The Attorney’s Mystery

By Mike Ike Chinwuba

Giles Stone, a celebrated
attorney from Manhattan, New
York, takes a short break in
Earl’s Court, London. His journey
turns out to be anything but, as
he lives and mingles amongst
the homeless community, his
curiosity drives him questing for
the truth about life at the bottom
of socio-economic scale, an
extraordinary experience he
cherishes beyond measure.
His true identity is discovered
by a police sergeant, as a
result, he moves to the Isle of
Wight, compelling him to come
face to face with Oliver Cards,
a brilliant barrister and an old
adversary. The outcome was
both fascinating and horrifying
in equal measure, overzealous
marriage proposal backfires.
His past catches up with him.
Amends have to be made.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796012767

Mike Ike Chinwuba

The Author Mike lives in London, he graduated in a London university with a master’s degree. Having travelled extensively and experienced a great deal of life’s tapestry, he has the power to inspire. Mike is a practicing member of the SGI – a Buddhist organisation for value creation: Peace, education and culture. His novels include: A Vow to Change, The Train and the secret Witness and Photo in the Frame.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

The time was 11.30 pm in Bryant park, Manhattan, New York City. As usual the Park was vibrant and fully illuminated by powerful flood lights that revealed an eclectic mix of activities and the cross-section of Manhattan’s demography that were often the integral part of this Park which majestically bordered the forty-second street, Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. The bars and snack stalls were open for business while lovers sat on the manicured grass area. Groups of people sporadically settled down in sections, some of them were reciting poetry, some entertained with their guitar while others simply relaxed to absorb the enchanting ambiance.

Amongst this organised chaos, a man remained unquestionably conspicuous, he was wearing a three-piece suit, a bowler hat and well-polished black shoes. He was oblivious to the delightful surroundings as he loitered within the confines of the park, apparently in deep thought.

His name was Giles Stone, an English man who lived in New York as a base while globetrotting for work as an international attorney, he specialised and practiced family law and criminal law for over twenty years. Giles Stone had never lost any litigation in any court of Law in all his career during which he had amassed enormous wealth,

His phone rang.

‘Hello’ he answered.

‘Have you made up your mind?’

‘I can’t take any more work, sorry.’

The call from London was made by Carl Winston a wealthy Englishman who was seeking legal representation from Giles. Carl lived in London with his beautiful wife, Roxanne. His marriage was in serious trouble as he stood to lose half his estate. Giles, however, had decided to take some time off from globetrotting in which he represented various clients, he was often deluged with calls from desperate husbands, wives and large corporations needing his services. Although he had amassed considerable fortune but not without a significant price, he was still a bachelor in his late forties. This was due to the fact that he was single-mindedly focused in his work that he had little or no time to court any of the ladies that streamed into his life.

After his last legal contest in London, he returned to New York, and began to re-evaluate certain quandary that seemed to constantly probe his mind with a view to making a final decision, such as whether to retire or to simply take some time off work. In order to come to a decision, he went to Bryant Park to soak up the mesmerising atmosphere which would enable him make the right decision, as a matter of cause, he had always visited the Park before jetting off abroad to represent a client and would revisit the Park whenever he returned from abroad. It had been known that he called it the Eden of escapism. While in this Park that night, he decided to take some time off instead, he could not consider himself retired from legal practice to which he seemed to be addicted and in which he felt some reassuring sense of accomplishment and gratification.

Nevertheless, he still had some unquestionable reservations to consider, a culmination of a wide range of his auspicious professional experiences that had suddenly raised further questions in his mind, noting that whenever he had won a case the opposing client suffered emotionally and economically. After much contemplation in that respect, he perished the thought and justified the consequences irrespective of the role that he played as an attorney, after-all it was his duty to defend and protect his client irrespective of circumstances, he thought.

Giles Stone needed to escape completely from New York City, London was the chosen destination because he was a typical Englishman and he knew the city fairly well even though he had been away and resident in New York for over twenty-five years, he had also presided over many litigations in London and felt the need to be sympathetic to the city which had significantly contributed to his enormous fortune.

CHAPTER 2

The following morning, Giles Stone picked up an old duffle bag in which he packed some of his books and essential documents and headed to JFK Airport where he boarded a plane for London.

He was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, he had no other clothes, his hair was unkempt and his clothes ruffled. He was well aware that the state of his ruffled clothing was unconventional and contrary to the dress code of a man who was used to wearing pin-striped suits at all times. As far as he was concerned, it fulfilled his idea of total escapism to the life-style he strongly intended to lead in order to avoid being recognised. Despite all his effort in that regard, a couple who sat behind him on the flight seemed to recognise him but were ambivalent because of his drastic change in his inventive demeanour, the couple spent most of the time murmuring to each other in an uninterrupted argument as to whether the man sitting in front of them was indeed the Giles Stone. He was no stranger to Journalists, his pictures had recurrently appeared in the newspapers after his consecutive triumphs in the courts of Law, so, it was almost impossible to evade recognition. He could hear the couple arguing whether he was indeed the Giles Stone, the famous attorney who travelled the world winning legal challenges but they did not have the impetus to ask him.

The plane touched down at Heathrow airport London in the evening, he came outside to catch a taxi to the Airbnb which he had already booked from New York. He had been used to staying in five star hotels but his choice of Airbnb was ideal for his intention for total escapism. He needed his usual life-style and the life he intended to lead in London to be polar opposites. He approached a taxi just outside the arrivals terminal,

‘To Earl’s court?’ he asked.

‘I will take you.’ She replied.

