CHAPTER NINETEEN
My whole body seemed to slump with relief.
Will was getting out of the bath.
A minute later, the door burst opened and he appeared, hair wet, dressed in his pyjamas.
‘Are you okay?’ He looked pale as a ghost in the thin light that was shining through the landing window. ‘I was really worried about you. What happened?’
He was just staring at me.
‘Oh, my goodness. Here. Put this on, love.’ Suddenly realising he was shaking, I snatched his dressing gown off the hook on the bathroom door and helped him into it.
Then I guided him downstairs to the sitting room, where he sat sideways in an armchair, curled in a ball, burying his face in his upturned knees.
He had his arms wrapped around himself like a shield.
I kneeled on the floor beside his chair and placed my hand gently on his back. After a while, I murmured, ‘Can you tell me what’s wrong, Will? I’d really like to help if I can.’
‘Nobody can,’ he said, his voice muffled and thick.
‘Is it Lewis Hatcher?’ I asked him gently.
Will shook his head.
‘Because if it is him who’s the problem, your mum will want to know about it so she can sort it out.’
But he didn’t reply, and I didn’t want to push it.
I got to my feet and said cheerily, ‘Okay, let’s see if we can shed some light on the matter. I’ll go and find the fuse box.’
‘No!’ He looked up in alarm at that. ‘I’ll come with you.’
I nodded. ‘Okay. You can show me where it is.’
Tying his dressing gown belt, Will led me to the understairs cupboard. ‘There’s a torch,’ he said, picking it up and flicking it on, and in the glaring light I saw to my relief that a little colour had returned to his cheeks.
We immediately saw the switch that had caused the electricity breakage. I let Will flick it back into position and suddenly the place was flooded with light. It was almost too bright.
Sensing that Will was still in a state about something – whether or not it was Lewis Hatcher – I suggested I make some hot chocolate, and the way he jumped at the idea showed me I was right. He was reluctant to go back upstairs, I could tell, and so we shared the sofa and drank our hot chocolate.
‘My Granny Olga is very wise,’ I told him. ‘Do you know what she used to say to me when I was little and afraid of something?’
He shook his head.
‘You are your own darkness and your own light, Katja. You have to pick which one you give power to.’
He thought about this. Then he nodded. ‘Cool. I think I would like your gran.’
‘I think she’d like you, too.’ I smiled at him and then I suggested he pick a favourite film to watch.
Thinking he’d choose something scary or with fighting in it, I was quite surprised when he chose a comedy that I loved myself. As we watched Mrs Doubtfire, I was relieved to see him gradually relaxing as we laughed heartily at Robin Williams’ antics.
‘Thank you for the hot chocolate,’ he said, standing up as the credits rolled. He gave me a sheepish smile. ‘I’d better go to bed now in case Mum comes back.’
I grinned up at him. ‘Good idea.’
He disappeared, and when I went upstairs ten minutes later and peeked through his half-open door, he was fast asleep with his bedside light still on. I crept in and switched off the lamp and went back downstairs. And about five minutes after that, I heard Penny’s key in the lock.
I glanced at my watch in surprise. She was back earlier than I’d expected.
I hoped that didn’t mean the date had gone badly.
‘Hi!’ I whispered, greeting her in the hall. As she took off her coat, exclaiming how cold it was outside, I glanced upstairs. I was feeling quite protective of Will and hoping he wouldn’t wake up. ‘Good time?’
She laughed. ‘Well, it was certainly an interesting evening.’
‘Ooh, he sounds . . . promising?’
We went through to the sitting room and she dropped her bag and flopped into a chair.
‘Not really,’ she announced, although I noticed she had a smile on her face.
‘He talked about his ex from the moment we sat down, and I honestly thought I was going to fall asleep right there. He seemed quite nice but it was glaringly obvious he’s nowhere near ready to start dating again. He was so bitter about her.’
I frowned. ‘Poor you. How did you escape?’
