AN: Well, this is the end of the road, at least for this story. Hope you all enjoy it! JulieM
OOOO
See part 1 for disclaimer…
Part 11…
They went back to chat with the admiral, the next day and he didn't seem able to tell them much else. However, they were just leaving and the admiral was accompanying them out, on his way to a court case, when something he said jumped out at Mac.
"Goodness knows how those documents got into that file, my secretary is usually most careful about how she files away my papers…"
"Sir?" Mac spoke up, "Is it you secretary who files your documents for you?"
"Yes, well, she filed the ones pertaining to the colonel. You see, Cassandra and Timothy often stopped by with them, often when I was in court, if the documents had been back to the colonel for revision. That often happened in the last few months…if neither my secretary or I were in, Timothy would file them away, himself. He knew where everything was kept…"
"Did you not think this unwise?" Harm questioned
"Not at all," the admiral shook his head, "The colonel and I trusted him implicitly. You don't suspect Timothy, do you?"
"He is the one who inherits everything, now," Harm commented.
"I'm sure he didn't know it," the admiral maintained.
Just then, they were cut off, as a familiar car pulled up in the parking lot.
It was the colonel's car, driven by Timothy.
"Timothy," the admiral, shook him warmly by the hand, after the man had climbed out and crossed to join them, "Good to see you, under sorry circumstances, but still…"
Timothy nodded.
"Yes, indeed, Sir. I just wanted to stop by and let you know, the colonel's remains shall be released by the coroner tomorrow and the funeral shall take place on Friday. At St. George's church, followed by the burial at the cemetery, beside Miss Cassandra…There will be no wake afterwards, not under the circumstances. I have a few things that I am still trying to sort out…Commander Rabb, Colonel MacKenzie, you will be more than welcome at the ceremony, too."
Harm nodded their thanks for the invitation, but Mac's eye was caught by something across the street, visible over Timothy's shoulder. The sun was bright that day and was bouncing up off the street, the roofs and windshields of the cars in the car park, but Mac was later almost sure she had seen a young girl standing, watching them from across the street; a young girl who seemed a lot like Cassandra Drake. In the instant that Mac blinked her eyes to try and clear them, the vision had disappeared.
By now, Timothy was now back in his car and driving away. She and Harm bid goodbye to the admiral and climbed back into their own car.
OOOO
They were both finishing dinner, that night, but something would not allow Mac to escape the case. Because of this, she had been silent and introspective, the whole time that they had been back in Harm's room, eating their dinner.
"What is it, Mac?" Harm asked her, noticing how she was only picking at her food, "It's not like you to leaving your food…is it because I wouldn't let you get a hamburger?"
Mac didn't even notice the joke.
"Hmm…" she murmured, "There's something that I'm not seeing…what is it?"
She finally gave up the pretence of eating her baked potato and got up from the small table. She went over and picked up the book that had come back from forensics, that afternoon.
The book turned out to be a journal, which explained why there was no title on the front or on the spine of it. It didn't even look like a journal, which is why it hadn't jumped out at Mac, when she had taken it from the shelf in Cassie's bedroom. It was quite a large, heavy book, probably one that her Father had brought home from his office, which she had then used to record her daily life in.
"Anything interesting?" Harm asked her, after she had scanned through it for a few minutes.
"No," Mac told him and indicated the first page, "Not yet, but I'm a long way back. This is at least three years ago…"
This was how Mac passed the evening, once she returned to her room. She read through the life of Cassandra Drake, seeing many of the events of her own teenage life mirrored in the journal. Of course, Cassandra had not gone off the tracks as a result of domestic abuse like she had, but in the absence of essentially both of her parents, her life outside the home had similarly proved to be very important to Cassie. There were plenty of accounts of her school life; exams, cheerleading rallies, gymnastics meets and, of course, boys. As the pages turned, Jeremy Baker began to have an increasingly important part in Cassandra's life. More so than the boy had told them during their interview. Mac was certain that the boy had known how important he was to Cassandra, it was now obvious when recalling the words contained in his suicide letter. And Mac was surprised when she discovered another fact in Cassandra's journal; Cassandra and Jeremy been more involved than the boy had let Harm, Mac and perhaps any of their mutual friends know. Cassie's journal documented their many meetings, in heart-warming detail, culminating in one only three weeks before. After a birthday party at a friends' house, they had snuck off on their own, while their friends had not been looking…
OOOO
Harm opened his door, already knowing who was knocking urgently, on the other side.
