The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (77 page)

She lay on the ground supporting herself on her elbows as she looked up at him her eyes wide with shock and fear as he took a step towards her his fist clenched.

He stared down at her and never, not even on the night he had attacked the three men, had she seen such cold rage in anyone’s eyes. Then suddenly he blinked and she could see the moment he realised who she was, followed a second later by what he’d done. He took a step towards her but she moved backwards on her elbows. When he spoke she hardly recognised his voice so empty and lifeless did it sound. ‘I didn’t realise it was you,’ he took another step, ‘let me help you up.’

She moved back again
, ‘don’t, don’t touch me.’

His eyes became hard and cold again as he looked down at her. Just then Dean moaned, Hennessey didn’t even look round, and Adela noticed that even after he had just punched a man into unconsciousness he wasn’t even out of breath. She leapt to her feet but staggered slightly, he again put out a hand to help her but she smacked it away and pushing him aside went to Dean who had lost consciousness again. She knelt beside him and felt his pulse, it was there but weak.

Running into the shop she pulled out her phone. Hennessey didn’t attempt to stop her as she called an ambulance and told them that someone had been injured; she gave them the address and switched off the phone.

She turned and looked around trying to find something to put under Dean’s head and something to stem the bleeding from his nose and mouth. She couldn’t see anything in this room so ran into the little kitchen where Dean had made tea for her several times. She found several small towels and soaked them under the tap, she also found Dean’s jacket lying over the back of a chair and grabbed that too.

She ran back outside completely ignoring Hennessey who still stood in the same place, he seemed to be unaware of her and of Dean too, not only unaware but also unconcerned.

Adela knelt beside Dean and very gently placed the jacket under his head then began to dab his swollen mouth and broken nose with the damp towel. His eyes were swollen and bruised as were his cheek bones, and his face was very white. If she hadn’t been able to see the slight rise and fall of his chest she would have thought he was dead.

Just then she heard a siren getting closer. She tuned to look at Hennessey who was now looking down at her with curiosity as if he wondered why she was doing what she was doing. His expression was closed and distant as if he had had no part in what had happened. But his head shot up sharply when he too heard the siren. Adela said, ‘you’d better have a good explanation for Sheriff Taylor.’

He looked down at her then to her surprise
and disgust he smirked, ‘oh I’m sure you’ll do all the explaining that’s required.’ The he turned and with one swift and agile movement leapt onto a box and vaulted over the wall. Adela called, ‘hey, where are you going, come back,’ of course he didn’t and she yelled, ‘Sterling Hennessey, you coward.’ But just silence came back to her she turned back to Dean and whispered, ‘oh Dean, Dean I’m sorry, so sorry, this is all my fault, I’m so sorry.’

She was sitting on the wet ground cradling his head when the Sheriff and the paramedics arrived simultaneously. After that everything was just a blur to Adela, she couldn’t remember telling the sheriff what had happened, but she must have because he called his deputies and got them to go over to the Horse and Hind to bring in Sterling Hennessey for questioning. But there was no sign of him or his belongings, either at the hotel or anywhere else in town. The sheriff put out an APB for him, they knew what kind of car he was driving, they had a good description of him, and he couldn’t have gotten far in such a short space of time. He would be picked up very soon and when he was Sheriff Taylor swore he would pay for what he had done to his friend Dean Maxwell.

Maxwell having been taken to hospital in Gulfport was still unconscious with serious head injuries plus a broken nose, two black eyes, a broken cheek bone and four missing teeth. He also had a back injury caused when he had landed heavily on the bicycle. Altogether he was in a pretty bad way.

Adela having given her statement to Sheriff Taylor sat with Dean and held his hand unaware of the nurses and doctors coming and going and of Sheriff Taylor until he spoke behind her. ‘Miss. Faraday, there’s two detectives outside would like to talk to you.’

She looked round at him then back at Dean saying, ‘can’t it wait?’

