Free The Plague Maiden by Kate Ellis Page A

find out Hobson was in jail for Shipborne’s murder?’
    Her restless fingers began to play with the silk scarf she was wearing. ‘About four weeks ago I saw him in an episode of that
     TV documentary …
Nick
, I think it’s called. It said he was serving life for murder and I couldn’t believe it. I had to know what it was he’d done
     … I assumed that whatever it was must have happened while I was in the States. Anyway, I went to the local newspaper office
     to look through their archives and I had the shock of my life when I found he’d been convicted of the Belsham murder. I mean,
     he can’t have done it. We were together that night. We met in Belsham but we didn’t stay there long.’
    ‘Why have you waited four weeks to come forward?’
    She looked sheepish. ‘I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know whether it was too late to come forward or … then there was
     the thought of Derek finding out about …’
    ‘But you’ve decided to tell us now?’
    ‘When I saw Chris on TV he looked so old. I couldn’t just let him rot in that awful place. I had to tell the truth.’
    She paused and took a packet of cigarettes from her handbag. She waved the packet vaguely in Wesley’s direction but when he
     refused she took out a cigarette, lit it with a gold lighter and inhaled deeply.
    Then she sat forward and looked Wesley in the eye. ‘And besides, last week Derek, my husband, told me he’s having an affair
     with one of the barmaids at the golf club and he wants a divorce. After all these years he wants a bloody divorce.’
    Wesley saw anger in her eyes. More than anger … the fury of a woman scorned. Perhaps this confession of infidelity had nothing
     to do with sympathy for Hobson’s plight. Perhaps it was a means of revenge … a way of humiliating her errant husband with
     the public revelation that she had had to seek satisfaction elsewhere in the course of their marriage. Or perhaps it was just
     that her reason for staying silent had gone.
    ‘I’ve been wondering what to do for the best,’ she said piously. ‘I’ve been feeling so guilty.’
    But not guilty enough to come forward before your husband ran off with a barmaid, thought Wesley. He didn’t really know what
     to make of Mrs Janet Powell – was she a basically honest woman motivated by a fit of conscience or was she a manipulative
     bitch playing some sly game? He sat back and watched her, giving her the benefit of the doubt.
    ‘I think it would be best if you told me exactly what happened on the evening of the Reverend Shipborne’s murder, don’t you?’
    She paused, gathering her thoughts, before embarking onher story. ‘I’d decided I was going to the States with Derek and I knew I had to finish my affair with Chris. It had been
     nice while it lasted but I suppose I knew it was just sexual on my part. I’d realised that Chris was just a petty villain
     and we came from different worlds … different ways of thinking and behaving. Does that sound snobbish?’
    Wesley didn’t know how to answer so he just shook his head.
    ‘Anyway, I was starting to suspect that he was getting too serious and that was the last thing I wanted. I arranged to meet
     him outside the pub in Belsham … the Horse and Farrier. I didn’t know anyone in Belsham so I thought it’d be safe. I met him
     at seven outside the pub as arranged. He’d been in the pub and had a drink … I could smell the beer on his breath. We talked
     in my car for ages … must have been almost an hour. I told him about America and I said I couldn’t see him again. Then we
     went for a drive.’
    ‘Where to?’
    ‘Just around. I think I drove through some villages – I remember we passed Berry Ducis castle – and then to Morbay. We ended
     up at his flat. He wanted me to go in so I did … for old times’ sake. I was there till after midnight. I left him in bed,’
     she added coyly.
    ‘How did he react when you told him you were going to the States with your