"I suppose Dave has told you about my missing daughter Susan?" asked Sir Ian.
Marcus noticed that he looked tired and that his eyes were sad even though a few minutes ago they had twinkled.
"Yes he has," said Marcus, sipping tea politely. "Except for maybe the latest," he added.
"There isn't much new actually, since I talked to you a few days ago," said Dave. "I've covered every lead I can think of and I've come up blank."
"Did you check all the officers involved in the case out? Financially, I mean?" asked Marcus knowing Dave probably already had for he was good at what he did and was not likely to forget such a vital link.
"We're working on it actually, but the banks don't want to cooperate, even if the bank statements are a quarter of a century old and not even with at least two of the original officers still alive."
"Have you tried persuasion?"
"Yes and bribery and even a threat or two," said Dave.
"What kind of threats?"
"The threat that every bank manager fears, an audit," Dave answered.
"I can just imagine how they reacted to that," said Marcus dryly. "All the bank managers I know wouldn't appreciate being threatened with an audit.."
"The ones I know as well, but didn't quite have the affect I hoped for at least not right away, although it made the manager come close to blowing his top and hitting me," said Dave.
"We think we have one of the lower level clerks bribed and he's agreed to look through the older records but he warned it might take awhile, but it's already been a week," Sara added.
"Have you tried to contact him?" asked Marcus.
"No, not yet. We didn't want to blow his cover unless we had no other choice, but if he doesn't contact us soon we'll have to take steps," said Dave. "Well, that's about everything we know at the moment," he added.
"Let me see all the data you've collected and I'll see if I spot anything you missed," said Marcus all business.
"Very well, but tomorrow we need a good night's sleep before we try to find more leads," said Sir Ian. "You're welcome to stay here for the duration of your time here."
"That's okay, we don't want to put you out," said Shari, answering before Marcus could.
"Yes," said Marcus agreeing. "Well just stay at the hotel we have reservations at."
"As you wish," said Sir Ian with a nod.
~~~Beyond the Future~~~
Marcus and Shari went right to work the next day right after breakfast. Copies for the original documents had been delivered in a sealed packet at about seven o'clock this morning. The names Marcus and Shari O'Malley were written across the front along with a "for your eyes only". Apparently it was extremely sensitive information. Marcus didn't really expect to find anything at least not something Dave hadn't already seen and followed, but it was a start at least. He was hoping the documents would give him some ideas of where to start.
It was three or four hours later when Marcus looked up to his stomach rumbling rather loudly. He looked at his watch and noticed it was after 1:30 in the afternoon. "Are you ready for some lunch?" Marcus asked his wife.
"I've been ready for at least the last couple of hours, but I didn't say anything so as not to disturb your concentration," Shari said.
"Well, let's go down for lunch then so our stomachs will quit demanding to be fed. Besides, you're eating for two now you know so you must take care of yourself," Marcus said.
"I know," said Shari patting her tummy. They gathered up the papers and stuffed then in Shari's briefcase, which they took with them to lunch for safety.
~~~Beyond the Future~~~
They finally got to see the bank's records a week or so after Marcus and Shari had arrived. The bank had held out as long as it could, but when Dave, Marcus and Kate triple teamed him and Dave warned that they would call an audit the next day if the bank manager didn't cooperate and allow them to see the records. That did the trick and the manager led them down to the basement where all the old loans, withdrawals and deposits were kept.
The manager was a fussy little man with red hair sprinkled liberally with gray and a bit of a belly from either overeating or drinking too much. Marcus privately thought the first for he didn't look like the drinking type.
"Here you are. Just make sure you put everything back when you're done."
"We will," Shari promised him as diplomatically as possible.
The manager turned to leave then turned back. "You know if I had my way you would be locked up for life threatening honest people like myself with an audit."
"It's not a threat if it doesn't actually happens now is it?" Dave pointed out, calmly.
"And if you were honest you wouldn't worry about a little thing like an audit anyway," Sara pointed out quietly.
Shari stifled a giggle as the manager turned around with a huff and headed towards the elevator indigently. When he was gone they all burst out laughing.
~~~Beyond the Future~~~
It took them several days to find and go through all the records, but finally on the third day Shari came across Liam's file. She looked it over for the year in question and noticed a rather large deposit shortly before Susan Semple had disappeared. There was another large deposit right after it although a bit larger.
"Look at this guys," said Shari. "Officer Simmons received a large deposit about a month before Susan disappeared. And another one about a week after she disappeared."
"There's no way this is part of his policeman's salary, especially in 1977," Marcus said looking over the records, which were slightly brittle and yellowing with age. "The two deposits are way too big. Of course there could be honest explanations . . ." Marcus said.
"But you don't think so?" Dave said.
"I can't think of an honest way to get this much money, in such a short period of time, unless he won the lottery or won at the horse races or something," Marcus replied.
"Gambling isn't actually honest, you know," Adam pointed out.
"True, but it would be a less sinister explanation of the large deposits and it would be also be a more honest one then a payment to kidnap Sir Ian's daughter," Marcus said.
