Chapter 7: Hypnotic Investigations

‘But that would be stupid. Have you got the video with you?’ he asked. When I said, ‘Yes,’ he told me, ‘I know you well enough that I don’t doubt anything you have told me. But in fairness to Quentin,’ he pronounced the name through gritted teeth. ‘I would like to see some evidence. Can you show me a bit of the video that proves he was naked in your bedroom without showing me him doing anything to Martin. I might not be able to restrain myself if I saw that.’

‘Yes,’ I said, I started the video and showed him me getting back on the bed, then Quentin coming in, and stripping off. At that point I stopped it, spun it on and showed him the video of his sitting astride me. With Quentin on top of me you couldn’t see my face, so I just told him that isn’t Martin he’s on. I think he realised it was me, but he didn’t comment.’

‘He watched it through to the end where he went round pulling our shorts back up and left. He handed the camera back to me. ‘What do you intend doing with the video?’ he asked. ‘As soon as he is dealt with, I’ll delete it,’ I said. ‘I see no purpose in upsetting Martin and Cedric. Whilst it wasn’t very nice, I don’t think it will harm them if they don’t know about it.’

‘I agree,’ he said, ‘But he must be stopped from doing it again. Do you know he’s high up in the government?’ he asked. ‘I didn’t until I asked Martin about him this morning,’ I told him. ‘Will you leave it with me and let me try and sort it out without any publicity?’ When I told him, ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘We’ll speak again as soon as I have either dealt with it or failed. In which case it will be your decision what we do next.’

‘He asked me to list the sequence of events as he wrote them down. Then we parted. We stood up and he shook my hand. ‘Thanks for bringing it to me,’ he said. ‘How about you, are you ok?’ I assured him I was, so we went out and he thanked the lady on the desk for the use of the room.’

‘When Martin and Cedric returned and we went up to bed, I thought we were quite safe as we hadn’t had any drinks since what we had with dinner.’

‘The next morning, we went down for breakfast. We all used to go down around the same time and eat together. Uncle Quentin’s seat was empty, and his wife was looking worried. When Martin’s mum asked her, she said he had disappeared last night, and she had no idea where he was.’

‘I saw him about eleven, I think it was,’ Martins dad said, ‘He said he was going for an evening dip in the sea.’ Just then a waiter appeared and said to the Earl, ‘The manager would like a word if you please, My Lord.’ Martin’s dad followed him out.’

‘A short while later he returned. He went to Quentin’s wife and asked her to come with him. ‘Will you come too dear,’ he said to his own wife. Martin and Cedric were agog as to what was happening. I didn’t know, but with the mention of night swimming I did wonder.’

‘A little while later Martins dad returned without the ladies. Sitting down he said, ‘I have some sad news. It seems that Quentin went for a late dip in the sea last night and must have got into difficulties. The coastguard has just fished a body answering his description out of the sea. It is being brought ashore as we speak.’

‘To save his wife having to see him, I’m going down to identify the body this morning. But there seems little doubt that it is him.’ He glanced briefly at me. I gave him the slightest of nods.’

‘Later that day when he returned, he told us all that it was definitely Quentin. The local doctor had given his wife a sleeping draught so they would discuss getting the body home tomorrow.’

‘No one felt like doing much that morning so the four of us went out for a walk. Martin’s dad walked alongside me and we let Martin and Cedric get ahead.’

Once they were out of earshot he said, ‘I saw him last night and told him I needed a confidential word with him without anyone else knowing. That’s not unusual in his position, so when I said go and get your swimming trunks on and meet me at the tables on the beach, he went and did so.’

‘I had put mine on too. When we sat down, I had brought two glasses of cocktail out with me. I told him I knew what he had done to the three of you. He denied it naturally. Then when I read him out the list of what he had done in the order he had done them, he caved in.’ ‘What will happen now?’ he said. ‘There will be a court case,’ I told him. ‘There is a credible witness plus there is a video of you from the moment you walked into the room to when you left. I would love to break your neck personally.’ I told him. ‘You will of course be dismissed from government and be publicly disgraced.’

‘Is there nothing I can do stop it happening?’ he said.

‘I put my hand out and told him to give me the tablets he had used. I had gambled that he would have them with him rather than risk leaving them with his clothes. There were about twenty of them in a little jar.’

‘I took them off him and opened the jar. I shook three tablets out and dropped them in his drink one at a time, so he had no doubt how many went in. Drink it I ordered.’

‘He hesitated for a moment, then picked up his glass and drank it all. I stood up and told him, tomorrow you will be arrested and charged with assault and rape. If it was me, I would rather go for a swim.’

‘When I looked back as I left the beach, he was still sitting at the table looking out to sea. I walked around a bit then returned five minutes later. The beach was empty. I returned to the table, collected our glasses and returned them to the bar.’

‘A satisfactory result for everyone,’ I said, ‘Apart from his wife. But if she had known the alternatives it could well have been her choice too. Thank you for dealing with it,’ I said. ‘I will delete the video as soon as I return to the hotel.’

‘Will you say anything to Martin or Cedric?’ he said. ‘About what?’ I said with a smile. He shook my hand and told me he would invite me to dinner at the House of Lords one day soon.’

‘We continued our walk as if nothing else had happened. When we returned to the hotel I deleted the video, then just to be sure I broke the memory card up and later I put the bits in the bin outside the hotel.’

‘How did the rest of the holiday go?’ Lewis asked. ‘We didn’t see much of Quentin’s wife,’ John said. ‘So, it didn’t really affect the three of us. Martin hadn’t been close to him, so he soon accepted it. When we returned home three days later, Quentin’s body came with us in the hold of the plane.’

‘It was a bit sick after that. There was a big funeral and lots of the newspapers said what a wonderful government member he had been.’

‘Then about three months later I got an invite to lunch at the House of Lords. When I arrived Martin’s dad met me and introduced me to one of the guides. He gave me a conducted tour of the House of Commons and the House of Lords then returned me to the House of Lords dining room.

Martin’s dad was there, and he introduced me to a friend of his who was dining with us.’

‘We had a lovely meal and I soon realised that Jacob, the third man was very interested in me and my opinions. After we had dined, we went out onto the House of Lords terrace. I had sailed up the Thames several times and seen the terraces from the river, but I’d never dreamt I would ever be actually on them.’

‘After we had had a coffee, Jacob shook hands and left. Martin’s dad and I sat for a while watching the river traffic. Then he told me I had just been vetted by MI5. I had to tell Jacob about Quentin,’ he said. ‘He was very interested to hear how you handled yourself and wanted to meet you.’

‘I don’t know if you’ll ever hear from him again,’ he said. ‘Or if you’ll be interested if you do, but either way, I’ll never know about it. I hope his third degree didn’t spoil your visit.’ ‘Not at all,’ I said, ‘It’s been a fantastic experience.’