Wednesday cont.
Cleo was at Delilah’s bistro by midday, intending to put her
and Mitch in the picture about Jack Cooper and ask them to let Dorothy get on
with the meeting without disturbing them with oodles of small talk. Although Cleo
could not imagine the meeting getting out of control, they should all be
on their guard. Gary would also be there to take a look at the guy who had
ditched Dorothy half a century ago.
***
Cleo sat at a corner table from where she could watch
Dorothy and her one-time boyfriend. Dorothy took the precaution of telling
Delilah that she would come back to pay her bill if she felt the need to stand Cooper
up. She did not want him to pay for her. She might have changed her mind if she
had seen his car pull into Delilah’s forecourt.
***
Gary turned up carrying a tennis racket and dressed in the
sport dress designed to disguise anything about him that reminded anyone of a
cop. He sat with Cleo at a corner table. Gary would have preferred it to be an
assignation with Cleo, but he was realistic, so he had slipped handcuffs into a
back pocket.
Through the leaded glass windows of the old pub building you
only had a hazy impression of what was outside. The silver-grey Rolls-Royce
that pulled in shortly after one was the first car of that make that had ever
been seen there. A smart, slender guy with silver-grey hair stepped out of the
car and walked briskly to the entrance. Mitch had painted a “Bistro” sign in
gold on a carved wooden shield and hung it where you could not possibly miss
it. The old pub had gone forever except for the snug, a room with a traditional
open log fire that was home to the regulars unless it had been booked for a
function. The main part of the bistro was a large room with a corner reserved
for the karaoke machine on a raised platform. Karaoke was a big attraction at
weekends. Food was cooked fresh in an open kitchen behind the main counter.
***
Jack Cooper ordered a double espresso before looking around
to see if he could spot Dorothy Price. He recognized her though she had her
back to him. There was no mistaking her bony shoulders and straight back.
Cooper went up to her table and sat down opposite her.
“Dorothy!”
“Jack!”
Dorothy got up and then sat down again. She was nervous.
“It’s good to see you again,” said Jack.
“Nice to see you, Jack.”
“How did you find me?”
“Friends of a friend located you in Canada.”
“But...”
“You look surprised, Jack.”
“It’s a small world.”
“But you were in London and are now visiting Oxford, I heard.
My friend’s friends were persistent, weren’t they?”
Jack Cooper looked uneasy. What was happening between the
two of them was something Dorothy had never envisaged. They were exchanging
statements like strangers. They were strangers. What was she doing there? Why
had she spent all those years speculating about a reunion? She was now aware
that it was not happening the way she had dreamt it would, but to be polite she
would stay for lunch. She had to eat, after all. Dorothy tried to feel
comfortable in a very uncomfortable situation.
Delilah brought the midday menu.
“What do you recommend?” Cooper asked her.
“The trout is fresh,” she said. “Caught early this morning.”
“Then I’ll have that. Would you like it, too, Dorothy, or
would you prefer something else?”
“Trout will be fine,” Dorothy said.
“Chips?”
“Yes please,” said Dorothy.
“No for me,” said Jack. ”Just a green salad. I’m watching my
waistline.”
“Two trout, then,” said Delilah, and left them to a series
of silences that seemed to be getting longer and longer. Dorothy thought they
were like two human trout, sitting stiffly at the table trying to think of
things to say.
***
Gary got out his laptop and they read Chris’s first forensic
report. Cleo was horrified. Their dialogue was in hushed tones.
“Chris says that Mrs Coppins was drugged, Gary.”
“Seems so.”
“A woman’s crime again.”
“But not a duplicate of the Huddlecourt Minor school drama,
Cleo. Mrs Baines went to prison and is still there. Jessie Coppins took the rap
for her contribution, but got away with a sentence of the balance of her mind
being disturbed. How could Jessie Coppins have drugged her mother and then got
her to the pond when she was in that penitentiary? Mrs Coppins was dead before
she escaped.”
“Then Kelly must have given her something, waited for it to
work and then dragged her to the pond.”
“Is that likely, Cleo? You wanted to leave him off the list
of suspects, if I remember rightly.”
“But I can’t think why he would not just have sent Mrs
Coppins packing if he didn’t want to be bothered with her.”