‘Well, guess who happened to be in the restaurant, having a meal with a few of his mates?’ She shrugged. ‘Only Tom!’
‘Really? That must have been so awkward for you, being on a first date, with your ex there as well?’
‘You’d think so. But actually, Tom ended up rescuing me!
I bumped into him on the way to the Ladies and he said he could see that my date had never stopped talking and I was bored witless.
So I admitted he was right and he said he’d phone me as soon as I got back to the table and claim there was an emergency at home. Which is what he did.’
‘Oh, brilliant!’
‘Tom suggested we meet up for a drink some other time, just the two of us, to swap tales of our dating disasters. Apparently, he’s had a few as well.’
‘Gosh. Right.’ I wasn’t quite sure what to think about this. It seemed a bit odd since their divorce was going through any day now. But Penny seemed really happy about it, so I smiled and added, ‘You’ve got a babysitter if you need one.’
‘Thank you!’ She smiled and glanced upwards. ‘I take it Will behaved himself?’
She must have seen me hesitate because she sat forward. ‘Is everything okay? Sorry, I’ve been wittering on about my evening instead of asking you –’
‘No, honestly, it’s fine.’ I rushed to reassure her. ‘It’s just . . . well, he was talking about threats he’s been receiving from that bully, Lewis Hatcher.’
‘Threats?’ She looked really alarmed now.
‘It might be nothing, of course. But I thought you should know.’
‘Yes. Of course. Thank you for telling me.’
‘I think his behaviour is starting to scare Will. We had to watch a film to calm him down after his bath, so he didn’t actually go up to bed till ten, I’m afraid.’
Penny had her head in her hands and was rubbing her temples worriedly.
‘I knew I should have pressed him to tell me exactly what was going on, but he seemed fine.’ She looked up.
‘Will came home one day with a sprained ankle and when I asked him how he did it, he said Lewis pushed him and he’d fallen awkwardly.
I was worried at the time but Will kept insisting he was okay .
. . that it was all just banter and a bit of a laugh. ’
‘He probably wanted to protect you.’
‘Or make sure I didn’t go up to the school and cause a fuss,’ she said gloomily. ‘I wish Will would talk to me about it!’ She sounded really frustrated. ‘How did the subject come up?’
‘I asked him if he was going to audition for the Christmas show at school. I heard him singing. He’s got a fabulous voice.’
‘He does, doesn’t he?’ said Penny sadly. ‘But he’s too shy to show it off.’
‘Apparently Lewis is determined he’s going to get the main part and he threatened Will, saying if he auditioned for it, he’d make sure something bad happened to him.’
Penny looked at me, appalled. ‘The horrible little scrote! And that’s the polite version.
’ She sighed. ‘Well, since the chance of Will actually putting himself forward for the part is practically zero, maybe he’ll leave my son alone.
But do you think it’s serious enough to go and speak to the head? ’
‘I think it might be. We had a power cut while Will was in the bath. It was just after we’d been talking about Lewis and when I went up to make sure he was all right, he wouldn’t answer me at first and he was really upset, so I think he might have been in there stewing over Lewis and –’
‘He was in the bath when there was a power cut?’ Penny was on her feet, her eyes wide with worry.
‘Yes, but we managed to find the fuse box and –’
‘Oh, my God. My poor, poor Will!’ She dashed into the hall and I followed her, feeling quite alarmed.
‘There’s no window in that bathroom,’ she was muttering, staring anxiously up the stairs. ‘He would have been plunged into total darkness when the power cut happened. He’d have been terrified!’ She turned and stared at me helplessly.
‘Terrified?’ I was at a loss to understand. ‘Is he afraid of the dark, then?’
Penny had started to hurry up the stairs to go to Will. But now she sank down where she was with her head in her hands, as if her legs could no longer support her. ‘That would be an understatement,’ she murmured.
I joined her on the stairs, sitting at an angle and looking up at her.
