“There was a ring, with the letter he wrote to you.” The officer admitted. “
When the file is closed, it’ll be returned to you along with the note.”
“I...” Having held it together through all that difficult conversation, the knowledge that he’d bought a ring with the serious intention of asking her to marry him was the straw that broke the back of her grief, and she burst into tears.
“I think we need to be alone now.” Jax’s voice was gravelly and the officers didn’t argue.
“Thank you. We’ll see ourselves out.” They both got to their feet with sympathetic looks and headed for the door.
“We’ll be in touch.” The woman said gently and they pulled the door closed behind them.
***
They waited for more than a week for some news of what was happening, but Gabriel’s body wasn’t released and, although the Police came back three times, they didn’t say anything. Just on and on with the endless questions about Noelle’s relationship with Gabriel and the last two weeks of his life.
It was John that finally broke. He turned up to Noelle’s house with Jax and told her to fetch her coat. “We’re going to see our solicitor.” He explained when she gave him a curious look. “Something’s going on and no-one will tell us what. I’m done with waiting. We’re getting to the bottom of this today.”
Meekly, she fetched her coat and followed him out to the car. He was driving and she sat in the back with her head resting on Jax’s shoulder. “How are you holding up?” He asked quietly as John navigated the streets of the city.
“I’m okay.” Of course she wasn’t, but there was no way to put her emotions into words.
“You?”
“I’ve had better months.” He said sadly. “I just hate the thought of him lying around in a fridge somewhere. It’s not right.”
“It’s not.” She agreed, taking his hand in both of hers and just holding it.
When they arrived at the office, the solicitor, a Mr Beresford, was clearly expecting them. They were taken straight up to his
room and offered coffee. All three refused, too agitated to make polite.
“I understand why you’re upset, but there’s nothing I can do.” Beresford tried to placate them after John had explained why they were there. “The Police won’t release Gabriel’s body until the toxicology reports come back from the post mortem.”
“Toxicology?” Jax stared at him. “Gabriel never took drugs. He didn’t even smoke weed.”
“I don’t think that’s what they’re looking for.” Beresford took his glasses off and massaged his nose, looking tired. “The issue here is young Miss Winters.”
“Me?” She was just as surprised as the rest of them. “What about me?”
“It regards Mr
Hallow’s Last Will and Testament.” He slid his glasses back on and rummaged in his desk drawer for a moment, withdrawing a file and passing it across. “He came here a week before he died and wrote a new will, at which time he seemed to be perfectly sane and of sound mind.”
“I don’t understand.” Noelle opened the file, but the words were a blur.
“Miss Winters, he left you everything. You’re an extraordinarily rich young woman.”
“Excuse me?” Her blood roared in her ears and she swayed as her vision tunnelled.
“Woah now...sit down.” Jax caught her as her knees buckled and eased her into a seat.
“I don’t understand.” Her voice was rising into hysteria. “Why would he do that? What was he thinking?”
“Hey...just stop and breathe for a moment.” Jax tried to calm her panic before she had another panic attack. He cupped his own hands over her face for her to breathe into, because hers were shaking too badly.
She got control of her breathing
, but she pulled away too soon. “I’m going to be sick.” She blurted out and fled the office in search of a bathroom. Beresford’s secretary directed her to a plush powder room, where she threw up her breakfast and then sat on the cold tiled floor, sobbing. This didn’t make any sense. It was like a nightmare that never ended.
It was ten minutes or more before she managed to get herself under control enough to move
, and she returned to the room to find a grim group.
“Noelle!” Jax jumped up when she returned, but she waved him down with a wan smile.
“I’m okay.” She lied. “It was just a shock.”
“So it was news to you?” Beresford clarified unnecessarily and she nodded, taking a seat between the others.
“I haven’t seen Gabriel since ten days before he died. He changed his will after we argued.” That was the part that made absolutely no sense to her. Had he already decided then that he was going to kill himself?
“The Police aren’t releasing his body because they think you killed him for his money.” John said bluntly and the concept was so ridiculous it actually startled a snort of amused horror from her.
“Haven’t they seen him? He’s at least three times my size! No-one makes Gabriel do anything.”
“Hence the toxicology report.” John reminded her grimly.
“They think I drugged him?” Lights flashed behind her eyes as it began to make a horrible kind of sense. “They think I found out what he’d done and killed him to get the money?”
“I’m pretty sure they don’t think you’re capable of it
, but they have to cross every t and dot every i.” Beresford put in soothingly. “You have to remember that Mr Hallow was a very public figure and the media are in a frenzy over his suicide. If there was even the slightest hint that there was something fishy about his death and the Police hadn’t explored all potential avenues, they’d get torn to pieces.”
“So they’re depriving the people that loved him of a chance to lay him to rest?” Jax demanded hotly. “That’s ridiculous! Anyone that’s been around Noelle knows she couldn’t have killed him!”
“They know that Jax. They just have to prove it. Look...” He came around to the front of the desk and leaned against it. “If they really believed she had anything to do with his death, they’d have taken her into the station for an interview and they haven’t. They’re just taking precautions.”
“So how long do we have to wait until we’re in the clear?” John asked and Beresford shrugged.
“I’ve no idea. What I do know is that the media are getting antsy and the fuzz don’t want to end up with egg on their faces. I shouldn’t think it’ll be much longer. They’ll be rushing the samples.”
“What if he did take something?” Noelle had gone white. “A lot of suicides drink and take drugs before the main event to numb the pain.”
