Fiction. Fair Trading

Fair Trading.

This very unusual story took place in 1967 in a very large department store called Farmers Trading Company that was centred in the rural city of Hamilton. Starting with a very daring robbery, a double murder, kidnapping and lots of dramatic adventures, ending with the division of the town folk and some very nasty times in a place where safety and happy faces used to be taken for granted. This story starts in the mountain range that surrounds the city on a large dairy farm owned and worked by the Barbarich brothers. Tom, the eldest who seemed to have all the brains in organising the workload, was known to make many dishonest deals around the city. His brothers Mark and Ken were not very bright and easily persuaded to do the muscle work in robberies and fights, always with the promise of some extra beer money.
Tom heard through the criminal underground that the department store, Farmers, had received a large shipment of firearms in time for the opening of shooting season for wild birds and decided that this was a good opportunity to make some extra cash in stealing and selling them on the black market.
Tom called a meeting with his brothers to discuss his plan. “ Mark, I need you to spend as much time as possible without being noticed, sussing the layout of the Farmers Trading Company and ways of getting the guns to the nearest exit”. Mark needed to be told a few times before it was clear what to do. “ Tom, you always give me the boring things to do”, Tom replied.” do you want some extra cash or not?” To his other brother Ken, Tom designated a job he knew was easy for him. “ Ken, we need a powerful station wagon to carry the firearms, make sure it is a dark colour, all clear?” The brothers were keen to put a bit of excitement in their boring life on the farm.
For the next two days Mark wandered around the department store, taking note of all exits and security beams and settled on a parking place for the getaway car down an alley with openings to easy access to the main street routes. Ken had no trouble in converting a late model Falcon wagon which he stored in the implement shed on the farm, he checked it over mechanically and made sure it was gassed up in readiness.
The planned night for the robbery was at last there and Tom gathered his two brothers together and went over his plans with them. “ You can rely on me to have the wagon all set up for a quick getaway,” Ken said excitingly wanting to try out his skills in driving. “ Yes, Tom, I know the plan of the shop by memory and I suggest the inwards goods door would be just ideal and easy to jemmy open, I know the alarm system they use and will be able to stall it for ten minutes”
Mark assured his brothers all was going to be a simple entry. “Okay you lot, it will take us two loads each to get all the expensive guns to the back door, luckily they are doing a special promotion on the ground floor” Tom was convinced it was going to be one of the easier robberies they had done.
James Martin reported for work as a security guard at 11 pm. at the department store, he had just started a new romance with Elaine Fox, and had made arrangements for her to spend some time with him about midnight so he quickly did his usual rounds of checking exit doors and alarm systems. All seemed to be right so he settled down to wait for Elaine’s arrival.
A flashing torchlight from the street to a certain window told James it was time to open the small door in the huge inward goods roller door. They were soon embracing and looking forward to a few hours of passion. With James not concentrating on his job he never heard the car pull up in the alley and was soon overcome by the Barbarich brothers before James had time to close the door. “ Smash his head in, Mark, make sure he is unconscious so we have no bother from him” Tom spoke just above a whisper as nighttime voices travel. Ken was eyeing the girl; decided she would be a bonus to the evening’s activities. “I’ll look after the girl, Tom” as he swiftly bound and gagged her with some old rags he found on the floor. He then bundled her into the back seat of the wagon making sure she was tightly bound and unable to make a sound.
“Come on you lot, let’s get started” a nervous Tom said to his brothers, “ have you got that alarm system under control, Mark?”. All seemed to be going to plan and they started gathering up the more expensive guns and took them to the inwards good entrance. “Ken, start packing the guns into the station wagon!” Tom decided there was a good selection and should be easy to sell off.
“Okay you lot, time to go before that alarm wakes up the whole city”. There seemed to be something wrong with his brothers. They looked scared and completed the job in record time.
Tom never knew the girl was in the car until they were well out of the city limits and she groaned, “ Who brought that girl with us?” Ken owned up that he needed some recreation after all the strain of the robbery. “ Besides, I think we hit the watchman a little too hard, he had lost a lot of blood. Hopefully he will be discovered before too long, I don’t want to be labelled as a murderer”.
