Revenge (23 page)

Mark was
accustomed to living the high life, where holidays, boat trips, parties at five star hotels and friendships with wealthy people were the norm. He wanted everything back to the way it was before his affairs were discovered and he set out to find somebody who would get rid of his wife and her new business partners, once and for all.

Mark's domestic arrangements were subject to endless speculation over the long weeks of the trial. Everyone was aghast at his numerous affairs and delighted in the way that Rebecca had so calmly exacted her
revenge on her cheating husband but he
was livid when he realised wha
t she’d done. He’d never imagined
her
to be
capable of such actions
but it didn’t take him long to regroup. He was determined to find a way around the problem. No way was he going to be cast aside. No matter what he might have done, he didn’t deserve to lose his home, his business and his status in society. He’d worked too long and too hard for his achievements. He’d looked after himself in the past and he knew he could do it again; but this time he needed to take drastic measures.

The level of bitterness bubbling away inside him had turned his fairytale life with Rebecca into a ticking bomb. Sitting at his computer h
e took the
first
step that would his destroy his l
ife and
the lives of t
hose around him. After some
desultory internet surfing he opened a
ne
w e
mail account which he assumed would offer him total anonymity.

He had a plan and all he needed was his
anonymous email account to put it into act
ion. “Devils-revenge”
seemed like the perfect email address to him and in the course of the trial it would become the byword for the more bizarre aspects of the case. Spurred on by his new-found anonymity he started searching for a final solution. The answer he hit upon would set into motion a plot that would
have devastating consequences and
there
certainly
would be no happily ever after for the object of his ambition as she sat
alone
in her apartment in France.

Mark searched the internet for an assassin and truly believed he had found one in Savannah Kingston. Many wondered why he had not hired a local hitman instead of travelling into the unknown. Was he foolish to think that his footprints on the web would not be traced?

However, police investigators never believed for a moment that it was a foolish plan. They said that Mark was well aware of what he
was doing
and if
the pieces of his plan had fallen into place there would have been no solid evidence against him. If "assassin_hire" had disposed of the computers as she had been ordered to do, and carried out the hits as agreed, then the women would be in their graves. The
re probably would have been moun
tains of speculation
and Mark would
have been a prime suspect but there wouldn't have been a
ny firm evidence to convict him and
Savannah would have been long gone back to England, without any trace or link to him. Mark had arranged everything perfectly, or so he thought.

He
told investigating officers that he wasn't obsessed with money and that he wanted to get back with Rebecca because he loved her. He claimed that he was passionate about his photography and the money was simply a bonus but the police were cynical about his claims. He came across as an i
ntelligent, articulate man
in the witness
box and in his
letter
s
to
the
Direc
tor of Public Prosecutions.
His emails
to “assassin_hire”
were
detailed and descriptive and ran into thousands of words. The level of detail and his inclination at times to treat "assassin_hire" almost like a pen-pal, allied to his allegations about Rebecca's treatment of him, could have presented him as a lonely, desperate man, who
had
been unfairly treated. Luckily, the jury saw right through
him and didn’t show him any sym
pathy.

Mark had a big void in his life after Rebecca and he separated. His best friend was gone and he didn't have anyone else to conf
ide in. He claimed that Henry Whitington-Smyth
became like a pen-pal and he started to divulge personal information to him. He even presented detailed information to police on a visit he claimed
that Henry had made to Dublin
. He said the
y had gone on a trip around Dublin’s coast
and he had showed him the sights before spending some t
ime in his home
. Apparent
ly, Henry had thought Cois Farraige
was unique and was impressed with the picturesque surroundings. Mark told police that Henry said he would do well in a divorce or in the event of Rebecca's death but he had insisted that he was only interested in his home and having a reasonable income if
anything were to happen to her.

However, police investiga
tors did not believe the Henry Whitington-Smyth
story and said it was all concocted by Mark who was des
perate to retain his innocence.
Mark accepted that he had been stupid for divulging personal info
rmation to Henry, which he said
had gotten him into the mess, but said that apart from that he had lived his life to the best of his ability. He described himself as being family-oriented and that he
felt deeply for other
s
but the jury didn’t fall for his act.

One word that came up several
times during the trial in reference to Mark was "manipulative." He was accused by the Prosecution of being manipulative by smiling
at the jury and
his letters to the Director of Public Prosecutions were also criticised. He claimed in his letters that he had reached breaking point and had even contemplated suicide after he was questioned by police. He insisted that someone was setting him up for their own financial gain, but investigators put his insinuations down to his wild imagination.

It became more and more apparent as
time wore on that Mark was actually
beginning to believe his own lies; such was the conviction with which he told his stories
. This was a man who claimed he
loved his wife, yet was adamant that she would die and had calmly discussed possible causes of death; to include suicide or n
atural causes,
with "assassin_hire." He had coldly insisted that it was imperative that her death did not look like a hit.