“Maybe he was enjoying what she had to offer, or she might
have threatened him with exposure.”
“Exposure of what, Cleo? We found nothing incriminating last
time and I don’t think he’d be bothered if people knew about his love life.”
“I’ll have to get Dorothy onto it. She’s an ace at
interpreting motives, though she doesn’t think Kelly had one strong enough to
incite murder. I think Dorothy has a soft spot forKelly.”
“You don’t say. At her age!”
“At any age, Gary and I don’t mean romance. She loves mysteries
and some of her most adored screen heroes are as scarred and threatening as
they come.”
“And fictional, Cleo! Let’s move on to this guy here rather
than discussing Dorothy’s emotional status. I talked to the Canadians and
they’ve made some documentation available. We can look at it now. I wanted to
wait and see what Cooper looks like before going through the database.”
“He looks respectable, Gary. A bit skinny, though.”
“Don’t forget your own theory about felons being just
ordinary guys and gals with chips on their shoulders. I don’t know if Cooper is
respectable, but if it’s his Rolls outside that I can see vaguely from here,
he’s damned successful.”
“I wonder if Dorothy knows about the Rolls. It wasn’t here
when we came.”
“I shouldn’t think so if she was here before the guy, and
she was. She also has her back to the window.”
“Do you think I should find a way of talking to her now,
Gary? Supposing he offers her a ride and she disappears without trace?”
“I can’t believe Dorothy would get into a car with anyone
she can’t vouch for.”
“OK. So she is cautious and she was not happy about meeting
this old beau of hers, but that doesn’t mean she suspects him of something.”
“I’ll get a patrol car here. I’d like to know how Mr Cooper
made his fortune, and they can trail him back to Oxford. But he should not be
warned. If he is a gangster we want to catch him, not warn him off.”
Gary phoned Greg Winter, an experienced patrol cop who was
fortunately available. He promised to drive the fastest car on the HQ parking
lot. They would park out of sight and follow the Rolls to wherever it was going.
Cleo hoped that Dorothy would not lose her nerve. It was now important to keep
Cooper at the bistro until Greg arrived.
***
Cleo and Gary looked through the Canadian mugshot database.
It didn’t take long to find Jack Cooper. He was wanted for crimes concerning stolen
trees.
“I wonder how you steal trees?” said Gary.
“Dorothy once mentioned that Cooper went to Canada to study
forestry.”
“The database here is only Canadian, not Interpol. He’s
classed as a resident in Canada. I don’t suppose they expected him to leave. He
just seems to have sold trees and presumably made a fortune out of it,” said
Gary. “That’s theft if the trees were not his to sell. Either he had good
connections to get rid of such bulky stuff, or it’s a cover.”
“For drug trafficking?” Cleo asked.
“Ask me another. The search for him has been called off. A
death certificate was handed in.”
“That’s really macabre. So Mr Cooper does not actually exist
anymore.”
“That’s what it looks like.”
“So if he no longer officially existed, how did Ali’s
contacts find him?”
“That is a leading question, Cleo.”
“Ali Lewis jobbed in Canada and still has friends there.”
“Friends who can trace the dead!”
“But Jack Cooper is not dead.”
“Exactly.”
***
Gary was now feeling enervated. This was the kind of mystery
that interested him. Prostitutes in ponds be damned. He liked the prospect of
finding out who Ali Lewis’s friends were and how they found someone who had
been registered dead. But he would not let Cleo in on that investigation. It
would be his and his alone.
“Penny for your thoughts, Gary.”
“Just wondering how you make enough cash to buy a Rolls.”
“Not by being a cop.”
“No. You need to be on the other side of the law.”
“So what next?” Cleo wanted to know.
“Next?”
“In the Cooper case. I am concerned about Dorothy.”
“We need a copy of the Jack Cooper’s death certificate.
Someone must have signed it, so maybe we can get a solution to the mystery from
whoever that was. After all, someone signed a death certificate for someone who
was not dead. That involves considerable criminal energy and organisation.”
“Will that will be a job for my agency?”
“Probably. I don’t think I can let someone who signed an
illegal document get away with it, but you can, Cleo. We need information. The
Canadian Cops can deal with an arrest.”
