Her voice was swamped with tears as she forced out the next words. “Am I going to go to prison?”
Anne Ryan spoke quietly, slowly. “It’s too early to say what is going to happen, Pauline. Right now all I have is confusion. Look, I need to ask you this and I know it might be tricky but you have to be honest with me. Have you ever had trouble with your nerves? Have you ever seen a psychiatrist Pauline? Do you think this could be… well, do you think it might not have happened the way you think?”
They thought she was mad. As the spectre of mental illness was raised yet another path in the maze was opened.
Chapter 30
“Look, I think the only thing I can do here is to go back to the beginning. Well not quite... oh hell. Yes, the beginning.” Pauline squared her shoulders. She drew in a breath and lowered her head. When she lifted her face again she looked across at Detective Ryan. Her gaze steady but her eyes flat, helpless.
“My husband beat me, he beat me often and I didn’t tell anyone because I was ashamed and frightened. I stopped seeing my friends and I made a life that worked for me. In between the hell with George I had a life that I could live. I did my garden, I looked after the house and I spent hours and hours alone, walking in the hills. It was small and empty. All I had was the cat and my flowers.” The tears had begun to flow as she had known they would but she swiped them away with a tissue and carried on.
“I put up with it for twenty years and then I had the chance to get away. I left, I didn’t tell him I was going I just left.”
Detective Ryan had tried to maintain an aura of cool detachment but the distress coming from the other woman in waves was making her uncomfortable. “Is it relevant to what has happened here Pauline? Are you telling me that the dead man was your husband?”
“Will you just listen? Can you do that; just listen and I’ll tell you? There was an accident on the road and I tried to help. I called the police, I held his hand, I sat in a sodding ditch and held his hand.
“I looked in his pocket for a phone, just for his phone.”
“So, why did you lie, what was the lie?”
“I was afraid that if I gave my name and address that somehow it would get back to George and he would be able to find me. I was upset, I was scared and so I made up a phone number and I gave a false address. I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry.”
The police constable had stepped further into the room and the atmosphere was charged with emotion. Things were getting out of hand. Anne Ryan gathered her bag and folio together. “You’re distressed Pauline, this won’t work. You need a solicitor, you need to calm down and come to the police station. I’ll arrange it.”
“No.” Pauline shot from her seat and took the few paces to the door. She stood with her back to the old wood, her hands braced behind her. “No, listen to me. Let me tell you. You have to listen to me now.”
The young officer and the detective shot a glance across the small space. Ryan held out a hand. “Alright, but try to keep calm. Come on back. Come and sit down, please just sit down.” They waited until Pauline was perched, tense and watchful on the edge of the seat.
“I thought it would be alright. I listened to the news and they said that he was in hospital. After a while I put it behind me and I believed it to be over.
“Then the day before yesterday, in the night he came. I didn’t know who he was at first. I had never seen his face because of the helmet. He was brutal, violent and he went on and on about diamonds, and a computer memory stick. It was like something out of a movie. I was scared, really scared, but I told him and told him over and over that I had nothing, but he didn’t believe me. He made me go with him, across the beach. There’s a cave, over there in the rocks. He tied me up.” She raised her arms to display the fading rope burns.
“He left me there all day while he went off somewhere. To see his clients he said. When he came back I thought he would kill me and that is when I told him that I had buried the diamonds on the cliff walk.”
“But, you said you didn’t have them.” For a moment Pauline simply stared at the constable. How could he be so dim? She shook her head.
“I had to tell him something! I truly thought my life was in danger and if I was outside I would stand more chance of either getting away or attracting attention.” She took a deep breath and forged on. “I pretended to fall and when he came back I pushed him, I kicked him over the edge and he fell into the sea. I called to him and he didn’t answer.
“I don’t know where he is now; I don’t know whether he is dead or alive but if he is alive then I can’t stay here. You do see that don’t you? I can’t stay here…” She dissolved into a flood of weeping. Her head was buried deep in her hands, a murmur escaped between quivering fingers, “I can’t stay here. He’ll come back and he’ll kill me.”
Chapter 31
“Don’t get up Pauline, you just sit there. I’ll call through to Dolly, tell her we’re leaving. I’m sorry but we will have to contact your husband. There’s no way around it, but I don’t see why we would have to tell him where you are if you don’t want us to.
“I’ll need to check with the police in Yorkshire about the rest of the story and then I’ll come back. I have no idea where this is all going but with no body it leaves a conundrum. I don’t know where it will leave us with no body and you insisting on your story. I need to get advice from other people. Try not to worry. On the other hand, we can’t do much about the attack either and that’s a worry. With all you told us about the bloke who abducted you, I’m not happy but am at a loss as to the next move for now.”
“I don’t care about it. I’m going to be fine. I just want this to be over. Do you think I can carry on and go to France?”
“No, I can’t let you do that. Not until we get a better idea of what is happening. Put it off. Can you stay here?”
“I’ll ask Dolly.”
“If that doesn’t work out could you go home, back to your house?”
“Have you not listened to anything I said? It took me twenty years to get out of there! Twenty years of being beaten and miserable and you can actually stand there and suggest I go back!”
“Okay, okay I’m sorry. Just see if you can stay with Dolly or in the cottage and if you can’t then let me know and we’ll take it one step at a time.” As the two officers strode through the door Pauline laid her head back against the cushions and closed her eyes. She was weary to the bone, her spirit was bruised and battered and though she knew she must struggle forward all she could imagine was confusion and fear stretching forever. A wave of desperate sadness swept through her and it was only with a massive effort that she could push the grey blanket of depression aside.
Dolly stepped into the quiet room.
“Do you want some tea Pauline? And a sandwich?”
“I’d love some Dolly. And then, if you have a moment, can we have a chat? I have to try and work out what I’m going to do next.”
“Ok. Now you rest here, I’ll be back soon.”
“Dolly, thank you.”
Warm arms wrapped around her and the feel of Dolly’s soft cheeks against her face was balm to her hurt and the kindness, though she had known Dolly for such a short time, overwhelmed her and filled her heart with grateful tears…
“Well, the cottage is booked up from the end of the week and to be honest I don’t think you should stay there alone anyway. Why don’t you just bring your things over and stay in the house with Jim and me? I only let the rooms to bed and breakfast people and so there’s always a vacancy and it means I can look after you. I feel so guilty that all this has happened.”