Unravel a Crime - Tangle With Women (31 page)

Ridley looked startled. “Do
you know, I hadn’t thought of that.”

“
Well, as I’m the one who has
been deputed to escort her, I’m on my way to find out. I’ll let you know.”

Brakespeare made his way to
Lisa’s room on the second floor of the building. He could hear her humming as
he reached the top of the stairs. He could also hear the whirr and click of a
printer, and found her collecting letters as they were ejected.

“
Is this your new executive
roel?” he asked.

“
Sure is. I’m in charge of
client relations.”

“
With you new friend
Margaret.”

“
With my close friend
Margaret.” She nodded her head affirmatively.

“
There really have been some
big changes overnight. Seriously though, there’s this thing called a funeral
sometime.”

Lisa physically crumpled; her
chin dropped. “I hoped no-one was going to mention that.”

“
Do you want to go.”

“
Of course I want to go” she
snapped.

“
Well it shall be as you
wish.”

“
What.”

“
It seems that our unloved
client David Newberry who is not only an Executor of Gordon’s will, but is
organising the funeral, has invited you.”

Lisa simply stared at him.

“
It seems that Annette
Morrison is a very forgiving woman.”

Again there was no visible
reaction from Lisa

“
I’ve been asked to go.”

She raised her eyebrows
slightly.

“
Perhaps we could go
together?”

Lisa leaped to her feet and
hugged him. He returned the hug.

“
Thanks Jonny. I know that it
won’t be easy, but I need to say goodbye to Gordon. Goodbye to what might have
been.”

She hesitated, and pulled back
to look him in they eye.

“
Perhaps hello, to what might
be.”

Brakespeare felt his pulse
quicken. She was a bit quick this one. Her lover only just dead.

He didn’t want to reply to
Lisa. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing, and yet this sudden – liberation,
seemed the right word, within hours of Morrison’s death did not feel right.

“
Que sera, sera” he said
simply.

“
Que sera” she repeated,
“whatever will be, will be.”

“
Now about Newberry.” said
Brakespeare, and immediately Lisa was all attention. “When you’ve finished this
– and anything else that is needed in connection with Gordon’s, er demise, can
you make up a complete bundle of Black’s firm’s correspondence with Jonathan
Skinner out of the Redshaw files. See if you can see any more patterns.”

“
Such as?”

“
Such as the relationships of
the reports to the National with the offers to Skinners..”

“
Gotcha”. Said Lisa with
enthusiasm.

“
Then we’d better have this
conference with Queen’s Counsel.”

“
- and Mr Breezie.”

“
and Mr Breezie, yes.”

“
O.K.” said Lisa with a smile
which said that she would not be looking forward to it.

“
See ya.”

“
Sure will.”

“
Sure, there is something
going on, or rather there was. I’ve analysed the correspondence now.”

Lisa did not even knock at the
door as she entered Brakespeare’s office.

“
Criminal?” asked Brakespeare
hopefully.

“
Well, remember how after the
first request to Black from the National, he seeks an offer from Skinners.
Remember also that he is asked to do a valuation under the ‘Statement of Asset
Valuation Practice

There then follows a letter to
him asking if he has inspected the leases. I presume that they want him to see
if there is anything odd about them. He says that he hasn’t inspected them.”

“
So how can he have made a
proper valuation?”

“
It gets better. There is then
a series of letters in which the National ask Black to advise on various offers
they have received on the properties. Each time he charges for his advice. In
fact, it’s quite funny, on the first occasion he charged £1,000.00 for advising
on an offer. The National objected, and so he reduced it to £250.00, and this
is what he charged for each of the later advices.”

“
Where does that get us.?”

“
Of itself, nowhere, but every
time that someone puts in an offer, then Skinners make a slightly higher offer,
such as for one property, the flats at Disraeli Crescent, where the National
has received an offer of £1.75 million”

“
One point seven five million
pounds”

“
Exactly, well within what
they were valued at by National Surveyors, and this is one of David’s own
valuations. Anyway within 48 hours Skinners come along with £1.85 million for
one of their clients.

“
Look”, she came round the
desk and without hesitation pressed against Brakespeare. She pointed to a
letter.

“
Here is a letter from Walters
at the National, writing to say that they have received the offer of £1.75
million via Suttons, their own selling agents.”

“
Because the Bank has to be
able to show that it took all steps possible to sell the property at the best
possible price, once it had taken repossessed it.” Queried Brakespeare.

Lisa nodded. “Finally he asks
Black to confirm that it is a realistic offer. Look, here’s Black writing a 2
page letter back to them on the 6
^th
April and says that he
recommends “that an offer of £1.75 million, subject to contract, is acceptable
and should be seriously considered in the light of the prevailing market
conditions and on the basis that the current recession is unlikely to show
signs of any recovery for at least another 12 months.”

“
Fair enough.”

“
He charges his £250.00 for
that but.” Lisa turned a page, a triumphant note entering her voice. “He then
writes to Skinner with a letter beginning ‘Dear Jonathan’ and saying “I confirm
that my clients have received a substantial offer for number 46c Disraeli
Crescent, which is currently receiving attention. although my clients have not
formally instructed me to sell these properties I am endeavouring to secure a
formal instruction on the basis that a purchaser can be secured, It is for this
reason that I am writing to you to establish whether your clients would be
prepared to make a separate bid for the 5 flats at 46c Disraeli Crescent.

“
Then Skinner comes in with
the £1.85 million - £100,000.00 pounds more?” asked Brakespeare.