The female taxi driver came out of the taxi and opened the boot expecting that he had a luggage,

‘Where is your luggage,’ she asked.

‘This is it,’ indicating the Duffle bag he was clutching under his arm.

‘Okay, get in.’

Giles opened the door and sat in the back seat still clutching his Duffle bag, she swiftly closed the boot and hopped into the driver’s seat. The driver was surprised that the only luggage he had was a duffle bag on an international flight, she began to wonder why his dress code was akin to cultural misappropriation. As she drove on, she occasionally glanced at him on the rear-view mirror and noted a nuance in his demeanour of someone who was quite learned irrespective of his outward appearance. Unable to subdue her anxiety, she decided to initiate a conversation,

‘Are you here on business or pleasure?’ she asked.

‘On vacation,’ he replied.

‘I hope you enjoy your vacation.’

‘Thanks, every change is a challenge, dear lady.’

‘True.’

At this point the taxi driver was beginning to think that she had perhaps crossed the line by asking personal questions, so, she kept quite while wishing he carried on with the conversation, then, she observed from the rear view mirror that her passenger had closed his eyes, perhaps it was attributable to tiredness due to the trans-Atlantic flight, she thought.

However, contrary to her assumption, he opened his eyes, sat up and chuckled,

‘I really thought you were asleep,’ she said.

‘No, I was wondering why you agreed with me.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘What shall I call you?’

‘Danica, my name is Danica.’

‘Danica, I would like to know why you agreed that every change is a challenge, so, what is your story?’

Danica giggled and enthusiastically gave a brief narrative of her life. She was born a boy and one of the twins of two boys, from a very early age he felt and behaved like a little girl and had no feeling of dysphoria until the age of fourteen at which point she thought of what the future might have in store for her as she had often been at wars with herself when deciding which toilet she would use at school – the boys’ or the girls’ and which pronoun she would be addressed with. It was an odious dilemma, on the inside with herself while on the outside with everyone else. This meant that throughout her childhood he had to struggle with her identity, she was always on tenterhooks. She did not have many friends and had lived a solitary life until after her complete transfiguration when she totally embraced her female identity.

‘What motivated you to change completely,’

‘To have a real identity and not have to struggle anymore,’

‘It must have been an awful conundrum for you.’

‘No, it was indeed a very simple and natural decision.’

They arrived at a traffic jam just after exiting the motorway, in the location of a block of run down shops which suddenly revealed many homeless individuals, it captured his attention, some of these homeless individuals laid down on their cardboard boxes while some loitered around trash bins. Danica glanced at the rear view mirror to find that Giles had shifted his attention towards these rough sleepers beside the road, he was completely oblivious to everything else around, so, she ignored him and continued driving, Giles wondered why those rough-sleepers were condemned to wretched existence in the slums and he thoughtfully began to revisit some of the litigation he had presided over previously and immediately concluded that those on the outside see those in the inside as living in a bubble and concluded it was indicative of the cause of the new era of populism born of economic and social unrest. However, Danica continued stealing glances in the rear-view mirror wondering what could be going through his mind since he disengaged in their conversation. She was fully aware where his attention was focused, inevitably at the homeless rummaging through trash bins.

‘You’ve seen the homeless and beggars before, have you not?’ she asked.

‘Yes, but I had never had the time to think about them.’ Giles replied

‘Change of circumstances in one’s life,’ Danica said,

‘Or perhaps one was pushed beyond the bounds of reason.’ Giles said,

‘May I ask what line of work you are in?’ asked Danica,

He was cautious and did not wish to divulge what he did for a living to anyone and certainly not to the taxi driver he has just met.

‘Well, the reason for my vacation was to disconnect from my work and I intend to do that, I hope you don’t mind, dear lady.’

‘Not at all,’ she replied defensively.

For a while Danica was tentative and refrained from asking questions or indeed saying anything to Giles in case it was intrusive, so, she kept her eyes on the road. They were now a few blocks to his destination, Giles suddenly peered through the window,

‘There it is, number seven.’

Danica pulled up in front of the Airbnb where Giles settled his fare. Danica handing over her card to him,

‘This is my card, just call when you need a taxi.’

‘Will do, thanks.’

CHAPTER 3

Clutching his duffle bag under his arm he made his way to the front door of the Airbnb and rang the doorbell, it was immediately opened by a remote device. The lady at the reception was attending to someone as he approached, so he waited patiently, it was not too long when the lady had finished and directed her attention to Giles,

‘Hello can I help you?’ she asked.

‘I reserved a room,’

The lady looked up on the computer screen scrolling back and forward for what seemed like three minutes.

‘Sorry sir, the only room that was reserved is for a gentleman by the name of Mr Giles Stone. Are you sure you are at the correct address?’ she asked.

‘I am Giles, Giles Stone.’

She was confused and then she timidly rummaged through the drawer and retrieved a set of keys which she handed over to him,

‘I am very sorry for the misunderstanding, Sir.’

‘Not a problem.’

‘Would you like some assistance with your luggage?’

‘There is no need, this is all I have,’ he said, indicating his duffle bag.

‘Oh well, it is room number twelve upstairs,’

As he turned and made his way to the stairway, the receptionist shrugged her shoulder in disbelief wondering not only how a man who was all the way from New York would come to London on a two weeks’ vacation with only a duffle bag and also looking very shabby. However, she perished the thought as she took the next call.

Giles swiftly trotted upstairs, put the key in the lock and pushed the door open, without much ado he threw his duffle bag on the table next to the window and quickly fell horizontally into bed, with his shoes on.

The room was average in size, a medium sized bed in the middle, to the right side of the bed was a single wardrobe,