[on board Roxy]

“Can I get you something to drink?” I said as showed Ms Kulinski into my home.
"I was going to have some tea so it won’t be any trouble to make you some.”

“Tea, please. No sugar and just a dash of milk,” she replied as she sat down and started to extract some papers from her briefcase.

“Is that enough milk?” I asked a couple of minutes later.

“That’s perfect,” she said smiling.

The more I looked at her, the more I came to the conclusion that there was a woman in there somewhere that would like to be free. I’d always been sad at how much women had to conform to the predominantly male view on society and even more about their battles with the glass ceiling.

I put our cups of tea down on my small dining table and sat opposite her.

“Please, go ahead and give me the bad news. What has my brother tried to blame me for this time?”

She responded with a small smile.

“It isn’t all bad news but yes, he has tried to get you to take all the blame for everything.”

“That is my brother through and through. Every disaster that he suffered was never his fault and I usually ended up getting blamed for it even though in one case, I wasn’t even in the country.”

I paused.
“Sorry, I was starting to rant. Why don’t you start from the beginning with how you came to be involved with all this family stuff and I’ll try to stop myself from sounding off.”

“Thank you, Lauren. I have a younger sister who used to drop me in it all the time. That was why I became a lawyer. Once you threaten a bully with the law, it is amazing how quickly, they back down.”

“That is at least one thing that we can agree on. Please continue.”

For the next thirty minutes, she detailed everything that she and her associates had discovered. A lot of it was building on the work that my lawyer and accountant had done for me. She expressed her gratitude for the thoroughness of their groundwork but there was now an awful lot more meat on the bone.

“What does my father think of all this? I take it that he has seen all this already?”

“Yes, he has and he is not, to paraphrase, a happy bunny. It really galls him that his son has skimmed, robbed, defrauded, call it what you will, more than half a million pounds from the family business. It hurts him even more to see the lengths that David has gone to try to blame it all on you. The sad fact is that it goes back years.”

She reached into her briefcase for one more document.

“I say years. This document was apparently signed by you when you were prospecting got gold in Australia. Look at the date.”

I read the document. It was a copy of the tax return for one of the family companies. I had never been a director of the company yet it was my signature or rather a reasonable forgery that was right there on the bottom of the document.

“What does the HMRC think of this?”

“They are not happy but are continuing their investigations. The fact that you declared your earnings in Australia so soon after your return really sends a clear message that you could not have been in two places at once. If they do agree that this return is illegal then there will be a full HMRC audit of all the group companies that could go back six years before the date on this document.”

“I was still at school then. I was studying hard for my A-Levels. A fat lot of good they did me but that is another topic.”

“What was David doing at that time?”

“He’d basically dropped out of school after his GCSE’s at sixteen and was working in one or more of the family businesses. That was when one of his scams blew up and I ended up taking the blame even though I was away in France on a school trip at the time. David can be very persuasive when he puts his mind to it.”

Carla smiled.
“As I found out last Friday. I was at the company accountants going through the books with one of my colleagues who is a qualified accountant when he turned up demanding that we stop.”

“Did you? Stop that is?”

She shook her head.
“We had been given permission by your father to look at everything and anything. David tried to explain away all the things that we’d discovered but with most of them, we already more than enough corroborating evidence to prove otherwise. Then he tried to blame you for the failure of two companies and as you were the MD, it was all your fault.”

It was my turn to smile.
“I take it that those two companies are the ones where the fake change of director forms were filed at companies house a while back?”

“They were and David had no idea that you had discovered that. He made up all sorts of things about how you were conspiring with others to ruin him and much more.”

I could see from her body language that she didn’t believe a word of it.

“What happens next?”

“Your father has instructed us to bring civil cases against David for embezzlement, false accounting and a few more things that are in the process of being finalised.”

I smiled.
“He’ll just laugh in your face if I know my brother.”

Carla laughed.
“You really do know how your brother will behave, as that is exactly what he did late on Friday afternoon.”

I could see that there was something that she wasn’t telling me.

