Ripples
It was obvious, at dinnertime, that Nico had something on his mind. He did his best to appear unconcerned, talking about the story he was reading, but they could all see his heart wasn’t in it.
Jack didn’t prod or pry, but as often before, he disappeared into his den after dinner, making himself available if Nico wanted to talk. It had worked in the past, and it worked that night as Nico appeared in his doorway not twenty minutes later.
“Are you busy?”
“No more than usual.” Jack waved him inside. “What can I help you with?”
Nico pulled up a chair and settled himself beside Jack. “Can we build the escape route this weekend?”
“You finished the design?”
“I think so. Daniel spotted the bit I’d missed.”
“Which was?”
“I’d planned one rope ladder going down, which lets us escape when there’s a fire, but if there’s a break-in, they could be waiting for us at the bottom.
So now we have three, one going straight down from our window, one going up on the roof, and the third going down from there on the other side of the house.
” Nico waved at the door. “Daniel’s showing Gareth just to make sure I’ve covered everything. ”
“Teamwork, I like it.”
“So can we start building it?”
“Of course.”
Nico nodded, then he held out his phone. “There’s something else. This may be illegal, but I wanted you to know how Manville behaves without parents watching.”
Jack kept his face blank and took the phone. “What am I looking for?”
“The last video.”
Jack found the file and cast it onto his screen. He got an almost bird’s eye view of the sports hall. “Where did you put this? The ceiling?”
Nico grinned a little. “Nearly. The central heating pipes come down beside the climbing poles. The phone just fits behind the pipes, and the camera lens could record through the gap.”
“Good thinking, Batman.” Jack guessed Nico had started the recording using his phone’s remote control. The sound was useless, but the picture made Nico’s point.
Manville was teaching tango with a lot of roaming hands and clutches in inappropriate places. Jack watched to the end, then transferred the video to his computer and erased it from Nico’s phone. “What made you think we didn’t believe what you and Daniel told us?”
Nico flushed. “He did absolutely nothing when you and Dawn’s mum were there to watch.”
“And I told you we were there as a deterrent. Still, this is good evidence.”
“You think we can use it?”
“Not officially. We’ll use it privately to warn other schools that hire him. But Nico, you aren’t a hormonal teenager acting out a drama. If you tell me about anyone making you uncomfortable in that way, I believe you whether you bring me corroborating evidence or not. Are we clear?”
Nico nodded, and the stiff set of his shoulders relaxed a fraction.
“That wasn’t all of it. It felt like…” He paused, working it out in his head while Jack waited.
“I couldn’t fight Goran. Most of the time, I couldn’t even tell him no for fear he’d punish Daniel.
I tried. I did. But we couldn’t do anything.
Just… be strong for each other. And then people say if you didn’t fight or refuse, you kinda wanted to be treated like that. ”
Jack opened his mouth to reassure Nico, then closed it again. Nico already knew blaming the victim was bullshit. Reminding him would do nothing to shift the trauma. He nodded, encouraging without prompting.
“Feeling helpless is the worst of it. I thought if I helped to stop Manville I wouldn’t… you know… feel this way.”
His hands were still in fists, and Jack leaned over and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “I get that, Nico,” he whispered. “Believe me, I get that.”
Nico let himself lean against Jack’s shoulder. Jack counted it as a win.
“Do you think… I could help you?”
“Help me?”
“Help you hunt predators.”
That Jack had expected Nico to ask that question didn’t make answering him any easier.
“Nico, do you know what I do? I hang out in forums and on chat sites where men like Goran and his customers exchange information. Where they trade people. I do my damnedest to identify them, to collect information we can use in court to put them in prison. Is that really what you want to do with your time?”
Nico trembled in Jack’s hold. Jack pulled him out of the chair and led him over to the sofa. “Nico? Talk to me.”
“You think I’ll get nightmares again, don’t you? That’s why you don’t want my help.”
“Nico, look at me. I haven’t said a word to put you off. I know you’ll have nightmares, just as I do. What I’m asking is whether fear and nightmares are worth it. Whether this is really what you want to do.”
“And if I do?”
“Then I’d like to know your reasons. Because with this work, Nico, reasons are important.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want you to end up where I did.” Jack said. “I used to go into the clubs and use myself as bait to lure men like Goran and his customers. Not to put them behind bars, but so I could beat the shit out of them. With a bullwhip.”
