Everyone else told him he'd got it all wrong, but Patrick remained uneasy about the man... Susan and Patrick Holligan have been married for eighteen years. Friends and family are familiar with the tale they've told about the time, before they were married, when Susan was unavoidably delayed for dinner. When she did turn up it was in the company of an charming stranger. Patrick was suspicious of the man from the start, which time has turned into his being worried about Susan's safety, along with a dollop of good old-fashioned jealousy. That was until a few months ago, when the man re-entered their lives.
First, cast your mind back to the time when Patrick was waiting for his fiancé in Leiden in Holland. Delayed flights made Susan extrememly late for her important date. However, when she rang Patrick she reassured him that the pleasant stranger who'd sat beside her in the plane would give her a lift from the airport. "She sounded very lively," said Patrick. "Then she said this man's name was Todd - Todd Sweeny. I began to get a bit worried!"
Susan and Todd arrived safely, in Todd's Jaguar. Todd, who lived in Amsterdam, turned out to be very affable. Patrick began to feel that his dark thoughts had been misplaced. The three of them arranged to meet up in Amsterdam the following week for a night out. "It was the least I could do having been so suspicious," says Patrick. "All went well," he continues "until we were ready to leave. Todd told us then that unfortunately we'd miss the last train to Leiden, but he could put us up at his flat."
Patrick felt uneasy again. Susan, fuelled with strong Dutch drink was unconcerned. Barring the bedroom door with a chair, Patrick found company stampers in the room and began to stamp his arm and leg with the company details. Susan giggles as she remembers, "He was saying things like, 'If we're found face down, floating dismembered in the river, at least they'll know where we were last'!"
The night passed. Patrick slept badly, what with all the door-checking. Nothing happened. "The last we saw of Todd was waving goodbye to him at the tram stop," says Patrick.
And for the past eighteen years that's where the story ended. Susan would tease Patrick about his behaviour, and Patrick being good-natured, if overly imaginative, took it in good part. Now it's Patrick who's got the last laugh.
In February of this year, Susan was idly looking through the newspaper, when a picture caught her eye. "Do you recognise this photograph?" she asked Patrick. He didn't, but glanced at the headline which read, "Justice Catches Up With Killer Husband." Feeling increasingly chilled as they read the article, it all dropped into place. "There was the name. Todd Sweeny." says Patrick, "He'd been sentenced to thirteen years imprisonment for the murder of his third wife. It had happened since we'd met him. The paper said that this was the third of his wives to die young. When he was arrested he was about to be married for the fifth time."
Patrick, after eighteen years, feels a little smug about his intuition. "I had to admit at that point that maybe he'd picked up on something that I hadn't." laughs Susan.
