She’d bitten her nails down to the skin and now she was starting on the skin around her fingers. That word, skank, kept going through her mind. She kept replaying last night, over and over, like a glitch in a film. How could Craig know what she did and how could he tell their son? Danny was obviously upset enough to send a message like that. She needed to find him and fast. Whatever Craig had done to upset their family in the past with either one of his temper outbursts or the cheating he’d never admit to, she’d tried her best to keep Danny out of it. She’d never once slagged Craig off in front of Danny, but Craig was happily slagging her off to her son. Skank – she hated that word. It sent a queasy feeling through her. Maybe everyone was going to hate her when her secret came out. The neighbours already hated her son. Everyone was going to hate her husband and now her. Her whole family was a complete mess. She wanted a hug from her son, despite him scaring her half to death in the night. He was confused and he needed her too, not that he could realise that. He may have done something unthinkable and that message was mean, but she was his mother and she would help him to the end; she just had to see him to tell him that.
PC Masondo peered into her mother’s living room yet again. ‘Do you know when your son will be home?’ It would have been easy to forget that the police officer was probably hanging around to spy on them, given that he was dressed in casual jeans and a light-knit jumper, no shirt or tie.
She shook her head, not wanting to give anything away and living in hope that he couldn’t sense the plethora of emotions running through her mind. She forced a smile, but that didn’t feel right, so she dropped it. How is a person meant to look in circumstances like this? She was no actor. ‘Err, he’s with his friends and he’s eighteen. It’s a bit hard to keep them close at that age.’ She couldn’t let on that Danny’s phone was no longer connected and he was hiding out somewhere with her wanted husband, Craig. The enormity of it all made her bite the skin around her finger even more.
‘I’ve just been speaking with your mum in the kitchen.’ He sat opposite her, in her mum’s chair. Pixie nudged her head under Justine’s arm before using her lap as a pillow. The family liaison officer continued. ‘DCI Fraser and DI Harte are due here soon. How are you feeling?’
No way – she didn’t want any close scrutiny but she couldn’t leave the house. She’d have to sit out their questions and prying. If she left the house, it would look odd and her mum wouldn’t appreciate being left to deal with the police alone. It was bad enough giving her the overview of what was happening. Her loving, supportive mum couldn’t believe for one minute that anything would come of all the fuss. Justine had convinced her that it was all a misunderstanding. ‘I’m okay. I just want this to be over and I want to go home.’
The officer smiled sympathetically and stood, leaving her to her thoughts. Her phone beeped with a message. She snatched it up, hoping that it was Danny, but it wasn’t.
What’s happening? I heard the police searched your house. Is it your kid? What’s he done now? Stolen a car, robbed a house? Some people don’t deserve to be parents. It’s the way you bring them up!!!
It was the woman who lived opposite. They were going to have to move when all this was over. The neighbours never forgave Danny for going off the rails in his teens. She wanted to sit there and cry but where would that get her? As soon as Craig’s escapades came out, they were going to hate her even more and she still didn’t know what Danny had done. The not knowing was the worst, or was it? A big part of her hoped that despite all Craig’s flaws, he could find a way of fixing everything which is why she wouldn’t say a word. However much she hated and feared him right now, he was their son’s biggest chance of getting out of this and if there was anything to take the blame for, Craig would gladly do it to save their son. She went to message Pia but changed her mind. Besides, she couldn’t face Pia yet and she wondered if she’d ever be able to face Pia again, especially if Craig was sleeping with Simeon. They’d definitely have to move. She could take Danny, go right up north or far down south, away from everyone. Her secret was fighting to burrow out from the inside, but she had to keep it in and do whatever it took to keep Craig’s mouth shut. She pressed her lips together and frowned as she thought of what would happen when the extent of her lies came out. She’d deceived the police and at the end of the day, for all Craig’s faults, she was no better than him. This situation felt like her punishment.
The detectives were coming again. Did they know she’d seen Craig? Maybe they knew about the laptop. She needed to make sure she’d deleted everything. Could there be a message left in his recycle bin or in a hidden file? She hated not knowing and Danny wasn’t around to ask.
She nudged Pixie onto the floor and opened the cupboard under the stairs. The officer was being distracted by her mum in the kitchen again. She snatched the laptop and dashed into her mum’s craft room. She swiped her arm across the table, sending a half cut out dress onto the floor. The laptop came on straight away but the screen was plagued by the damn egg timer as it took its time to start up. The skin around her finger started to bleed as she bit it again. There was no doubting that the laptop was Danny’s. It had his name written on the lid in permanent marker and there were band stickers all over it.
Her heartbeat skipped as the computer eventually came on. She tried to click onto the app that Danny was messaging through but she needed his password to be able to see everything again. She was sure she’d deleted everything while it was auto logged in but after, she’d logged out fully. Several options came to mind. She tried typing in Pixie, his birthday, her name, Craig’s name, their birthdays – nothing worked. There were no files called passwords, not that she could see. On any other day, she’d think that was sensible, but not today. It looked like she’d never be able to access that account to see if she’d missed anything. Maybe she could throw the laptop out of the window and hope for the best. She ran over to the small window. It was locked. She searched for the key but it was nowhere to be seen. There’s no way she could leave the room with it. The FLO would see her and wonder what she was up to, then it would be game over.
