by Sherri Bryan
Bella looked across to Nathan. “Please, you carry on.” He gestured with a sweep of his hand. “I’ve got all day.”
Fiona met his eye. “This should be interesting,” she whispered.
Bella resumed her interrogation. “Mum, where’s all my money gone?”
“What? What are you talking about?” said Ellis.
“Look at my bank book. It’s got nothing in it. It’s been totally wiped out.” Bella pointed to the book her mother was holding.
“How did you get your hands on this?” Rachel spluttered.
Bella gave her a withering look. “God, you never give us credit for anything, do you? Me and Brandon have known the combination for the portable safe for years. It took us about five seconds to work it out. You should have thought of something more original than our dates of birth.”
“You had no right to open that safe,” said Rachel. “It’s not yours to open.”
“Well, you had no right to take all the money out of my account. It’s not yours to take.” Bella was quick to retort.
“Good God, this place must be cursed!” said Rachel, in an attempt to divert attention from Bella’s empty bank book. “First of all Miranda, then that damn lottery ticket disappears, then Tom leaves the cottage to that awful woman, and now all the money in Bella’s university fund account goes missing…I mean, what is going on? If I never see St. Eves again, it’ll be too soon! Thank God we’re going home in a few days.” She was on the verge of hysteria.
“Just a minute, Bella,” said Ellis. “Your Mum wouldn’t have taken any money out of your account. That’s your university fund. We’ve been putting money into it for years…and yes, before you say anything, you’ve got one too, Brandon.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ve seen the book in the safe before.” Brandon’s smug grin swiftly disappeared as he said, “Mum hasn’t taken all the money out of my account too, has she?”
“I’d put money on it that she has,” said Bella. “Well, I would if I had any left.”
“For goodness’ sake!” shouted Ellis. “Your mother hasn’t take any money out of either account. It’ll be a glitch with the bank computer system or something.”
Bella shook her head. “We’ve just come from the bank, Dad. I went down there to take some money out to give to Ryan, and the cashier told me that the account’s empty. I told him it must be a mistake and he said it wasn’t. You have no idea how much of an idiot I felt. Look at the book, Dad — you’ll see all the withdrawals and the dates they were made.
“As far as I know, there are only three people who have access to the account — me, you and Mum. I haven’t taken any money out of it and I doubt you have, so that only leaves Mum.”
Rachel’s face contorted with anger and she spoke through gritted teeth. “I thought I told you that I didn’t want a penny of our money going outside of this family?”
“No,” said Bella, “what you actually said was if you found out that a penny of granddad’s money had gone elsewhere, there’d be trouble, but you didn’t say anything about my money.”
“Hold on a minute. Why were you going to give Ryan money?” said Ellis. “And how much were you going to give him?” The thought of Bella giving away money that belonged to the Potts family made him decidedly uncomfortable.
“£20,000 so he can go to college next year and get home care for his Dad,” said Bella.
“£20,000? Have you gone out of your mind?” Ellis looked at his daughter in disbelief. “And you, what sort of man are you that you have to ask your girlfriend for money?” He turned on Ryan and Bella immediately jumped to his defence.
“Don’t yell at him! And he didn’t ask me, I offered. Anyway, never mind that, what are you going to do about my money? Or should I say, lack of it.”
Ellis turned to his wife. “You didn’t take it, did you?”
Rachel’s head hurt. It really hurt. Her legs felt like they were made of lead and she could see two husbands sitting next to her.
“I really don’t feel well enough to talk about this now,” she said. “We’ll talk about it later.”
Nathan cleared his throat. “Do you need a doctor, Mrs Potts? I could make a call if you do?”
Rachel shook her head. “No, no — no doctors,” she snapped, irritably.
“Well, in that case, if you’ve finished your family discussion, you’ll forgive me if I carry on with my questioning. You don’t mind if we sit down do you? Now, I suggest you ask the rest of the family to leave.”
“Oh no, I want them to stay,” said Rachel. “I want witnesses I can trust in case you try and fit me up for something I haven’t done.”
