How had they or the pathologist not seen what was under their noses? Why had they not recognised the relevance of a self-locking buckle? Had they been so blinkered by their determination to find a culprit for their ‘murder’, first me and then Joe, that it had overridden simple common sense?
The law courts take their time over correcting any perceived mistakes. The decision of a jury to convict is not one that is overturned lightly, or quickly, by the Court of Appeal. Not that time was really an issue here. It was only the murder conviction that was in doubt, not that for attempted murder.
And would the police or the courts take any notice of me anyway? They certainly wouldn’t thank me.
And Joe was guilty of Amelia’s murder.
There was no uncertainty in my mind about that.
He may not have physically strangled her, as the jury in Oxford had believed and decided, but he’d killed her nevertheless. He’d been the one who had driven her to suicide with his merciless attacks on her state of mind over a period of three years. That final vicious email, sent just five days before she died, had simply been the last straw.
Yes, I thought, Joe deserves to be convicted of her murder.
So what should I do?
If Amelia’s soul was indeed somewhere else, lost in the ether, and she could somehow read my mind, what would she be saying now? She would be screaming in frustration that I had discovered the truth, and urging me to do nothing about it.
So would I be betraying her if I went to the police?
However, there was also the financial position to consider.
All my life I had been an insurance man, and an honest one too. Other than the occasional speeding conviction, I’d done nothing for which I felt any sense of guilt. I’d never fiddled my taxes, nor even exaggerated my expense claims.
So was I about to accept a million-pound payout for my wife’s life insurance when I knew it to be a fraud?
But no one else knew, or even suspected. The market stallholder hadn’t appreciated the significance of what he’d told me. He’d been simply making conversation. Similarly, Nancy didn’t realise why Amelia having gone out on that Tuesday evening was important.
And I hadn’t lied under oath in court. I had told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth – as I’d then believed it to be.
All I had to do now was to keep quiet.
But I would always know, and one cannot unlearn something. If the human race could unlearn how to make nuclear bombs, the world would be a safer place.
However, that was not an option, and nor was this.
*
Around four in the morning it started to get light and I was still sitting on the kitchen floor. And still considering my options.
I was certain that Joe would appeal his conviction and sentence – anyone would in these circumstances.
Did that not mean that it was his defence team’s responsibility to produce any new evidence to indicate that his conviction was unsafe?
Was I under any obligation to assist them?
Would Joe have done the same for me if the roles had been reversed?
Not a snowball’s chance in hell.
Then I thought about Rachael and her girls. Twenty-five years is a very long time. Without the life-sentence tariff, Joe would be out on parole in under a third of that, having served half his sentence for attempted murder.
But did that really make me feel any safer?
He had tried to kill me twice, that’s if you counted the knife attack at his mother’s house, which I certainly did. Wouldn’t the long years in prison simply make him more determined to be third time lucky just as soon as he was released?
Very likely.
So wasn’t it better for me to keep him in prison for as long as possible?
Undeniably.
So what should I do?
I decided to sleep on it and went to bed.
Have you read the previous novel from bestselling crime author Felix Francis . . .
Harry Foster, a lawyer by training, is a crisis manager for a London firm. When a fire in the Newmarket stables of Oliver Chadwick slaughters seven very valuable horses – including the short-priced favourite for the Derby – Harry is thrust into the unpredictable world of Thoroughbred horse racing.
As Harry delves deeper into the unanswered questions around the tragedy, he unearths disturbing information about the Chadwick family, a dysfunctional racing dynasty where resentment runs deep. And when human remains are also discovered at the crime scene, only two questions remain:
Who is the mystery victim?
And who might be next?
AVAILABLE NOW IN PAPERBACK AND EBOOK
Also by Felix Francis
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BLOODLINE
REFUSAL
DAMAGE
FRONT RUNNER
TRIPLE CROWN
PULSE
CRISIS
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SILKS
EVEN MONEY
CROSSFIRE
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NERVE
FOR KICKS
ODDS AGAINST
FLYING FINISH
BLOOD SPORT
FORFEIT
ENQUIRY
RAT RACE
BONECRACK
SMOKESCREEN
SLAY-RIDE
KNOCK DOWN
HIGH STAKES
IN THE FRAME
RISK
TRIAL RUN
WHIP HAND
REFLEX
TWICE SHY
BANKER
THE DANGER
PROOF
BREAK IN
LESTER: The Official Biography
BOLT
HOT MONEY
THE EDGE
STRAIGHT
LONGSHOT
DRIVING FORCE
DECIDER
WILD HORSES
COME TO GRIEF
TO THE HILT
10-LB PENALTY
FIELD OF 13
SECOND WIND
SHATTERED
UNDER ORDERS
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2019
A CBS COMPANY
Copyright © Felix Francis, 2019
The right of Felix Francis to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4711-7316-5
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4711-7317-2
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4711-7318-9
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Typeset in Sabon M Rules
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Contents
Foreword
Part One: October
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Cha
pter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Part Two: June the following year – eight months later
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Crisis Ad