The wagon was quickly driven into the large implement shed and hidden behind a false wall; the girl was conscience now and struggling to free herself but only tightened the rags that bound her. The brothers sorted out their stolen loot and discussed where they were going to off load them, - the sooner the better.
Next morning Tom was up early and listening to the 6 am news and to his horror heard the disturbing news, he woke his brothers, “ you guys, we sure are in big trouble now, that night watchman was found dead in the early hours after a security van noticed the back door open” Tom decided they had better offload the guns as soon as possible, so after a few good keen buyers examined them they were soon showing a very nice profit for a few hours work.
“Now there is the problem with your friend, Ken. You can’t keep her tied up any longer and we won’t be able to set her free”. The three were in enough hot water as it was and already there had been one death. Another serious meeting was held and it was decided the girl had to die also.
It was three days since the robbery/murder and the police were no closer to solving the case, in the local Waikato Times newspaper it was still front-page news. Tom decided to go to town and instructed his brothers to just carry on with the usual farm work. Ken Thought his prisoner was more use to him alive so he took her to a shack at the end of the farm.
Tom arrived home and told his brothers about the unrest in town, the public getting angry that the police had not made an arrest. “ Tonight we take the girl and dispose of her in the Waikato River,” Ken tried to protest but was being forced to agree to help. “ We will kill her tonight and take her body to the river just north of the city and hope the body will be carried out to sea in the swift current.”
Ken and Mark just couldn’t kill in cold blood so left it to Tom to do the deed. There was no sound of a shot but when Tom appeared from the shed he said he had killed her using a silencer on his revolver. “ Okay you two, it’s your turn now, get the job done as quickly as possible”. The girl was loaded in the old farm utility and was soon at the riverbank where the body was swiftly transferred into the murky river.
Thinking that their problems were all solved they returned to near normal farm life. The brothers avoided going into town as there was more tension building up and the talk was that all known ex=criminals should be rounded up and made to give an alibi for the night of the robbery. With only minor offences against them they thought that they would be quite safe.
Next days papers had front page news of Elaine’s body being found be two boys who were fishing and it wasn’t very long before the police discovered they had a double murder on their hands and were getting more pressure from the public to bring in the specialists from Wellington.
“Things are getting heated up. I want you two to stay away from hotels and bars for a while, you just might say something out of place when you have had too much to drink”, Mark and Ken complained that they were more like prisoners now and were keen to go out to celebrate their new found wealth. There was still the problem with getting rid of the station wagon, so it was decided to take it out to a lonely stretch of country road near Newstead and torch it. Many stolen cars seem to end up in this area. Another set of number plates were stolen from a car parked in a quiet street and transferred to the wagon and the trio were soon motoring to the chosen place to dump the car. After pouring petrol throughout the interior and torching it, it was time to get away smartly.
Weeks past and all seem to be settling down again. The police still working long shifts helping the special forces with enquires, not much help from the public and forensic tests at the Farmers Trading never revealed any evidence that was of any help. “ I guess it will be okay for us to go back into the Hotels again”, Mark said it was about time as their friends will be wondering why we have been avoiding them. Tom agreed. “ Yes I guess that’s a good enough excuse for a good session.
The Dinsdale Hotel was their main watering hole so that very evening after the milking was complete they all piled in the old utility and were soon enjoying their favourite brew. Some of their friends asked where they had been for the last few weeks. Tom said they had just got over a nasty bout of flu and were just getting their taste buds working again.
The brothers underestimated the local detectives and they had been painstakingly canvassing every likely spot where they might pick up any reference to the horrible murders. Detective Sargent Jim Brownley had been staking out the Dinsdale Hotel for a few nights now and recognised the trio whom he has had dealings with over the years. “Hello Tom, how’s the farm going, I guess the season is coming to an end ?”. Tom was a little nervous that he should be singled out and spoken to by the law. “Yes, we have had a busy season and will be looking forward to a nice relaxing holiday”, the Sargent asked quite a few questions about farming in general while he sipped his coco cola and got around to telling the boys how busy the police station was with these horrible murders and hoped to make an arrest very shortly.
