Why Not Murder

3. Identities

3. Identities

Maya was making her way home, hungry and tired. She needed her bed for a warm comfortable sleep and she had long since finished the food she brought with her. She was mostly walking along the road but when she heard vehicles approach, she hid in the bush. A number of police cars and other vehicles rushed passed her at one point like a parade. They did not see her. She recognized Hudson in the last one. When she reached her home she ate a large meal and slept deeply for several hours. Rain had started again and was pattering on the roof.

After she woke and finished her coffee and a snack, she decided to go to the place where she had found the car in the water. She took her usual route along the water's edge. She heard sounds of a powerful engine and human voices yelling rudely at each other over the din. She approached carefully, keeping herself hidden behind the large rocks at the base of the cliff. The roaring engine was a barge with a crane on top, heaving and pulling, that was slowly lifting the car that had been wedged between boulders, out of the water and onto the barge deck. Police in uniform and plain clothes as well as Hudson watched as the job got done. Two of the plain clothes officers were taken in a small boat to the barge. They climbed on deck and proceeded to inspect the vehicle, inside and out. Hudson was clearly distraught and dismayed to see his prized, trophy vehicle reduced to such a state. It had been the best of his collection that bespoke and substantiated his financial success. He was one of the richest men in the district, a self-made man, one of the very few who had risen from a middle class family, which had to survive long bouts of unemployment and living hand to mouth, unlike the majority of the others in his current bracket who had received substantial inheritances. Maya left well before the police were finished and was never noticed. Later when she was once again at home, she heard a noisy engine and looking out her window through the trees to the lake beyond, she made out the barge with the car on board chugging back to the police docks further south.

Early next morning, fully refreshed and stocked up, Maya went to find the address on Warren's ID. The sky had completely cleared and was a dark blue at that hour with a tinge of red around the sun which had just risen. The birds were loud and happy. The town of Maple was small. It wasn't really a town at all but had somehow managed to get qualified as such as it enabled the citizens to receive various types of funding which they would not have been able to if they were just a village. After walking for an hour, Maya caught the bus and paid her fare with change she had. How would she explain her presence at Warren's address, Maya wondered. She was not going to imply Warren was dead. The village houses were far apart. The street layout was of a cross with a center square and a single road encircling around , starting from the center square, emanating outwards in the form of a spiral that intersected the branches of the cross in widening distances. The address was located at the end of the spiral where the narrow road was no longer paved and became two deep tire tracks with tall grass growing in between. Maya went through the white picket fence, careful to close it behind her and walked up the stone path. A little dog rushed up to Maya, wagging its tail widely, not barking and sniffing at her pant legs. A middle aged man was seated on a lawn chair under an apple tree reading a book and an old man was weeding the flower bed next to the front wall of the house. The middle-aged man looked at Maya questioningly as she approached. The old man did not seem to be aware of her at all.

The man put his book down and asked, "Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for Warren Lockmere," Maya said.

"That's me." The man stood up.

Maya was stunned but kept a straight face. He looked nothing like the photo on the driver's license except for the approximate age. She continued without a break in the conversation. "I'm glad to meet you Mr. Lockmere," Maya said. "I'm from Northland Credit Services and I am here to inquire into some charges that have appeared of late on your card."