"We could check into all that," Sara suggested, "Although it will take awhile. There are a lot of gambling establishments in London."
"We'll check it out," Kate agreed. "We'll leave no stone unturned as they say."
~~~Beyond the Future~~~
They came to the home of Retired Superintendent Richard Grey at 123 Lions Road in London. No car was in the drive and no one could be seen.
"Maybe he's not home," asked Kate.
"Or he could have decided not to speak to us," said Marcus as he knocked on the door.
A shuffle of footsteps was heard and then the door opened revealing a tall bald pudgy man with small brown eyes. He wore a white shirt and black trousers. He looked at them curiously and asked "You them people looking for the Semple girl?"
"Yes, sir," said Kate. "Can you help us?"
The man sighed and said "Yes, I can. If only I had helped that poor girl all those years ago." He waved at them. "Come on in, my wife is out to go play bingo and won't be back for a couple of hours. So it won't do any harm to speak with you."
He ushered them in and they sat down in chairs after he told them where to sit and began to speak "I wonder if you would like a cup of tea and some biscuits."
"Yes sir. That would be fine. Kate?" asked Marcus.
"Yes, a cup of tea and some biscuits would be great, thank you," said Kate.
The old man shuffled off to the kitchen which was right near the living room where they sat and in a few minutes came back with a tea tray and a plate of biscuits. He gave out cups and poured the tea to which added sugar, lemon, or milk could be added if his guests needed it. Then after they ate and drank quietly, the old man began his tale. "I used to be the Superintendent for this section and before that one of the Inspectors. At the time of the Semple girl's disappearance, I was Liam Simmons's boss. In those days, we didn't have a lot of crime, neither murders nor robbery or kidnapping. Perhaps we were a little naïve about that, thinking that in that day and age, crime would only happen in the big cities and not here until the Semple girl. Before that, I noticed some odd things."
"What, Mr. Grey?" asked; Kate.
"Well, for one thing, Liam wasn't acting right. Mind you, usually he was the right sort of fellow, always trying to help others and see that justice got done. In that year, things went downhill for our Liam. His wife of five years, her name was Beth, a pretty thing who was always happy and helping out at company picnics or fundraisers, became ill. Actually, she had been feeling odd in the year before that. She felt tired and in pain a bit, but she thought that she was just working too hard. She worked in a factory in a section of London a good few blocks from the station and would always have lunch with Liam.
They would have their bagged lunch, mostly sandwiches, out on a stoop nearby and talk, sometimes kiss like young lovers do. It wasn't that hard to see in 1977 that something was really wrong with her. She was so pale and fragile that my wife said to me 'Y'know, that Beth, she don't seem right. When she was helping us with the things for the upcoming fundraiser for the officers that had died in the line of duty, she tried to move some things and nearly dropped them, almost fainted she did. What is wrong with her? I told her that she needed to go to see a doctor, but she wouldn't listen. She said that they didn't have money for a doctor. Then I said that if something serious is going on then she needed to know about it and treat it.'
"After the talk with me wife, the poor girl did go and found out that she had cancer, I think some tumor on the brain, and the doctor thought that they could take it out with surgery and radiation. So they went ahead and did it, even though they did say that there was a good chance that she would never survive the surgery. Well, she got it out and everything seemed fine, until she started to have seizures and then a few weeks later, she had one and went to sleep and never woke up," finished the old man with tears in his eyes. "Poor thing it broke Liam's heart that it did. In fact, they still wanted to have children if she survived the surgery, but I guess the Lord decided otherwise."
"Thank you. By the way, sir, where is Liam living now?" asked Kate.
"At first he didn't want to move and was living in the same little house where he and Beth had lived before—" He shook his head. "Then he moved to another apartment about two years later, saying he couldn't deal with the memories anymore and when he retired he moved back to Ireland somewhere outside of Dublin. Poor man, but there is one more thing—" said Grey.
"What's that, sir?" asked Kate
"I believed that Liam was in some shady business."
"How so?" asked Marcus.
"If he was working on an officer's salary and Beth at a factory and they both got decent wages for the time, at least enough to live on, how come he had enough money to pay for her surgery?"
Kat and Marcus didn't look too startled at the announcement, because both had already had suspicious as to where the money came from. They turned to look at each other before turning back to look at the old man. "Yes, that is interesting," said Marcus as he and Kate put their tea cups on the coffee table and got up out of their seats.
"We suspected as much actually," said Kate. "There was no way we could think of that he could have come by that money honestly except a bank loan or to win at some kind of gambling.
"And we already checked into the bank loan angle and it's already been confirmed that none of the banks in London gave him a loan," Marcus added.
"When was Mrs. Simmons' surgery scheduled?" asked Kate.
"On July 23rd, 1977," said Mr. Grey as he walked them to the door. "One more thing before you two go. Don't you find it interesting that young Susan Semple went missing on June 12, roughly a bit more than a month before Beth's surgery? Goodbye and Good luck. If you need any help, here's my card with my home phone number." He smiled and let them out the door. Kate and Marcus said goodbye and Grey closed his door. As they walked down his steps, Marcus turned to Kate and said "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Kate smiled and said "Yes, it seems that Officer Liam Simmons just became our possibly prime suspect."