“Unless he took something hardcore, they’re not going to believe you had anything to do with it.” The lawyer reassured her. “No-one is going to believe that you forced him to swallow an entire box of paracetamol or over the counter pharmaceuticals if they find any trace in his system. From what I know of Mr Hallow, there’s no way he had anything stronger in the house. Really, you have nothing to worry about.”
“This is insane.” She whispered. “I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole.”
“I understand this has come as a shock.” Beresford said kindly to her. “Why don’t you go home and think about it for a while. If you leave your contact details with my secretary, I can call you as soon as I have any news.”
“Have they had any luck tracking down Gabriel’s parents yet?” John asked as they stood up to leave, and Beresford shook his head.
“Not as far as I’m aware. Mr Hallow did make provision in his Will for his funeral though. As executor, I can allocate the funds and make the necessary arrangements once his body has been released.”
“Fine.
We’ll see ourselves out.” The men shook hands and led Noelle out of the office. She was totally shell-shocked; the magnitude of what was happening was just too extreme to comprehend. They left her details at the desk and returned to the car.
As they pulled away, Noelle turned to Jax. “This is crazy.” She whispered. “What the hell was he thinking?”
“I don’t know.” He replied, troubled. “I really don’t know.”
***
It was a tense four days of waiting before the results finally came back. Beresford rang Noelle as soon as the officers had left his office. “The results came back clear.” He announced, without any preamble. “Not even a drop of whisky or single tablet of any kind of drug.”
“Oh my G
od.” She sank down against the wall to sit on the hallway floor. “So they’re going to release him?”
“Signing off on it this afternoon apparently.
I’ll make the appropriate arrangements.”
“Thanks.” She clutched the phone
, as though it was the only thing tethering her to the earth. It was over. They could bury him. She wasn’t going to be arrested at any moment. She cut across whatever he was saying. “I’m sorry, I have to go.” Dropping the phone, she burst into tears and then let loose with a howl of rage and grief that echoed around the empty house.
When Jax arrived an hour later, he heard crashing and screaming and the neighbours were looking anxiously out of their windows and doors. He gave them a reassuring smile that he certainly wasn’t feeling
, and knocked on the door. The noise instantly went silent and a few moments later Noelle opened up. She looked wild. Her hair was in massive disarray and her skin was pale and blotched with emotions. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her cheeks were wet. She’d been crying – that much was obvious.
His eyes dropped to her hands
, which were torn and bloodied. “Princess, what the hell have you done to yourself?” He gathered her up in a hug, ignoring the cold and the curious neighbours. “It sounded like someone was getting killed in here.” As she shuddered in his arms, whether with tears or fury he couldn’t tell, he looked over her head at the catastrophic devastation in the house. She’d torn it apart. There were smashed pictures and ornaments everywhere, and feathers were drifting lightly in the breeze from the open door. Pots and pans from the kitchen had bounced through the door and were lying dented at odd angles, strewn across the living room. Books had been shredded, pages left to fly free across the carpet and furniture. Whatever had happened here, he was looking at some pretty heavy rage. “We’re letting the heat out.” He eventually said gently. “Are you calmer now?”
“I’m sorry.” She snuffled, pulling away from him.
“I just lost it. Did the neighbours call you?”
“No. I heard the news from Beresford. I came down to check you were okay.” He pushed the door closed and took her gently by the arm. “Come on, let’s go and look at those hands of yours.”
The devastation in the kitchen was equally as bad as the devastation in the living room. Jax took one look at all the smashed plates and glasses on the floor and shook his head. She’d even smashed up one of the chairs. “Where’s your medical kit?”
“Bottom drawer over there.”
She pointed shakily, seeming a little bewildered at what she’d wrought.
“Fine.
Stay here.” He stepped gingerly across the debris and fetched the small green box, tucked neatly away in the drawer. There wasn’t much in it, but he returned to her and patched up the worst of the cuts. “Where’s your coat?” He asked and she shrugged dully, exhaustion suddenly weighing leaden on her body.
“Should be by the door.”
“Okay. Let’s go. I’m taking you home. You can’t deal with this right now.” He fetched her coat and stuffed her arms into it, like she was a small child. Shepherding her out into the cold air, he locked up behind them and went to take her home.
At his house, he sat her in the kitchen and gently pulled the splinters from her hands. “Are you hurt anywhere else?” He asked as he worked. “Did any shards of crockery hit you?”
“I don’t think so.” She seemed subdued. All the rage had drained out of her, leaving nothing behind but a sorrowing shell.
“Are you going to tell me what this was all about?”
She flinched as he pulled a particularly large splinter from the side of her wrist. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologise.” He stopped for a moment and just waited until she looked him in the eye. “I want to know what’s wrong, Noelle. I can’t help you unless you tell me.”
“There’s nothing you can do.” Tears began rolling, fat and wet, down her cheeks. “There’s nothing anyone can do. He’s dead and he’s still controlling me.”
“I don’t understand.” Helplessly he watched as her shoulders heaved. She wiped her face, leaving a smear of blood across her cheek.
“He left me everything and I have no choice except to take it.” She wept, her head hanging low. “I’ve lost everything. If I don’t accept his estate, I’ll default on my mortgage in three months. Even though he’s gone, he’s managed to dictate the shape of the rest of my life. It feels like the worst kind of revenge.”
“I’m sure that’s not how he meant it.” He insisted. “He wouldn’t have done it as revenge. He just wanted you to be okay. He must have known the backlash of your discovery would cost you your job.”
“It doesn’t matter why he did it.” She snapped, frustrated that he wasn’t getting it. “It just matters that he did. I loved him and he beat me and he left me and now I’m going to be surrounded by him and all the hurt we caused for the rest of my days. I don’t know if I can take it.”