"Hey Mac, what's up?" he greeted her.
She simply strode in past him and turned to face him.
"It wasn't Jeremy," she stated, beyond the shadow of a doubt.
"How do you know?" Harm asked her.
"She and Jeremy were a little more into each other than they let on…"
"They were dating?" Harm asked.
"Uh-huh," Mac nodded, adding, "in secret. I can't figure out why…but there's something else, apart from that."
She held up the journal for Harm's inspection and as he read, his cheeks began to flush…
"Uh-huh," Mac nodded, "That's right."
"Mac!" Harm protested, struggling for the words, "Why didn't you just tell me that Cassie and Jeremy were…were…intimate…Why did you have to let me read…that! Geez, the things you girls put down on paper!"
Mac just ignored Harm's outburst and his very obvious embarrassment.
"Turns out, she was a virgin until she met Jeremy and so was he," she revealed, "Quite cute, really. They seemed to be pretty certain about the move…"
"But they were both under sixteen years old!" Harm protested.
"And how old were you, Harmon Rabb?" Mac demanded. Sure, she had been a little surprised herself, but surely Harm realised that these things did go on, especially between kids as lovesick as Jeremy Cassy had obviously been.
"I'm going to tell you nothing of the sort!" Harm flustered then tried a diversionary tactic, "But anyway, what about that tells you that Jeremy Baker didn't murder Cassandra…Other than the fact that he never confessed, even in the suicide note?"
"We will be returning to this," Mac smiled, addressing her previous question, before she addressed Harm's, "Well, it's something that she says, later on, just a few days before her death."
Mac flipped forwards in the book.
"Here," she resumed, "In this bit, she notes how much attention Timothy was paying to her. She noted three occasions when he turned up to pick her up from school, unexpectedly. She says she thinks he's trying to keep her away from Jeremy."
"So that means what?" Harm asked her, "That Timothy did it?"
"Not exactly, no," Mac admitted, "But that's the way that I'm leaning…"
"We don't have any hard proof, Mac," Harm began, "You know as well as I do that there was no murder weapon found, there was no gun linking him to the bullet wound
Cassandra sustained…"
"Murder weapon..." Mac murmured.
"Mac?" Harm tried to get her attention.
"Harm, what was the murder weapon?" Mac turned and asked him.
Harm paused to think about it; the bullet wound hadn't exactly killed her, although it had contributed to it. Her lungs had collapsed following a huge amount of force to her back.
"The killer smothered her by leaning on her back and…"
"…stuffing something in her mouth," Mac finished off.
She paused for a second, in internal contemplation, then obviously came to some sort of decision. She reached out and took him by the hand. Harm could not fathom what happened next, and could only describe it as sequences, flashing before his eyes;
First, it was him and Mac with the coroner, who was telling them that a piece of leather had been recovered from between Cassie's back teeth.
Next he seemed to be looking out from Cassandra's eyes as she struggled on the ground, some unseen force pinning her on her front, forcing something inside her mouth.
He and Mac were interviewing Timothy, who was telling them that he knew nothing about the contents of the colonel's will.
He was looking out through Mac's eyes, as she lifted out the pair of leather gloves from the drawer of the bureau, obviously in the dream she had had, the night before their search of the mansion.
Next he was back in the room, the next day, when Timothy had come in and removed the gloves from the drawer, in their very presence.
Timothy was telling them that the colonel had never made any provision for Cassandra's death in his will. This was something that immediately struck Harm as suspicious, as he had told them previously that he had known no details of the colonel's will.
Harm was seeing out through Mac's eyes again, that afternoon when Timothy had turned up on the base. He saw the man exit the car, still with his driving gloves on. But he noticed nothing of the invitation to the colonel's funeral this time, because Mac had noticed the figure of Cassandra Drake, across the lot, over Timothy's shoulder. Harm could not see her that clearly, but did not miss the distinct nod she gave him.
Finally, he was again in Mac's dream, when she had been looking over Cassie to see
Timothy leaning over Colonel Drake, watching the frail man bent over something Timothy had placed on the table in front of him; a document.
When Harm eventually came to his senses, Mac was watching him, carefully.
"You just saw that, too?" she asked him, eventually.
Harm nodded then sprang into action.
"Of course!" he spluttered, "It all makes sense…Timothy did know what was in that will, he knew exactly what he would inherit…"
"I don't think the colonel willingly left his estate to Timothy," Mac shook her head.
"Why?" Harm asked.
"Because, up until recently," Mac continued, "the admiral was sure it wasn't in his office.
