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    Guilty Until Proved Innocent
    Guilty Until Proved Innocent
    Guilty Until Proved Innocent
    Ebook114 pages53 minutes

    Guilty Until Proved Innocent

    By J Walter Hodgson

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Guilty Until Proved Innocent is a story of adultery and revenge.

    The adultery is imagined. The revenge is real.

    Convinced that her husband is having an affair, Emily Hanson embarks on an elaborate plan to punish both her husband and his unsuspecting mistress.  She wants them to suffer but not know why.     

    Emily suddenly disappears on a family holiday and is declared missing presumed dead.  She secretly returns to America and leaves her husband to face the music.

    In an unexpected twist, and unbeknown to Emily, her husband is found guilty of her murder and sent to prison for 12 years.  

    While he is locked up in a foreign prison 6000 miles from home, she attends her own bogus memorial service.

    After serving 3 years of his sentence, the innocent Hanson is unexpectedly released and returns to the shock of coming home to no home, no family and no money.  

    This is a gripping story that will keep you guessing from beginning to end. 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJ Walter Hodgson
    Release dateApr 21, 2016
    ISBN9781524263171
    Guilty Until Proved Innocent
    Author

    J Walter Hodgson

    After a successful business career as CEO of organisations in manufacturing, retailing and management consultancy, John joined the IoD (Institute of Directors) as a business consultant. He went on to become a senior lecturer on finance for non-financial directors, business strategy and negotiation skills.  He describes his time there as one of the most memorable and fulfilling chapters in his life.   After retiring, he turned his hand to writing, beginning with a series of self-help books that drew on personal experience. Titles include:  Top Tips: Interviewing, Top Tips: Writing a CV/Resume, The Interview Bible, Test Your Financial Awareness and Where to Find Things When I'm Gone. His venture into writing short stories began in 2016 with the publication of his first Novella:  GUILTY UNTIL PROVED INNOCENT which was quickly followed in 2017 with the sequel: THE BRAINTEASER. John lives with his wife Anyta in Cambridge, England. They have three children and eight grandchildren. Hobbies include travelling, eating out, playing golf and fly-fishing.  He is a passionate supporter and fund-raiser for the Arthur Rank Hospice Charity.

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      Book preview

      Guilty Until Proved Innocent - J Walter Hodgson

      Guilty Until Proved Innocent

      ––––––––

      J Walter Hodgson

      Published by Hodgson Consulting

      © Copyright Hodgson Consulting 2016

      The right of John Hodgson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or copyright holder at:

      8 Farm Rise, Whittlesford, Cambridge, CB22 4LZ, United Kingdom

      Dedication

      To my wife Anyta

      Our children and their partners

      Caroline and Fraser, Chris and Sarah,

      Katherine and Simon

      and our grandchildren

      Frankie, Alex, Gaby, Ben, Sam, Iestyn, Rhys and Finlay

      Acknowledgement

      Thank you to Barbara Tayabali for allowing me to use the name of her late husband, and my much missed friend Arif Tayabali, to represent one of the key characters.

      To John Richard Schuster for his invaluable contribution, advice and editing skills. 

      Preface

      Guilty Until Proved Innocent is a story of adultery and revenge.

      The adultery is imagined. The revenge is real.

      The story begins in Goa prison on the day that prisoner 5940 was due to be released after serving three years for a crime he never committed.

      The prison superintendent handed the prisoner a large white envelope. The prisoner stared at it.  It was addressed to Prisoner 5940 c/o Goa Prison. Goa, India. It was clear from the stamps in the top right corner, that it had been posted in the United States.

      He turned the envelope over and looked at the return address.  It was from Richard Dadson, a lawyer he’d never met, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, a place he’d never visited.

      From his time inside he’d learned that the envelope would have been opened and re-sealed before he was allowed to read it.  That was one of the many rules that shaped his life inside.

      Holding the envelope in his left hand he used his right thumb to peel back the self-adhesive flap. 

      He paused. Took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. His hesitation was understandable. He had expectations, hope even, that this was going contain good news, but years behind bars had taught him to be cautious. 

      As he pulled the contents out of the envelope, the first thing that caught his eye was the Air New Zealand business class ticket from London to Los Angeles, flight number NZ001, seat number 5B. Date of departure 24th May 2015.

