Chapter 8: Suspicions confirmed and Henry's plan

"Sir!" Henry said as he and Lawson made their way into Murdoch's office after a knock on the door.

"What have you, Henry and Greg?" Murdoch asked as he looked up from his paperwork.

"We've got the court records on the cases you've requested and there is something that confirms our suspicions that the two attempts on George's life have connections to the two cases." Lawson says as Henry gave Murdoch the court documents they received.

"Take a look at the defense lawyer that represented the defendants on both cases, sir." Henry added as he pointed the name printed on the document for Murdoch.

The court record for the 1898 case against Joey Masters listed his defense attorney as Leonard Godfrey. Prior to that, Leonard had also represented Mack Bush in the 1897 manslaughter case in Buffalo, as indicated in the court record for the 1897 case.

Both records listed out the names of the parties involved, which includes the judge, the prosecutor assigned to the case, the defendant and the defense attorney. It does not include any witnesses in the record for confidential reasons, but nevertheless, the records were enough for Murdoch to raise an eyebrow.

"Now that's interesting." Murdoch surmised. "What are the chances of two men getting represented by the same lawyer for two different, separate cases?"

"That's beyond coincidence, sir." Henry replied. "Thought you may want to know."

"Excellent." Murdoch nodded. "Have you two checked into the two men's backgrounds?"

"Already done that, sir." Lawson replied as he and Henry pulled out the records on Mack Bush and Joey Masters.

"There is something in both records that secures our suspicions that Leslie Garland is involved in this and that Leonard Godfrey is in fact, an alias, sir." Henry added.

In the records, it was indicated that both Mack and Joey were close friends with Leslie Garland. In fact, the trio were expelled together from university for the same incident - Fisticuffs involving a professor. At that point, Leslie had already received his law degree prior to being expelled from graduate school in university.

After being expelled from university, Joey enlisted in the militia and was eventually appointed lance corporal, confirming Sergeant Brooks' account on his rank at the time he and Masters served in the war.

Meanwhile, Leslie and Mack moved to Buffalo, where Leslie completes his masters degree in law in another university while Mack simply gambles in casinos, falls victim to greed, and ends up killing a man which then led to the 1897 manslaughter case against him.

In spite of having very different lives, Joey, Mack and Leslie remained good friends, and they still kept in touch with one another by writing letters. Murdoch guessed that Leslie must had written about his brothers marriage to his friends and how that marriage was falling apart.

"Very interesting." Murdoch nodded. "Both Leslie Garland and Leonard Godfrey, when you look at their initials, which is 'LG', are one and the same."

Later in Inspector Brackenreid's office, the trio had just finished updating the inspector of the latest developments in the investigation.

"That bloody coward Mr. Garland! I guess there's no question as to why he represented those two men for those two cases." The inspector remarked after listening to the updates.

"I agree, sir." Murdoch nodded. "The only question is why did he hurt George?"

"I have a feeling it may have something to do with your marriage to Doctor Ogden, sir." Henry suggested.

"Well, if that was the case, then why didn't he hit you or the Doctor? Why pick Crabtree?" Brackenreid asked.

"I believe it was my stern warning to him several months back that prevented him from hurting me or Julia, sir." Murdoch offered. "It is also my belief that he had his friends targeting George, as it doesn't take much for him to figure out how close we are, therefore, he felt that he can hurt both me and Julia by targeting our close, loyal friend George."

"He also done that so you may have difficulties solving crimes without Crabtree's help, Murdoch." Brackenreid nodded.

"But he had forgotten about me, sirs." Henry interjected, and both Murdoch and Brackenreid can hear the anger in his voice.

"Oh, right. Higgins was the one that suggested that we should also check out Bush and Masters' backgrounds after picking up the court records." Lawson added.

"Very impressive, Higgins." Brackenreid praised. "Now, the only thing we have to do is to prove that Mr. Garland is indeed behind the plot."

"Well, sir, if I may suggest, it will be easy if we set up a plan to catch him in the act." Lawson offered.

"Of course. The only question is how do we do so without risking George's life?" Murdoch asked.

There was some silence before Higgins said, "Well, sir, I've got an idea."

That evening, the figure that masterminded the plot to kill George was sitting in his office reading the evening paper after the visit to Station House Three to meet with his client.

"Darn it! Why did Joe mess it up?" The figure barked frustratingly.

He then looked at the evening paper and saw a news article that caught his interest.

"CASE CLOSED

Attack on police constable case closed as police announces arrest of two suspects, withdraws guards from constables hospital room"

"Huh, case close, eh? They sure won't be seeing me coming to that constables room to finish off the job!" He laughed before putting away the paper, grabbed his coat and fedora and made his way out of his office.

The hospital was almost empty when he arrived. There were a few doctors and nurses present, many of whom are attending to their duties and looking after patients.

Soon, the man arrived at George's unguarded hospital room. It was dark, but it was alright for him, as he can clearly see George sleeping on his bed.

There, he pulled out the needle he had ready. It was already filled with enough poison to kill a man.

Quietly, he went to George's side and without warning, he stabbed the needle right into George's chest!

Just than, the lights flicked on and a voice said, "Nice try, Mr. Garland."

Leslie turned and to his surprise, it was Henry and Lawson, both armed with their batons, standing at the doorway to George's room. The voice had came from Lawson.

"However, you are about to find out that the figure you just injected poison into is not George." Henry added.

Leslie turned back to the figure he had just stabbed the needle into. He flipped the sheets and realized that it was a dummy wearing a latex mask of George, along with a wig!

"You blasted meddlers!" He said angrily as Henry and Lawson proceeded to handcuff him as Murdoch, Brackenreid, Emily and Edna entered the room.

Please read and review!