Free Revenge by Joanne Clancy

first names, making firm eye contact and grinning at the absurdity of the situation. He kept a white handkerchief clutched in his hands which he kept patting smooth on his knee before folding it over and over on itself as he thought furiously for a way out. As the interviews slowly progressed the handkerchief was folded and unfolded countless times but Mark never stopped talking. The officers struggled to keep up with him and had great difficulty keeping notes of the rapid-fire s tream of stories that Mark was providing them.
    Later, he even had the audacity to complain that the officers hadn't managed to capture his tone of voice in their notes and had missed out swathe s of what he was telling them. “ How can your paraphras ing put across the whole truth?” he demanded in irritation. “ I want it written word for word otherwi se it isn't truly what I said, only a mere interpretation.” He frowned as the police notes were read out to him at t he end of each interview and insisted that it really didn't sound like him.
    Over many hours of interviews he fleshed out his intricate story. Henry Whitington-Smyt h became a living, breathing person whose aim in l ife was to ruin everything which Mark had built up over the years. Mark insisted that he was the v ictim; himself and his family. “ I would never do anything to hurt the mother of my children.” Over the course of three days he denied and denied. He wept and laughed and tried to make the detectives understand that it was all some sort of terrible mistake. For their part, the police only had Savannah's word that there had been a link between her and Mark and she was hardly the most reliable s ource! They hadn't had time to forensically examine the computer s which had been stolen. At that stage the police hadn't yet discovered the emails or the fact that Mark's computer profile had been wiped two weeks later than he had claimed .
     
     

 
    Chapter 8
     
     
     
    Back in England, Daniel Williams was helping Scotland Yard with their investigation and was being very forthcoming about events in Ireland. Irish detectives had travelled to and from England and the case against Savannah was shaping up nicely. However the evidence against Mark wasn't showing much movement unti l they received information which could provide the proof they were looking for.
    Reminiscing about their stay in Ireland, Daniel told officers how he and Savannah had dumped the computer in a wooded area at the back of the hotel. Scotland Yard promptly informed the Irish police where the hardware might be found and a team was dispatched to recover it from the bushes. Detective Leary prayed fervently that the Irish weather hadn't reduced the hard drive to useless junk and that they could find the vital proof against Mark.
    If the desktop had remained in its original hiding place it would certainly have been damaged by the rain an d the incriminating emails from “ devils-revenge ” would have been lost forever. Luckily, it was r escued long before the weather took its hold. Ollie Mangan had been the caretaker at the h otel for many years . It was his job to oversee g eneral maintenance and ensure that any technical hitches the guests encountered were resolved . When he wasn't need ed he spent most of his time in his work - room deep in the bowels of the building. He was a solid man who didn't waste his words and didn't see the point of mention i ng things that weren't asked about.
    One of his duties was to check around the outside of the hotel to see if gu ests had left anything behind. “ It' s amazing the things I’ve found abandon ed in the bushes,” Ollie told the police at his interview.
    Anyway, Ollie had set off on h is usual tour of the gardens, ex pecting to find cumbersome rubbish which would need to be collected and put in a sk ip for disposal. It had been a mild s pring but the weather hadn't become warmer quite yet. Th e heady heat of summer still seemed a long way off. The computer