Stalker

Chapter Twenty-Three

‘Then what happened?’ Beth asked, pausing again from taking Mr Hanks’ statement until he’d recovered enough to continue.

‘I called for an ambulance,’ Mr Hanks said at last. ‘Then waited by Maggie. She was bleeding heavily. I tried to stop it with tissues but they didn’t do any good. I went into the kitchen, got a clean tea towel and pressed that to her head. Then I knelt beside her and held her hand, hoping and praying the bleeding would stop and she would wake up and tell me she was all right. But she didn’t, she was so still and pale. I thought she was dying in front of me.’ He stopped as his breath caught in his throat.

‘It was a very deep head wound,’ Beth said dispassionately as she wrote. She finished the sentence she was writing on his statement and then looked up at Hanks to continue.

‘The ambulance seemed to take ages,’ he said. ‘I kept the tea towel pressed to her head and talked to her. I told her I was sorry over and over again and that she had to live. I willed her to keep breathing, I’d never have forgiven myself if she’d died.’

‘No, and the charge would have been murder,’ Beth said dryly. Hanks was obviously distressed and remorseful but that didn’t detract from the fact that he’d nearly killed his wife. At least he’d admitted it, had waived his right to a solicitor and was going to plead guilty.

‘I never meant to harm her,’ he blurted, his brow creasing in anguish. ‘Really I didn’t. I loved her so much, I still do.’

Beth didn’t write this down. He’d said it many times already: that he loved his wife, was usually even-tempered but had lost all control when he’d seen them together, and that he’d never meant to harm her and he was so very, very sorry.

‘So while you waited for the ambulance you held your wife’s hand, talked to her and kept pressure on the wound?’ Beth prompted for him to continue.

Hanks nodded. ‘I only left her side when the doorbell rang and I had to let the paramedics in. The police had come too. The paramedics went to Maggie while the police took me to one side and started questioning me. I couldn’t tell them much; I was trembling and in shock. They wouldn’t let me go in the ambulance with her. That really upset me.’

‘They couldn’t – you were the attacker – but you’ve seen her in hospital since?’

‘Yes.’ His eyes filled. ‘They say she might have permanent brain damage.’ Beth nodded and slid the box of tissues to within his reach. You could almost feel sorry for him if you didn’t know that his wife had a fractured skull and was partially paralysed and unable to speak as a result of his attack. How much recovery she would make wasn’t yet known. Yes, she was alive, but what quality of life she would have was doubtful.

‘You told me earlier that you had some suspicion your wife might be having an affair,’ Beth prompted. ‘Why didn’t you challenge her sooner? Why not sit down and have it out with her instead of letting your rage build up until it came to this?’

His gaze met hers, hang-dog and pathetic. ‘I suppose I didn’t want to know,’ he said, shaking his head dejectedly. ‘We’d been married for over twenty years. There were no children. We just had each other. I needed her and I like to think that in some ways she needed me. I didn’t want my marriage to end. I’d have been lost without her. She could have done a lot better for herself than me.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘She was an attractive woman, made the most of herself. She could turn blokes’ heads in the street. It made me feel proud and grateful to have her on my arm. She was always the sociable one, far more than me. She knew how to talk to people… make them laugh; she could be very witty. She liked dinner parties, I never did, but I went to keep her happy. I’m the quiet type, content to come home after a day at work, read the paper and watch television. I sort of knew I probably wasn’t enough for her so I took the view that if she needed an affair to keep her happy and our marriage going, then as long as it was only an affair and she kept it quiet I could ignore it. I expect you think I’m pathetic, but I’d have gone to pieces if she’d left me. I’d have done anything to keep her. But when I saw the two of them together I just lost it.’ Full of self-recrimination, he glanced up at the camera that was recording everything.

‘And you said you didn’t know the man she was with?’ Beth asked.

‘That’s right. I’ve no idea. I thought she was seeing someone on a Tuesday afternoon, not a Thursday.’

Beth looked up at him questioningly. ‘Why?’

‘Telltale signs. A gut feeling, I suppose. When you’ve lived with someone a long time you pick things up.’

‘Like what?’

He looked uncomfortable. ‘Is this important?’

‘Yes. It helps put the crime into context.’

He shifted in his chair. ‘Well, for example, she always painted her nails on a Tuesday, and when I came home in the evening she was that little bit more attentive. She looked vibrant too, glowing; fulfilled, I guess, in a way I could never make her feel.’

