Race (15 page)

"On the marriage certificate, Noah signed it," Mini said pointedly. "So how did all that work out?"

"Because of Alice. She'd got Noah to sign the certificate all ready. Remember that day, when Alice was talking to Noah about how he felt so down about Ronan drinking and he signed some papers? That's when, at the Marriage Registrar Office, whilst Mr Downes was on the phone, she switched the papers around so that the one that Noah had signed was on the table, and the blank one that Mr Downes gave her, was in her bag. That's why the signatures were both signed in different ink. She did the real signature of herself in front of the registrar, and then she handed over the paper to Ronan, where he pretended to sign the paper but didn't, as Noah's signature was all ready there."

"Erm, I
'v
e got some papers that I need your signatures for," Alice pushed on, opening a blue file. Noah nodded briefly, and then signed the papers.  A little smirk appeared on her face, because she was glad that Noah was signing the papers without even looking at them. Then, she quickly changed tack when he looked up, and she stared at him with lust instead. Noah turned around, and their eyes met.

Alice and Ronan were at The Marriage Registrar Office with Mr Downes. All Mr Downes ever did was shout down the phone at his wife, and that was exactly what he was doing now. Whilst he was doing this, Alice quickly put the forged marriage contract that was in her bag on the table and put the blank one that Mr Downes gave in her bag. She then signed the paper and then Ronan pretended to sign the paper as Noah's signature was printed on it all ready.

"Then who's Hodgkiss?" Mini asked.

"Hodgkiss is Ronan! That's the name he booked the Cape Town ticket under, to fake his identity!" Harry exclaimed. Harry was sharp tongued. He'd figured out everything. "I got a photograph from the Marriage Bureau of Alice and Ronan." He flashed the photograph in their faces.

Harry and Mini walked into the Registrar of Marriages office.

"Where's Mr Downes?" Harry asked to a lady who was walking past.

"Please take a seat, Mr Downes will be here in five minutes," the lady replied.

"Thank you," Harry said, nodding. Then, he and Mini heard a shouting voice.

"I'M NOT YOUR DAD'S BLOODY BEGGAR SERVANT, SO YOU'D BETTER TALK TO ME WITH RESPECT!" came a roaring voice. "ARE YOU BLOODY TAKING THE MICKEY OUT OF ME? DO YOU THINK I'M EASILY JUST GOING TO HAND YOU OVER MONEY LIKE THAT?! DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT IN THE OFFICE. THE OFFICE IS MY HOME, DO YOU UNDERSTAND? DON'T TALK ABOUT FATHER'S LIKE THAT. OH, FOR GAWD'S SAKE,  IF YOU'RE A WIFE THEN ACT LIKE ONE AND STAY A SENSIBLE ONE!" He dialled off his phone in frustration and bounded into the room where Harry and Mini were. "Talk," he began, calming down a little.

"Look, we want to -" Harry began.

"You want to get married?" Mr Downes shouted. "Everyday, boys and boys, girls and girls, boys and girls, ask me to get them married! I'm not talking to you in an offensive way, but f you want to get married, then bloody give me a ring. There's such things as phones, you know! Talk on a mobile and the other mobile won't be upset, do you understand?! Please don't take this in a bad way, but it's really annoying!" He paused. "Never leave a phone on silent, you can change the bloody ringtone whenever you bloody want! You can even put the phone in your pocket, but my wife never bloody listens to me! After getting an old wan, you can sell it for a new one, but no, my wife does not listen!"

Harry and Mini were sighing, and Mini was about to burst into tears because  Mr Downes wouldn't stop shouting. Harry offered Mr Downes some berries, ripe, sweet, and straight from the shop.

"Thank you!" Mr Downes said, snatching the berries off him. "Now, you both just fill in the form and I'll sign it!"

Harry's mouth was full of berries. "I'm ... Harry Rodgers," he scoffed.

"Are you Harry Burnham, a music director?" Mr Downes exclaimed. "Oh, I'm such a big fan of you! I'm only alive because I listen to your music, otherwise I would have died! Oh, Harry, mate!"

Mini was beckoning to Harry to try and make Mr Downes shut up. Harry nodded.

"Look, I'm not Harry Burnham, whoever that is." Harry's tone of voice was foul. "I'm Inspector Harry Rodgers, emphasis on the Rodgers!" He leaned closer. "Inspector Harry Rodgers!" he repeated.

"Inspector?" Mr Downes repeated, looking as if he was about to burst into tears. "Did my wife send you here? Oh, sir, I don't fight with her or anything, I'm a really good husband! Sometimes people do get a bad impression of me and my wife takes it wrongly ..."

"I'm here in reference of a case!" Harry interrupted, breaking Mr Downes off his sentence. "And I want to ask you some questions!"

"Okay," Mr Downes replied vaguely.

"Sweetie," Harry beckoned to Mini.  Mini nodded, and handed over a photograph of Alice to Mr Downes.

"Hmm, why has she got sandals on her head?" Mr Downes asked, and then realized that the photograph was upside down. Embarrassed, he turned it back the right way around.

"Do you recognize this lady?" Harry asked him.

"Yes!" Mr Downes exclaimed. "So many days ago, she came here to get married!"

Harry nodded, and then  Mini handed over a photograph of Noah. "Did she come with this man?" Harry asked.