      All being well, in two days’ time he would be flying at 35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean on his way to a new life in America. 

      He checked the rest of the contents.

      Two more airline tickets that would take him from Goa to Mumbai and from Mumbai to London.

      There was $2,000 in cash and a Visa credit card with the name Michael J Hanson embossed on the front. 

      Last but not least, a temporary British passport. The photograph inside was identical to the one in his recently expired passport.

      Above the photograph, in capital letters were the comforting words: UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND. 

      As he continued to check the other items, a woman in her late forties, sat in front of a laptop in an office in Oxford, England.  She checked the information on the screen, studied it for a few seconds and then pressed print, leaned back in her chair as the printer whirled into life. 

      She watched as the Hewlett Packard all-in-one machine began to print an airline ticket.  It was for an Air New Zealand flight NZ001 from London, Heathrow to Los Angeles.  Seat number 5A.  Date of departure 24th May 2015.

      The holders of tickets 5A and 5B sat on opposite sides of the world, 5000 miles apart.

      He in India, she in England.  

      In just two days they were destined to sit next to each other as strangers on a plane, embarking on a journey that would change their lives.

      CONTENTS

      Preface

      Chapter 1 Prisoner 5940

      Chapter 2 First step to freedom

      Chapter 3 Passenger 5A

      Chapter 4 Passenger 5B

      Chapter 5 The nightmare begins

      Chapter 6 Police enquiry

      Chapter 7 Interview room

      Chapter 8 One month later – the trial

      Chapter 9 First day in prison

      Chapter 10 Two years into a twelve stretch

      Chapter 11 A letter and a glimmer of hope

      Chapter 12 Early release

      Chapter 13 The strangers meet

      Chapter 14 Hilton Hotel – Los Angeles

      Chapter 15 Memorial service

      Chapter 16 Home alone

      Chapter 17 Bombshell

      Chapter 18 5A visits Goa prison

      Chapter 19 Back from the dead

      Chapter 20 A toast to Ben

      Characters

      About the Author

      CHAPTER 1

      Prisoner 5940

      Friday 22nd May 2015 – Goa prison, India.

      For many people Friday 22nd May would be just another day, but not for prisoner 5940. 

      This was the day he’d remember for the rest of his life. He was about to be released from prison after serving three years of a 12-year sentence for a crime he never committed. 

      He had been accused of murder. The victim was his wife.

      The prison Superintendent handed him a certified copy of the judgement of the court of appeal.

      Just a few formalities and he would be free to go.

      The Superintendent placed two bags on the table, picked up one, and emptied the contents onto the table between them.

      ‘These are your belongings. You need to check them and sign, to say that nothing is missing’.

      The soon-to-be-released prisoner picked up his old leather wallet.

      Inside were credit and store cards.  Each one past its expiry date.

      Sixty-four Rupees.  At the current exchange rate of 66 Rupees to the US dollar, not enough for a cup of coffee.

      Eighty-five US dollars.  He hadn’t seen the faces of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln for a very long time.

      A three-year-old mobile phone. Old technology and worthless in today’s high tech market.

      His Rolex Oyster Perpetual watch. When he first arrived in prison he was told that it would be too dangerous to wear. The Rolex would be stolen within a week, and in the process, he could lose a hand.

      He picked it up and stared at the face. The auto-wind mechanism of the precision made timepiece stirred into action. The watch awoke from a long sleep. 

      The second hand began to sweep slowly. 

      A Rolex watch is expensive. Maybe this was why.   

      The guard interrupted; ‘Probably worth a lot more today than when you came in’.

      The second package had been opened and re-sealed. 

      Inside was $2000 in cash and three business class flight tickets that would soon take him home to Los Angeles via Mumbai and London.

      Next to the tickets was a temporary British passport and a credit card.

      He was a British citizen who, until that fateful trip in April 2012, had lived for 10 years with his American born wife in Los Angeles.

      For the last three years, Michael J Hanson had been known simply as prisoner 5940.

      The home he hadn’t seen for three years was a four bedroomed detached house in a leafy suburb on the outskirts of Los Angeles. It had been empty since the day he locked up to go

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