‘I don’t think so, Miss. Faraday, they want to know as much as possible about Sterling Hennessey, and since you knew him better than anyone else in town you can give them vital information about him. And the sooner they get that information the sooner they’ll apprehend him.’

She turned to him and if she had not picked up on the accusation in his tone she would have seen it in his face. He blamed her, she didn’t condemn him for that, she blamed herself too.

She nodded and stood up, ‘I’ll talk to them.’

He stood aside and as she passed him she stopped, ‘Sheriff Taylor, I’m so sorry about Dean. I really like him, I would never have wanted anything to happen to him.’

The sheriff looked at her, not as he had when they had first met when he had been so friendly, but as though she was a stranger, an unwelcome stranger at that. She knew that everyone in
Eden would look at her with that same expression now.

She looked away and walked out of the room. She looked down the hallway and saw two men, one tall and thin, too thin really, and balding. He was in his forties and looked as though he had the weight of the world on his stooped shoulders. The other was younger and had scruffy blonde hair and was quite handsome in a rugged kind of way. As they approached she saw that the older man’s eyes were blue and the younger man’s a light shade of green and both pairs of eyes were tired looking but keen and intelligent.

She saw them appraising her, taking in her dirty clothes and her hair all in disarray. She instinctively put her hand up to tidy it then stopped herself.

The older man said, ‘Miss. Faraday?’ She nodded, ‘I’m Detective Patrick Sullivan and this is Detective Ellis Leyton. We’re from The Violent Crimes Unit.’

She tried to swallow the gulp she felt coming on at the words “Violent Crimes.” She managed to say, ‘hello.’ The two detectives glanced at each other then looked back at her.

Sullivan said, ‘we’d like to ask you some questions about what happened today if that’s all right.’

Although his tone was polite she knew that it didn’t mater whether she minded or not, one way or the other she would answer their questions. She nodded and Sullivan said, ‘thank you, we can sit in here out of the way.’ He indicated a small room to their left and the younger man opened the door and stood waiting for her to enter. She looked over her shoulder towards Dean’s room and Sullivan said, ‘this won’t take long, then you can get back to Mr. Maxwell’s bedside.’ She couldn’t miss the note of sarcasm in his tone and looked sharply at him before preceding him into the room; after all she had very little choice. There was a small table and three chairs one on one side and two on the other, it had obviously been arranged to look like a police interview room.

Sullivan indic
ated the solitary chair, ‘please sit down, Miss. Faraday.’

She sat and he asked, ‘can I get you anything, coffee, a soda, anything.’

She said, ‘no, but thank you anyway.’

Sullivan’s smile was tight as though he wasn’t used to using his lips for smiling; only grimacing.

‘Now, Miss. Faraday,’ Said, Sullivan, Sheriff Taylor tells us you were there when the assault took place and that you know Sterling Hennessey, er, quite well.’

She didn’t like the tone of his voice which was almost sneering nor the way he had said, “Er, quite well.” As though it was a crime to know someone quite well.

She said, ‘I really didn’t know him, "Er, quite well," I only met him five days ago.’

Detective Leyton’s lips twitched but Sullivan’s face remained impassive as he said, ‘we’ll let’s just say you knew him better than most people in
Eden, would that be a fair assumption?’

She nodded, ‘yes, that would be fair.’

When she said nothing further Sullivan said, ‘well?’

‘Well I don’t really know what I can tell you. He was on his way to
North Carolina for his cousin’s wedding, but since that wasn’t until the day after tomorrow and he had vacation time, he decided to do a quick tour on his way there. He was born here in Mississippi and lived here until he was seven.’

‘Did
he tell you where?’

‘Yes,
Hattiesburg. But he now lives in Galveston, Texas. He’s a terminator by trade.’

They both looked oddly at her and added, ‘he kills bugs.’

Sullivan nodded as though she had said something profound and asked, ‘did he tell you the name of the company he worked for?’ She shook her head, ‘what about his cousin’s name, or where in North Carolina the wedding was taking place?’