“Well, I can assure you that I have no intention of ‘fitting you up’ Mrs Potts, only of asking you some questions,” said Nathan. “And if you insist on your family members remaining, I must ask them all to remain silent throughout — this is not a debate. Is that understood?
“Okay, will you permit me to record our conversation, Mrs Potts? If not, I must ask you to confirm your refusal by signing a statement to that effect.”
“You don’t mind if he records it, do you?” said Ellis. “It’ll mean they’re out of here a damn sight quicker.”
“Mr Potts, the decision must be your wife’s. Please, no further interruptions. Now, Mrs Potts, recording or no recording?”
“I suppose it’ll be okay,” said Rachel, too weary to care. She just wanted to get these people out of the house and go back to bed.
Nathan started the tape, stating the date, place, and names of everyone who was present before starting the questioning.
“Mrs Potts. Did you kill Miranda Potts?”
A gasp went up from the family and they immediately began to protest.
“Please! If you can’t keep quiet, I will have to insist that you all leave, or ask Mrs Potts to come to the station for questioning.”
Nathan continued. “Mrs Potts, did you kill your sister-in-law, Miranda Potts?”
“Of course I didn’t. What a ridiculous question.” Rachel wiped her forehead with a tissue, immediately drenching it with perspiration.
“Are you experiencing financial difficulties?”
Rachel shuffled uncomfortably in her chair.
“What a strange question…um, well, everyone has their little problems, don’t they?” she said. “I wouldn’t say that ours are any worse than anyone else’s.”
“What financial problems?” said Ellis. “I didn’t know we had any financial problems.”
“Mr Potts, please!” Nathan waited for quiet before resuming his questioning.
“Can you confirm that you have applied for, and been refused at least three loans recently?”
Ellis Potts shook his head and looked at his wife.
Rachel put her head in her hands. “Yes,” she said quietly, at which point Ellis also put his head in his hands.
“And can you confirm that you regularly participate in online poker games?”
“Yes.”
“For goodness’ sake! Why are you asking her about poker? It’s no secret — she’s been playing for years. It’s just a bit of harmless fun, isn’t it, Rach?” said Ellis.
“Mr Potts — this is the last time I’ll ask you not to interrupt,” said Nathan. “So, Mrs Potts. Can you tell me what kind of poker games these are? You know, the ones you regularly participate in.”.
Rachel said nothing. She rubbed the back of her neck in an attempt to loosen the muscles, which felt like hard knots under her skin. She turned to Nathan with a faraway look in her eyes.
“Mrs Potts, what kind of poker games are these?”
“Oh, um, they’re high-stakes poker games.” She sounded bored with the line of questioning.
Ellis looked up sharply.
“And what kind of success rate would you say you have in these games?” asked Nathan.
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Rachel, the need to throw up washing over her in waves.
“Well, give me an idea. How much have you won i
n the last, say, six months?”
“I just told you — I don’t know.” Rachel mopped her forehead. “Quite a bit, I suppose.”
“Well, I have the exact figure here, Mrs Potts. Would you like me to remind you?” Nathan took a piece of paper from his inside jacket pocket.
“What? How did you get that? Who gave it to you? That damn poker company is supposed to keep all my details confidential!” snapped Rachel.
“You’d be surprised how cooperative people become when you tell them you’re investigating a murder case, and that withholding evidence is an offence,” said Nathan. “So, getting back to my question. How much have you won in the last six months?”
Rachel tried to ignore the stabbing pains in her legs. “I really don’t know — about £100,000, I suppose.”
“£122,756 to be precise,” said Nathan. “And how much have you lost in the same time period?”
“I don’t know.” Rachel shook her head and put her hands over her ears. “And I don’t want to know!”
“Oh, I think it’s important that you do know, Mrs Potts. And I think it’s relevant to this case. In the last six months, you have lost £309,498. That’s quite a substantial loss, wouldn’t you say?”
Ellis Potts uttered a restrained moan and laid his head on the kitchen table.
“Oh my God! You’ve been gambling with our money, haven’t you? Haven’t you?” shouted Bella. “You lost it all and then tried to get a loan to pay it back? I don’t believe you!”