"No, no, no, no!" Mr Downes denied. "She didn't come with him, that man looks pretty decent to me, a good person. However, the person that she did get married to was a very angry man! He hit my photographer, and then smashed his camera on to the floor so that we couldn't take any pictures of him! Very bad! Very bad!"

Harry scratched his chin. "What did the man look like?" he asked.

"Well, he had two feet, two eyes, two hands ..." Mr Downes began. "But he only had one nose. He looked like a man, I'm not lying."

Harry and Mini were about to burst out laughing.

"You're going to have to go with us to Dublin. There, one of our departments artists will make a sketch of your description," Harry sighed.

Mr Downes grinned. "I don't have a problem with going, Sir, but there's no point of making a sketch since I managed to get his photograph! Take a look at the photograph and make a sketch, you know what I mean?"

Mini gasped. "You've got a photo of him?!"

"Yes, yes!" Mr Downes exclaimed. "Whenever someone does some crazy stuff with us, we just go to the CCTV and grab a photo from there!"  He opened up the file and handed it over to them.

Mini looked as if she was about to faint. It was a CCTV photograph of Alice - with Ronan
. "Sir, this is Ronan!" she piped up. "But Alice told us that she got married to Noah!"

"Ronan is crazy," Harry murmured. "He's that flower I was talking about at the funeral."

"Oh, that's nothing! My wife made me shrink from six foot to five foot!" Mr Downes laughed.

"Thank you, Mr Downes. Take care of your wife." Harry and Mini got up on their feet and shook hands with Mr Downes.

"You're welcome!" Mr Downes said a little too enthusiastically.

Ronan took his sunglasses off and Alice swallowed.

"How much money do you want?" Ronan asked.

Harry took his hat off, staring at them both with great interest. "What made you think that I'll want money from this?"

Ronan chuckled. "Don't insult my intelligence, Officer Harry Rodgers. If you didn't want money then I would have been locked up in prison by now."

Harry grinned. "He's right! You are right!" he exclaimed. "Fifteen percent money plus ten percent service tax and I'll forgive you!" Mini gasped. "How much longer will I be eating this fruit?" Harry smiled.

"Done." Ronan confirmed. "And in exchange for that money you'll clean out all you're data or whatever other shit you've got against us, so that we can get our policy money as soon as possible."

Harry fumbled in his pockets. "I've held my statement to the insurance company that you're both clean. And here is the copy for that. By Monday, you'll get your sanction letter." He handed over the piece of paper.

Ronan took it from him whilst Mini just watched them all, gobsmacked.

"Now, all I'm gonna wait for is your phone call," Harry said. "Bye."

Ronan and Alice nodded, pleased. "Thanks Harry." He looked at Mini. "Ma'am," he nodded. He and Alice got up from their seats hand in hand, and departed.

Harry and Mini stood up too, as Harry continued to munch through his fruit salad.

"Sir, I could never have even thought that you'd manage to get fifteen percent of the one hundred million dollars. You've never managed to get much money from your cases before," Mini said to her boss.

Harry stared at Mini.

"It means you're gonna get fifteen million dollars, plus that tax!" She looked at him in awe.

"Oh, don't you sweat, Mini. You'll get your cut. I'll give you seven cents as a tip."

Mini was really stupid. "Thank you, Sir!" she exclaimed.

Harry put his bowl of fruit salad in her hand. "Mention not," he grinned.

CHAPTER FORTY ONE

WHEN CHANTELLE CAME IN ...

Ronan looked at the paper slip happily in the morning. He had the one hundred million dollars, and he was over the moon. Then, he saw Chantelle walk into the house. Within a split second, he stuffed the piece of paper into his suit pocket and ran over to the bathroom, pretending to have a shower.

Chantelle walked further into the house, her handbag neatly placed on her arm. When she realized that Ronan was in the shower, she glanced over to see his suit on the sofa, with a piece of paper neatly stuffed in the pocket. Ronan wiped down the glass of the shower to see what Chantelle was doing.

"A sanction letter ... Alice?" she read. "How did Ronan get hold of this?"

Then, Ronan turned off the shower. Chantelle, quick as a mouse, quickly slot the sanction letter back into the suit's pocket. She grabbed her handbag and ran out of the house.

CHAPTER FORTY TWO

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

Chantelle drove her car and parked. Ronan parked his car a few places in front of her. He knew that Chantelle was there, but didn't let it on because he was about to do something.

He walked out of his car and leaned against it, waving at someone at the other side of the road. Alice.

Alice waved back, and walked over to Ronan. They hugged each other tight. Chantelle could not believe what she was seeing.

"Did you see her?" Ronan whispered in Alice's ear.

"You bet," Alice replied.

  They pulled away from each other's arms and laughed. The pair of them got back in the car, and Chantelle followed them in her own car.  Chantelle saw Alice walking in to the National Bank of South Africa, and realized suddenly what was going on.

Alice strode into the bank and sat down at the reception. She handed over some papers to the receptionist, ready to collect her money.

"It's okay," the receptionist nodded, scanning through the pages.

"Thank you," Alice smiled.

The money was rapidly printed and packed.

The next thing Ronan saw was Alice walking outside of the bank with two security guards, helping her carry the many briefcases of money. Ronan grinned at her broadly.

The security guards packed the briefcases into their boot, and Chantelle watched from her car, gobsmacked. She still couldn't get her head around what was happening.

Alice sat back in the car and everything was locked and secure. She took out her compact mirror and began to apply some lipstick.