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

widened, and she clenched her cuffed hands together. “You know?”

“Yes. We’ve only just found out. I want to hear your recollection of events.”

“Okay. I’ll tell you what I know. The other night, after my father died, I had a nightmare, it’s the only recollection I have of what happened that night. I can’t tell you how accurate the memory is. This is the truth. I fear all I’m guilty of is blocking the image from my mind. It was horrendous, not something a child of four should have seen.”

“Go on.”

“That night…” She stared at the names on the list to the side of her. “These men, all of them, took a turn in raping my mother. Can you imagine the trauma I must have gone through as a child seeing that?”

“I can’t, it must have been hideous. Did it happen the once or numerous times?”

“A number of times to my knowledge, always in the cellar. They bound her to a table and gagged her to prevent her from screaming. The men laughed and were eager to take it in turns. This particular night, their sex game went too far. One of them strangled her. They all panicked. I ran back to my bedroom. I heard a noise outside and raced to the window. They carried my mother’s body in a rug, at least, I’m presuming it was her. Someone noticed the curtain move. My father ran up the stairs to our room. I had to pretend to be asleep. I think he was aware of what I saw that night and punished me for the rest of my life. With my mother out of the way, he got his kicks from raping me.”

“Is that why you killed him?” Katy asked softly.

“I didn’t kill him, as much as I’ve wanted to over the years, I didn’t do it.”

And at that point in the investigation, Katy believed the young woman sitting opposite her. She had nothing to back up her claims to believe Nadia was guilty.

“How far did the abuse go, for you, I mean?”

Nadia gulped. “It was constant, from the moment my mother…died to well into my teens.”

“Not lately?”

“No. I think I was around nineteen when he finally stopped coming into my room at night.”

“Why didn’t you leave with your sister?”

“Please don’t ask me that, I’ve been asking myself the same thing for years. Penny has a courage that knows no bounds. She knew what he was doing was wrong from the outset.” She jabbed at her temple with her shaking hand. “I don’t know, but maybe seeing my mother get killed that night…I don’t know what I want to say because in my head none of this makes sense.”

“You believe you owed it to your father to be a stand-in wife, is that what you’re suggesting?” Katy asked quietly, trying to get around how a four-year-old growing into her teens could possibly justify any form of abuse. She had no concept of what ran through kids’ minds who found themselves in such dire situations, having never had to deal with such atrocities herself.

“I don’t know. It’s hard to call it how it is, Inspector. He was my father. Rather than feel his wrath, I did things that may seem unnatural to others. Thinking back now, it sickens me to think of…it repulses me, but he was my father, and I loved him in spite of all his faults.”

“There’s no greater love than that between a father and his daughter, I appreciate that. I love my father with a passion, but he’s never abused me. Did you try to seek help at all?”

She inhaled a deep shuddering breath that inflated her chest. “I thought about it once but I couldn’t go through with it.”

“Do you know why?”

“Purely selfish reasons. I knew if my father was put in prison I would have been taken into care. No one could convince me the same thing wouldn’t have gone on in someone else’s home.”

“Believe me, the care system isn’t like that. I’ve maybe heard of a smattering of cases over the years, but they have all been dealt with promptly.”

“You see? How could I take the risk? Better the devil you know, eh?”

“Did you ever raise the subject of your mother’s death with him? Was he aware in later life of what you saw that night?”

“No. Like I told you earlier, what happened to my mother appeared to have been stored away in the deep recesses of my mind until the other night when the nightmare resurfaced.”

“And that was after his death, right?”

“Yes, after his death.”

“Okay, if I’m to believe what you’re telling me to be the truth, why do you think these men have been killed, and more importantly, who do you think might be killing them?”

“Gosh, how could I possibly know that? I’m as shocked and surprised to learn about the other deaths today. The only one I knew about was Dale Peters because you’ve already questioned me and asked me for an alibi relating to his murder, am I right?”

“Correct. It would really help if you told us the other man’s name? Was he at the funeral?”

“I’m guessing he was, there were four pallbearers. I have his name and contact details at home in my father’s address book, that’s how I was able to get in touch with the men, to ask them to attend.”

“We’ll need that. Are you sure you can’t think of his name at least?”

She picked up the list and narrowed her eyes to study it as she thought. “Keith, that’s who is missing. I can’t for the life of me think of his surname, though. That’s the best I can do, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I think we’re done here anyway.”

“Does that mean I can go?”

“Yes.”

“You no longer suspect me?”

“I think I’m willing to draw a line under that for now, on one proviso.”

“I’m listening.”

“That you have a psych evaluation.”

“Of course, anything, anything at all. I’m so sorry for attacking you. I had to make you see sense,