Ultimate Dilemma (Justice Again Book 2) by M Comley (best books under 200 pages txt) 📕

“Jesus, what are you saying? How big is this fucking secret you’ve been keeping from us for fuck’s sake?” Gemma shouted.

“Stop swearing at me. Go, leave if you want. I don’t want you here if you’re going to speak to me like this.”

Gemma reclined against the chair and folded her arms. She glowered at her mother and stated defiantly, “Tough. I ain’t going anywhere until I hear you tell the truth.”

“Please, can we all calm down? I appreciate your tempers are frayed at present, but arguing amongst yourselves isn’t helping matters,” Katy said, adrenaline speeding through her veins faster than any tsunami would likely carry it.

“She’s right,” Samantha said. “Mum, what’s the point in keeping this secret any longer? If it’s costing lives, you need to spit out what you know.”

“I will. Stop bullying me, the pair of you.”

“Your daughters are right. The sooner you tell us, the more likely we are to catch the person responsible. If we can do that, then there will be no need for you guys to live on your nerves, wondering if you’ll be next.” Katy felt Charlie’s gaze on her. Yes, her statement had been over the top, but if it had the desired effect, and Amy finally revealed the secret she and her now-dead husband had concealed for years, it would be worth it.

“All right, don’t hassle me, let me tell the story without interruptions. It is a heinous tale that has blighted my life for decades.”

“Jesus, Mum!” Gemma shook her head in disgust.

“Let her say her piece,” Samantha warned her sister.

Charlie had her pen poised, ready for action.

“Amy, tell us in your own time. We promise not to interrupt, right, girls?” Katy asked.

The two daughters reluctantly nodded.

Amy inhaled and exhaled a number of times and circled her neck as if to relieve the tension knotting her muscles. Katy was tempted to do the same. In the end, she sat perfectly still and studied Amy with interest.

“Where do I begin? Okay, the lads, all those you mentioned and another man, whose name escapes me at the moment, they used to meet up at the pub or Bruce’s house—”

“You’ve told us that already, Mum. Get on with it,” Gemma interrupted.

Amy’s eyes doubled in size as she glared at her impatient daughter. “I warned you. Nope, I won’t say any more.”

Katy had heard enough. She rose to her feet, surprising everyone else in the room. “Right, Amy, get dressed, we’ll continue this interview under caution down at the station.”

“What? No, I can’t do it. I won’t do it!”

“Get dressed, or I mean it, I will throw the book at you for intentionally withholding vital evidence and perverting the course of justice.”

“No, please. I had nothing to do with this. Wait, sit down, I’ll tell you.”

Katy pointed at the three women and wagged her finger. “This is a final warning. It’s late, we all want to get to our beds, but we also want to hear the truth come out.”

The three women seemed suitably reprimanded and each avoided eye contact with Katy.

“You were saying, Amy?”

“Okay, this one particular night, I remember Ellis coming home out of breath. His face was colourless. I asked him if he’d seen a ghost, and he shouted at me. I was flummoxed and hurt by his response. He was distraught for days. In the end, I couldn’t take his mood swings any longer, he was starting to take his foul moods out on the girls. I was having none of that, they didn’t deserve it. I noticed he wasn’t going out, not seeing his friends. I tried to persuade him. He told me to stop nagging and to leave him alone. To my knowledge, I’ve never nagged him in over thirty years of marriage.”

She reached out to hold each of her daughters’ hands.

“Go on, Mum, you’re doing well, don’t stop now,” Samantha encouraged her, smiling.

“I’m getting there, love.” Amy sighed heavily and stared at the floor. “It was then he broke down and confessed what was bothering him. He said the night he came home distraught…he’d witnessed something horrendous. He later admitted that he was more involved than he first let on. I know that sounds confusing, but that’s how it happened. The remorse brought the whole story out into the open. I was appalled, disgusted by the revelation. He feared I was going to walk out on him and take you girls with me. I thought about it long and hard but realised I wouldn’t be able to bring you up on my own. We decided to work through the issue and never to discuss the matter again.”

“Go on,” Katy urged. She wished the woman would stop skirting around the issue and just reveal the truth.

“He said that night they had been involved in a sex game.” She closed her eyes as if anticipating yet another outburst from her daughters. By the look of things, they were too shocked to say anything. “The game went wrong, and the woman ended up…being killed.”

“Fucking hell,” Gemma muttered.

She stared at her sister, and the tears began to fall for both of them.

Such a destructive revelation for any member of the family to hear, let alone his own daughters.

Katy’s heart lay heavy in her chest. “Please, Amy, you need to reveal everything to us now, if only to protect your girls.”

“How is informing the girls that their father was a sexual deviant going to save them?”

“The truth, Amy. We all need to hear it. Set yourself free from this suffocating secret. It’s not yours to keep. The longer you suppress it, the more it’s going to eat away at you.”

“Twenty-four years I’ve pushed it down. It’s eaten away at my soul. Destroyed my marriage.”

Katy frowned. “In what way? You remained with Ellis once he told you.”

“The sex. We never had sex after that night. It was my form of punishment. Such a shame; apart from that incident, he was an exceptional man and father to