Chapter 13

While this conversation took place Vera Banks was on her way home from work - she was still only working part time and on Tuesday she got off mid-afternoon. She had been driven back from the coast last night not by her branch manager and his wife but by Major Harman, or Cedric as he had urged her to call him. He had escorted her to the door but then withdrawn as they couldn't be sure Harold had left and he 'didn't want to cause any unpleasantness, ' as he put it in his gruff voice that was remarkably easy for Vera to hear.

Vera felt slightly regretful that she couldn't invite him in, but didn't want to risk a confrontation with Harold either. And once inside, she was relieved she hadn't done so as the air in the house felt very stuffy and there was an unpleasant odour. She put it down to the unusually hot weekend and opened several windows wide. There was no sign of Harold and she went to bed almost at once. She fell asleep and had a very pleasant dream about Cedric - her first sexually explicit dream in years.

The next morning the smell was still there, so she left a few windows open on security latches and decided to do a proper cleanup of the house when she got home mid afternoon - if the smell hadn't dissipated. When she opened the door a little before 3PM she realised at once it hadn't. On the contrary, it was worse than ever - sickly sweet and pungent and she saw, rather than heard, large flies on the landing upstairs outside the guest room.

She walked upstairs and with some trepidation knocked on the door. "Harold?" she called. "Are you there?"

There was no answer. So she opened the door and was nearly overcome by the smell. She looked straight into a pair of shoes partly covered by some vile mass of human faeces seeping out from the trousers' legs. Flies were swarming around them and her brain realised what she was seeing. She let out a piercing scream of terror and started vomiting helplessly.

Harold was there all right, but way beyond this world. He had opened the hatch to the attic, crawled up there and attached a rope with a noose to a roof beam and let himself drop. It was fairly competently done, the Coroner later remarked - the drop being long enough to ensure instant death rather than the prolonged pitiful strangling that is so frequent in suicide by hanging

Vera Banks was incoherent and hysterical when she got through to Jennie's cell-phone. At first Jennie didn't understand what her mother was saying, and then when the awful facts filtered through she was herself numbed with revulsion and didn't know what to do or say. George saved her. He was coming out to ask her something or other, saw her shocked facial expression and rushed over. "Jennie my love, what is wrong?" he asked.

"It's Mum," Jennie cried. "She has just found my step-father. He has hanged himself."

One of George many qualities - surely one that had proved invaluable both as a businessman and as the devoted husband of a critically ill wife, no matter how unfaithful - was his ability to remain calm in a crisis. He took Jennie's handset and spoke in his even, reassuring voice. "Mrs. Banks, this is George Sanders - Jennie's fiancé. Have you called the police?"

"No," Vera Banks got out between the sobs. "I've only just discovered him. It's so horrible. He must have been hanging there while I slept!"

She started to say something more, but George interrupted her. "Mrs. Banks. Listen to me. Is he inside the house?"

"Yes he is," Vera managed to say. "Upstairs."

"And you are sure he is dead?" George asked.

"Yes," Vera said. "He's - starting to decompose..." she trailed off, fighting back another bout of nausea.

"OK," George said. "Go outside and lock the door. Do not open for anyone except the police. I will call them and inform them. Jennie and I will come as quickly as traffic permits."

He hung up and returned the phone to Jennie. "Get me the police on the line."

While Jennie placed the call, George typed in a number on his own cell-phone. It was answered second ring by a cheerful "Hi George, what's up?"

"Henry, we have a class Triple-A Plus emergency. Jennie and I will pick you up at the front of your chambers in 8-10 minutes max. Be there!" George said.

"What's happening?" Henry asked - not unreasonably.

"I'll tell you in the car," George said. "Must rush - gotta talk to the police on the other phone," and he disconnected.

In brief and concise terms George explained the situation to the dispatch officer. "No, I have not personally seen the body, but my fiancée's mother assures me that from the smell alone there can be no doubt he is dead." The officer concluded that it was then hardly an emergency and sirens would be unnecessary. "Indeed not," George agreed. "My fiancée and I will come to the address as quickly as possible. I have urged my mother-in-law-to-be to go outside and admit no one but the police."

"Sound advice sir," the despatch officer said. "We have access to paramedics specialising in mental health. I'll see if one of them is available. If we cannot help the man then at least we can comfort his poor wife."

Henry was waiting when George and Jennie arrived on screeching tires outside his chambers some 10 minutes later. "Hi I'm Henry. You must be Jennie and I am delighted to meet you," he said as he got in the back seat.

When he had barely closed the door and before he could even start looking for his seat belt, George floored the accelerator and the Jaguar leapt forward into traffic, pressing Henry back into the seat. He hastily go himself strapped in. "This is not quite how I had envisaged meeting your young lady George," he said reproachfully.

"My fiancée - we got engaged on the weekend," George said, "but we'll save with the niceties for later."

"What is going on?" Henry asked.

"Jennie's mother has just found her estranged husband - Jennie's stepfather - hanging in their house," George said. "She got back from the coast last night but only discovered him a little while ago when she returned from work."

"Hanging, as in having hanged himself?" Henry asked

"Yes," George said. "She was hysterical when she phoned Jennie. I have told her to go outside and alerted the police. They might already be there when we get there."

"If not then they will be trailing us the way you're driving!" Henry muttered as George once more took the 'big cat' to its limits.

Jennie heard, and despite of her anxiety smiled.

"What do we know about the reason?" Henry asked - he was somewhat out of his depth. He knew a lot about Harold Banks, but he was not sure Jennie was aware that George had asked him to do a background check and thus how much he could let on.

As always George defused the situation with his uncompromising honesty. "Well, as we all know Jennie's step-father was in financial troubles over his gambling." Turning to Jennie, he said "I had Henry do a background check. You will appreciate that has to do be done in our line of business."

"Sure," Jennie replied. "I expected as much. Are you doing one on Jeff too?"

"We did," Henry said. "He came up as clean as you did. I'm not supposed to tell you this, of course, but since you're getting married to George he would tell you anyway!"

"Dangerous - I might tell my sister you know," Jennie said teasingly. "She is going out with Jeff."

"Your sister?" Henry said. "Oh, I get you - the oldest Ms. O'Brien."

"You knew about her?" George said astonished.

"Sure did - and so would you if you had read the report!" Henry replied drily.

"I was satisfied with the Executive Summary," George said, then made another highly original manoeuvre that had Jennie and Henry cling on to whatever they could find.

"Anyway," George continued. "What you cannot know is that here was a confrontation between Mrs. and Mr. Banks. Mrs. Banks had learnt of her husband's abuse of his stepdaughter - Jennie - and was going to be seeking a divorce and selling the house. She was away with friends for the Bank Holiday and had asked him to leave the house by the time she got back."

"OK," Henry said. "If you don't mind me saying so Jennie, it seems he was a pest and a good riddance. Now let's see what we can do for your mother."