Isaac had one question to ask, a crucial question, but it would have to wait. The accused was in no condition to continue. Her legal support argued for an adjournment. He had no option but to comply. The interview was to resume in sixty minutes.
Isaac met his boss in the adjoining room.
‘What do you reckon?’ Isaac asked.
‘What are you trying to make her admit to? The murder of her father or Charles Sutherland?’
‘Either, both.’
‘Fine. Play it carefully. The father, she could get off on a technicality. It’s an old case, recorded as death by misadventure. Proving that will not be so easy.’
‘I realise that. I just need to break her denial.’
‘Pretty woman. A shame, really.’
‘Pretty, as you say, but we’re here to solve a murder.’
‘I understand that.’
Isaac was still anxious to discuss the other matter; his boss, not so keen.
‘MacTavish?’ Isaac asked.
‘Wrap this up, and then we’ll discuss it. Marjorie Frobisher’s comment complicates the situation.’
‘Why?’
‘How did she know Angus MacTavish? He’s not indicated this before.’
‘Maybe he’s not met her. Maybe someone else did.’
‘Wrap Sutherland’s murder up. We’ll discuss MacTavish later.’
‘Yes, sir.’ Isaac knew it was the best he could expect.
***
Christy Nichols looked composed when she returned to the interview room. Isaac went through the formal restarting of the interview. Richard Goddard watched from outside. Wendy said little.
‘It is evident,’ Isaac stated calmly,’ that you are aware of the effects of arsenic poisoning. Will you admit to that?’
‘I knew my father used it to kill rats.’
‘Did you hate your father?’
‘What do you think?’
‘Miss Nichols, please answer the question.’
‘I hated him for what he did to me, what he made me do.’
‘Enough to kill him?’
‘I wished him dead.’
‘You had the means and the knowledge.’
Eileen Kerr spoke, ‘You are attempting to force my client to admit to a crime that the police have officially declared closed – death by misadventure.’
Isaac was careful how he proceeded. ‘Charles Sutherland made Miss Nichols, by her own admission, commit an act that her father had made her do. My purpose is to establish whether the level of hate she felt for Sutherland was the same as she felt for her father.’
‘I hated Sutherland. He brought back all those memories. Memories I had suppressed.’
‘Memories so vivid that you saw your father standing there, not Charles Sutherland.’
‘Yes. Of course I did.’
‘And knowing this, you determined to kill him?’
‘No.’
‘I am putting it to you that you went back to his room, acted amorously, and ensured he drank the poison.’
‘That’s not true. You’re trying to make me say it.’
Wendy felt that Isaac had overstepped the mark, but he had told her to keep quiet. Eileen Kerr wanted to speak, but could not, insistent as Isaac was on maintaining the pressure.
There was only one flaw that he could see. Where had she procured the arsenic? He decided to proceed. He was certain she was guilty. The issue of the arsenic would resolve itself later.
‘Miss Nichols. You had the motive and the knowledge, and you are the only person with a sufficiently strong motive. You are guilty. Your continual denial will only worsen the case against you.’
‘Are you saying I killed my father as well?’
‘Did you? We can always reopen that case.’
‘He was a bastard.’
‘Who was?
‘My father.’
‘Is that why you killed him?’
Isaac had seen it before. The moment where the accused decides to ease their conscience.
‘That was an accident. I saw him do it.’
‘It gave you the idea.’
‘The man was obnoxious. He made me swallow it.’
‘Which man?’ Isaac asked.
‘Sutherland.’ A one-word reply.
‘Is that when you decided to kill him?’
‘Not then. Later.’
‘Why later?’
‘I had to get some arsenic.’
‘You had some?’
‘At my apartment.’
‘Why?’
‘I’m not sure. It reminded me of what killed my father,’ she said. Isaac could see a plea of diminished responsibility.
‘Christy Marigold Nichols. Are you admitting to the murder of Charles Sutherland?’
‘I’m glad I did it. Yes, I killed him, the horrible man.’
Eileen Kerr sat back on her chair, her arms folded. Wendy held a handkerchief to her eyes to conceal the tears welling up. Isaac, who should have been feeling a degree of smugness, satisfaction on a job well done, felt neither.
Richard Goddard was delighted, congratulated Isaac on his good police work. Isaac accepted the congratulations.
Sometime after, once the written statement had been dealt with, and Christy Nichols had been returned to her cell, Isaac came back to Marjorie Frobisher’s comment.
Chapter 39
‘What about Marjorie Frobisher?’ Isaac asked in the comfort of Richard Goddard’s office.
‘What about her?’
‘Her relationship to Angus MacTavish.’
‘She mentioned his name. What does it mean?’ The detective superintendent asked.
‘I don’t know what it means. She has dangled the carrot in front of us. Do we take it?’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Confront MacTavish.’
‘And if he denies it?’
‘We’ll cross that hurdle when we come to it.’
‘Is there anyone we can trust?’
‘Nobody.’ Isaac saw the truth in his senior’s question. Who could be trusted? Marjorie Frobisher? Angus MacTavish? To Isaac, there was no clear road forward, only possibilities, lies, and more lies. He knew that he would need to make decisions that could solve the case or not – his career he saw as barely viable. Whatever happened, it appeared as if he would be on the wrong side of someone or something. If Angus MacTavish was hiding something, how to get him to open up? And what about Linda Harris? He had slept with her. Did she murder Williams,
