Hilary, do you know I wanted to leave you there and then. But I knew I had to protect you. I needed to help you maintain your position. I put your hurtful words behind me. I kept working as hard as ever. I knew I needed to protect you from yourself. But then. watching what was happening, there was nothing I could do. It was too late. The day you invited her daughter to our yard. That was it. That was the last straw. I could see what was happening, you had become totally blind. You’d given up. I had to act. I needed to save you. Don’t you see? All of this was for you? I cared for you. Damn it! I loved you. Every new day hurt me, watching what was happening to you. And you never understood. You never knew or cared.”
“Oh, Sally. I am so sorry… I was stupid. I never meant to hurt you. Please, can you forgive me?”
“No… I can’t forgive you…”
“Well, Kate… She’s done nothing to you… Please, let her go… I beg you!”
“No, she knows what she did. Don’t you Kate? You took him from me.” Sally glared at Kate.
“Him? Sally, who are you talking about?”
“Adam… Bitch!” Sally spat in Kate’s face. “I tried everything but he wouldn’t even look in my direction. He was besotted with her. So, if I can’t have him, neither can she! You know what, I may have to look him up in a year or two. Sympathise about his tragic loss.”
“You’re completely mad… You realise you will be caught.”
“Kate… I doubt it. This is going to look like a terrible suicide attempt. If I do my job right, they won’t be able to identify the bodies, they’ll presume it was me and some other, random person. I’ll get away, find somewhere else to go. Whereas, you both remain dead. But here I am chatting away, time is ticking. Literally! I’m going to leave you now. You have a few hours left, I’d spend the time wisely if I were you.”
Hilary yelled as Sally left the room, the door slammed and locked behind her.
“Oh, God Kate… We’re doomed.”
33
Error of Judgement
“Hilary… Can you move your hands at all?”
I watched as she struggled. I had taken the one thing I could do when Sally asked me to bind her hands. You see, having never been a Girl Guide, instead, I spent my free hours in the stables, therefore I was no expert in knots. There was only one knot I was able to tie and that was the knot that every equestrian could tie in their sleep. I instructed Hilary to grab for the twine and pull, as she did the twine slipped. The joy of the quick release knot. I’d prayed that Sally wouldn’t double-check my bindings. Seconds later, Hilary’s hands were free, however, Sally had been less kind while binding her arms and so we were still trapped.
There was only one thing I could do, I tried to shuffle my chair. It scraped and moved less than an inch. I was struggling as there was so little movement I could make as I was firmly tied, but, as our lives depended on my actions, I moved as much as possible.
* * *
“Christ!” I stared at who was no doubt going to become my successor.
“I told you Kelly… It just doesn’t map out. And, there is something else.”
“Shit John! What else do you want to tell me?”
“There was DNA under the victim’s nails. She must have scratched whoever killed her.”
“DNA? There was no DNA mentioned. I got you to check! You said…”
Crap, what was the point, I knew where this was leading. He had schemed and found his way to discredit me and get his promotion, just in time to bump up his pension.
“Well, I don’t remember you asking. When you were so convinced Bishop had to be the one who had killed her, the paperwork wasn’t prioritised and then it got stuck in the system, I had to go and request the results personally…”
“Enough John, for fucks sake! Tell me. The DNA matches Adam Bishop?”
“No… But we think we have a match, and it matches DNA found on the wine bottle.”
“Do we know who it is?”
* * *
Kate leaned her chair over, I guessed what she was doing so started to inch my chair towards her. Progress was painfully slow and I could see the time slipping away on the time clock, but eventually, we were close enough for my free hands to start to attack the knots holding her arms. The twine was tight, Sally had pulled it as hard as she could, not caring that she had cut off our circulation. I was struggling to be able to free the knots, I tugged at the twine desperate to free her.
* * *
“So, John, let me get this clear before I have to go to the Chief Constable and explain our fuck up. Well, as you’ve made it look, ‘my’ fuck up. We have CCTV images which far from showing the suspect getting the murder weapon as we thought, in fact, show someone else who doesn’t match Adam Bishop’s physical appearance. And, months after we thought we had this investigation stitched up, we have suddenly found DNA which isn’t his under the fingernails of the victim and, finally, because that wasn’t enough. His fingerprints are not even on the murder weapon.”
“Well, in SOCO’s defence, they thought he might have been wearing gloves, and again you were convinced he was the murderer so they sort of took their foot