***
Gary found it both ironic and satisfying that Cleo had to be
in on the investigation of Cooper. Gary did not really like Cleo’s agency to be
indispensable, but it often was. On the other hand, their trysts were guaranteed
by their frequent, ostensibly business contact. Gary lived in hope that Robert
would find out and leave Cleo, but he could not tell him because that might
drive Cleo away.
***
“OK. Where does Dorothy stand in all this. Should she be put
in the picture?”
“No. She might be alarmed and even warn Cooper inadvertently
that we’re onto him.”
“If we can pin him down, you mean,” said Cleo.
“It looks promising, don’t you think?” said Gary, closing his
notebook and getting up. “I’d better go now. I love you, Cleo,” he said.
“I love you too, Gary.”
***
Gary left his tab for Cleo to pick up. Cleo smiled inwardly.
You could not accuse Gary of multi-tasking. But Cleo was glad he had left
before Robert arrived. She could not have guaranteed that Robert would remain
calm if he saw her with Gary, sitting together in what must have looked like an
intimate situation because it was.
***
Robert was unnaturally jovial when he arrived. He embraced
Delilah, patted Mitch on the back, and, to her astonishment, planted a kiss on
Dorothy’s forehead before going to sit at Cleo’s table. Mitch went out to Robert’s
van to fetch a large tray of steaks and came back wide-eyed after spotting the
Rolls Royce.
“Who’s that guy why just kissed you?” Cooper wanted to know.
“And who’s that coloured person he’s sitting with?”
“I know them slightly. They’re married. He’s the local
butcher. I expect he delivered some meat,” Dorothy explained.
“He kissed you, Dorothy.”
“Only on the forehead, Jack. People do that round here,”
said Dorothy. She did not reveal that Cleo ran a detective agency and that she
helped out. In retrospect she was heartily glad she had not said anything of
interest, but that was not until Cleo had told her what she and Gary had found Cooper
out. Cleo had really told her because she thought Gary might come up with some
strange theories and comments, making Dorothy more nervous about Cooper than
she already was.
***
At the time of meeting him for the first time in nearly 50
years Dorothy had merely had a hunch that telling Jack anything in detail might
make it possible for him to trace her, and the more she talked to him, the less
did she want that. It bothered Dorothy most of all that her dull feeling of foreboding
might not just be her imagination working overtime. Had Cleo had a reason for
warning her not to put Jack Cooper on his guard? Surely not. After all it had
been Cleo’s idea to meet up with him.
***
After the reunion lunch, Dorothy announced that she would
have to go because she had a meeting later that day. Cooper seemed quite sorry
that the date was over even if Dorothy was just the same nervy person he had
left so many years before. But she was quite nice and he thought she would be
the right person to make sure his Canadian past never came to light. He would
work on that idea.
“Can we meet again,” he asked.
“I’ll call you,” said Dorothy. She had no desire to see Jack
Cooper again.
Cooper went to the bar to pay for both lunches.
“No,” said Delilah. “Dorothy would not want that. She’s very
independent.”
“OK, but tell her I offered.”
“I will. Come again!” said Delilah.
“I will,” Cooper promised, and left.
***
What Dorothy could not know because she had left some
minutes earlier and taken no notice of the cars parked outside the bistro was
that Jack Cooper had driven off in that Rolls Royce without noticing that he
was being followed. Cooper was a cautious driver and Greg was in a neutral car
with a colleague. They were not in uniform, but armed. It would not be a problem
to follow Cooper to wherever he was going. They were glad that Dorothy was not
in the car, however.
After Cooper left, Cleo phoned Dorothy to see if she was OK.
“I’ll phone back later, Cleo. I need to get my head round
Jack first.”
Cleo knew exactly what she meant.
Dorothy put thoughts of Jack Cooper on the back burner and considered
what Cleo had told her about the dilemma facing the Coppins kids after the
death of their mother, the news about Jessie escaping. If she had wanted to
kill her mother, as she had threatened to do, Jessie’s timing was bad, but Dorothy was worried that the girl might
have go out the night before and gone back to the prison. Had anyone thought of
that? Dorothy knew Jessie well enough to know that she was not the gormless
girl she liked to be thought of as.
Dorothy’s cottage was not far from the bistro, but the short,
brisk walk had cleared her head. She was glad Cooper had not followed her. She
had taken a short detour in case and kept her eyes skinned.
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