“You fought with them?” Nico stared at Jack with a mix of awe and horror. “What if they’d been stronger than you?”
“Then they would have shoved me face-first into the nearest wall and done what they wanted.” Jack didn’t spare either of them. “I ran on anger back then. On rage. And that rage needed to go somewhere. Rio taught me how to hunt, and because I didn’t trust the police, I hunted on my own.”
The quality of the silence in the study changed as Nico thought this over. “What made you stop?”
“I joined the army. And then, when I was a civilian again… I met Clive Baxter. I’ve never really stopped hunting, but I’m smarter about it now.
More efficient. I still go into clubs now and then, but I’ve learned that I can do more from behind a screen and that Baxter won’t let the data I give him go to waste.
So I give him what I find. And also, bullwhips have gone seriously out of style. ”
“You’d look badass with one.”
“I look badass whatever I wear.” Jack struck a pose. “I’d make a fab Zorro.”
Nico chuckled and the tight clutch he had on Jack turned into the loose sprawl they were both more accustomed to.
“Back to what I was saying,” Jack resumed in the end.
“I’ve learned that it’s important to know why you do things and do them for the right reason.
If you don’t, you’ll get in trouble with the law and end up in a horrible place in your head.
It’s difficult to come back from there. Give this some thought, Nico.
You can help me if you want to, but don’t do it because you need an outlet for your anger. Understood?”
“Manville made me angry,” Nico admitted.
“He upset Daniel and made the girls uncomfortable. And he treated all of us as if we were his to do with as he wanted. But I’d meant to ask you about helping for a long time.
Ever since we went to Scotland Yard to identify all the men from Goran’s place.
Lisa said they would go to prison if she could collect enough evidence.
And you said once that if there were no men like these, no customers, then Goran wouldn’t have a business.
So yeah, I wanted Goran in prison, but I wanted those men there, too.
It makes me feel…” Nico flushed, and Jack could sympathise.
“It makes me feel as if I’m helping. As if I’m protecting Daniel and our family.
And if… if we can keep them away from other kids, then surely… ”
Jack nodded. “All valid reasons. Let’s wait until school is done. We’ve got an escape route to build first.”
“But you will let me help?”
“I’ll let you help, as long as I’ll see your reasons in action when we work together.
And Nico… You don’t have to power your way through just because you agreed to help.
Hunting predators isn’t ever easy. Some cases are extra hard.
There is no shame in stopping and stepping away for a while.
I want you to do that when it becomes too much, when the nightmares get too bad, when you feel ill, or when you can’t think. Do I have your promise on that?”
The colour drained from Nico’s face as he thought through Jack’s words. He realised what it was going to cost him, Jack could see it. But Nico’s determination never wavered. “I promise,” he said and held out his hand to Jack to seal the deal.
Jack was sitting up in bed when Gareth came into their room. He tapped away on his slate but also had the laptop open on the quilt next to him.
“Anything gone pear-shaped at work?” Gareth enquired.
“Nah.” Jack shifted the electronics around. “Just finishing off. You were right, you know?”
“About?”
“Not coddling Nico and Daniel to death. Come and look at this.”
Gareth was never sure if Jack was serious when he tried to show off some of the stuff he did on a computer, but he didn’t argue. He joined Jack on the bed and focused on the laptop screen and a recording of Nico and Daniel’s dance class.
“Just blurring out the faces,” Jack enlightened him.
“Did you take this?”
“Nico did. And before you start, he knew it’s sus.”
“Right.” Gareth didn’t like the implication of that. “He thought we didn’t believe him.”
“That’s about the sum of it. At least.”
“What are you going to do with it? We can’t publicise it. Even Aidan would tell you that.”
“Aidan has a daughter. If he saw this, he’d hand me a bat and grab one for himself,” Jack disagreed and dropped a kiss on Gareth’s cheek as if to soften the blow. “Thanks for looking out for me, though.”
“Brat.” Gareth leaned heavily against Jack until Jack had to push back or fall out of bed.
“Yours,” he acknowledged. “I know we can’t publicise it, don’t worry. I’m also not going to send it to any of the parents, or we’d have ourselves a lynch mob.”
“Then what will you do with it?”