CHAPTER-III

We left for Mr. Bruce's house, I was looking out of the window from the gypsy. Though it did seem like a simple case to me before, it got on my nerves around this time. I remember the talk I had with Shawn the night before.

"What do you know about the Philips family? Shawn?" "Henry Philips, his wife, Deborah Philips, their daughter, Brittany, and a son, Charles, were the only members of the house Philips. They had a butler who lived with them in their house, Mr. Freddie Gates. They also had two servants. Mr. Bruce Bernard and Mrs. Annie Bernard. A middle-class couple, no children." Shawn said while taking out an old leather covered diary from his briefcase.

"How do you know them?" Shawn lit his pipe, took a puff and released a smoke. He continued, "Have a look in this diary." he passed the diary to me. I looked at it and there was a photo of the family. "Looks like an old pic." I said while still gazing at the photo. "I had a friend of mine who lived in Kensington, Chelsea. He sent me this photo with details of this family." "Wait, wait, you had a friend living here? And what do you mean by you had?" "He is in America now. He is a free soul, and travels a lot. He recently visited Paris too. Anyway, he read about the infamous bankruptcy of the company, that Mr. Arthur Philips ran. The company worked underground and no one outside it knew what it did. Some say that even many in the company were unaware of the real truth about it. Mr. Arthur was the father of Mr. Henry." he explained while he filled the room with smoke.

He got up and opened the windows and went to the balcony. I asked him, "What the company was about?". He answered while releasing a relatively bigger cloud of smoke, "The company used to…sell drugs in the American market."

The gypsy screeched and stopped at Mr. Bruce's house. Shawn hasted in the building. We could hear him running. This startled me, because, the body of Mr. Bruce was just in front of the building's gate. Shawn ignored the body and ran as if he was trying to catch the culprit. I and Mr. Rose were still standing and looking at the dead body. We were so in a hurry that we forgot that there were people surrounding us and the body. We covered the body with a blanket. Soon the crowd was dispersed and the police force took control of the crime scene.

It was then that it hit me, where was Mr. Bruce's wife!? "If you are looking for the man's wife, you won't find her here. She is in Southampton, at his mother's home." said a thin shacking voice from the crowd. I turned back and there stood an old wrinkled faced man, with his back crooked. His one hand on the stick, which was supporting his body, rather supporting his life, and the other hand behind his back.

"May I know your name please? Sir?"

"Ah, pardon me young man, it is the age that makes me forget about the important parts sometimes…uh, what were you asking again?"

"I am Glen Sanders, from Manchester. I was asking your name sir."

"Oh! Pardon this old geezer. I am Bradley, Bradley Baker."

"How do you know Mrs. Annie?"

"I live down the street. She once met me at a grocery shop and helped me carry my bag full of groceries. Prices are rising in this country you know? In our times I could…"

The more I listened to him, the more he got onto my nerves. He repeated things and started talking about lord knows what. But I sympathized him a bit, he must be waiting his time to come to an end and having nothing to do he must like to talk to people. I kept my calm and tried again.

"Sir, sorry but I am in a little hurry as there is a man who literally is dead and still is oozing blood, rather spilling blood out from his cold body."

"Oh! I beg your pardon" there he went again with his apologies, he continued, "They seemed to be a lovely young couple. They started residing here about 5 years ago. I still remember the way the young man left for work and his wife waved him bye from the door. Sometimes later, they both went to work together in the morning. If, my memory isn't dead too, I recall that they worked as servant and maid at a house. The women told me when she met me at the grocery store."

Lord help me, what is this person? Anyways, I thanked him and he left muttering a few geezer talks.

I turned back and found Mr. Rose having a look at the body. "Must have fallen from a good height." said Mr. Rose, as he stood up covering the body again. "Smashed by a brick." said Shawn, as he showed us a bloody brick in his gloved on hands. I was in shock; I did not see this coming. "Y-yes!! Yes! I was about to say that. Someone must have hit him with the brick. What a misery. Who could have done this!?" exclaimed Mr. Rose with a big smile on his face.

"Where were you?" I asked. "As soon as we got off, I looked at the body. Not a chance he managed to get his fingers smashed by falling from the first floor.". I and Mr. Rose looked at the building.

Seriously, it only had one floor. Then we peeked inside the covers to find out that the fingers of both the hands were crushed. Brutally. "I rushed in the building and went to the first floor. Found the room from where he got pushed. Looked down the window and ran outside from the backdoor. Interestingly, I got this brick there laying in the alley." Shawn said while putting the brick in a plastic bag. He uncovered the body and inspected it for a solid couple of minutes; then covered the body and removed his gloves. Mr. Rose till then sent one of his man with the gypsy to call the forensic research team.

Few people from the team took the body to the lab and two stayed with us. "We should go upstairs." Mr. Rose said, "There is a possibility of a clue there." We went upstairs, wooden floor, green wallpapers over the walls with flower designs on it. The squeaky stairs led to a small room with a door wide open. We entered the room, it would be pitch dark without the only window opened. There was barely any light even then, it was evening already, around 7:00 pm. There was not even a single bulb in the room. No switchboard. All there was a single bed, a table with some books and a half melted candle and a chair, a bookshelf stuffed with books.

"Why is there no bulb? How can a person live in this room? I am already suffocating. It smells too! ~ Ugh~" I complained. I spent about a quarter of an hour there and then left with constable Rose. He couldn't bear it either. Shawn came out of the room with the other two men.

"Did you get something? Shawn?" I asked. Holding his pipe in his right hand and with the other hand in the overcoat he said, "Nothing much, the forensic team did their work. I just looked around the room once more."

"Mr. Carter, Mr. Sanders, I forgot to inform, you both are invited to a party tomorrow night. Mr. Gilford Buckler, the owner of the GB Enterprise, has his 50th birthday tomorrow. I have known him for a long time now, we became friends at a bar. When I told him about you are coming to London, He immediately requested me to invite you. He really wants to meet you. So, are you joining us?" Mr. Rose said. "Doesn't sound like a fair request, you left us no choice there, sir. Yes, we would like to join you. But I only will join with my friend, Glen. Unless Glen has any problems." There he goes dragging me with him too. I wanted to enjoy the Sunday by looking around London. Having no choice left now, I surrendered, "Oh! Why would I have any problem? I will be joining you too." "Mr. Buckler would not mind, would he?" "Oh I bet he won't." Mr. Rose smiled big and said.

(Yawns) "I think it's about time we leave. I must be present in the police station in the late hours of night. I'll drop you at Radisson's. The gypsy is ready." Said Mr. Rose. I looked at my watch, past 9 pm, "Yes, I think we should get going now, Shawn?" "Glen, constable Rose, I will catch up, I would like to take a walk."

He did as he said, he walked the way and we left in the gypsy. He returned past 10 pm. He did not take the dinner and went to sleep after a shower.

I lit a candle on the table and had a look at his diary which he showed me earlier, then it dawned on me; that I shouldn't have touched that diary.