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Before he could go, I got up from my seat. “Kye.”
He immediately turned to me. I walked up to him and risked giving him a hug. When he returned it, I relaxed with the feeling that I had finally broken through the last barrier with him. That he wasn’t bothered by me as a gay man hugging him after everything he had been through. He smiled as he let me go and walked out of my office, leaving me alone in my thoughts again. I knew I had to try again and get hold of Daniel again, for my own sanity as opposed to his. I picked up the phone and dialled his number. Again, it went straight to voicemail. This time, though, I decided to leave him a message.
“Hi Daniel, is everything okay? Please call me when you get this message. I’m worried about you.”
Ending the call, I stood there for a second, debating whether going home alone was indeed the best thing for me to do, or if I should take up Kye’s offer to get Kelsey to come home with me.
I knew I shouldn’t rely on anyone’s help. I never had before, so why now? I grabbed my bag and headed out of my office and the building, towards my home, all the way hoping that any moment Daniel would call and everything would be okay.
Chapter Sixteen
Daniel
I’d been sitting in the interrogation room now for hours being asked the same questions over and over again. I had already answered them so many times, I felt like I was a tape recorder on repeat. Detective Stevenson had not arrived yet, and it was nearly half past five in the evening. He had been held up at my house for something, and no one was giving me any answers as to when I could leave or if I was even being held on suspicion of murder. To top it off, I couldn’t even get hold of anyone to let them know what was going on.
I was starting to worry that they thought it was me who carried out the murder. If I saw it from their point of view, it made perfect sense. I was the one who had found the body, the one who had called the police, and possibly the last person to see her alive the night before. Everything pointed in my direction. It would probably look even worse when I told them the truth, which I was going to do as soon as the detective turned up. They would find out eventually, and if I was honest from the start, I was hoping that it would look better for my case.
I was currently sitting in the room on my own, a police officer posted outside so I didn’t make a run for it. Why they thought I would do that, I had no idea. I was innocent, but as I sat here thinking everything through in my head, I had no proof of where I was for the whole day.
I had worked from the hotel today, as I hadn’t wanted to go into the office. Then I had taken the afternoon off to go and get my stuff from the house. The only hope I had was if one of the receptionists at the hotel remembered me leaving and the time. But seeing as I’d had no interaction with them today, I highly suspected that they wouldn’t know what time I’d left.
The door to the room opened, and finally Detective Stevenson walked in. I was almost glad when I saw him until I saw a folder and a bag in his hand. I’d seen enough police dramas and films to know he was bringing some form of evidence in with him, and that usually meant you were the prime suspect.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting, Mr. Cooper. I had a few things I needed to clear up before I came back. So, do you want to start by telling me where you have been today and why you were at your house packing to leave?”
I went through everything with him again, explaining the whole situation to him, including the fact that our marriage was an arranged one, that I was gay, and that I had employed a private detective agency to investigate my suspicion of Katherine’s infidelity. As soon as I mentioned that, his eyes almost lit up and a slight smile came across his face.
“Can I ask which company you are using to investigate your wife?”
I had absolutely nothing to hide, so I saw no reason not to tell him. Although I wasn’t about to explain my involvement with Richard unless it was truly necessary.
“Of course not. I have gone to King Brothers Investigation Services. They were recommended to me by a friend who has used them in the past. I know they aren’t the cheapest, but you get what you pay for.”
The smile on Detective Stevenson’s face grew wider as soon as I mentioned Kings, and he started to nod his head. I assumed he’d had dealings with them in the past from the way he looked. I just hoped they were good ones.
“Ah, yes. Mason and the boys. Mason King, the eldest brother, served with me in the SAS. Well, actually, he was my commanding officer. You went to the best, I will say, although you won’t need their services now, will you?”
I hadn’t even considered that. There was nothing for them to investigate now. My wife was dead. Whether she was having an affair made no difference now. I was free.
Well, I was no longer married. Free would depend on the evidence that Detective Stevenson had in his hand.
“I guess not. Look, I’m sorry, Detective Stevenson, but I have been here for over two hours now. Am I under arrest? I have told everyone the same thing over and over again.”
A more serious look came over his face. “You aren’t under arrest, but I do have some questions for you. Like your thoughts when you found out your wife was pregnant, and from the sounds of things, by another man, as you have never slept with her.”
I felt the wind being totally knocked out of me when I heard and then comprehended what he was saying to me.
Katherine was pregnant. That was proof enough that she was having an affair. But that meant that it was now not just Katherine that had been killed, but also her unborn child. I sat there in complete shock, unable to speak for a few moments.
“I didn’t know. How? I mean, I know how she got pregnant, and it would confirm my suspicions that she was having an affair, but how did you know that?”
I watched as he placed the evidence bag in front of me that contained a pregnancy test, which quite clearly had the word pregnant on it. He opened the folder in front of him and got another bag out from it, containing a document. A letter. I sat down and read it. It was an appointment at a doctor’s surgery on Harley Street. She had booked in to have an abortion next week.
I could see the letter shaking as I held it. I looked up and saw Detective Stevenson looking at me with a stern look. His face softened slightly as he watched the look of shock on my face.
“You really didn’t know anything about it, did you? I know when people are trying to fake a reaction. Seen it so many times in my job. But I can honestly say that you did not know about this, which puts me in a real conundrum. That evidence there would make a perfect motive for you to kill your wife, that you found out she was pregnant and knew it would change everything.”
I thought about what he had just said. It would make perfect sense for me to want to get rid of Katherine because she was pregnant with another man’s child. I could feel the pain in me start to increase. I didn’t really like Katherine, but I didn’t hate her. Perhaps hated the situation we were in, but I would never have murdered her. I needed him to realise that.