“I get the feeling that there is something else? The coup de resistance perhaps?”

“You are a good judge of people. Yes, there is something else.”

Carla swallowed hard.
“In the early hours of this very morning, the Police raided the warehouse near Bury, Greater Manchester. I was with them as a courtesy to your father.”

“We, or rather they discovered a large-scale facility for growing Skunk, a form of very strong cannabis. They also discovered an illegal cold store that was filled with frozen lamb that originated in Australia. From your uncle’s farm to be exact. What was more interesting was that those carcasses had been used to smuggle large quantities of Meth Amphetamine into the country. It was all documented. As I understand it, the New South Wales Police will be taking a deep look at your uncle’s farm very, very soon.”

“What about David?”

“He was arrested at Manchester Airport at lunchtime today. He was on his way to Amsterdam and then to Bangkok and finally Myanmar. We don’t have an extradition treaty with them so he’d be fairly safe there.”

I was quite stunned by this news.

“See, it wasn’t all bad news now was it?” said Carla as she threw my own words back at me.

I was beginning to like her.

“Well Carla, that is really good news. You must let me take you out to dinner as my way of saying thank you. How about it?”

Immediately a look of disappointment came over her face.

“I’d love to take you up on your offer but I’m afraid…”

“Your boyfriend wouldn’t like it?”
I had noticed the lack of any rings or the marks of rings on her ring finger.

She smiled.
“No. It is just that I promised to babysit my neighbour's children tonight. She is being presented with her Masters from Birkbeck College in London.”

“Another time perhaps?”

“You can count on that. I want to get to know more about narrowboats.”

She packed up her things and we went up on deck. As I prepared to say goodbye, I had a sudden thought.
“When did my father engage your services? I only presented him with a lot of the information that you have told me a week ago.”

“He engaged us along with our sister company of accountants three months ago.”

I suddenly felt very small. All that effort I’d put into going to see him was more or less wasted.

Carla saw my shoulders slump.
“Don’t worry about your father. Your visit just confirmed what we’d been saying. If anything, it has moved things along a bit quicker. We… I say we as in the Police and ourselves may not have been able to apprehend your brother if we had waited much longer. As soon as the Police saw the contents of the warehouse, they put out what the US Cops call and APB, All Points Bulletin. All Airports and ports were on the lookout for him within an hour of the raid.”

Her words did little to comfort me. At least the rat that was my Brother was in custody. I wondered if he’d weasel bail and skip the country? That was for others to worry about.

Once I’d helped to get off of Roxy and had watched her walk towards the nearest car park, I wondered if I’d ever see her again. With my luck, the answer would be a big no.

---

The next morning, I left Banbury behind and carried on north. I was already feeling lonely. Melody had only been with me for a relatively short period but I’d gotten used to having someone else on board. Every time I passed by her now empty bedroom; I felt a tinge of sadness.

It had been a lot of fun to be with someone despite her initial reticence but once she’d realised that I was like her things changed and I began to be more like a big sister. While that was good, It became clear to me while we were in Oxford that I wanted a bit more from life other than my work and my boat.

The downside was that since Oxford, I’d had zero inspiration to paint. Something inside me was telling me that there was another topic that was crying out for my art. Sitting at the controls of Roxy as we headed north, I had no idea what that would be.

The result was that despite my brother David hopefully looking at a long stretch in jail, I was more alone than ever.

---

I only stayed a couple of days at Cropredy before heading north once more. Once I reached Napton Junction where the Oxford Canal meets up with the Grand Union Canal, I had to decide which way to go.

Turning left would take me towards Birmingham and even Stratford upon Avon which was always one of my favourite towns or carry on for a few miles and take the Coventry Canal which would allow me to bypass Birmingham entirely.

I moored up and looked at my waterways map. The Birmingham option was a lot harder due to the sheer number of locks that I’d need to traverse. Going south to Stratford was even worse. I’d done this route last year in the middle of summer going south and it was no fun. The last time I went to Stratford, I joined a queue of over twenty other boats all trying to go through one set of locks. That was not for me.

