Only The Innocent by Abbott Rachel

Author:Abbott, Rachel [Abbott, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2013-02-04T16:00:00+00:00

Becky stopped dead in her tracks in the hallway as she heard these words. Arriving just seconds before, Becky had found Mrs. Bennett on her hands and knees cleaning the front steps. Not wanting to make the poor lady get up, she had told her not to worry as she could make her way to the kitchen and see if anybody was out of bed yet.

The door from the hall to the back of the house was propped open with an old umbrella rack, and Laura had spoken from the open kitchen door, which swung closed behind her after she uttered the sentence that had so mesmerised Becky. Their voices were more muffled now, and hating to be an eavesdropper but remembering that primarily she was a police officer, Becky made her way towards the door. The voices were slightly raised, so it wasn’t too difficult to make out the words. She recognised each of their voices from the previous day, and Stella was first to speak.

“I think you know, Laura, that I have never been comfortable with this marriage of yours. But you refused to tell me anything. Not a word against Hugo in all these years. So now I want to know what the hell has been going on. What do you mean, this was the least of his crimes?”

“Let’s not go into all this now, please, Mum. I know you never liked Hugo, and whilst I might play the devastated widow in front of the rest of the world, I’m not going to play that game in front of you.”

Becky heard somebody start to say something.

“No, Imo, don’t interrupt me. She’s my mum and she needs to know that I am so very glad that Hugo is dead. We don’t need to rake over the past, and I’ve no intention of doing it. But just let’s get this over with.”

The older voice of Stella came loud and clear through the door, and Becky realised that she must be facing this way.

“Is that all you’ve got to say? What were you going to tell Imogen that made Hugo do what he did? Did you know what he’d done? Why didn’t you tell your brother? I don’t know what to think.”

“It doesn’t matter what I was going to tell Imogen. It’s all in the past, and I’ve no intention of repeating it. When Imogen phoned me and told me about the Rohypnol, I didn’t want to believe her. I couldn’t. What would that have told me about my husband? But I suspect he used it on me after that on several occasions. That, or other drugs. No, don’t look like that. Not to rape me, but when he needed me to be compliant in other ways. It took me a long time to realise that Imogen was right. She knows how guilty I feel, but by then it was too late.”

“So exactly how does Imogen know how you feel if you never saw or spoke to her after that day? You barely had time yesterday, and there were constant interruptions.

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