She peered into the hallway. The police officer was still in the kitchen and the kettle was on. She couldn’t risk passing the door and him seeing her. Pixie ran back and forth playing with her rope pull. She closed the door and in turn shut the chaos out. There had to be more on her son’s laptop and she needed to eradicate it. Had she known the detectives were coming to her mother’s, she’d have taken a hammer to it and burnt it. In fact, that’s what she should have done as soon as she saw thatmessage.Ouch– blood began to drip onto the keypad as she clicked on the last folder Danny had been accessing. Again, the egg timer symbol appeared. She needed a tissue, something to catch the blood. Anything would do. She mooched through her mum’s top drawer for a scrap of material. If she used her mum’s expensive fabrics, she’d never hear the end of it. Pixie barked and played outside the door, getting louder and more excitable. Justine needed to hurry. She reached into the drawer and found exactly what she was looking for, a scrap of old material. Relief flooded her as she dabbed it on her bleeding finger.
PC Masondo opened the door with a cup of tea in his hand and Justine stepped back, mouth wide open as she almost toppled over her mother’s chair. His smile dropped as he stared at the screen. After regaining her balance, she caught sight of her son’s face full of rage as he kicked the hell out of the person who was taking the video. The man holding the phone begged him to stop but her son didn’t stop but he carried on. ‘Danny, you’re going to kill me.’ The phone panned to Lindy’s mum, Maura, who was crying as she watched her son being kicked to a pulp.
‘You deserve to die. Scum. I don’t know why my mum has been trying to help a low life like you,’ Danny replied. In the video, Danny then wiped the sweat from his brow and stared wide-eyed into the victim’s phone, then there was a struggle but her son could not get the phone from the man. Danny turned and ran away.
Justine knew that voice, the one saying that Danny was going to kill him. It was Kain’s. Her son had threatened to kill Kain. It was all captured on camera and Kain had obviously sent it to Craig, then Kain had been murdered. It was as if the world had tipped sideward. She felt like the room was swaying as she tried to process what she’d just seen.
‘Justine. Can you confirm the name of the person your son is attacking?’ the DI asked.
‘It’s…’ She hiccupped a sob. ‘It’s Kain.’ Justine couldn’t breathe. She hyperventilated and clutched her chest before bursting into a sob. There was no covering for him and she wasn’t sure she’d even want to. In her mind, she’d convinced herself that Danny had got into some sort of tussle with Kain and that he’d hurt him by accident and dumped him in the car boot. What she saw on that video was a frenzied, unprovoked attack. Did Lindy find out about the video? Could her son have done something to Lindy to keep her quiet? She gripped the edge of her mum’s desk, pulling a dress pattern to the floor as she fell. She went to speak, but couldn’t. In that moment, her son and husband disgusted her.
‘Justine, breathe, okay.’
No, she couldn’t breathe, not now a DCI and a DI had just come through the door. She was about to lose everything. She roared and cried for the loss of who she thought her son was. Her life as she knew it was over.
FORTY-SEVEN
Gina bagged up the laptop, ready for evidence, but she knew exactly what she’d seen from the hallway. She listened as Brodie relayed what had happened to Wyre over the phone. Danny was in the frame for Kain’s murder. She didn’t know how he tied into the murder of Zavier but Craig had to be involved too. Parts of the evidence weren’t making any sense. There were two murders, Lindy’s kidnapping and Briggs’s attack. The thing that linked the friendship group was the video but so much was still unknown. The teddy bears were a link to the past and future, and who was Barry? She had to look into a case involving someone called Barry, thirty years ago at Kidderminster. Somehow, Lindy was the connection between the past and present.
She took the bagged laptop out of the sewing room and saw PC Masondo. ‘We need all units on alert for Danny. We need to bring him in for the assault in the video and on suspicion of committing Kain Pickering’s murder.’
‘I don’t know where he is at the moment. I asked Mrs Crawford, but she just said he was out.’
‘Thank you. Can you get his number from her?’
He nodded and walked off towards the dining room where Justine’s mum was trying her best to find out what was goingon. Gina headed to the kitchen and waited by the door as Brodie finished his call. She kept replaying the video over and over again in her head and the sound as Danny’s boot met his victim.
Brodie popped his phone in his pocket. ‘I think we need to speak to Justine back at the station. It looks like she was perverting the course of justice by hiding that laptop so I’m going to make the arrest.’
She nodded. ‘I agree. We need to question her further and find out if she’s hiding her son as well as her husband. This laptop belongs to her son and it wasn’t in her home when we searched it.’
‘Guv.’ PC Masondo knocked and entered. ‘I have her son’s phone number. His nan gave it to me. I’ve tried to call but the line is dead.’
‘Right, let’s get Justine to the station now. You arrest her, I’ll call it in,’ Brodie said as he grabbed his phone again.
Gina followed PC Masondo along the hallway, back towards the kitchen and Justine’s mother sat on her own at the head of the table holding the dog in her arms. ‘Where’s Justine?’