Those thoughts made me decide that this year, I would avoid Birmingham. The more I looked at the map, the more the Lancaster Canal looked tempting. Getting there would not be easy but I needed a target to aim for.

Then there were the various galleries and museums in Manchester that I’d been promising myself to visit. I could do that this year. I had a plan.

---

There is a saying ‘the best-laid plans of mice and men’. I’d only been following my plan for a couple of days when I had some visitors.

I’d been into the city of Tamworth to buy some food and when I returned to where Roxy was moored, I saw two men standing on the towpath right where next to her. Their aurora said ‘Police’ loud and clear.

I made a point of deliberately ignoring them and climbed onboard Roxy. They started to walk towards me so I quickly unlocked the cabin door and disappeared. I had some food to put away.

“Hello Roxy,” came a call from outside.

I called back,
“Just a minute, I have some frozen food that needs to be put away.”

I finished putting things away before poking returning to the cockpit.

“Can I help you, gentlemen?”

“Are you Raymond Lewis Curtis?”

I chuckled.
“Once upon a time I was called that. Honestly, gentlemen, do I look like a Raymond Lewis?”
I looked down at my breasts.

“My legal name is Lauren Savannah Hall. Now that you know who I am, who are you?”

They flashed warrant cards at me.
“DCI Griffiths,” said one of them.
“DS Robertson,” said the other.

“We are from Greater Manchester Police.”

I smiled.
“What lies has my brother been telling you. You really need to know that he has a history of making people believe that the chaos he caused wasn’t him but someone else. As children, that someone else was usually me. Now… what kind of mess has he been saying that I masterminded?”

“Can we come aboard?” asked the DCI.

“Please come and sit in the cockpit.”

When they were seated, I asked once again,”
“So, what is it?”

The DCI opened his notebook and found a page.

“David is saying that you were part and parcel of the whole operation. He claims that you are the managing director of two of the companies that were involved with the illegal import of drugs.”

“Gentlemen, let me give you the contact details of my lawyer. My dear brother made a rather clumsy attempt at making me MD of those companies. He used my old male name and forged my signature badly. My lawyer can supply you with copies of the documents we submitted to Companies House. I am not and have never been a director of either of those companies.”

I stood up and reached down into the cabin and found my purse. After opening it, I found one of Evan’s business cards.

“Please feel free to contact Evan. He handles all my legal problems.”

The DCI took the card and filed it away.

Neither of them moved.

“Is there something else?”

“Your brother has made a number of allegations relating to money laundering. These relate to your return from Australia and the repatriation of a large amount of money that you acquired as part of your illegal activities in Australia.”

I sighed and shook my head.

“He really has excelled himself this time. If you contact my lawyer, he can put you in contact with my accountant. Yes, I really did come back from Australia with a large sum of money in the bank. That money allowed me to buy Roxy but that money was obtained from gold prospecting. I declared the money as income to both the UK HMRC and the Australian equivalent and they have both given me a clean bill of health. My lawyer has written evidence of that. The settling up with the HMRC was something I never shared with my family so there is really no way David could have found that out unless he actually had travelled to Kalgoorlie or engaged a P.I. to investigate for him but that would be unlikely.”

“You seem to have an answer for everything?” said the DC.

“I have answers to questions that actually involve me. If you had some questions for me about other things then I might have struggled with the answers.”

The two officers looked a bit uneasy. As I watched them, I had an idea.

“Perhaps you could answer a couple of my questions… as it seems that I have at least given you some answers to your questions?”

Neither of them objected.
“What has my brother been charged with and is he out on bail?”

The DCI answered.
“He’s not out on bail and so far, he has been charged with offences relating to the drugs operation. We are still investigating a number of other offences relating to the disappearance of money from other companies he was involved with.”

“And you can’t quite see the whole story because he has been pointing the finger in my direction?”

“Something like that.”

I had an idea that might deflect their attention.

“Please stay here. I need to get something from down below.”

