“It’s messy Archie.” The policeman said to his partner, “yeah, the guy hurled himself off the top of a twenty story building. He landed flat on the top of a car, smashed in the whole damn thing. He didn’t stand a chance. The forensic people are checking out the scene now to see if they can find out who the guy was. See you back at the station. Bye” Steve hung up the phone and got back into the car to drive back to the police station when one of the forensic investigators tapped on the window.

“We found this near the body, seems to be the victim’s drivers licence. The picture has been burned off but all of the other details are fine, wouldn’t do much good anyway, not with the state the body’s in.” Steve nodded, trying to erase the picture of the scene from his memory and failing. He took the licence, which had already been placed in an evidence bag, off the investigator and looked down at it.

“Mr Gordon Lambert eh?.” Steve shrugged and pulled away, driving back to the police station to find Archie.

Archie sat in the cafeteria finishing his meal. He had saved the donut till last, needing the sugar rush.

“Archie, can you check the records for any details on a Gordon Lambert, see what comes up?”

“No problem, let me finish this first.” Archie took a big bite out of his donut and stood up, placing his plate on a pile by the door waiting to be washed, they headed out into the corridor and to Archie’s desk. He sat down at the computer.

“This computer has details of everyone in this area that is old enough to vote or have a criminal record.” Steve nodded, secretly hating the fact that he had never been able to master computers, and hating how easy Archie found it. Archie searched through the files they had for five minutes before finding the an they were after.

“Here you go, Gordon Lambert. Aged 35, no wife, no kids, no family.”

“So was it money that drove him to suicide then?”

“I doubt it, the corpse was quite wealthy. Apparently he’d just retired from he S.A.S, quite a good wage as well, better than we could ever expect.”

“Right then, all that’s left is to write this up then.” Steve said with a yawn, it was getting late and it had been a long day for them both.

“I’ll see if I can find anything out and write it up later, you get yourself home.” Archie said, he still had a few hours left on shift so it didn’t bother him.

Archie printed off the information from the computer and went to find the dead man’s last known address. He found it and immediately left to talk to the people living there.

He arrived at half nine, the light in the front room was on so he assumed there would be people awake inside. He knocked on the door.

An oldish man answered opened the door and asked what Archie wanted rather rudely. Archie explained, then the shaken and obviously upset man let Archie in and offered him a cup of tea. Archie agreed and accepted a seat on the sofa.

“My name is Ken Adams.” Said the man, entering the room and handing the cup to Archie. “I was Gordon’s best friend; we shared this house together since we got out of the army. I just don’t understand why he would do something like this.

“Do you have any information about Gordon that would help us build up a character description of him, that way we might be able to understand why this happened?”

Ken sighed and sat back in his chair. “Gordon and me met on the first day that we were in the army, we shared the same barracks. He was a bit of a runt, small and skinny. He always kept himself smart and tidy.” Archie scribbled everything down on a pad of paper. “He didn’t really want to go into the army, truth be told. It was his dad that made him do it. His dad had been an army sergeant you see. His father was very strict and Gordon was brought up as though the army was the only way of life.

While other children were out playing football, Gordon was inside practicing military manoeuvres, over the top really. He felt that if he didn’t make it in the army he would let his family down, that was what scared him most.

He had been in the army for six years when he was drafted into the S.A.S. He adapted well and progressed through the ranks, he retired on a good wage and a hero’s medal. There was a kidnapping involving the daughter of a politician. Anyway he lead the troop that rescued her. Emm, he retired due to the stress that was brought on by the work he was doing.

We used our retirement money to buy this place; god only knows how I’m going to afford it now. I suppose there’s always the money from his will, but that’s hardly the same. When his mother died he changed his will, he was leaving half of everything to charity and the rest to me you see.” Ken broke into tears at this point and Archie felt that he had learned enough from the man. Archie once again gave his sympathies and left. He drove back to the police station and slumped down at his desk. He reached over for his phone and dialled Steve’s home number quickly. Steve answered, grumpy at having been woken up.

“Sorry to bother you, I know it’s late. I just want you to know that I’m going to investigate this suicide business further, some of the details are a bit smelly.” Steve mumbled a response and hung up the phone. Archie smiled to himself as he stretched. Then grabbed his coat and headed down to the law courts.

“Are you looking for anything in particular?” asked the clerk, not liking visitors so late in the evening.

“I am looking for the wills of a suspected suicide victim.”

The clerk yawned as he led him into the hall of records and helped him find what he was looking for. Archie exhaled deeply at the time the man had just saved him, he had dreaded the thought of searching through all of the files by himself. “Is there anywhere I can go to read these?”