Again she shook her head, ‘no, I’m sorry, he didn’t say.’

'Did he know Maxwell, maybe from before he came to Eden?'

'No, I don't think so, no, I'm sure of it, they would have said.'

'Had there been bad blood between them, arguments, disagreements that kind of thing?'

She hesitated uncomfortable with the question. Sullivan raised his eyebrows questioningly.
She said, 'they seemed to take an instant dislike to each other. But there was no arguments between them, no.'

'They disliked each other, why?'

She looked distinctly uncomfortable and looked down at her hands again before answering, 'that happens sometimes doesn't it, when two personalities clash.'

'And these two certainly clashed didn't they.'

She looked up sharply but did not answer his question and to her relief Sullivan changed the subject.

'So on this tour of his, where had he been before he came to
Mississippi?’

‘Nowhere, this was his first stop.’

The younger detective was writing things down in his notebook but looked up quickly at that and asked his first question. ‘So what made him set aside his plan to take a quick tour of his home state and elsewhere and stay here in the first place he landed do you think, Miss. Faraday?’

She tried not too but she couldn’t help but blush she lowered her eyes but raised them again when Sullivan said, ‘Miss. Faraday?’

‘I…I, maybe he liked it here.’

‘Oh come now, Miss. Faraday don’t be modest.’ This from Sullivan.

‘What do you mean?’

His eyes raked her up and down rather insolently before he said, ‘just that maybe it wasn’t the
town
he liked.’ His words sounded like a compliment but his tone suggested he couldn’t understand why Hennessey would interrupt his vacation to spend time with her.

Again she tried not to but her face flushed, although her embarrassment didn’t prevent her from squaring her shoulders and looking Sullivan directly in the eyes giving him a rather scornful, superior look which seemed to take him by surprise.

The younger detective coughed and looked impatiently at his partner before asking, ‘you were there when the assault took place is that right?’

She nodded, ‘yes.’

‘Can you tell us what happened?’

‘Yes, no, I mean some of it. I saw the door to Dean’s shop open and went in to speak to him, but I heard voices,
Sterling’s, I mean Mr. Hennessey’s, and Dean’s. They were arguing.’

‘About what?’

She looked down at her hands again and didn’t answer. ‘About what, Miss Faraday?’  Leyton insisted.

Her eyes still lowered her voice a whisper she said, ‘I think about me.’

‘About you?’

She nodded and Leyton said, ‘what were they saying about you?’

She wanted to ask what did that matter, but knew they wanted an answer so she raised her eyes and looked not at Leyton but at Sullivan, ‘Mr. Hennessey said that Dean was,’ she hesitated before finishing self consciously, ‘jealous.’

It was Sullivan who asked ‘jealous? Of Who?’

She wanted to say it’s whom not “who” but didn’t want to alienate either of these two detectives. She had the strange feeling that they somehow thought that she was involved in what had happened to Dean. Indeed they kept looking at her hands which were still bloody from wiping Dean’s face and holding his head. She lowered them into her lap.

She looked down yet again knowing this was the wrong thing to do, it made her look, if not guilty, then of trying to hide something. She brushed stray hairs behind her ear; it was a self conscious gesture that was not lost on either man. She didn’t look at them as she said quietly, ‘of Mr. Hennessey’s relationship with me.’

They both tried to hide it but she caught the incredulous look they gave each other and she knew what they were thinking, that although she was not elephant man ugly she was no Angelina Jollie either, nor anywhere near close.

Before they could say anything she hurried on, ‘then Dean said something I couldn’t catch and Mr. Hennessey replied which again I couldn’t catch, then Dean spoke again, his tone sounded disdainful and sarcastic. Then I heard the commotion and ran into the yard and that’s when I saw Mr. Hennessey leaning over Dean, he was…hitting him.’ She
sounded almost pleading now, ‘I tried to stop him, I really did, but he threw me off and pushed me down to the ground, I thought he was going to hit
me
, but then he seemed to come too…