A Day at the Races (21 page)

Mike made his way around the room thanking individual people, and eventually got to Moxie and the rest of the group.

“Its great to see you all again, it seems like an age since we last met, but we are so happy the way things have turned out, I have to say a special thank you to everyone of you, for all the effort and extreme risks that you all took, its something that I wont forget, ever.”

Moxie was the first to speak.

“Rachel looks so well, and we can see the relief on your and Brenda’s face that just to see this makes it all worthwhile.”

Everyone concurred.

Fisher told Mike that he had decided to retire and hand the business over to his two sons Maurice and Ian.

“I have been rising at 4.0 a.m. for the past I don’t know how many years, so I have decided to call it a day and do some travelling with my buddy Frank.”

Mike was surprised, because in all the time he had know Fisher, he never took things easy, in fact, he could never remember him taking a holiday never mind retiring.

“And you Frank, does this mean you have retired as well?”

“Yes Mike, none of us is getting any younger and I lost interest in the insurance business when it was more or less proven that Miller wasn’t involved in setting fire to the place, that they would pay out for the rebuilding of the Steel Bick works and loss of property.

It just doesn’t seem right that he should profit, although I am not sure what will happen now that he has done a runner, I cant see the Insurance Company sending the cheque to John Miller care of the Drug Cartel, Columbia.

As you know he had no living relatives as his wife died two years ago, so unless some distant relative crawls out from under a stone who knows what will happen? But if I were them, I would do absolutely nothing, who is going to chase them to carry out the rebuilding?

After a bit of thought I sold the Company to my nephew, who has been working for one of the big brokers and itching to go on his own for a while. He kept asking me to sell him the business, and I said I would and also help him in an advisory position until he is fully up and running.

I talked Fisher into learning to play golf, in fact with my low handicap I have been giving him instruction and he is doing very well, so we are going to tour golf courses around the Europe and enjoy what years we have left.”

“I can just visualise you two in your gingham strides and your pink shirts with matching golf bags, you never know you might bump into Miller and some of his cohorts on one of their gay weekends, that’s if they ever find Miller.” Said Moxie.

There were howls of laughter.

“And what have you been up to Moxie?”

“Well as of last month, I am the new co-owner of the Mercedes and Porsche franchises with a new garage on Rochdale Road.”

Mike looked at him and smiled.

“That’s great Moxie, how the hell did you manage to pull that one off?”

“Well you know I knew Manfred Kumpers the Export Sales Director for Continental Distributors, they handle the distribution for Mercs and Porches plus BMW from when I was at Millers garage. You may recall I went to see him at the end of November.

He didn’t have anything then as they had a contract with Miller.

But he approached me immediately after it was discovered what Miller had been up to.

As soon as the news broke they severed all connection with Miller and Beyer in Germany, I think it got more press over there than here.

They just wanted to distance themselves from these two low lives as far as possible and as quickly as they could, it’s not good for business to be tarnished by what they had been involved with.

He said they needed a dealer in the Northwest, I told him I didn’t have the capital but he said that wasn’t a problem, they would provide me with a new showroom and we would go in as 50/ 50 partners so I jumped at the chance.

There was a new custom built showroom available on Oxford Street just on the corner Rochdale Road so they bought it, and we were up and running within a few weeks. We are now looking at another location in Liverpool, so things are going from strength to strength.

Delores found out about my potential wealth, and wanted to give it another try, but seeing as she had already served me with divorce papers, as well as sending me a bunch of really abusive letters, I said no way.

In fact, Maria and I are now an item since she found she didn’t love her husband anymore, she has filed for divorce and as soon as that comes through and mine is finalised, we are getting married.”

“Jesus I thought that relationship was rock solid.” said Mike.

“It was initially but he was away almost every week, and she had had enough of constantly being on her own. It was no life for her and things were never going to change, so she filed for divorce, and what is one mans loss is another mans gain.”

“Well a lot seems to have gone on since I have been away, most of it probably for the better, any news about Miller and company?”

Moxie couldn’t wait to speak.

“Well he paid me a visit to our new showrooms when he heard about my deal with Manfred Kumpers.

He stormed in uninvited and started ranting and raving, and it would be an understatement to say he wasn’t too happy. He accused me of taking the bread out of his mouth, and that I was deceitful and a Judas and I wouldn’t get away with it.

All this coming from a man that unfairly fired me, made sure I never got a job in the car trade by warning off every car dealer in Salford, not to mention cutting off my funds at the bank, and by doing so threatened my very existence.

I told him he wasn’t welcome, in fact I told my secretary to call the police because he became quite threatening.

Anyway, before they arrived, he picked up a heavy metal model of the new E Class Mercedes car off my desk and threw it at me in a rage. I didn’t expect it and unfortunately I didn’t duck in time. It caught me just above my right eye and gave me a nasty cut that eventually needed ten stitches, just another scar to add to the collection, in fact you can still see the bruising.

I wont bore you with the details, but you know I had Karate training and I wasn’t going to let him get away with that so I battered him senseless. His false teeth broke into pieces flew out of his mouth and spilled out across the showroom floor as he hit the deck. I didn’t realise he had false teeth because he had two gold teeth at the front; it just goes to show you what a vain bastard he was.

It wasn’t a pretty sight to see this bleeding toothless wonder lying there, like something you might see washed up on a beach. I have to tell you it felt so good, sweet revenge if you will, but at one stage I though I might have overdone it, because he was totally unconscious and not moving at all and I thought I might had killed him.

However Avril my secretary bent down and felt his neck and she could feel a pulse. Pity I thought at the time, it would have saved everyone a lot time and money.

