Behind Dead Eyes (DC Ian Bradshaw #2) - Howard Linskey Page 0,17

killed a bunch of people, Richard. This was a crime of passion. If you admit it, you’ll probably only do nine or ten years in total. You’ve already served two.” ’ The look on Bell’s face said it all. His legal team were morons who did not understand the two years he had already served were a living hell and that seven more would be a lifetime.

‘I can understand your reluctance to do that but,’ and Tom chose his next words carefully, ‘nine years is better than twenty-four. If you don’t admit to the killing, the parole board will never recommend you for release. You’ll be …’

‘Officially classed as In Denial of Murder,’ Bell said. ‘I should keep my head down, maybe do an Open University course, develop a sudden interest in God. If I behave like a model prisoner then I could be out of here in another seven years, as long as I take responsibility for my actions and admit my terrible crime. Just say the word and serve a third,’ he added dryly, ‘but if I continue to maintain my innocence I’ll do the full tariff. So let’s say I admit to killing Rebecca, hypothetically.’

‘Hypothetically,’ agreed Tom.

‘What then? What happens to me?’

‘You serve the rest of your sentence, then leave.’

‘Where do I go? What do I do?’

‘You go home; assuming your wife will have you. What you do then is up to you.’

‘That’s where you’re very wrong, Tom. It’s not up to me. I know Annie would take me back but I’d have no job and no way of getting one. Not many blue-chip companies employ murderers and I don’t think my father-in-law could be seen to be taking one back either, even if he felt inclined to.’

‘You were his Sales Director?’

Bell nodded. ‘Whatever would his clients say?’

‘I’m not saying it would be easy …’

‘Easy? It would be impossible.’

‘But …’ Tom ventured ‘… better than this?’

It was as if Bell hadn’t heard him. ‘What would I do for the rest of my life? Take walks in the park every day, go to the library, read even more books, then maybe meet my girls from school?’ And he chuckled, but without humour. ‘Can you imagine the looks in the playground? Let’s face it; my life is over as soon as I say I did it.’

‘I’m not sure you have an alternative.’

‘You are my alternative, Tom. I want you to clear my name. I need you to use all of your skills to take a fresh and unbiased look at Rebecca’s murder and find out what really happened. The police did a rushed investigation under a great deal of media pressure. As soon as they found out I was seeing Rebecca and had everything to lose if she told on me, they never seriously looked for another suspect. Most people are killed by someone they know so it was all about me from the off. The police were convinced I was their man, the press went for my jugular and the judge bloody hated me. As for the jury, there were a couple of women who looked at me like they wanted to give me a life sentence just for cheating on my wife. There was no one on my side. I need someone to find the truth and that someone is you. When you’ve uncovered the truth, you can write another book about it, with my blessing. It would be quite a story, wouldn’t it? Journalist frees innocent man wrongly imprisoned for murder? You’ll have another bestseller on your hands.’

Tom wasn’t in the mood to contradict Bell on the sales figures of his book. The last time he’d seen Death Knock it was in a bargain bin, covered in large red ‘sale’ stickers and marked down to £1.99. His publisher’s only comment when he had enquired about sales was a rueful, ‘It’s been a tough year for true crime’.

The publisher had been enthusiastic at first. ‘This could launch you!’ he gushed, as if front-page leads in national newspapers didn’t count for anything. When firstly the book stores then the public failed to share this enthusiasm for the investigation into the murder of Sean Donnellan more than five decades earlier, they quickly lost interest in Tom and the half-promised offer to write a second book somehow failed to materialise.

‘I’ll be brutally honest with you, Richard, I’m not sure I can afford to spend weeks looking into a cold case on the off chance I find something that might be