I didn’t wait for them to reply as I headed down into the cabin. I grabbed a copy of the brochure from my exhibition in London. As I turned to go back up into the cockpit, I remembered one of the paintings that I’d completed but I didn’t show because it wasn’t that good.

I rummaged in my storage area for the painting. It was of St Katherine’s Dock in London.

“This is what I do for a living,” I said as I showed them the painting.
“A short while ago I held an exhibition of my work at this gallery in London. As you can see, the sale of my paintings gives me an adequate but perfectly legal income that is commensurate with my lifestyle. Anyone who thinks differently should consult my accountant. My painting is my business all legal and above board. With this and what is left from my time in Australia means that I really have little need for… for going over to the dark side, unlike my brother who has hardly ever done a proper days work in his life.”

The two police officers looked a little uneasy.
“You can take the brochure with you if you like but please don’t show it to David. He’ll go berserk. As you will probably have discovered, he really does not like me. He never has. All through our childhood, he did bad stuff and always denied any responsibility for his actions. It was always someone else’s fault and that other person was usually me. Nothing like pointing the finger at your brother to gain sympathy.”

There was a natural silence between us. I decided to act.
“If there nothing else?”

They took the hint and stood up.

Once they were on dry land I said,
“I will be passing through Manchester in a couple of weeks. If you need to formally interview me then I’ll be happy to attend then. Obviously, that will be with my lawyer in attendance. You have his contact details. He can contact me. Some of the places on the canal network are mobile phone ‘not spots’.”

They said their goodbyes and beat a retreat.

I afforded myself a smile. All those years of practice dealing with David’s accusations had begun to pay off.

Back down in the cabin, I finished putting the dry goods I’d bought away. Finally, I put the two shopping bags away in the cupboard next to the sink. That left my phone sitting on the table face down. Out of curiosity, I picked it up.

To my surprise, there were ten missed calls, four voicemails and seven text messages. I hadn’t heard it ring. Then I realised that somehow, the phone had switched itself into silent mode. That explained the lack of audible alarms.

The calls were from my lawyer, Evan and surprisingly also from Carla Kilinski. I could guess what Evan was calling about but at that moment, I could not find a reason for Carla to call.

The voicemails and texts were all from Evan so I decided to give him a call.

“Hi Evan.”

“Yeah, sorry. My phone must have accidentally gone onto silent mode while I was out shopping.”

“Yep, they found me. They’ve just left. I don’t think that they were very happy with my answers. I sort of referred them to you and Matt. You have all the evidence to back what I said especially about those fake MD positions but it is disturbing that David is still trying to blame me for just about everything despite him being nabbed trying to flee the country.”

“True but the Police have to do their due diligence don’t they? Follow up what he is saying and if it leads nowhere, that will go against him in the long run. I would not like being sent off on wild goose chases.”

“I did tell them that I will be passing through Manchester in a few weeks and that I will be happy to be formally interviewed with you at my side. Was that the right thing to do?”

“Thanks. See, some of the things that you have tried to drill into my thick skull over the years have actually sunk in.”

“Yes, there was one more thing. I should have asked you this last week. Do you know of a lawyer named Carla Kulinski?”

“Yes, that’s her.”

“So, she is genuine then?”

“She gave me the heads up about David. I guess I owe my father a thank you?”

“We’ll have to see about that. I’m not sure if I want to see him again until the case against David is done and dusted. Counting chickens and all that sort of thing.”

“Yeah. I’ll give it some thought. Thanks, Evan, let me know if there are any issues with the Police.”

“Bye.”

I sat back and thought about what to do next. I couldn’t decide if I should call Carla or not.

The clock on the wall said 13:00. That made up my mind for me. I could make the mooring at Huddlesford before five. The canal guidebook said that there was a good pub near the mooring. That was a good enough recommendation for me. Calling Carla would have to wait until later as I’d had just about as much excitement as I could handle for one day.

[to be continued]

DC = Detective Constable. The lowest rank plainclothes officer in UK Police.
DCI = Detective Chief Inspector. One of the higher-ranking plainclothes officers.