The police arrived, and there were about eight people in the showroom at the time, and they confirmed to the police that he had assaulted me even though he was spark out on the floor.

The copper looked a bit sceptical at first until I told him that I had been called as a witness for the prosecution against Miller, and that he was trying to intimidate me. So not only has he an additional charge of assault, he is also charged with interfering with a witness for the Crown.

He was in breach of his bail conditions, so they took him to casualty to patch him up, and then they placed him under arrest again and put him in Strangeways Prison. He was only inside about a week when the Judge granted him bail again, much to do disgust of the Chief Constable.

The latest rumour is that he has skipped the country onto the continent, since he heard Freely had turned Queens evidence and had decided to come clean and had told the police every detail. It would seem he panicked and bolted.

They think he used one of his yachts to sail across the English Channel to France. He was an accomplished yachtsman and had sailed around the world a couple of times. He then made his way down the coast to Spain and across to North Africa and from there, probably to South America.

Of course this wouldn’t have happened if that stupid Judge hadn’t let him out of Strangeways Prison.

Interpol are on the lookout for him, but they are pretty certain he has escaped to South America, Columbia I think.

They know he had contacts there from all the documentation they uncovered during their enquiries, so he is finished, he might as well have said he was guilty. He will never be able to come back to this country not as a free man anyway, and far from being a so called pillar of the community, he was engaged in drug smuggling on a huge scale, and has been peddling misery for years. I would gladly put a rope around his neck and feel absolutely no compassion for a shit like that.

They had been using the Steel Brick Works to cut and pack the stuff and were using Hire cars from Central Cars to distribute the stuff. They reckoned they crossed another dealers patch in Liverpool, so that’s why they set fire to the place to try and put him out of action, and they did, but for only a short while.

I know some of you thought I had something to do with torching the place, but I didn’t.

On top of that he is linked to the Wetherby robbery since they found some of the stolen notes in his home and at Central Cars. The press have also reported that the whole bunch of the them have been active in child pornography as well, and this makes me sick to the core, especially when I think I used to work for that bastard.

It sounds like Freely has spilled the beans on the whole bloody lot of them, and his bail was revoked because it was reported to the police he had met Miller at Geenmount golf course. This was in breach of his bail conditions, so now he is languishing in Strangeways Prison until the trial in November.

Miller knew he would get a stiff jail sentence, and then the Chief Constable in overall charge of the operation, came out and openly criticised the Judge for granting him bail. He was afraid that there was strong possibility that Miller would skip bail, but the Judge wouldn’t listen. Then they discovered that apparently the Judge was a close friend of Millers, and eventually the press got a hold of it so he was removed from the bench and was also under investigation.

They have since discovered he is also linked to the child prostitution ring as well, so he was arrested last week, and they wont give him bail because they think he might join Miller in Columbia.

There was even an attempt on Freely’s life whilst he was in Strangeways Prison when he was stabbed in the throat in the exercise yard. They reckon it was on the instruction of a gang member, and was an attempt to shut him up.

He was badly injured and only just survived which was a pity, and the authorities were pretty sure Miller was responsible.

He obviously new a lot of nasty people like this guy Dermot Mc Alpine, a real thug. He was wanted in various parts of Europe with a couple of warrants in Ireland for terrorist activities, as well as for one of the biggest Security Van robberies in Dublin that resulted in two of the Security Guards being shot. Both of them were seriously injured and have both been retired from the job since. Although it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to carry on with that kind of work after an experience like they obviously went through.

This guy was an absolute villain and Miller was in cahoots with him and it’s hard for me to come to terms with, especially when I think I was involved with his company and didn’t have a clue what was going on.

The fact that he was able to organise this assault on Freely whilst he was on the run or from Columbia, just shows the kind of people he was associating with, and what a lowlife he really was. What a sick bunch of people they are, you just can’t trust anyone these days.

Miller was just pure greed he could never have enough, when you think of all his business interests he had, he was worth a small fortune and didn’t need to be involved in drugs, or any of this other misery he was peddling.

All his business’s, have been closed down, as he had no heirs to leave them to. No one wanted to take responsibility for running them, not knowing if they would ever be paid. I suppose that’s one good thing, I would hate to think that there was another Miller mark two running around, doing everything he did.

Every day more and more is released in the press and it seems there are a lot of other people involved including Senior Politicians and Judges, they must all be quaking in their shoes waiting for that knock on the door.”

“Were you interviewed by the police Moxie, seeing as you were being called as a witness for the prosecution?”

“Yes I was, but don’t get alarmed Mike, most of the staff both past and present from Millers garage and all his other business interests had been interviewed at some stage, it was just a general thing to build up their case against Miller, that’s all.”

“I wonder how Miller came to be in possession of so much of our money Moxie? Its beyond belief.”

“Well Mike I would say that it came from Happy Larry’s bookies chain, plus the police found money in his possession that was stolen in the Wetherby racecourse robbery, so that would easily account for him being in possession of so much dud money.”

Mike was sceptical.

“What about this Yank Richard Reichert that Miller has said he supplied twelve top of the range cars to, in exchange for the best part of three quarters of a million quid, and neither the cars or this bloke have been located?

Then there’s this other Yank Paul Vanderbilt the oil billionaire, that donated £500,000 into Rachel’s fund, was he for real?”

“Oh yes he was Mike, he was for real alright, a philanthropist is what you would call him, they even saw him in the bank and they gave him a receipt for the donation. A tall guy with a goatee beard and grey hair, he spoke with a strong Texas accent… according to the Bank Manager.

Not sure about this guy Reichert though, I tend to go along with what the Police think.”

“Even so there seemed to have been an awful lot of Yanks around at this critical time, that no one has seen or heard of since.