“Bella, please, love. You don’t understand,” Rachel pleaded, her neck feeling too weak to support her head. “I just wanted nice things for everyone. I wanted everyone to be happy. I started winning, then I kept on winning and I couldn’t stop. But then I started losing, so I had to keep going to try and win it back, but I just lost more and more.”
“I’m sorry, but in view of the constant interruptions, I’m going to have to ask everyone but Mrs Potts to leave the room,” said Nathan.
“Can Ellis stay?” Rachel put her hand on her husband’s arm, and the look of surprise on his face spoke volumes.
“If he can keep quiet, he can stay.”
Another knock on the door interrupted proceedings once more and Bella went to see who was calling.
Charlotte stood on the doorstep, holding a large plastic cake box.
“Oh…what are you doing here?”
“Um, I’m sorry to bother you, but I’ve baked a cherry pie for Ryan and I wondered if I could leave it here for him to collect later on. You’re bound to see him before I do but be careful, it’s still hot. Anyway, it’s to say thank you for yesterday…he was so brave. Oh, Ryan...hi! I didn’t expect you to be here. Oh my goodness! Your poor face — it looks even worse in the daylight. How are you feeling?”
“Alright, I suppose. How’s your dog?”
“He’s okay. I just spoke to the vet and he said he’s doing fine. I’m going to pick him up at five.”
“D’you want to come in for a cup of tea?” offered Bella, who had secretly grown quite fond of Charlotte and Jess. It wasn’t often that people stood up to her, but neither of them took any of her nonsense, and she respected them for it. “But you’ll have to be quiet ‘cos your boyfriend’s working.”
“What?” said Charlotte.
“Your boyfriend’s here. The Detective Chief Inspector. He is your boyfriend, isn’t he? He’s interviewing my Mum about her gambling addiction,” said Bella.
“Yes, thank you Bella! I don’t need every Tom, Dick and Harry knowing my business!” Rachel’s voice was slurred as she shouted from the kitchen.
“He’s here?” said Charlotte in surprise. “I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have come if I’d known. I should go.”
“No, it’s okay. Come on,” Bella grabbed her arm and pulled her in. “Just don’t make any noise, or he’ll put you under arrest. He’s already banished us all to the living room.”
“Um, hello everyone,” said Charlotte, blushing a deep shade of pink when she saw Nathan. “Sorry to disturb — obviously, I didn’t know you’d be here, er, DCI Costello.”
Nathan resisted the urge to laugh at her awkwardness, instead nodding his head in greeting. “Miss. Denver.”
“I’ll just be making a pot of tea,” said Bella. “Don’t worry though, I won’t say a word. You carry on with your questioning.” She nodded to Nathan. “And you two can wait in the living room with Aunty Vic, Uncle Greg and Brandon,” she said to Charlotte and Ryan.
Nathan waited until Bella had finished before picking up where he’d left off.
“So, Mrs Potts. You’ve lost three times as much as you’ve won in the last six months. Didn’t that make you want to find that lottery ticket? To get your hands on the prize money?”
Rachel fought the urge to fall asleep. She was so tired. Instead, she gripped Ellis’s hand and forced herself to speak. “Yes, I did. I wanted to find it so badly.” She turned to her husband. “I didn’t want Miranda to look after the ticket either, Ellis. I know I said I did, but I really didn’t. I couldn’t stand her, you see.
She giggled, and Nathan watched her closely. “She was a cow. She hated me and I hated her. She never thought I was good enough for you, for her darling brother, and she never let an opportunity pass to tell me so. And I didn’t trust her, Ellis. I thought that if she found the ticket, she’d keep all the money for herself — you know how she was always going on about not having a job, or anyone to support her.
“I’m telling you, if she’d found that ticket, that would have been the last we saw of her. She would have been off on a plane somewhere.” She giggled again.
“Mrs Potts, are you sure you’re feeling alright?” asked Nathan.
“Oh yes! I don’t want a doctor, no doctor!” Rachel insisted. “I’m just feeling a bit light headed because I took two paracetamol a little while ago.”
