by Robert Innes
Sylvia looked around at all the eyes on her. For the first time since Nicola had met her, she began to show a hint of emotion. “He rang me. Simon. He told me that he had not been able to sleep that night because he was sick of lying. He wanted to talk, so because Rebecca was at work, the children were out, I went ‘round to the house, and he told me that he couldn’t live two lives anymore. I said to him, ‘Then it’s time to choose.’ He wasn’t happy there, why else would he have had so many affairs?”
“How do you know he wouldn’t have just done the same to you?” Nicola asked her. “Once a cheat, always a cheat.”
“You don’t know the first thing about him!” Sylvia shouted, and took a step towards Nicola, raising her hand. Nicola flinched, but Alex stepped in, standing between the two of them.
“You were saying,” he said firmly. “Carry on.”
Sylvia glared at Nicola, her hand trembling slightly. She lowered it and took a deep breath. “He didn’t know what to say to her, so I suggested writing a letter.”
“A letter that you hid until the police had finished poking their noses about?” Alex clarified. “Go on.”
“He wrote this letter, and I was sitting there, planning what we were going to do, where we were going to go.” She stared off into the distance, in a very similar way her daughter had done when she had been reminiscing when Nicola and Alex had visited her. “I had more plans in those ten minutes or so for my reclining years than I had had for longer than I care to remember. We planned to just leave the letter, for him to throw some clothes into a bag and then just get into his car and keep driving till we had formed a plan.”
“And then Rebecca came home early from work?” Alex asked.
Sylvia nodded. “We heard the door close, and she called his name. I was fully prepared to tell Rebecca everything right there and then. I wasn’t afraid of her. She’s my daughter. She’d want me to be happy!”
Nicola shook her head in disbelief. She was finding it hard to believe Sylvia’s delusion.
“But Simon told me to get out of sight. He would explain everything to her and then we could slip away. I don’t know what made me do it, but there was nowhere else to hide with her on her way up the stairs, so I just hid under the bed. God knows how long I was there, listening to all that sycophantic rubbish she was sprouting.”
“And from there, the story is pretty much how we imagined it, if Rebecca wasn’t the killer,” Alex said, turning to one of the other officers at last. “Rebecca and Simon argued. Not what we thought they were arguing over, granted, but apart from who the affair was with, Rebecca was telling the truth. They made up, Rebecca thought her marriage could be saved. She went to go and get some wine, and the monster under the bed did the rest. What happened, Sylvia? You crawled out, in a fury, heartbroken, livid? Unable to comprehend what you had just heard? You then rushed into the kitchen where the knives are kept.”
“That much in love with him, that if you couldn’t have him, nobody could,” Nicola finished. “Then you made a run for it, until Rebecca called you. What, five minutes later? Because she’d found the body of her husband on the bedroom floor. It was a crime of passion, just like everyone thought. Just a bit higher up the family tree. What none of you realised, of course, was that there was another member of your family, Estelle, doing her own bit of justice serving under everyone’s nose.”
The room was silent for a few moments. Sylvia did not seem to know what to say. The officer behind Nicola stepped forwards. “Sylvia Moorcroft, I’m arresting you for the murder of Simon Winters. Would you like to come with me?”
Sylvia briskly wiped the tears away that had begun to form in her eyes and allowed herself to be led away, with what she clearly hoped was with a shred of dignity.
15
“Can I give anyone a lift?” Kath asked as they left the police station. “I don’t expect the restaurant will be any less busy tomorrow.”
“You’re kidding, aren’t you?” Nicola replied. “I need a drink after tonight. Plus, I think we’ve got some celebrating to do.” She turned to Alex and smiled. “That was brilliant in there. Me and you, we make quite the team.”
“It was easy really,” Alex said, shrugging. “Once we found out that Sylvia was the one Simon was having the affair with. I’m just sorry you had to go through what you did with Estelle tonight. Though if one thing has come out of it, hopefully it’ll teach you not to get yourself involved with this sort of thing again! Leave it to the professionals next time.”
“I will,” Nicola replied. She was not entirely sure she was telling the truth. Deep down, she had quite enjoyed the adrenaline rush the case had given her.
“Good,” Alex said. “Well, I must be off. I’ve got an early start tomorrow. I’m taking my nephew to school. It’s his first day, bless him. I’ll see you all tomorrow. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
And with that, he waved goodbye to Kath and walked quickly across the carpark.
Nicola sighed as she watched him stride away and put her hand in her pocket. She pulled out a five pound note and held it out for Dominic. She was surprised to see that he was doing the same thing to her.
“Are you joking?” Nicola exclaimed. “Look at the way he’s walking. That’s a mince if ever I saw one.”
“Honey, he ain’t mincing,” Dominic replied. “Trust me, I know mincing. That guy doesn’t do it.”
“But still,” Nicola protested, still holding out the money. “What about that phone call you heard? Saying how ‘he was gorgeous’?”
“That was about his nephew!” Dominic said. “I asked him tonight about it. His sister sent him a photo of him in his new school uniform. Besides, you want to know one categorical reason why I don’t think he’s gay?”
“Why?”
“You know when the ice bitch went for you in there?” he nodded his head back towards the police station. “You see the way he jumped in to defend you? And you should have seen his face when we got the call saying that you’d been attacked. He went whiter than his uniform. If you ask me, you’ve got yourself a little admirer there.”
Nicola scoffed. “Shut up. Alex? He doesn’t fancy me, don’t be ridiculous.”
“Girl, you can give me that act all you like,” Dominic replied as he shoved the five-pound note into her hand. “Trust me, I’ve got better things to spend that money on, but a bet is a bet. I’ll get you back, don’t you worry. Anyway, if you don’t want it that badly, you can buy me a vodka. I need it after all the stress you’ve caused us the past few days.”
“I second that,” Kath said, linking arms with her. “But, you know what? I think Dom might be right. You might have your perfect hipster boyfriend lying in the hospital, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t have ourselves a little work romance before very much longer. And I’m not talking about him and the window cleaner.”
“You mock, Kathleen,” Dominic replied, linking Nicola’s other arm. “But the way he squeezed his sponge at me the other day was nothing short of suggestive. He’s probably picturing me covered in suds as we speak.”
“You can have him,” Nicola told them both. “I have no interest in Alex whatsoever.”
“We believe you!” Kath replied.
But despite her words, Nicola was sure that in the reflection of Kath’s car window, she saw the two of them share a significant look.
Gold & Silver will be back for another case, THE POISON PEN, very soon!
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Also by Robert Innes
The Blake Harte Mystery Series
Untouchable
Confessional
Ripples
Reach
Spotlight
The Gold & Silver Mystery Series
The Hung Jury
The Poison Pen