Who believed his lies? He didn't have any friends to call upon in the court. Everyone had turned against him when the magnitude of what he had plotted and planned had been revealed. There was no
friend, neighbour or family that
he could confide in.

When Mark set out to put a premature end to the women
’s lives
he was gripped by determination and consumed by
greed. He thought he had struck
gold when he met Rebecca all those years ago; the young woman from a wealthy family, who
was set to inherit millions and
believed he was invincible when he set about his evil plot to get his hands on everything.

The ambitious, charming Mark McNamara
had
,
over the years
,
transformed into
a bitter and twisted man who
was dramatically caught out in the end. His lavish
lifestyle
was replaced b
y an unenviable life behind bars and
his
dreams of becoming a
multi
-
millionaire were well and truly dead.

Chapter 20

S
avannah Kingston was a charmer;
there was no doubt about it
. Anyone who
had followed
th
e trial could see that
the
girl from a rough part of
Birmingham
had grown into a beautiful, charming young woman, ready with a smi
le or a quick word for anyone. Each day, s
he
turned up at the court
in the blue and white prison van which brought
the most hardened criminals to face the courts. The judge had
refused
her
bail
application
as she was considered too big a flight risk. Every morning she walked the gamut of photographers who were standing outside the side
-
gate to the court, which was a more practical entrance for those in custody rather than the fortress-like
main gates. She treated the pap
arazzi with a flirtatious
, nonchalant disregard and laughed coque
ttishly
as she shared a joke with a
prison guard escort. O
ften
she would be smiling in her newspaper photograph, which was unusual for someone i
n her position. She even charmed her cell mates in prison, giving everyone advice on card games where she would give them the benefit of her gambling expertise.

Who was this magnetic woman who seemed to be able to manipulate a grown man into taking leave of his senses? Could this petite, almost ethereal
-
looking woman really be the main architect of a murderous plot? Savannah
Kingston
was born in Birmingham
to Gregg and Elaine Kingston. She was the couple's fir
st child but
her mother
had almost died during her birth and
Savannah felt that her parents had it in for her
right from the start
. According to Savannah, her father never forgave her for almost killing her
mother and h
er mother exac
ted an almost daily revenge by beating her
with a fresh
thin branch which
was cut from the tall oak tree standing o
utside the family home. She
told a psychologist that the only family member who had ever shown her any sort of love was her pat
ernal grandmother and she was devastated when she passed away.

Savannah often jo
ked that she wanted Amanda Seyfried
to play her in the movie of the trial but the character
that was painted by her barrister was more bumbling villai
n than sexy femme fatale. The plot which had led her to the Irish court system could have been brilliant in its execution if greed had not gotten in her way.

Savannah may have believed herself to be a convincing gangster but her involvement in organised crime had only laste
d for two outings, both of whic
h had ended in arrest. She was no career criminal and although she liked to talk the talk she didn’t really walk the walk. If she had continued talking she may have still had a job i
n the glamorous world of London’s
nightlife rather than earning her criminal record in an Irish prison.

Savannah worked as a nightclub hostess at one of the busiest and most prestigious nightclubs in London. She kept a fairly low profile at work, making sure her clients were well taken care of and their every need catered for. She was surr
ounded by money and power
and it must have been tempting. After all,
her job paid
a paltry sum which was barely above minimum wage, although it wasn’t the take-home pay that made working in the nightclub so worthwhile; it was the tips. She could make hundr
eds of pounds
in just one night. Savannah boasted to police that she could earn up to one hundred thousand
pounds a year from her wealthy clientele; i
n the dark underworld of London’s nightlife, people showed their gratitude to the person who helped their night run smoothly.

However, while the money was good, Savannah had a problem keeping it. She imagined herself living in the big league and craved the
lifestyle that went with it; top of the range
cars, expensive jewellery and an apartment in a fashionable area
meant she hardly any
money left over. It seemed to her that her money evaporated and the idea of a scheme that would provide a steady flow of cash, or better still, a generous tax free injection seemed ever more attractive to her. As her finances started to dwindle she started looking for an
alternative and so Assassin for Hire
was born.

Daniel Wil
liam
was living in London
when he met Savannah Kingston. He was a frequent weekend visitor to the nightclub where she was hostess. It didn't take long for the two to strike up a friendship. Savannah gave him the full benefit of her charm and they would talk for hours, sharing experiences and laughing at each others' jokes. Their flirting quickly developed into a passionate relationship which would lead them both into taking ever more ludicrous risks until they ended up in prison. It was a union of two peopl
e who appealed to the other's wo
rst character traits. Every
one who knew Daniel thought that
Savannah
was a bad influence. It didn’t take long for him to stop
spending time with
his old friends and start
flashing his cash
around
. It was obvious that Savannah was the driving force behind his new-found recklessness.