Cherringham--A Lesson in Murder by Neil Richards Page A

feeling just a little bit better.

14. The World Turned Upside Down
    Jack’s mobile phone went off loudly, pulling him sharply out of his sleep.
    He reached over to the bedside light and flicked it on. He looked at the clock: one in the morning.
    “Jeez,” he said out loud.
    He grabbed the phone, stared at it. Sarah? At this hour?
    He answered quickly.
    “Sarah. You okay?”
    “I’m fine. Sorry if I woke you.”
    “That’s okay. What’s up?”
    “We’ve got it all wrong, Jack.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Emily. The girls. The school. The whole thing. We nearly missed what was really happening.”
    “Whoa, slow down — what are you talking about Sarah? What’s happened?”
    “Emily’s computer. The hard drive. I’ve been going through it. You need to come over, now.”
    “Now? You sure?”
    “I’m sure. Oh — and you know you said you wanted to nail Weiss?”
    “I do.”
    “Well, you will. Big time.”
    Jack blinked, his mind racing.
    “Okay, give me twenty minutes, I’ll be right over. Oh — and put the coffee on — and make it strong.”
    He put the phone down and looked across at Riley in his dog basket.
    “Just like old times Riley — don’t you love it?”
    *
    The back door open, Jack saw Sarah at the kitchen table, lost to her screen. He walked in.
    “That was quick,” she said.
    “Middle of the night summons? Gets me racing.”
    Sarah pointed at the screen. “Sorry, but I don’t think we can waste any time. You are not going to believe what I found …”
    Jack pulled up a chair so he could see the screen.
    “You want that coffee?” Sarah said.
    “And have to wait before I see this? No, detective — show me what you got.”
    “Okay.” She took a deep breath. “Amazing emails. That business manager …”
    “Weiss …”
    “Has been putting major pressure on Braithwaite.”
    “To do?”
    “That’s the amazing part. To use all her connections to get Freya DeLong into — well, I’m not sure whether the dad wanted Oxford or Cambridge.”
    Jack turned to her.
    “And she balked?”
    “Yes! That’s the amazing thing. Even Ward wrote to her, telling her she had to start making calls, even suggested pumping up Freya’s record with letters of recommendation … just making stuff up.”
    “All for the rich American donor.”
    “Wait. It gets better.”
    Jack smiled. “Who needs coffee?”
    “Emily’s bank account.”
    “You could get into that?”
    Sarah smiled “Easy. Especially when she kept a Word file with clues to her passwords. Easiest thing in the world to work those out.”
    “And?”
    “Money, Jack. Pots of cash flowing into her account from Weiss. Then out to — it looks like — various university administrators.”
    “They bribed people?”
    “Probably covered their tracks by saying it was for expenses or some such. But yes, absolutely.”
    Jack turned away.
    Potent information here, he knew. But what did it mean? How did it fit with everything else they knew, about Braithwaite, her favourites, the rejected Freya, the vandalism?
    Her death?
    He looked back to Sarah. “There has to be more.”
    “There is. With those threats from Weiss, the pressure … Braithwaite wanted out. That’s what she was doing up in London, meeting a lawyer, to protect herself in all this.”
    “No medical emergency?”
    “Not at all.”
    “And looked like she was going to go whistle-blower on the thing, hmm?”
    “If she had lived.”
    “Quite the motive. So you think this points to Weiss …?”
    It felt strange for Jack not to be the one in their partnership putting all the pieces together.
    Guess I’ve trained Sarah well …
    “Ward and Weiss knew she went to London. Probably guessed why. They also shared that information with someone.”
    The light bulb went off.
    “Freya’s father. George DeLong?”
    “Yes. And so the father, after all the money he gave to Cherringham Hall — a million dollar endowment, you know — asked for Emily Braithwaite’s email