John Willis chose had the logo on the sides but not the back, so Maeve couldn’t have seen the logo. When I questioned her about it she panicked and realised she was under suspicion. This meant a new suspect needed to appear.”
“John Willis?”
“Yes. I believe she faked his suicide. She was under pressure. I believe she murdered him and planted the suicide note. She did it so quickly, she didn’t have time to think about what incriminating evidence was there; mainly items linking her and John.”
Harriet looked down at her hands. “Her ambition was ruthless, she had her husband killed to create the life she wanted, then murdered her lover to save herself.” She stared directly at Palmer. “She let her selfish ambition cloud her mind and when discovered, she killed herself to avoid going to prison.”
----- X -----
Geoffrey Palmer and Harriet Smotes sat at a bar looking up at the television. On the screen was Palmer, in front of a crowd of