The Plant

Part 9 House of cards

As soon as Sally's tea-break arrived she rang Freddy and told him all about her encounter with the sergeant.  Freddy seemed very interested in this news and wanted her to repeat to him all of the questions that he had asked her.  "Freddy, there isn't anything wrong is there?"  she asked him.  "Laughing he answered nothing wrong luv, it's just not often I hear about my wife being interrogated by the police."  The minute Sally had hung up Freddy dug out the same carrier bag that he had used before and quickly retrieved the plant from the back of the shed.  Then with a quick glance around to make sure there was nobody about he set off down the road.  His initial thought was to chuck it in the canal, but on second thoughts he realised he might be seen or it might even float.  By now it wasn't in great shape anyway so maybe he could just dump it in someone's front garden and the chances are that they would put it out with their rubbish.  Then he saw it, a charity shop, perfect, he walked in and smiled to himself.  There was a till at the back of the shop, but no sign of anybody in the shop, so they were probably in the backroom sorting through donated junk!  The whole place was obviously run on a shoe-string because there were no security cameras at all.   He slid the plant out of the bag and placed it on a shelf next to some picture frames, and after giving the pot a quick wipe he hurriedly left the shop. Perfect! even if any staff saw it they would just assume somebody else had put it there to be sold, and most likely they see the condition of it and put it in their trash bin.  Feeling very happy with himself and walking a big circuit around the block so that he approached home from the opposite direction as the charity shop he treated himself to a bag of chips to eat on the way.

Back at the police station, the sergeant had told his p.c. what he had discovered and proposed that the two of them pay Freddy a visit to see what they could dig up.  "You try to keep him talking,"  He told her and that will give me a bit of a chance to have a nose around, if we go now he ought to be there on his own because Sally will be at work."  Freddy was expecting them so he wasn't in the least bit surprised by the visit, and in fact, he was Mr. charm himself.  He answered all of the questions they asked him and seemed very open about everything.  He told them about his amazing good fortune, how he had won big on the horses and then the next day scooped a major lottery win.  He even told them about Sally's pregnancy and offered to make them both a cup of tea.  Catching her eye the sergeant said "I will take you up on that offer Sir. it's very kind of you."  Handing them their tea's Freddy gestured towards the little dining table chairs, but the sergeant asked him. " While we are here Mr. Cutter would you mind if we have a quick glance around the garden and in your shed, just to put our minds at ease."  Freddy led them out to the tiny garden and unlocked the shed for them.  Sipping his tea as they all stepped into the little shed the sergeant suddenly said, "oh I am really sorry to bother you, Sir. but would you mind just popping a tiny bit more milk in this tea, it's a little too strong for my palate."  Frowning briefly Freddy took the proffered cup and re-entered the little kitchen. The p.c. (Kate) walked back with him and as he opened the fridge she said to him. "You sounded excited about your wife's pregnancy Freddy, have you been trying for long?"     "We had practically given up and accepted that it was never going to happen,"  he said  "We have a wonderful marriage and a child would make it absolutely perfect.  And now that we have had all of this good fortune as well we will make sure that our child will want for nothing, and will have the best schooling so that he, or she, can have a proper career like Sal.  I wasted my opportunities but I'll make sure our kid gets a good life."

Kate was doing a good job of keeping Freddy occupied and it gave the sergeant plenty of time to poke around in the shed and move a few bits to look behind them.  However, there was nothing in there that shouldn't be and he was about to give up when he noticed a couple of small green leaves near the back of the shed.  He quickly gathered them up and popped them into his pocket,  just as his p.c. and Freddy returned with his adjusted cup of tea.  Accepting it back and drinking deeply he said,  "Beautiful, thank you, I really needed that, well Sir. Thank you for your co-operation, I think you have answered all of our questions and we'll leave you in peace."  Once they were back in their car the sergeant told her, "we need to give these few leaves I found in the shed to the lab and see what plant they are from.  My guess is they are from the stolen plant, there is something very wrong here, I don't really know where the plant fits into the puzzle but nobody gets all of that luck at once.  I just know he's pulling some kind of a scam, but for the life of me, I can't imagine how he's doing it.  Even if we prove he stole the plant, no court in the land is going to do much about such a petty crime, they would throw the case out!"   Kate said, "When I spoke to him he was definitely genuinely thrilled about the baby, and full of plans for it. he is quite a charming man.  So what can we do then Serge? We can't just let him get away with it!"   Feeling very frustrated he said, "There is nothing more we can do, just keep an eye on them both."

On Friday Freddy and Sally officially became the owners of their new house,  and immediately gave the various crews the go-ahead to start all of their different building projects. All of the different contracts with the many companies involved were signed and Freddy and Sally booked into a plush hotel for the weekend.  "Oh, Freddy I can't believe all that's happened, in such a short space of time our lives are completely changed.  We really should hire ourselves an accountant to help us invest our money wisely so that it never runs out.  You read about these things in the papers, people win a fortune and then they just squander it. So we need to keep a reign on our spending luv."    Chuckling Freddy said,  "You've no idea, have you. We are so rich we couldn't spend it all if we tried!"

When they returned home early Monday morning Sally found a pile of mail on the doormat. "You open these right away Freddy, they are probably bills from our new workforces. I must go straight off to work, I can't be late again."  Freddy said to her, Sally you are a woman of substance now, we are going to live in a great big posh house, I don't want you working anymore and you have no need to ever work again!"  Calling back as she left the house she retorted "We'll discuss it another time Freddy." 

The first letter was worrying, a letter from the bank saying his account had gone overdrawn.  The second letter was from another of his new banks telling him the same, he was overdrawn.  Five letters and all with the same story to tell.  He was livid, with over 5 million pounds still how could he be overdrawn. When he checked the initial deposit into his main bank he saw it was for 1.7 million pounds. He broke into a cold sweat, and forcing himself to keep calm he rang them and asked why the cheque that had gone into his account had been altered to 1.7 million pounds.  "Mr. Cutter, the banker had said. The whole amount from the lottery win was 1.7 million and that is what went into your account!"  Slamming the phone down he rang the lottery department that had dealt with his win and asked them to shed some light on it.  "Sir, the prize was 7.1 million pounds and there were four of you that won, so that was 1.75 million each, we discussed this!"  Dashing to the paper rack he pulled out the old Sunday issue they had bought to check the numbers and looked at the results.  It said Four winners share 7.1 million pounds.  Somehow everything had changed.  He grabbed a beer from the fridge and downed it in one, and then another one, but it wasn't helping!