Then, all of a sudden, it turns up in a file which Timothy had access to."
"You think that he revised the will, got the colonel to sign it and then slipped it into that file in the admiral's filing cabinet?
Mac nodded.
"So Timothy killed Cassandra to get his hands on the money?" Harm continued.
"And because he realised that she knew what he had done," Mac added.
"How did he know that?" Harm asked.
Mac thought about it for a minute.
"Well, the colonel's original will still hasn't turned up…maybe Cassandra took it and that tipped him off?"
"Or, he could have just burned it. He had no need for it…"
"Maybe," Mac nodded, "But whatever happened to Colonel Drake's original will, it's still obvious that Timothy did kill Cassandra…We need to get hold of those gloves!"
"I'll contact the sheriff and Admiral Basingstoke," Harm nodded, reaching for his phone.
OOOO
It didn't take long to arrest Timothy Dowler and get hold of his driving gloves.
Without knowing it, he had led them straight to the only item linking him with Cassandra's murder.
"Why did you do it?" the admiral demanded of him, before he was bundled into the waiting police car.
"She found out," Timothy stated, simply, "I couldn't let her tell you…that's where she was headed, you know, to your office."
"And the colonel's will, the one he signed of his free will?" Harm asked the man, "What did you do with that?"
"Nothing," Timothy maintained, "But I know that she took it. I accidentally left it out, in the colonel's room, with the one I had altered. She must have read mine and taken the original when she went to say goodbye to the colonel, before she left for school, that morning. I have no idea what she did with it."
Harm gestured for the police officer to take him away.
OOOO
"I still don't understand where the will could have gone," Harm mentioned, later that day, after they had submitted their final report to Admiral Basingstoke, "If Cassandra didn't have it on her person, then where else could she have hidden it? She was on her way to school and Timothy was pursuing her."
"She never went into the school," Mac noted, "Somebody would have seen her and she was on her way to meet Jeremy and go to tell Admiral Basingstoke."
"Then she couldn't have taken it with her," Harm surmised, "But we didn't find it amongst the contents of the house…"
Mac suddenly grabbed his arm, stopping in her stride.
"Unless…" she trailed off, in thought.
She quickly led Harm back inside.
"Where are we going?" Harm stepped up his pace, in order to keep up with her.
"I think I know where that will is," Mac told him.
Harm followed her, wordlessly, until they got back to the Admiral's office.
"Sir, we have just one more loose end to tie up," she told the man, requesting, "Could we possibly take another look at that journal?"
The admiral just nodded and extracted the item from the cardboard box that he had been about to send down to storage.
Mac took it from him and opened it to the back cover. Then, with the admiral's permission, she borrowed the mail opener from his desk and carefully slipped it beneath the inside cover.
"I saw this in a movie, once," she explained to them, manoeuvring the metal object around, carefully.
Harm and the admiral gave a sigh of amazement as the card came away from the book's thick cover. They saw that even though you could not tell from the outside, a piece of paper had been folded and hidden inside, between the book and the inside cover. This was because several layers of the book cover had actually been cut and peeled away, so that no trace of the extra paper could be seen through the inside cover.
"Smart kid," General Basingstoke smiled.
"This," Mac unfolded the single piece of paper, "is the colonel's last will and testament."
She passed it to Harm, who looked at it and concluded, "Yep, short and succinct, because there was only one person whom he needed to mention in detail; Cassandra. He left his entire fortune and estate to her. Timothy is mentioned, very briefly, along with the amount of twenty thousand dollars, for his long-time devotion and care."
"And that was why he forged the colonel's will," Admiral Basingstoke continued,
"Because he felt like he was entitled to something more than that."
OOOO
Harm and Mac walked out to their rental car and began the drive back to their lodgings, to get their gear together.
Driving past Brookfield High, Harm turned to Mac and commented, "Think about how close Timothy was to actually getting away with this."
Mac nodded, "Yeah, Jeremy's suicide gave him the perfect opportunity to blame it on somebody else."
"How were you so sure that it wasn't Jeremy?" Harm asked, curious.
"Somebody made sure that she let me know," Mac admitted, honestly, "no matter how much I tried to pretend that it was just my eyes playing tricks on me. I'm glad she was so insistent, though."
"Because she can finally rest in peace?" Harm asked.
"Yeah," Mac nodded, "she doesn't need to fight anymore, she'll be able to let go of this side of life and embrace whatever it is that comes next."
"Amen," Harm nodded, with a smile.
The End