Sylvia Arthurs sat, disconsolate, sobbing into a handful of tissues as Wendy began to broach the important subject.
‘Mrs Arthurs, I realise this must be hard for you, but I need to ask you some awkward questions.’
Silence.
‘Were you aware of your husband engaging in extra-marital affairs?’
Still silence.
‘Mrs Arthurs. Had Bob been having an affair with Miriam Levy?’
Sylvia Arthurs began sobbing again before finally speaking..
‘I had always known. It had been going on for months, if not years. I just didn't know what to do.’
‘Were you aware that Bob had changed his will?’ Wendy asked.
‘Yes,’ Sylvia replied, quietly. ‘I received a call from the solicitor who wanted me to pass on a message about it being witnessed. I… I didn't know what to say.’
‘How did that make you feel?’
‘It ripped the heart out of me. I once had a loving husband, and now I had a cheating, lying, failure of an ex-businessman. How do you think it made me feel?’
Wendy paused for a moment, waiting for the right time to ask the question.
‘Mrs Arthurs, did you kill your husband?’
‘No. Not directly.’
‘Not directly?’
Sylvia Arthurs sighed heavily. ‘What’s the use? You’ll find out the truth one day. I … I paid to have him… removed.’
‘You paid? A hit-man?’
‘A friend.’
‘Which friend?’ Wendy asked.
‘I can't say. I won’t say. Please, Sergeant, just arrest me.’
‘How much did you pay him, Mrs Arthurs?’
Sylvia waited a few moments before speaking. ‘Ten thousand pounds.’
A bell rang in Wendy’s brain. She glanced at the doorway before pointing in its general direction.
‘You mean…’
‘The ten thousand pounds in the bag, yes. He gave it back to me. He said that I didn't deserve to be brought into it and that he wanted to see me do all right for myself afterwards.’
‘Mrs Arthurs, did you pay Gary McCann to kill your husband?’
‘Who? Heavens, no. Like I say, it was a friend.’
‘Mrs Arthurs, it's not just your husband who is dead. A seventeen-year-old girl is lying six feet under as well. Tell me who you paid.’
Sylvia Arthurs choked back the tears and opened her mouth.