first words to him were, ‘I thought you would come to the house.’
‘I did,’ he explained, ‘but the cleaner told me you were at work, so …’
‘… Here you are,’ she completed the sentence for him. Annie looked around uncertainly.
‘I assumed you’d have an office,’ he said quietly, ‘somewhere private.’
‘Alright.’ She led him inside. They passed rows of desks, where a surprisingly subdued group of people were working in front of large computer monitors.
Annie Bell’s office was at the end of the room. She closed the door behind them and Tom brought a chair closer to her desk so they were facing one another. Annie’s office was a curiously impersonal work space, aside from one small, silver-framed photograph of two smiling little girls.
‘My two,’ she said when she noticed he was looking at the photo. ‘I know they look like butter wouldn’t melt but they can be a right handful.’
‘They’re lovely,’ he said. ‘I apologise if my appearance here is an embarrassment.’
‘A surprise, but not an embarrassment,’ said Annie. ‘I’m a senior manager at a company owned by my father, which employs a large number of people, all of whom know my husband is serving a life sentence for the murder of his lover,’ she paused, ‘how’s that for embarrassment?’
‘It must be difficult.’
‘It is,’ Annie admitted, ‘but you know what’s more difficult? Knowing he is innocent and not being able to do a damn thing about it.’
‘You seem very sure about his innocence.’
‘I am.’
‘You’ve never had any doubts? Even during the trial when you heard some pretty bad things about Richard.’
‘I have had two years to process the information from the trial. I learned that my husband was a womaniser. Do I like that fact? No. Do I take some of the blame for it? Perhaps but not all. He did what he did and he certainly had a choice not to do it. Does that make him a murderer? God, no. Richard is a gentle soul. I know him better than anyone and I can tell you this from my heart, he did not kill that woman.’
He noticed she did not refer to Rebecca Holt by name. ‘So who did? Kill her, I mean.’ Then he added, ‘Was it you?’
‘If that’s meant to be a joke, it’s not very funny.’
‘It’s an honest question,’ he said, ‘and one I have to ask if you want me to look into your husband’s case.’ When she was slow to respond to that, Tom added, ‘Assuming you do want me to look into it, because now’s the time to tell me if you don’t.’
‘I am in favour of anything that might help my husband prove he is innocent, Mr Carney, though I’ll admit I was pinning my hopes on a successful appeal – we all were.’
‘But you have your doubts,’ he asked her, ‘about me looking into the case?’
She took a while to answer him. ‘I don’t want my husband’s hopes to be raised without foundation,’ she said. ‘Richard was devastated when his appeal request was rejected. He went into a big depression for a while,’ she explained, ‘then he read your book. The next time I visited him, it was all he could talk about. He told me he’d written to you and was hopeful of a reply. I didn’t discourage him because I could see what that faint glimmer of hope did for his mood, but I’ll admit I’m concerned about the impact on him if you are unable to find anything new.’
‘So am I. I’m not even sure I’m the right man to help him.’
‘Richard is convinced you are,’ said Annie, ‘he calls you a truth-seeker.’
‘But you think he’s clutching at straws?’
‘Drowning men do.’
‘Is that what he is?’
‘Oh yes,’ she said, ‘I can see the effect that place is having on him. I have to get him out of there.’
‘By finding the real killer?’
‘Right now that would appear to be our only option, wouldn’t you say?’
‘It wasn’t you then?’ he asked amiably.
‘No.’
‘Convince me.’
She sighed, and looked out of her window for the umpteenth time since they’d been there. ‘Not here,’ she said and suddenly Annie Bell was on her feet.
Annie marched to the front of the building at speed but Tom managed to keep pace with her as they left the headquarters. ‘I can’t talk in there,’ she said and he understood that. It couldn’t have been easy being Annie Bell, even two years after the trial. ‘We’ll go to the park.’
As they walked past her car he said, ‘Nice