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I couldn’t conceal my relief when I saw it was from Daniel and immediately answered it.
“Daniel, please tell me that is you.”
My heart was beating hard in my chest waiting for his reply. But then I heard him speak, falling to pieces at the other end of the line.
“Katherine’s dead… I need to see you… Can I come to you, please, Richard?”
I sat for a moment in silence, trying to comprehend what he was saying to me.
“Daniel, you need to calm down for me. You aren’t making any sense. Where are you?”
I could hear his heavy and erratic breathing at the end of the line. I really needed him to try to calm down so he could explain what was happening. I wished I had put a tracker on his phone so I could find him in situations like this.
“Daniel, listen to me. I need you to take deep breaths and try to calm yourself down. I need to understand what is going on, and you aren’t making it easy in your current state.”
I listened on the phone as he started to take deep breaths at the other end of the line. When I thought he had calmed down enough, I spoke again.
“Now, tell me where you are.”
Daniel took one last breath before he spoke. “I am at Scotland Yard. Katherine has been murdered in our house. I had to go in for questioning.”
I couldn't help the gasp that escaped my mouth. I knew it wouldn’t help the situation, but hearing Daniel say his wife was dead was too much to stop it from happening. I needed to get him back to my apartment quickly. I didn’t want him to be alone tonight after receiving that kind of news.
“Do you want me to come and pick you up? Or can you get a black cab to my apartment block? I want you to be here, please, Daniel. I don’t want you alone.”
I could feel my own panic starting to set in the more I was talking to him on the phone. My heart was beating fast with worry. I wasn’t sure I would be calm enough to drive, especially in central London, but I would do what I had to do to get Daniel here as quickly as possible.
“There are plenty of cabs, so I will get one. Richard, I didn’t kill her. I promise you I didn’t lay a finger on her.”
I could hear the fear and worry in his voice. I was sure he thought that this would be the end of us. But far from it; I wanted to help him as much as I could and prove his innocence if necessary.
“Don’t worry about that now, Daniel. I know you couldn’t do something like that. Just get yourself over to my apartment and we can talk then. I’ll send you the address in a minute so you can give it to the cab driver.”
“Okay, I will see you soon.”
I disconnected the call and immediately sent Daniel a text message with the address of my apartment. He messaged back within five minutes to say he was in a cab and on his way over to me. The next thirty minutes were going to be the longest of my life.
I had never been more relieved when I heard the intercom buzzer go as I was right now. I rushed over to the door and opened it, to find Daniel standing there. He looked completely distraught as he rushed forward and flung his arms around me. I stood there for a moment, rubbing his back as the floods of tears fell from his face.
“Come on. Let’s get you inside, and you can tell me what’s happened.”
I helped Daniel into the apartment and closed the door behind me, leading him into the front room. I sat down with him on the settee and just held him for a while as he tried to compose himself.
“I’ll get you a drink in a minute, but first, you need to tell me exactly what has gone on today. What’s all this about Katherine being dead?”
He took a deep breath as he stopped the tears from falling down his face. “After being with you the other day, I decided to move out of the house permanently until everything was sorted, so I went around there today to pick up my stuff. I saw Katherine’s car was there, but I couldn’t get any answer from her, so I went into her room.”
He took another deep breath as the tears started to fall again. I pulled him towards me and held him as he continued to explain.
“She was lying there with her hands and feet tied to the bed, covered in blood. She had been stabbed several times and had the wordwhorecarved into her stomach. I called the police and have been at the station for most of the afternoon.”
I held him as he continued to cry. I knew he wasn’t crying because he loved his wife, but any person seeing that scene would have been affected by it.
“It’s okay, Daniel. It’s all over now.”
“It’s not, though. She was pregnant and changed her will to leave everything to Kevin, including my house. The police have me as the prime suspect. They have let me go for now, but they told me to get a good solicitor because unless we can prove otherwise, all the evidence points to me. Detective Stevenson also said that large sums of money have been taken from my joint bank account with Katherine.”
I started to feel slightly better when he mentioned that Callum had interviewed him. I hadn’t had many dealings with him, but at least I knew someone who had. Also, I didn’t have to worry about Daniel by telling him about the missing money as he already knew. I had to get Mason to try and find out what was going on.