“If you’re sure, but I can get a doctor here within minutes if necessary. Okay?”
Rachel nodded, her eyes glazed.
“Right, we’ll continue. So, tell me about your judo career.”
“My, my, someone’s been doing their homework,” said Rachel, suddenly shivering. “What do you want to know?”
“Oh, you know, just a little about what you’ve done, what you do now,” said Nathan. “Nothing specific.”
“Well, I’m a ninth dan and I’ve won an Olympic gold medal,” said Rachel, rubbing her stomach and pulling her dressing gown around her. “Can I have a drink of water? My mouth is as dry as a bone.”
Ellis jumped up and got her a bottle of water from the fridge. She downed it in one. “That’s better. Where was I? Oh yeah, I don’t compete now though, I coach. I coach my little Bella. She’s fantastic, you know. Just got her brown belt.”
“I must congratulate her,” said Nathan. “Tell me, Mrs Potts, would it be possible for a woman of, say, Bella’s slim stature, to throw a considerably larger person to the ground?”
Rachel started to sway in her chair. “Oh yes.” She nodded emphatically. “But only if they knew what they were doing, of course...like I did when I knocked Miranda’s feet from under her within a second. She didn’t know what hit her.” She giggled again.
A sudden hush descended as everyone came from the living room to stand in the kitchen doorway, stunned at Rachel’s revelation.
“You what?” said Ellis slowly. “You did what?”
“Oops, did I say the wrong thing? Did I just let it slip that I knocked good old Miranda on her backside and then hit her on the head with her shoe?” Rachel began to giggle uncontrollably.
Ellis jumped up from his chair. “Stop it. Stop it, Rachel! You don’t know what you’re saying! What’s the matter with you!”
“Yes I do know what I’m saying, Ellis. I do! And it’s okay! I killed Miranda … it was me! Oh, the relief of telling someone!” Her laughter became hysterical and she carried on with her story, talking at break-neck speed.
“I left the cottage after her that morning and ran into town.
I knocked her over and pulled off her shoes — I didn’t mean to kill her, I was only looking for the lottery ticket, but she didn’t have it. She said the most awful things. She told me I was a bad wife and a bad mother and I just saw red. I had the shoe in my hand and I hit her. I only hit her once, I didn’t know I’d killed her. Then I ran back to the cottage and walked in on all of you arguing about the lottery ticket. You didn’t even know I’d been gone.
“But d’you know what, Ellis? I’m glad I killed her. I hated her so much. She was toxic — like poison running through the veins of this family — and I’m glad that I’ll never have to see her disgusting face again. Oh, come on! Don’t tell me you’re not a teensy bit happy about it?” She looked around the room, her expression glazed and her eyes rolling in her head, crossing as they struggled to focus.
Victoria suddenly flew at her, raining down punches and kicking out. “You bitch, how could you? How could you? I hated her too, but she was my sister!”
Unable to defend herself, Rachel’s swaying became erratic and her shoulders suddenly slumped.
“Call an ambulance, please, DS Farrell. Mrs Potts, we’re getting an ambulance to come out to you, okay?” said Nathan. “Can someone get some blankets or something to cover her with, please? And try and keep her talking.”
Rachel was distraught. “No, no doctor, no doctor. No ambulance! Tell them not to come! I DON’T WANT A DOCTOR!” she screamed.
“Ambulance is on its way,” confirmed Fiona.
“What’s wrong with her?” Ellis, asked Nathan, his face taut with fear. “She’s acting as though she’s possessed — one minute she’s perfectly lucid, the next minute she’s babbling like a mad woman.”
“I’ve no idea. Are you sure she’s only taken two paracetamol?”
“Positive. She took them in front of me.”
“Here’s a quilt,” said Bella, hidden behind the king-sized cover. “It’s okay, I’ll do it,” she said, as Fiona came forward to help. She tucked it around her mother, crying quietly as she kept up a constant stream of dialogue. “I don’t really care about the money, Mum, I just want you to get better. I wish you hadn’t killed Aunt Miranda, though. Now they’ll take you away from us. Won’t they?” She turned to Nathan.