I was recalling Will’s reaction when I’d suggested that Lewis was afraid of the dark. Or at least afraid of something that made him behave the way he did. Will had really started listening to me at that point . . .
Penny gave a long, shaky sigh. ‘Will’s terror of the dark started when Tom was in a new relationship, soon after we split. About five years ago, now.’
Glancing up at his bedroom, she whispered, ‘Let’s go and sit down. I’d hate him to hear us talking about him.’
Nodding, I followed her back into the sitting room and took the armchair while Penny sat on the edge of the sofa and began to explain, twisting her hands together all the time in her agitation.
‘Veronica, Tom’s girlfriend, seemed okay.
He met her online. It was a weird situation, of course, but we kept it civil and Tom seemed happy.
There was never any awkwardness when he came to pick Will up for weekends at his house, even on the odd occasion when Veronica came with him.
I was determined not to show my emotions so I stayed calm and friendly, then I went and poured myself a big glass of wine once they’d gone!
Will was always quite quiet. But that’s just Will, so I didn’t think anything of it.
And at the start, everything seemed fine.
’ She swallowed and looked down at her hands.
‘But I’ve since learned that’s the way with abusers and people with anger issues. ’
‘Tom’s girlfriend abused Will?’ Her words hit me full force in the gut.
‘Not sexual abuse, thank God. No, it was the most horrible psychological abuse. When Tom was out and she was supposed to be looking after Will, if he did anything she didn’t like – even something as harmless as holding his fork the wrong way – she would yell in his face and order him into the understairs cupboard and refuse to let him out. ’
‘Jeez,’ I breathed, shaking my head in horror. Poor Will! ‘How old was Will at the time all this was happening?’
‘He was six when we split and Tom began seeing Veronica soon after that. From what I can make out, the abuse began about six months after they got together?’ She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. ‘The relationship lasted just over a year.’
‘And presumably Tom knew nothing of what was happening when he wasn’t at home?’
‘He had no idea. Abusers are really cunning, you see. They build trust with their victim to start with and then they destroy it. They often seem so lovely and friendly to everyone else.’
‘I can’t believe she could do that to an innocent child. And Will was only six years old!’
‘It only emerged much later, after the damage was done, that the witch had threatened Will that if he ever told us what was happening, she’d break his arms and his legs.’
I closed my eyes briefly at the horror of it all. ‘God, that’s awful, Penny. The poor, poor boy.’
She nodded, tears in her eyes. ‘Tom has carried the guilt ever since. He obviously blames himself for not knowing what was going on, and so inadvertently allowing the abuse to continue for all those months.’
‘But why? Why would she do that?’
Penny gave a bitter snort. ‘Because she was jealous of the bond between Tom and Will. I guess she wanted Tom’s love all for herself.’
‘It’s hard to believe someone could be that twisted.’
She nodded. ‘Will started wetting the bed. In fact, that’s how Tom discovered what was going on.
He had an accident in bed at his place when she was in charge, and when she found out, she was so furious, she ordered him straight downstairs into the cupboard.
It was the middle of winter and he must have been frozen.
But after being in there for a while, he managed to get out because she hadn’t locked the door properly.
Veronica heard him and came through, raging and screeching at him and pushing him back into the cupboard.
And Tom walked through the door at that moment and saw everything. ’
‘Unbelievable,’ I breathed, hating Veronica with every fibre of my being for doing what she’d done to a lovely, defenceless little boy.
No wonder Penny was so suspicious of people on dating websites – always imagining they might be hiding their true character.
Tom had met Veronica online and she must have seemed perfectly nice to begin with . . . but then look what had happened.
Penny gazed at me sadly. ‘I’d begun to hope that after all this time, Will might finally have managed to exorcise the terrors of that time in his life.
But after hearing what happened tonight, when he was plunged into darkness during that power cut, I guess he’s still suffering the after-effects of being imprisoned in that cold, dark cupboard. ’