His sobs lessened. After a while he said, “Do you think Sherlock was telling the truth about his dad?”
Gretchen blinked. “Yes, I do.”
“But Sherlock’s so much cooler than me.”
“I think you’re pretty cool, but who you are has nothing to do with why your dad is the way he is. He’s not a nice person.”
Jordan shuffled to a seated position, his face red and tear streaked. “I’m sorry, Mum.”
“So am I.” She opened her arms, and he dived into them, squeezing her.
She closed her eyes, relieved he knew the truth, relieved he didn’t blame her.
She would protect him, no matter what.
***
Arthur wanted to punch something, or more specifically, someone. An intense rage burned inside of him as Gretchen left the room to comfort her devastated child.
People like Kurt should be castrated.
To manipulate a child and be so callous about it. He’d questioned Gretchen putting the phone on speaker, but she’d been right. Jordan might not have believed it, if he hadn’t heard it for himself.
Gretchen’s phone buzzed.You’ll pay for hanging up on me.
His blood ran cold at the threat. He would not let this bastard hurt this family. Not any longer. Kurt would find out he was messing with the wrong people.
He let out a deep breath and got to his feet. In order to rid himself of some of the anger, he ran through one of his Tai Chi flows, breathing slowly in time with the movements, and by the time he was done, he felt less murderous.
He moved into the kitchen, found the sausages in the fridge and dug around in the cupboards until he found a frying pan. He wasn’t sure how long it would take for Gretchen and Jordan to come out, so he started heating the pan. The sausages would keep their heat if he covered them in foil when he was done.
The satisfying sizzle when he placed the sausages in the pan made him smile as he imagined one was Kurt. He adjusted the temperature and then checked the fridge and found a salad already prepared.
Monitoring the sausages gave him too much time to think. Kurt had ordered Gretchen to seduce him for information. That’s what it boiled down to, though she hadn’t said it in so many words. When he’d checked the dates of the calls and messages, so many of them had been when he and Gretchen had been together. That was why she’d reacted the way she had. She was being threatened by her ex.
An ugly voice in his head shouted he was a freak, and disgusting, and no one would want to be stuck with someone like him. He fought the urge to sink into self-pity. The whispers in his head weren’t as hypnotising as they’d been in the past, but it was a struggle to fight them back.
Gretchen had called Dot even before Kurt had spoken with Jordan. That meant she wouldn’t be manipulated by him. Perhaps their interactions had been real.
Besides, her attempts to dig for information had been half-hearted at best.
He shook away the thoughts. No matter what, he needed to tell Sam what had happened.
He grabbed his phone and dialled Sam.
“You need a lift, mate?” Sam asked.
“No.” Quickly he outlined the events of the afternoon.
“Son of a bitch. Her ex has been stalking her?”
“Yeah. Kurt must be involved with Stonefish. He wanted her to seduce me.” He bit his lip, cursing himself for saying it aloud. Damn his lack of confidence.
A pause. “Gretchen doesn’t strike me as that type of woman.”
“He threatened Jordan.”
“Still, if you say she already told the police before Kurt escalated, it means she wasn’t planning on obeying him.”