‘But you got it wrong? This didn’t happen on a Tuesday afternoon but a Thursday evening.’

‘I know. I never normally go out in the evenings without my wife, but a couple of times a year I have to attend a working dinner for our Japanese clients. Wives and partners aren’t invited. I told her I wouldn’t be home until after midnight.’

Beth nodded as she wrote. ‘But you left the dinner much earlier? When you saw the email you claim was sent to you?’

‘Yes. My phone was on silent and I felt it vibrate. I read the email, checked my CCTV as the email said, and left immediately. I told the receptionist to let my boss know I wasn’t feeling well and I’d gone home. Then I ran to my car and drove back to the house. I was in such a state it was a wonder I didn’t have an accident. I was so upset and angry. I realize now I should have calmed down first. But at the time all I could think about were those pictures of the two of them on the sofa in my living room. When I got home I parked out of sight of the house. I got out and took the metal spanner from the boot.’

‘So you intended to do them harm before you entered the house? It was premeditated?’

‘No!’ he blurted with a cry.

‘Yet you had the presence of mind to leave a message for your boss at the reception desk, drive home, park out of sight of the house, then quite calculatingly take a weapon from the boot.’

‘I wasn’t thinking straight. I suppose I wanted to scare them. Perhaps hit him. But I never intended to…’ He stopped as his eyes filled. ‘I loved my wife. I still do.’

Beth waited as he took another tissue. ‘Then what happened?’

‘I let myself in and went straight to the living room. There they were, getting dressed. I remember going for him but missing. He ran off. Then I saw her with her blouse undone and her cheeks flushed from what they’d been doing. I just went for her.’ His face crumpled. ‘I’m so sorry. Really I am. I didn’t mean to.’

‘It’s your wife you need to apologize to,’ Beth said quietly. It was difficult to feel compassion for him having seen the state his wife was in.

‘I have apologized many times. I don’t know if she can hear me or understand. If only I hadn’t seen that bloody email none of this would have happened.’

‘Yes, I was coming to that,’ Beth said. ‘We’ve gone through your mobile phone but can’t find any trace of a message about there being a breach of security at your home. The only text message you received that evening was from your sister asking if you wanted to go to dinner on Sunday, and you didn’t read that.’ Hanks looked puzzled for a few moments but didn’t say anything. She held his gaze and felt a small satisfaction that she’d caught him out. He wasn’t the victim of his wife’s affair but a jealous husband hell bent on revenge.

Then he seemed to understand. ‘No, the email wasn’t sent to my personal phone but to my work phone. Would you like to see it?’

It was Beth’s turn to look confused. ‘You have it with you?’

‘Yes.’ She watched as he delved into his inside jacket pocket and took out the mobile phone.

‘And no one here has asked to see this before?’

‘No.’ He began scrolling to find the email.

That none of them knew of the existence of the second phone was an oversight on their part to say the least. If there was an email, it could make a big difference to his defence. It would add credence to his claim that his attack on his wife wasn’t premeditated but a moment of madness – a crime of passion – brought on by seeing her with her lover on CCTV. His sentence would be lighter.

‘There it is,’ he said passing the phone to her.

Beth carefully read the message, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach: This is an automated message to alert you to a possible breach of security in your surveillance system. Please log in and check your cameras now. If you have forgotten your password, click on the link below. ‘So Home Security is the firm responsible for your surveillance?’ she asked, suddenly feeling very cold.

‘Yes.’

‘What was the breach of security? The reason you had to log in straightaway and check your cameras?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said despondently. ‘We weren’t broken into. I suppose the message was sent in error. But of all the nights for an error to have occurred. What a horrendous coincidence.’ He looked at her in utter hopelessness, a broken man.

‘It certainly was a coincidence,’ Beth agreed, then fell silent. A recognition began to dawn as two half-formed thoughts came together. Coincidence? Chance? ‘Mr Hanks, when you logged in to view your cameras on the Internet you presumably had to enter a password?’ He nodded. ‘Can you remember if you ever changed it from the default password? You know, the one that came with the system.’

He looked thoughtful. ‘We must have done. Our password is the first two letters of our names plus the number ten. The guy who fitted the system suggested it so we would remember it. I wish I’d forgotten it, then I’d never have known of my wife’s infidelity and we would still be together.’

‘Indeed,’ Beth said. ‘I think we’re finished here for now.’