“
Sure. Look.” She bent over
him again, and Brakespeare found himself totally distracted by her. “The
National has obviously had to tell Suttons. All hell breaks loose then because
the National have instructed Suttons to sell the properties, and Suttons get
fed up with Black or rather Redshaws, interference. They send a fax to Black
complaining that he should not send offers directly to the National. I like
this but “It is not only discourteous but in our view, unprofessional.”

“
What does Black say?” asked
Brakespeare, laughing. “Talk about Honour Among Thieves”

“Oh Black is totally disingenuous.” Lisa read from the
correspondence again. “He says,
‘It has never
been my or this firm’s intention to interfere with your arrangements with the
National. The role of this company has always been on a purely independent
advisory and consultancy basis for which a separate fee has already been agreed
with the National.’
That’s a total lie because the correspondence shows
he was getting offers from Skinner and putting them forward.”

“
That will really dent his
credibility in the witness box.” Said Brakespeare “That’s a pack of lies. He is
quite clearly not independent.”

“
Sure”, replied Lisa, and she
jumped up and down with excitement. “Here are Suttons trying to kill the offer.
They say that they can only recommend the National to accept the offer if the
buyers immediately sign a contract and pay a 10 % deposit. Then we have a
letter from Black to Skinner, saying nothing about signing a contract, but
telling him that Suttons are going back to the person who has offered £1.75
million to see if he will increase the offer.”

She turned the pages as the
story unravelled.

“
Walters of the National wants
to know who the buyer is, and is told by Black that the name will be revealed
once the National have confirmed in writing that the offer is acceptable. He
also implies that he has done a deal with Suttons on commission – ‘we have
agreed terms upon which the offer may be accepted’. That’s also untrue”

“
What happens then?”

Lisa laughed and stood back.
Suttons come back with a counter offer also of £1.86 million, and the
correspondence with the National on the property ends.”

Brakespeare sat back in his
chair. “Two things,” he said slowly, thinking as he spoke. “Firstly the
National knew that Black was trying to sell the property and would allegedly
share any commission with Suttons. Yes?”

“
Yes.” Confirmed Lisa.

“
Secondly do we know who
Skinners buyer was?”

“
Sure, it’s on a letter here,
when Black thought the deal was going through.”

Lisa moved round the table and
pulled the file towards her

“
Here we are, oh my God, I
hadn’t twigged.” She looked up. “It’s a company called National Property
Investments Ltd.”

“
You’re joking.” Brakespeare
lent forward and pulled the file towards him on the desk. He stared at the
letter.

“
The address is given as ‘1001
Baker Street, London NW1’”

Lisa looked blank.

“
That’s the registered office
of the National Bank. I should know. It was on my Bankruptcy Petition.

“
Let’s work this out.” said
Lisa. “The National Bank lends out money to Clearfield. Clearfield can’t keep
up with the mortgage payments, and so the National repossess them.”

Brakespeare nodded and
continued with the reasoning. “Acting perfectly properly through Walters in the
Special Financial Services Department, they instruct Suttons to try and sell
them, and equally properly instruct Redshaw Linden and Steele to independently
advise them on property values, so that they cannot be accused of selling at an
under value.”

“
Only Redshaws are not
independent. They are looking for other buyers in order to earn some
commission”

“
One of whom happens to be,
what I presume is a company which is part of the National. It is connected.”

“
I’ll do a Company Search. Is
that it do you think?” asked Lisa.

“
Do you mean that have we
enough here to get the case thrown out? Possibly, but I’ll tell you one thing,
I am not writing any more letters to the C.P.S. about this. They’ve missed all
this stuff, no doubt thinking it’s all a bundle of unimportant correspondence,
and I’m not about to remind them of it; not after Breezie’s had a go at me.”

“
What do we do.”

“
Lisa, this is now as much
your case as it is mine. Make a chronology showing the dates on which various
things happened such as the dates of the letters and what they say, so that it
paints the picture without having to read the correspondence itself. Does this
pattern continue?”

“
It sure does.”

Brakespeare’s eyebrows shot
up. “Presumably it’s still going on, if not all the properties have been sold?”

“
Presumably.” Lisa smiled her
wicked smile.

“
Trouble is, if we ask for the
up to date correspondence we’ll give the game away.”

“
D.C. Durkin?”

Brakespeare smiled and nodded.
“D.C. Durkin it is. I may have to speak to someone about all this, but I think
that it will wait until after our conference with Queen’s Counsel.”

There was a lot for Jonny
Brakespeare to think about as he drove home to Milton Keynes that evening. His
feelings towards Lisa had now gone beyond the professional; the new Lisa was
seductive and openly so. Yet, she still had to bury her lover. He couldn’t
understand why she had changed so much – literally overnight. It was as if
Morrison’s death had released her. She had felt a debt of gratitude towards
Morrison– was that all it was?

Or was it the Newberry case
that had been the catalyst?. She had gained her confidence through the case,
and that had triggered her need for release.

So she wanted to go to the Bar
once more. Good luck to her. She would have to get there the hard way, but she
was no fool. In fact he wondered if she was brighter than he was. He had been
rusty when he started the case, although all his knowledge and experience had
seemed to have come back. They were a good match he and Lisa; a good team. But
isn’t that as far as it ought to go?

Why was he attracted to Lisa?
Well now he didn’t have a woman, and he missed the availability of Mel; well
sort of missed. It was the sex he missed. Did he miss Mel for herself? Mmm. Yes
he did; she was fun to be with. Perhaps he should have taken her out, be seen
in public with her, and not kept her in a closet relationship.