Harry's mind was in a muddle when she re entered the interview room but she needed to push her shouting match with Dempsey to the back of her head, at least until Sue had made her statement.

Sue was considerably relieved to see that Dempsey hadn't followed Makepeace back into the room and, Harry had been right, the following process was a lot easier without him there.

"The officer said that you were willing to make a statement Miss Barclay," Makepeace began, reaching out to Sue and taking hold of her hand reassuringly. "You will get the protection you need if someone is threatening you."

Sue nodded and took in a deep breath before beginning. "Bessie is trying to cover her tracks with me because she thinks I'm too afraid to go against her but she messed up last night. She went too far and I don't want all this over my head!" Sue exclaimed, close to tears.

Makepeace squeezed her hand. "Did you see who assaulted who?" she asked.

"Yes, they were having another shouting match and Bessie was worrying me. I've seen her angry before and I know that she goes for that knife of hers..."

"Hold on," Makepeace interrupted, "Bessie has a knife?" If that was the case and the knife she used on Jack was hers then Bessie's statement was already falling apart.

"Yes, she says she keeps it in her room for protection, since all the talk of someone loitering around the house, but she wielded it at Sarah once."

Makepeace's eyes widened. "Can you tell me more about that? Did you see that incident as well?"

"No, but Sarah told me about it. You see Bessie doesn't like the staff in the house too much. I think if she had her way she'd get us all to move out. She's so territorial over Rainington, as if the place belongs to her. Anyway me and Sarah, and a few others, don't always leave the house in the evenings, we don't have anywhere to go! So this one night Bessie had told us that she needed us to leave the house for a while that evening, she made up some excuse about Thomas being nervous and having to look after him and that she was the only one he trusted. Well me and Sarah were quite annoyed, being thrown out of our own home, so we decided to stay. Bessie thought everyone had left and she bumped into Sarah and threatened her with the knife. She said that she thought Sarah was an intruder but Sarah said she held the knife up to her and told her she needed to leave. She said that she thought Bessie was going to attack her!"

Okay so if Sarah could identify the knife used last night as the one Bessie threatened her with then that would be proof that the knife was indeed Bessie's.

"Right, that's helpful information thank you, but sorry I interrupted you. You were saying that you were worried about the shouting, then what happened?"

"Well I wanted to get out, I was frightened. I went into the corridor and Jack walked past me. Seconds later Bessie ran after him shouting that he was an intruder and that he was going to attack us all! She had the knife in her hand but Jack didn't see it, it seemed like he just wanted to leave. But Bessie didn't want him to leave, she was fuming with him and well, he turned when she caught up with him and he pushed her hand away but she just went back at him until the knife went in. I was terrified and then Bessie noticed me in the corridor, she looked straight at me and held the knife up again. She said, "You saw Jack attack me didn't you?" I nodded and backed into my room again. I didn't want to go near her so I thought I might be able to sneak down the back steps to the basement and get out that way as soon as I could without her noticing. I was on my way out when I bumped into Sarah."

Makepeace nodded. "Why do you think that Bessie attacked Jack?" she asked.

Sue gave a shaky laugh. "That's obvious. She wants Rainington! There was talk of Thomas leaving it to her but she must have thought that he'd end up leaving it to her son, or Jack, when he turned up."

"But Thomas himself told us that he'd disinherited his son and that he'd never see him again," Makepeace put to her.

"Well I know that there was a huge falling out and then they left the country but I always felt that Thomas really did want to make things up with his family. Some of the other staff heard him saying this too. We all hoped that meant he'd end up leaving everything to them, not Bessie. But that seemed even more likely when Jack turned up because he would find it easier to talk to Jack than his son after all this time. Just the fact that he agreed to see Jack must say something about how he felt, and you know it was Bessie who always kept going on to Thomas about how bad his son was, I think she put ideas into his head! In the end though family is more important, at least that's what I hope Thomas will decide."

So, there was motive, the knife was Bessie's and Jack hadn't broken into the house as Bessie had claimed. With the forensic evidence and testimony from Sue and the other staff it looked as if this case was closed. Harry's thoughts went to Dempsey then though and she wondered how poor Thomas was doing.

"The problem is that Thomas might not have a lot of time to make any decisions. Last night took a huge toll on his health," Makepeace pointed out.

Sue looked back at Makepeace anxiously. "Well then the question is, did she get away with it? Has Thomas left everything to Bessie?"