The clerk led him to one of the empty viewing galleries and turned on a light for him. Here Archie was left alone. He took off his jacket and sat down, settling himself on the benches and began to read.

Here is the last will and testament of Gordon Lambert. I, being of sound mind and body, am writing these words to make sure that my belongings are given to the correct beneficiaries. All of my money is to be split up into equal parts and shared between my immediate family. I wish for the original paintings however to be sold to museums for their full value and the proceeds to be given to charities near my home. I also wish for my home to be put on the market and the funds from this to be given to the local hospital to keep up its high standards.

Archie raised an eyebrow and thumbed through the various papers until he found the second will.

Here is the last will and testament of Gordon Lambert. I, being of sound mind and body, am writing these words to make sure that my belongings are given to the correct beneficiaries. I wish half of my worldly assets to go to charities in my local area and for the other half to be given to a Mr Ken Adams.

Archie shrugged. The document was legal, he didn’t understand the reason behind it, but it wasn’t his job to question what was wanted by the deceased. He held the papers together and shook them to straighten them out. As he did so another document fell onto the floor. He picked it up and sat down again as he read what was written on it.

Here is the last will and testament of Gordon Lambert. I, being of sound mind and body, am writing these words to make sure that my belongings are given to the correct beneficiaries. I wish half of my worldly assets to go to charities in my local area and for the other half to be given to a Miss Jade Daniels to accommodate her well being and comfortable lifestyle.

Archie stared at the document and reread it many times. He smiled to himself, his mind working quickly. He went out into the corridor and asked the clerk to make copies of each document. When the clerk returned Archie left and returned quickly to the police station. He sat at his desk and closely examined the documents in front of him, something he hadn’t been able to do in the viewing gallery. He found that the handwriting in the second document was ever so slightly different to that of the first and third. As he thought about it, he realised that the third had been hidden among other documents, probably to keep it secret form those who may want to find it. In his head everything fitted neatly. He grabbed his coat and rushed for the door. As he reached the corridor his phone began to ring.

“Yes?” his impatience showed in his voice.

“I think you might want to talk to this guy that’s just arrived to report a missing person.”

“I’ll be right down.” He slammed down the phone and rushed to reception. The officer behind the desk pointed to the interview room opposite as Archie reached the bottom of the stairs.

Archie calmed himself and entered the interview room, with his pad of paper in his hand.

“Good evening sir, can I take the name of the missing person and your name, please, just to start.”

“The missing person is a Miss Jade Daniels, and my name is Gordon Lambert.” The man said easily. Archie put down the paper and leaned on the desk looking at the man. He sat with his back straight in the chair; his expression was deadly serious, though showed little sign of emotion.

Archie explained the situation that had occurred earlier, but left out the details he had received since Steve called him.

“Can you tell me about a Mr Ken Adams please Mr Lambert?” Archie said, after a pause which allowed Gordon to digest the information.

“Certainly, After retiring from the S.A.S I moved in with Ken for a while, we had become friends in the army. Things were going quite well until Ken made things uncomfortable. He’s gay you see and apparently he had wanted us to be together from the start. I turned him down, but he wouldn’t take it. When I introduced him to Jade, my girlfriend, he went mad and started to throw things and he kicked me out of the house, said he didn’t want to see me again. Jade and I had already decided that we were going to immigrate to Spain for retirement. This gave us the extra push. Things were going well until three days ago when Jade received a call saying that her mother was gravely ill. We got on the first plane back and as she went to the hospital I went to see some old friends. I thought that she had stayed a few nights at the hospital. I didn’t want to intrude but when I did go to see how things were I found out that her mother had passed away and jade had left the previous day to come back to the hotel, the last anyone had seen her was when she got into the taxi.

Archie stood up quickly and shouted for another policeman to take a statement. He shouted for some other officer to come with him as he left.

He knocked on the door loudly. This time not waiting to be invited in he pushed his way into the house and found Ken sitting comfortably in the chair.

“Tell me about Jade Daniels.” Archie said with a smile.

Ken stared at him for a second, and then panicked. He darted out of the other door and headed for the back door through the kitchen. He was stopped by two uniformed officers.

“Mr Ken Adams, I am placing you under arrest for the murder of Jade Daniels. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you fail to mention when questioned, something you will later rely on in court, anything you do say will be given in evidence against you. Archie watched and smiled as Ken was put in the police car and taken to the police station where he was charged with murder and attempted fraud.