"He already was one," Marcus pointed out. "He just moved up the list to first though."
"True," said Kate, conceding the point as they walked out into the late afternoon air.
~~~Beyond the Future~~~
"Why, Liam? Why did you do it?" asked Sir Ian, slamming a fist down on the coffee table he was sitting just behind. It was several weeks later and they had gone to Ireland and confronted Officer Liam Simmons. He had been surprised to see them and had tried to run when he recognized Sir Ian and the look of fury in his eyes. He had been found out at last and he was almost relieved that it was almost over. He had always felt guilty for taking the Semples' only child away, but he had had no choice. It was either that or; face death. At least he had managed to save her life and get her illegally adopted by some friends of his.
"Don't you see? I needed the money for Beth's operation. She had cancer and it needed to be taken out," Liam explained shakily.
"But if you got the money and my car, why didn't you let my daughter go then?" Sir Ian demanded.
"I wasn't working alone. A young man was my other partner from let's say the wrong side of the tracks. He had a beef with you about some of his mates being hauled off of the maximum penitentiary and thought that you would come after him as well. So he decided to take your daughter and I was given a cut in. We were only going to keep her until we got the ransom money! But even after that, he was going to kill her! I couldn't do that. He even let her think that you were dead! He was planning to make it look like she killed herself, but I couldn't let him get away with it. So I took her and left her here in Ireland," Liam explained.
"Where is my daughter?" Sir Ian demanded.
"I told you, somewhere in Ireland. I don't know precisely where. I let a couple that my wife and I know illegally adopt her. They thought she was an orphan. They even changed her name," Liam explained.
"You let them change her name? You let me and my wife worry and grieve for more than twenty years thinking that she might be dead, only to tell me that she was adopted and her name changed!" Sir Ian growled.
"I had no choice. It was either that or kill her because my partner would have found out if she had just gone home and then I would have been more than likely be dead," Liam with, but not looking at Sir Ian.
"Then tell us who adopted her," Sir Ian demanded. "After all, you have told us that your partner the guy who planned the original kidnapping is dead and has been for the last few years. If you were telling the truth then you should have no problem with telling us her name now."
"I can't do that, my friends don't even know she was illegally adopted," Liam said.
"Well, they are about to find out, because you are going to tell us that name or I will make sure you pay for your crime, even if the crime is twenty-five years old!" Sir Ian told him forcibly.
"You wouldn't," Liam protested weakly.
"Watch me," said Ian angrily. "You not only took our only child away from us you let my dear, departed wife go to her grave never knowing if her only child was still alive and for that—for what you made her suffer I will make sure you pay "unless" you tell us that name."
Liam sighed in surrender. "Their name is Murphy they "used" to live just outside of Dublin."
Dave was already headed to the door to call Gideon O'Connor who was already in England, but could be on his way to Dublin in a matter of hours.
~~~Beyond the Future~~~
"Well have you found anything?" asked Sir Ian a tad impatiently. He knew he was being unfair for the Blacks, the Richmons and the O'Malleys were doing everything possible to find his daughter, but there had been so many dead ends in the last few months that he was getting frustrated in the extreme. Once they had found out that she might be in Ireland it had at first looked like a good solid lead, but Ireland was a big place even just Dublin and when Gideon thought he was getting somewhere the lead petered out at the last minute. He couldn't help but hope that his dear daughter was still alive.
"We might have found her," said Sara quietly, stressing the word might.
It took Sir Ian a moment to absorb the words. "Alive?" he asked.
"Yes her name is Mary Templar. It was her husband Simon who contacted us. He saw the picture on the news."
"But we that months ago, why now?"
"He told us he's been debating with himself on whether or not to contact us. His wife refused to talk about her past even when Simon questioned her. There is one thing he did tell us however and that is she thinks her father is dead."
Ian felt his hope disappearing luck so much vapor. "Then it can't be her can it?"
"It is possible actually," Adam gently corrected. "Both Dave and Marcus agree that one of the kidnappers probably told her that her father was dead, probably so that she would never try to come home."
"It certainly makes sense being told your father is dead so of course she wouldn't try to get home. We should at least check it out," Sara said.
"Just what we were thinking and hopefully, this won't turn out to be another false lead," said Adam while praying silently that it would be indeed turn out to really be Ian's daughter and not another dead end. If anybody deserved to get his daughter back it was Sir Ian. The poor man had suffered enough in his opinion. Not only had he spent almost all his family fortune to find his daughter his wife had gone to her grave wondering if her only child was still alive and before that she had lived in the misery of not knowing.
"Perhaps I should go with you?" Ian suggested.
"That might be a bad idea," Adam cautioned. "We should talk to her first and if she is your daughter then we'll try to persuade her to come to England."
"We can't force her so it just might take time," Sara added.
Sir Ian nodded seeing the logic but not happy about it.
~~~Beyond the Future~~~
