“How about what?”
“Wife swapping. Think of it as a birthday present.”
Mark was so drunk that he didn’t realize the implications when he said yes. He walked towards Tim’s house, moving side to side, the drinks having an effect; his shirt and tie both loosely hanging out; blood rushing through his head; not aware of his actions.
The next morning Mark woke up to find himself in an empty bed, unable to remember the events from the night before. It slowly dawned on him that he was in Tim’s house; if he had been there all night then Tim must be at his house with Anne. He rushed home only to find his wife cooking breakfast. She was acting completely normally, and was not worried that Mark had just come home. Mark got changed and went for a run to clear everything that was lurking around in his head. ‘What had happened last night? Why was he in Tim’s house, in his bed? What had he done? Had he done anything wrong? There were a million questions running through his head. He didn’t realize that he had been running for over an hour.
Mark returned home to find five police cars and an ambulance parked outside Tim’s house. He rushed to see what had happened, as he reached the door he saw a stretcher being carried away with a body bag laying motionless on top of it. The stretcher stopped and Mark reached to open the bag just as he was about to open the zipper he was stopped by Tim’s panicked shouting, “it was him, that man there. He’s the one that killed my wife; he was here last night with her.” Tim came out pointing straight at Mark who turned to look if there was anyone behind him. He was puzzled. He was confused. What was Tim doing? He knew that he had been there last night, but he also knew that he wouldn’t have even thought of murdering anyone. Suddenly, it hit him like a knife through the back that Susie was dead and he was the prime suspect.
Mark slowly backed away from the crime scene, his brain still trying to process the information that had been thrown at him in the space of fifteen minutes. A day ago his biggest worry would have been what he was going to have for lunch, and now he was so befuddled he didn’t know what to think. Mark closed his eyes; he tried to recover his thoughts and memories from the night before. But his concentration was cut short with a violent knock. As confused as before, he opened the door to find a policeman standing there, standing there as if a tranquilizer had just shot him.
“Mr. Mark Bains?”
“Yes.”
“Mr. Mark Bains, you are under arrest on suspicion of the murder of Susie Marsh.”
“What?” He was traumatized. He knew that Tim had made his wild accusations but he never thought that the police would turn up at his door.
“We found your prints all over the room in which the murder is thought to have taken place.”
“But how… … I … … … they couldn’t have been.”
“You’re going to have to come down to the station with me.”
He had so many things going through his mind that he didn’t realize that he was sitting in the cramped, warm interrogation room of a police station. All he could think about was finding Anne. She would believe him. But in order to get to Anne he needed to get out of the police station.
An hour and a half later, Mark had been released as the police had done their questioning and were not able to produce any evidence linking him directly to the murder. Mark headed straight home to find Anne. He burst into the house and found her in their bedroom. He walked in, shut the door, then shut the curtains and sat down next to Anne. He started explaining the situation and everything that had happened. He started of by coming clean about how Tim had brought up the idea of swapping wives in Malaysia, and worked his way through to what he could remember about the night of Tim’s birthday. Anne looked shocked; she couldn’t believe that Tim could stoop so low. But she was convinced that Mark didn’t murder Susie. Did he?
Mark and Anne waited till Tim left the house with a work colleague; they had enough time to search his house and car. They began searching the house and once they had finished; nothing of any use was found. The car had nothing in it either. Out of frustration, Mark got a book that he found in the glove department of the car and threw it against the wall. A ticket fell out, ‘from Geneva to London,’ dated for the night Susie was murdered. Included, was an address and a telephone number attached. This seemed to be an amazing break through. Mark and Anne were on the next flight to Geneva.
As soon as they reached Geneva, they made their way to the address found in Tim’s car. But the house was locked. What now? They decided to wait outside the house for the rest of the day. Just as they were becoming impatient and were about to leave to return to the hotel, a rusty red car pulled up, and a very suspicious looking man stepped out. He was a tall, skinny man wearing a long, dark coat and a dark hat and was checking to see if anyone was in sight. Anne and Mark, without thinking of the consequences, confronted him and explained why they desperately needed to go into the house. Luckily enough for them, the man was an insurance investigator who had been on Tim’s trail, because he had unexpectedly taken out a £1,000,000 life insurance policy for his wife. (He also had a key to the house).
All the pieces were forming and started coming together. Things were becoming very clear to Mark; Tim had done all of this for the money. Tim had a million pound life insurance policy taken out and then he killed his wife to claim that money. He had asked Mark to swap wives so that he could frame him for the murder. They went into the house so that they could find out more about what Tim’s scheming plan was. Just as they were about to give up, Anne found a picture in the desk drawer.
“Who’s this?” she asked the insurance investigator.
“That’s Susie Marsh; I thought you would know considering you claim to have been her neighbour for three months.”
“That’s Susie, Susie Marsh?” Anne and Mark said together with a confused look on their faces.
“But then who’s the person who’s been living next door to us?”
Mark was one step ahead, he had just found another picture with, ‘Claire and Mark at the golf club’ written on the back. The person they believed was Susie was actually called Claire. Could Claire also be part of this devious fraud?
Mark had it all figured out. He told the other two what he thought had gone on that night.
“Susie arrived in London the night of Tim’s birthday. When we returned home, Tim asked me to swap wives. The next thing I can remember is waking up in an empty bed.”
“That night Tim did come to the house, but that was to tell me that you were going to be staying at his for a bit,” added Anne. “They must have knocked you unconscious and put your prints all over the room. Tim and Claire then killed Susie and Claire got on the next flight to Geneva so that no-one would suspect anything.”
“That’s why Tim stopped me from opening the body bag, so I wouldn’t be able to see Susie’s face, because he knew if I did then his plan would be ruined,” said Mark, in a rush of understanding.
“And now Susie is dead and Tim and Claire have disappeared with the one million pounds insurance money, and I’m the prime suspect.” Mark then realized if Tim had already received the money then he would try to flee the U.K. They had to get back to London and fast.
Will Mark be believed by the police? Will Mark be free from being the prime suspect? Will they be able to reach London? Will Tim and Claire get caught? Will they receive the justice they deserve? People who deserve justice do not always receive it.
