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SIXTY-FIVE

ONE WEEK LATER

Leo Belfield was propped up with pillows, but all the monitors had been removed.

‘Are you ready to give a statement?’ Lottie asked.

‘It all happened so fast.’

‘I’m sure you can recall some of it.’ She sat on a chair beside his bed.

‘She went for me with the knife. Shouting that she wanted to take your daughters but someone had got them first. Apparently she’d seen Megan talking to them at the accident site. She said she knew you’d come to Farranstown at some stage and she’d get you then.’

‘What did you do?’

‘Defended myself. She had the knife in one hand and a noose in the other. She lashed out. Kept stabbing while I tried to wrench the knife from her hand. One wound was fairly deep and I knew I was losing a lot of blood, but eventually I was able to twist her arm enough so that she dropped the knife.’

‘Mmm. So how come she ended up with a rope around her neck and the life choked out of her?’ Lottie returned Leo’s stare.

‘Do you want me to go to prison?’

‘No.’

‘Let’s say she got entangled in it as we fought. And leave it at that.’

Lottie wasn’t one for leaving things. But Bernie Kelly would no longer be able to stalk her family, and that was good enough for her. As long as the forensic evidence didn’t say otherwise, Leo should be in the clear.

‘I’ll see,’ she said. ‘Rose is outside. You up to listening to her?’

‘Sure.’

His hand reached for hers. She shared the same biological mother with this man, but still she saw him as a stranger. She stood and put her hands in her pockets. ‘I’ll send her in.’