Motives and Suspicion
"So there was no one in the house apart from Dr Wayne?" The tired looking Lieutenant asked once again.
Alfred shook his head. "No, apart from my family and myself, only Dr Wayne and Master Bruce, when he is home, live in the main house. Thornton, the gardener, and his wife Molly, who is the cook here, live in the lodge along with their daughter Sally. The other staff all live local and start work between 6 and 9 am."
"And Professor Wayne, your family and yourself were all at Mario's celebrating his nomination for the Nobel Prize?"
Alfred nodded.
"Why wasn't Dr Wayne there celebrating his son's success?" the lieutenant asked.
"Dr Wayne had several business worries that were fully occupying his mind. He didn't feel able to break off from his work. I'm sure he had a celebration in mind for a later date."
"You mentioned Business worries?"
"Mmmm yes, over the past few weeks Dr Wayne has been very worried about irregularities in cargo manifests of ship in the Wayne Industries fleet. In fact just two nights ago he had me take him to the shipping office at 2am to collect copies of shipping movements, orders placed and cargo delivered."
"And this struck you as unusual? I thought big time industrialists worked all hours?"
"They do, but they don't usually break into the shipping offices of their own companies in the middle of the night." Alfred replied.
"Break in! What was Dr Wayne worried about?"
"I believe, he was worried that Wayne Industries' ships were being used to transport drugs into the country. Also that the main man in the drugs ring is a highly placed on the board of Wayne Enterprise." Alfred replied.
"Did Dr Wayne confide any names to you?"
Alfred shook his head. "But it was someone on the board, of that I'm sure. Dr Wayne had several files on board members he was looking at. They were in the safe. But they are gone now along with everything else that was in there."
A commotion in the hall caused both men to look up. John Reynolds commissioner of police was stood in the majestic hall way, he was dressed in a dinner suite and looked more like a guest in search of a party rather than a law officer. "Well Gordon," he barked "walk me through the scene."
Jim Gordon sighed mentally, he'd hope for a good couple of hours to put a case together before the inept Reynolds put his big size 14s all over the scene.
"As far as we can tell, Dr Wayne was in here, it appears he was updating his scrap book." Gordon pointed to the Washington Post in the waste basket then to the folder open on the desk.
"You found the folder on the desk, as if the victim had heard a noise and went to investigate?" Reynolds asked.
"No, I don't think so; the file was on the desk, like it had been tossed there by someone searching for something. Files and letters were on the floor, the desk had been ransacked."
"And the safe was forced?"
Gordon nodded.
"Is there much missing?"
"As far as we can ascertain a few thousand in cash, a couple of hundred thousand in bonds, a few jewels, nothing remarkable and some business papers." Gordon replied.
"So, a straight a forward robbery gone wrong then. The safe is pretty sophisticated so best pull in any knows cracksmen we have of in the area. Check the local fences for the jewels."
"With respect Sir, I think there may be more to this than stolen jewels. Dr Wayne was worried about possible drugs trafficking being organized by someone on the board of Wayne Enterprises."
Reynolds looked at Gordon as thought he had just crawled from under a rock. "Gordon, stick to the robbery theory, don't try making this into some big conspiracy. You see conspiracy and corruption wherever you look. That maybe how you used to work in Philadelphia, but in Gotham we find it's best to solve crime the old fashioned way by arresting the perps."
"But chief I think ..."
"Don't think Gordon; just do as I tell you!" Reynolds growled menacingly. "Now get this place processed, then get out and let these people grieve in peace."
Gordon nodded to Alfred as he and his men took their leave for the day.
Reynolds was stood with Bruce. "It seems to be a robbery that got out of hand. Rest assured we'll get the man who did this. Gordon is a good cop. He'll have the man very soon."
Bruce was sat at his at his father's desk slowly turning the pages of the file his father had kept about him. Everything was there, from his first steps to the item from the Washington Post. Absolutely disbelief and sorrow were evident in his whole body language. His father had so obviously been proud of him! So why had he never told him so.
Leslie and Alfred were stood looking at the young man concerned.
"Are you going to tell him about the drug smuggling?" Leslie asked.
Alfred shook his head. "No, not at the moment I think he's got enough to cope with. We'll see what the police come up with and I'll make some discrete enquires of my own."
Leslie looked at her husband with concern. "Alfred, you'll take care won't you!"
Alfred nodded, "I'll be very careful, whoever's behind this is playing for keeps".