Why Not Murder

39. Ransom

39. Ransom

Maya was in town at the request of Winnie, to pick up a package from Constable Whittaker, the policeman who had been bitten by a bee, and in exchange to give him a sealed envelope from Winnie. Before meeting up with the policeman, Maya dropped in at Hudson's office. Harriet was training the new receptionist, a young woman that the associates had hired to take over from her. Harriet gave Maya an envelope with a letter inside and said that the new receptionist had opened it by mistake. It was addressed to Winnie.

Then Maya went to meet up with Whittaker. He was waiting for her outside the Maple police station and asked Maya to accompany him. It was clear that he wanted to talk in private and Maya agreed. He held onto her elbow and they stood close together in the laneway behind the police station, but once there he guided Maya to a more secluded place further away.

"It's despicable what you are doing," Whittaker said and when he saw the look of surprise on Maya's face, he added, "Don't play dumb with me. There was a time when I thought we were friends. Do you have something for me?"

"Yes," Maya answered, "and you have something for me." Whittaker looked around. No one else was there. He took a brown envelope that was stuffed full and taped for added security. He held onto it until Maya showed him the envelope she had which she could feel contained a USB. When Whittaker saw it, he thrust his package towards Maya and grabbed what she had for him out of her hand. Then, in the blink of an eye, he flipped open his holster and grabbed his gun. Equally as fast, Maya knew he was going to shoot her. But he didn't. He fumbled at his holster, realizing that his gun was not there and having no comprehension as to why not. Instead he shoved Maya back against the nearby tree and menaced, "I'd better not ever hear from you again about this." Then he walked briskly towards the police station. Maya immediately left the town by the shortest route and walked to the Laymuir residence.

On the way, Maya stopped to read the letter Harriet had given her. First thing she noticed from the postal stamp was that the letter had actually been mailed last year. The address was corrected from one place in town to Hudson's office in scrawled handwriting. Another handwriting amended the postal code. Maya took out the letter and read it.

It was addressed to Hudson, which Maya thought strange given that the envelope was addressed to Mrs. Laymuir. It said:

To my brother Hudson,

"Yes, this is a letter from me, your only living brother. I am writing because I have been told by my doctor that I may not live out the coming year, due to an insidious disease I care not to name. On the other hand, I have been told by another doctor that I may live well into old age, that the statistically based predictions may not hold true, and that the gloom of an early death would likely be more responsible for any shortening of my life span.

"I worked for you under another name and you never recognized me. I was ready to forgive you but when I saw that you did not even acknowledge who I was and treated me like some imbecilic worker, I changed my mind. I never understood our parents' preference for you. What good are brains, when the heart has no feeling and is as cold as ice? Under such conditions, brains become an agent of evil, as you have become. I bombed your construction sites, hoping to end the takeover of communal wilderness, which we all have a right to, and its being used exclusively by the rich for the sake of your own personal fame. You were scheduled to be on those construction sites for inspection when those bombs went off.

"I am the one who put a bomb under our parents' car that killed them and our other siblings, but you are the one responsible for their deaths on more than one count. The plan was that you were going to go with them and then at the last minute you changed your mind and our sisters went instead. I wanted you and our parents dead, no one else. You are responsible for making my life hell. If you had never been born, our parents would have loved me, but the favourite child was forever blocking my path and frustrating me.