QUESTION:But even an experienced rider can be thrown from a horse. Hard ground is unforgiving.
ANSWER:Yes, but...
QUESTION:But what, Mrs. Hocking?
Interviewee doesn’t respond.
QUESTION:What were you going to say?
Interviewee doesn’t respond.
QUESTION:Were you going to say, yes, but when you look at Martin Hocking’s pattern of behavior of marrying women who possess something he wants, this woman’s death looks suspicious? He also married Belinda Bigelow because she had something that he wanted, yes? I’m wondering if you know what that was, Mrs. Hocking.
ANSWER:How would I know that?
QUESTION:Because the two of you are closely acquainted now, I gather. Isn’t that correct? You are presently living at her inn?
ANSWER:I lost my home in the quake and fire. She offered me a place to live. It was kind of her.
QUESTION:Indeed it was. You’ve been kind to her as well, though. A nurse on staff at the Central Emergency Hospital told me you brought her in labor to the pavilion on the morning of the earthquake and stayed with her, nearly delivering her baby yourself, and that you relentlessly searched for her at the refugee camp at the park until you found her.
Interviewee doesn’t respond.
QUESTION:I am wondering why you did all of that for a woman your husband was sharing a bed with?
ANSWER:Martin treated her cruelly. Belinda loved him. She loved the man she thought he was. I don’t. I don’t love Martin Hocking. I never have.
QUESTION:Mrs. Hocking, calm yourself. I am merely asking—
ANSWER:Now, you listen to me. I married Martin Hocking because I wanted out of New York. I was tired of being cold and hungry and alone. I wanted hot food and warm clothes and a soft bed. And a child to love. I didn’t marry Martin because I loved him, but Belinda did. She loved the ghost of a man Martin had concocted to woo her. He didn’t care that at some point James Bigelow would probably vanish out of her life and his child’s life. He took gold from her father’s old mine. That’s why he married her. For some gold in an abandoned mine. He didn’t care about Belinda or his unborn child. I could not abandon her, in labor no less, in a city destroyed. I’m not like him.
QUESTION:I am not suggesting you are. I—
ANSWER:But you are suggesting it. You question why I helped Belinda, stayed with her, searched for her. She was grieving the loss of a man who never existed, and she gave birth to his child, all while fleeing fires and destruction just like the rest of us. How could I not help her? How could I not?
QUESTION:I apologize, Mrs. Hocking. Please retake your seat. Please.
ANSWER:No. I am done. I don’t have to be here. You said it at the beginning. I am done with this. I don’t care if you have found him. I don’t care. I’m done.
QUESTION:Mrs. Hocking, it is better for you if you stay and finish the interview. Please. I advise you to finish the interview.
ANSWER:Why should I?
QUESTION:Because I, too, have my doubts as to the so-called accidental death of Annabeth Grover.
Interviewee retakes seat.
ANSWER:You... you know about her?
QUESTION:I do. I know about Candace Howell, too. I know she was raised in a wealthy home and had considerable wealth of her own, bequeathed to her by her grandmother. I am fairly certain Martin Hocking married her to get to it. I know when he married you, he was still married to her.
ANSWER:I didn’t know Candace was still living when I married Martin. He told me she was dead. He told his own daughter she was dead. I didn’t know.
QUESTION:Mrs. Hocking, can you tell me please if you are also an heiress? Are you positioned to come into money? Do you have wealthy relatives back home in Ireland? Distant ones, perhaps?
ANSWER:No, I do not.
QUESTION:So you do not have wealth and you are not in line to inherit wealth or property?
