Foxden Hotel (The Dudley Sisters Saga Book 5) by Madalyn Morgan (ebook reader ink txt) 📕

as if to say he was no longer sure. ‘If you’d had any proof that my husband killed Sutherland you would have charged him at Easter. I told you then, and I’m telling you now, on New Year’s Eve Frank stayed in the hotel. He didn’t go outside until all the guests had left. By which time, according to you, Sutherland was already dead.’

Bess picked up the telephone, and dialled 9 for reception. ‘Maeve, have you seen Frank?’

‘He’s taken Mrs Dudley home.’

Bess tutted. ‘I thought my mother was staying for lunch.’

‘She said she didn’t fancy anything on the menu, so Chef made up a plate of cold meat and she took it with her. They’ve only just left. Do you want me to see if I can catch them?’

‘No, it’s all right, Maeve.’

‘Is something the matter, Mrs Donnelly?’ Bess could hear concern in Maeve’s voice.

‘Yes,’ she said, barely able to keep the emotion out of her own voice. ‘Ask Frank to come to the office as soon as he gets back, will you?’ she said, and placed the telephone on its cradle.

Ignoring Bess’s explanation as to where her husband was on New Year’s Eve, and appearing not to have taken any interest in the conversation she’d just had with the hotel receptionist, McGann said, ‘Several witnesses heard your husband threaten to kill Mr Sutherland if he came near you, or the hotel, again.’

‘He lashed out in anger. But he wouldn’t have killed him. My husband is a war hero. He went through hell in Africa. But even after the fighting, watching his friends get killed, and being shot in the temple and losing an eye, he is still the most decent and gentle man I know.’ Bess swallowed hard, forcing down emotion that threatened to engulf her as she remembered how grateful Frank was when, because the army surgeon had acted quickly, the doctors at the Walsgrave Hospital were able to save his other eye.

‘My husband had been blind for months, not knowing whether he would ever see again. When his bandages came off, and the sight in his good eye gradually returned, and he was able to see,’ Bess said, pointedly, ‘Frank swore that he would never again hurt a living soul.’

‘But he did, Mrs Donnelly. He punched a man and threatened to kill him!’

‘He hit Sutherland because Sutherland was threatening me.’

‘But why was he threatening you, Mrs Donnelly?’

Bess felt her pulse pounding in her temples. Her heart was racing. She put up her hands. ‘Stop!’

McGann didn’t stop. ‘What did David Sutherland have on you? What did he know about you? Did you have a relationship with him?’ McGann shouted.

‘No! How many times do I have to say it? I did not have a relationship with that monster.’

‘What then?’

‘He raped me!’ Bess screamed into McGann’s face. ‘Are you satisfied now? That--- That vile excuse of a man raped me. You want to know if I killed him? If it was me who bashed him over the head and shoved him into the freezing lake?’ Bess looked at McGann, her eyes blazing with anger. ‘Believe me I wanted to kill him. I have wanted to kill him many times. I was so ashamed after he violated me that I turned my back on the man I loved. I wanted to kill him then!

‘Because of him I lived a solitary existence for years, when I could have, should have, been happy and loved. I spent those lonely years feeling dirty and used - unworthy of the love of a decent man. David Sutherland all but destroyed me. He took away my self-respect and left me feeling disgusted with myself.’

A heart-breaking smile spread across Bess’s face. ‘It wasn’t until the man I loved, who loved me, made me realise that what David Sutherland did to me was not my fault. It was only then that I allowed myself to love, and to be loved.’

Bess exhaled a long breath. ‘Sutherland hurt Margot’s friend so badly that she almost died. He hurt me so badly that I wanted to die. Did I kill him?’ McGann lowered his gaze to his notebook. ‘Look at me!’ Bess screamed. ‘You were happy to look at me when you were accusing me of having a dirty secret in my past. The least you can do is have the decency to look at me now!’

McGann lifted his head and looked into Bess’s eyes. His own, Bess thought, showed no sympathy, no remorse. ‘No. I did not kill David Sutherland. Nor did my husband. But you can be sure that whoever did, would have had a damn good reason for seeing that evil bastard dead.’

There! She had done it! She had answered the question that she had dreaded being asked since New Year’s Eve. With an overwhelming sense of relief, Bess burst into tears.

Frank crashed through the door, Henry hard on his heels. ‘What the hell is going on?’

Bess held her arms out to her husband, tears streaming down her face. ‘Get him out of here, Frank. Get him out of here!’ she sobbed.

McGann jumped up and came face to face with Frank. ‘What have you done to her?’ Frank shouted, stopping Bess’s interrogator in his tracks. He elbowed McGann out of the way, dropped to his knees at Bess’s side and put his arms round her.

Furious that McGann had interviewed Bess without him, or Inspector Masters, being present, Henry said, ‘You’d better go, McGann.’ Without his usual need to have the last word, the police sergeant left. Henry followed him out of the office and across the marble hall to the hotel’s main entrance. He put his arm out and barred McGann’s exit. ‘Your card is marked,’ Henry hissed. ‘If Masters doesn’t have you kicked off the force for this, I will.’

Back in the office, Frank told Bess she needed to