Revenge by Joanne Clancy Page A

indignantly.
    “ Maybe it was your own son, Christopher?”
    “ I'm sure he wasn't too impressed when he found out about your numerous affairs. ”
    The detectives were testing him to gauge his reactions but he didn't take the bait.
    “ My son would nev er do anything to hurt anyone!” Mark replied angrily. “It has to have been Henry Whitington-Smyth.”
    The police tried to make some headway during their hours of interviews but Mark didn't budge.
    “What happened to the emails between you and Henry?”
    “I don't know,” Mark shrugged nonchalantly. “I know my emails were hacked.”
    “ I suppose the emails between you and the myster y blackmailer were hacked too?” Detective Leary couldn't help th e sarcastic tone creeping into his voice.
    “ That's the only explanation that makes sense to me. If you don't believe me you sh ould contact my email provider.”
    “ Don't you think it's peculi ar that the emails sent to “ devils-revenge ” have survived but your le ngthy correspondence with Henry, which you claim lasted for many months , has disappear ed without a trace?”
    “ It must have been the Irish accomplice, someone who had access to t he computer at M&R Photography.”
    “Who might that have been ?” Detective Leary asked bluntly.
    “ I can't say. There's no way that I'm going to put an innocent person in the same position as me. All I know is that there must be someone out there trying to set me up.”
    He went on to berate Detective Leary for putting him through t he embarrassment of an arrest. “ I have nothing to hide. I would have been completely happy to h ave come in under my own steam.”
    “It’s the procedure in an official investigation that suspects be arrested an d detained.”
    “ I have my reputation to think of.”
    Dete ctive Leary stared at him . “ From everything I've hea rd your reputation wasn't in great shape before we arrested you.” He couldn't resist the jibe at Mark. The other ma n's smug disposition was starting to grate on his nerves. Mark had the good grace not to respond. Detective Leary hadn't liked Mark from the start of the investigation. There was something about him that irritated him a nd he was fairly certain that th e man was guilty. However the detective was an honourable man and he was determined that every bit of evidence would be examined, no matter how exhausting.
    Slowly but surely a damning picture was beginning to emerge. The police found that not only were there phone calls which neatly fitted with the ti ming suggested in the emails between “ devils-revenge ” and “assassin_hire” but ano ther pattern was slowly forming . The emails already seemed to suggest that w hoever had been emailing “assassin_hire” had not only been following Mark's movements and possessed an intimate knowledge of his life, but also was actually travelling with him. The phone records perfectly substantiated the theory. The calls also suggested a clos e r relationship with the blackmailer than Mark had suggested. There were calls which lasted for almost half an hour at a time, more than long enough to explain the flirtatious relationship in the emails. T he police were starting to think that not only was Mark their culprit but he was the only person who could have possibly made all the calls.
    Mark was feeling the strain of the mountain of evidence that was building against him so made one last passionate plea to the Director of Public Prosecution's to have the case dropped.
    “ It will cos t those I love far too dearly,” he wrote. “ I'm worried about my wife. She’s only just beginning to recover from the post-natal depression which has plagued her for months and I'm worried about the amount of stress this situation is causing her. She's taking my predicament very badly. How can you be so cruel as to put an innocent woman through this terrible ordeal? The situation is putting me under so much strain that I've even considered suicide. If you go ahead with