Revenge by Joanne Clancy

Lieutenant Collins agreed. "We're contin u ously trying to find that vital piece of conclusive evidence, but it's proving to be difficult. I hope the jury won't be confused by the sheer mountain of informa tion we're going to present . The only slight issue we have is that the internet cafes which Mark used in France didn't retain any records and a lot of the information on security cameras has already been overwritten."
    “Let’s hope we get a break soon,” Lieutenant Leary sighed.
    The break was to come sooner than he imagined. T here was a major development when poison was found in Savannah's prison cell. Daniel was keen to show the police his willingness to cooperate and ha d continued to sing like the proverbial canary. He described how they had cooked up ricin in their kitchen and even told detectives where to find the blender. Savannah and her cell mate were banished from their cell while a full search was conducted. The small flat case was discovered in a wash bag under her bunk. It was empty, except for a slight yellow stain at the bottom. Whatever it had contained had been flushed long ago. However, field tests signalled the presence of the deadly toxin. Nobody could argue that this discovery put everything in an entirely different category.
     
     

 
    Chapter 9
     
     
     
    Mark was completely oblivious to the latest developments. He'd been lying low in France while Rebecca made sure that everything was alright at home in Ireland. He only found out about the ricin when Rebecca called him, after reading about it in the n ewspapers.
    It suddenly made the idea of a murder plot seem serious and all the more deadly. Mark decided it was time to stop hiding out and return home. Rebecca met him at Dublin Airport an d tried to reassure him but he could sense that the situation was spiralling out of control. He decided to write another letter to the Di rector of Public Prosecutions, where h e explained his predicament and the lethal jail cell discovery, and wrote that the longer this nastiness continued t he more stress it was causing his family. He told the D irector, who he now addressed with the familiarity of a pen pal, that he was not the type of man who would ever have anything to do with poison. He hinted darkly that he was being set up and that there were people who wanted to hurt him but he didn't mention any names, insisting that he was the victim of a sting much closer to home than any internet plot.
     
     
    T he police were continuing to gather their evidence. The computer analysis w as taking time but a clear picture of the plot was beginning to emerge. Mark was arrested again but he stuck to his story of Henry Whitington-Smy th. He pointed out that Henry may not h ave been based in London and that he could have been based in Ireland for all he knew. If Henry had been living local ly then he would have known his situation and with the way the locals gossiped, it wouldn't have been difficult for him to have woven the details into the emails and make it appear as if Mark were writing them. H e admitted that he'd been very open with Henry about his relationship with Rebecca.
    “ I had nothing w hatsoever to do with this plot,” he insisted. “I’ ve never met Savannah Kingston and I've n ever even heard of Daniel Williams.”
    The police were unimpressed. They’d found several items on the hard drive which they felt would b e very difficult to explain .
    “ Maybe the blackmailers had an accomplice,” Mark hinted. “I have some ideas about who it may be.”
    The police didn't believe his story but they continued to probe him just to see what he would say. It was a game of cat and mouse. “ Do you think the accomplice may have been one of th e women you were sleeping with?” Detective Leary asked. “ You know what they say; “ hell ha s no fury like a woman scorned.””
    “ I don't want to accuse anyone wrongly, especially when that is preci sely what has been done to me,” Mark replied