Tom decided to get his brothers out of the pub before the beer started to loosen their speech; maybe there were more police in disguise around the bars.
Next morning’s papers were back to headlines again, the main feature was that a witness had come forward with a description of a utility leaving the scene of the car torching, but failed to get a number plate reading but now the police had started to interview owners of all white Holden utilities which were around ten years old, Tom began to sweat and was very concerned that there was something incriminating still in the utility. So after discussing with his brothers the possibility of evidence that could be found with a forensic testing they began to do a big spring clean, mostly on the inside. Within two hours it was just about back to showroom looks, the outside was washed and polished. Now they discussed selling it and buying a later model.
It was decided to go to a nearby town called Cambridge to a car sales yard. There they picked out a nice late model Holden Ute, traded the old one and drove home very pleased with themselves. “ Now that we have changed vehicles if anyone asked why, just say it was time to up grade to a later model”, both Mark and Ken agreed with Tom that it was a smart move to quit the old Ute in case the cops started poking their noses in.
Shane Murray, who owned the car sales yard in Cambridge had been talking to his brother Peter who was a detective with the Hamilton police and Holden Utilities entered into their conversation, “ I traded one in yesterday on a later model for three brothers from Te Uku, sounds like the colour and model you are looking for” Peter said he would like to check it out and could come straight over. “ Okay Peter, I’ll put it in the shed out the back till you get here”
Detective Peter Murray brought a team of specialists with him and they spent about four hours painstakingly checking out every inch of the Holden. “ I hope we can make some progress with those horrible murders as the residents of Hamilton are getting very restless and are beginning to think of how to do their own detective work” “Townsfolk of Cambridge were thinking the same,” Shane told his brother.
Next morning the samples of what could be human hair and a brown stain that could have been blood were sent by express courier for more forensic tests to the Capitol, Wellington. Two days later Peter Murray had a call in connection to the tests that had been completed and with modern technology a match up had been made on the hair found in the Holden and hair from Elaine Fox. There was no doubt it was the same. The brown stain, although it had been cleaned thoroughly, there was enough to match up the blood group taken from Elaine.
Detective Murray swiftly applied for a search warrant and gathered a group of police to visit the Barbarich’s farm. On arrival there they soon found the three brothers busy doing repairs to fences, they were taken by complete surprise when approached by a group of the men in blue. ‘What can we do for you, detective”? asked a slightly nervous Tom. He was soon shown the search warrant and had no option but to let the police go about their job checking out the farm buildings.
After an hour or so an excited constable came back from the shed at the back of the farm with a bundle of old rags and some blood stained pieces of timber. The detective immediately recognised the rags as simular to those at the inwards goods of the Farmers Trading. That seemed to be enough to ask the three brothers to come with them back to the Station for questioning.
The city folk soon heard about the Barbarich brothers being suspects for the double murder and crowds gathered at the police station. Their anger nearing boiling point. The Mayor Robert Sparrow tried to calm the mob but not very successful, banners were displayed with slogans of “string them up” and “fair trade, lives for lives”. The suspects were moved to tighter security overnight.
The brothers appeared in court a week later and were each charged with murder and a date set for their trial. The city folk were still full of hatred for such monsters and tension was growing as the weeks passed.
It was decided to bring law enforcements from other towns for the starting day of the trial. Thankfully the once calm and respected residents of the city were persuaded by the law that justice would be done fairly.
Firstly Ken then Mark broke down under the strain of questioning and confessed to their part in the murders and robbery. Then their brother Tom had no option but to admit being the ringleader of the whole terrible saga and begged the judge to be lenient on his brothers as they were easily led. Seeing they all pleaded guilty to the crimes there was no trial and the brothers were all charged with murder- first degree on too counts, and got life imprisonment. Also robbery was added to their sentences. Their farm was sold and proceeds were to go to compensate the families of the deceased victims. The Farmers Trading was paid out for losses in the robbery.
Justice had been done and cases like this can easily divide a city and turn peace-loving citizens into what was nearly a lynching mob. Detective Peter Murray was promoted to detective sergeant, slowly Hamilton was returning to its role as a busy rural city with people going about their business as it used to be.