The Honeytrap: Part 4 by Roberta Kray Read Free Book Online

Nolan?’ Mac asked.
    Ellen took an audible breath before answering. ‘Jimmy Nolan is the man who went down the pub, drank ten pints of lager, got in his car and ran over my husband. He got eighteen months for that. He only served nine.’ Her hands clenched into two tight fists and her eyes flashed with anger. ‘Is that justice? I don’t think so.’
    ‘And so you decided that you’d punish him yourself?’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Because you’d have spent the next twenty years of your life behind bars.’
    Ellen gave a shrug as if the consequences were of no particular interest to her. ‘It would have been worth it.’ She gave a low laugh. ‘I had to tell Harry that Adam had died of cancer. If he’d known about Nolan, he’d have guessed what I intended to do.’
    ‘But you gave him the gun anyway.’
    Ellen left a long pause before answering. ‘Yes, I handed it over. As soon as I’d bought it, I knew it was a mistake. I couldn’t have gone through with it. It’s one thing wanting to do something but … No, I couldn’t actually have shot him.’
    Jess wasn’t sure if she believed her. Ellen Shaw, she thought, was capable of anything. She looked at Mac. ‘So what now?’
    ‘So now we have to come up with a better story. Harry has already said that the gun was posted anonymously through the door.’ He looked at Ellen. ‘If you say something different they’ll know he’s not been telling the truth. I think you need to go along the lines of the grieving widow, that you were acting irrationally, that you brought the gun for protection because you didn’t feel safe after your husband died. But you realised you’d made a mistake and immediately tried to get rid of it safely.’
    ‘You mean you want her to lie to the police,’ Jess said.
    Mac laid his hands across his heavy paunch and smiled. ‘Why not? Everyone else does.’

30
    It was seven in the evening before Harry was finally let out of his cell and formally released from custody. At reception he picked up his worldly possessions – watch, wallet, phone – before signing on the dotted line, leaving the station and stepping out on to the forecourt. He breathed in the wet night air and released a long grateful sigh of relief. A car flashed its lights and he recognised Jess’s Mini. It was only as he climbed inside that he saw the full extent of her injuries.
    ‘Ouch, Vaughan. No offence but I’ve seen you sporting better looks.’
    ‘It wasn’t a fair fight. She was bigger than me.’
    ‘That’s what they all say.’ He pulled his seatbelt across and fastened it. ‘So what’s with the chauffeur service? I could have walked from here.’
    ‘It’s raining,’ she said. ‘And I know how delicate you are. Wouldn’t want you to catch a cold or anything.’
    What she really meant, he knew, was that she needed company and he understood that. After the day from hell you needed a mate, a friend who understood what you were going through. ‘Do you want to come back to mine? I’ve got a bottle of whisky in the flat. It might help anaesthetise the pain.’
    Jess started the engine and turned the car on to the street. ‘Sounds like a plan – so long as you promise not to utter those words “I told you so”
.
’
    ‘You mean Sylvie? Yeah, Valerie filled me in. The girl fooled all of us.’
    ‘No, she didn’t. You didn’t ever believe she was in trouble. Not really.’
    ‘I wouldn’t say that. I just thought something didn’t add up, that she would never have made such a fundamental mistake as leaving with the target.’
    Jess slapped her hands on the wheel. ‘She used me. She had me running around like a headless chicken.’
    ‘You’ll get over it. Eventually.’
    ‘And what about Ellen?’
    Harry assumed a casual expression. ‘What about her?’
    ‘What happens to her now?’
    ‘She’ll be all right. I don’t think the CPS will prosecute. We’ll get a good solicitor, have some medical reports done. She’s been ill.’ He