Chapter 56
FIFTY-SIX
JUSTINE
It was midnight and she was exactly where she was meant to be.
The knife poked through her pocket, slightly jabbing her buttock.
She pulled it out, ready to use it if she had to.
Without warning, a figure darted in the darkness straight at her.
She went to jab it with the knife but missed and stumbled to the ground.
Her attacker kicked it out of the way and the blow to her head sent a white-hot pain burning through her.
As she fought to stay conscious, all she could think of was how she’d failed Danny.
The knife – it was gone. He struck her once more and she too was gone.
‘Justine, Justine. It’s time to wake up. I knew you’d come. I’m sorry I led you to believe you’d be meeting up with Craig.’
She gasped at the sight of him, her head throbbing with every breath. How could sweet, lovely Simeon have hurt her like this? She recalled him hitting her twice before dragging her out of the old unit. She’d been in his car but not for long.
The stench of something rotten turned her stomach. This wasn’t the beery vinegary scent of kombucha, more like something had died. She inhaled again. It was like the back of a bin lorry.
This wasn’t Pia and Simeon’s unit. It was bigger and didn’t look as sparkly and clean.
She blinked a couple of times to clear the grittiness in her eyes.
Light bleeding through the crack of a door lit up the side of Simeon’s face.
He looked down on her while gripping a blue pole covered in blood while she lay on the cold floor stiff from cold and pain.
She could see where the pole had come from.
Several racks full to the brim with cans of kombucha had been stacked up and those same blue poles held the racking together.
A dismantled shelving unit had been neatly laid out with the blue poles next to the stack of heavy metal shelves.
She spotted a tool bag and a crowbar. She needed to get the crowbar if she was to save herself and her son.
‘You took Lindy and you left me that letter and you messaged me pretending to be Craig,’ she cried.
‘Their actions gave me no choice. It was easy with him out of the way and using a burner phone. I managed to convince Pia I was Craig too. I deceived my own cheating bitch wife, which is funny.’ He paused and began to pace before hitting the racking, making her flinch.
‘Do you think I wanted any of this? You had to bring Lindy into our lives. I blame you.’
The back of her head throbbed as she wondered what difference it made that Lindy was in his life, then she thought of Kain.
It had to be him, something Kain did. She reached around and felt a sticky pool gathering.
She knew it was best to try to diffuse the situation or she’d end up dead.
‘Simeon. Please, whatever this is, it has to stop. You can’t get away with it. ’
‘Getting away with it is no longer my intention. Do you know how the business all started and why Pia wanted to make kombucha?’
She shook her head, wondering how any of this was relevant but she had to keep him distracted.
As soon as the room stopped swaying, she was going to dash for the crowbar and fight him.
He stood above her and poked the pole into her bare neck.
‘No, she never mentioned it.’ She swallowed the lump in her throat knowing that her and Danny’s lives were in Simeon’s hands.
‘She believes crap she hears on the internet. Apparently, all my health issues were going to be fixed with bloody kombucha. She made it at home and forced me to drink it to the point it made me heave like mad. I won the battle against cancer many years ago but you know what, it’s back, only this time in my stomach.
’ He stepped over her and whacked the racking with the pole.
He swiped a pile of cans onto the floor and roared at the top of his voice.
‘This shit cures nothing. You know what cured me the last time, surgery and chemo.’ He held his stomach and yelled.
‘This pain, it’s always there. Pia kept telling me it was indigestion and IBS and all I had to do was drink more of that stuff and all will be fine.
Leaky gut, she kept saying. I didn’t need a doctor, she said; just a healthy wholesome lifestyle.
I chugged away, can after can. Now it’s too late for me. ’
‘I’m so sorry, Simeon. I didn’t know.’
‘Of course you didn’t. No one knows yet, not even Pia.
All this time I’ve sat back, lovely placid Simeon – never hurts or upsets anyone – then Pia brings home her new friend Lindy.
I knew exactly who Lindy was. As a teen, I watched her celebrating as Kain got off with killing my brother, Baz.
Then all these years later, they end up in my life – again! ’
Justine let out a breath. This went deeper than she’d ever have been able to guess.
She had to wonder why he was so angry at her and Danny.
From watching the video, Danny had hurt Kain but Craig, she knew why Simeon would hate Craig, he’d been having an affair with Pia.
‘Simeon, please don’t be angry at me and Danny.
Craig cheated on me. I was cheated on, like you were and Danny, he hurt Kain. I saw a video on his laptop.’
‘I’ve seen everything. Craig was so stupid leaving his iPad unlocked when he worked on our accounting system, and keeping all his passwords in a file marked passwords – rookie error.
Your husband is stupid and your son is even thicker.
I’ve been watching, waiting and learning. Everyone is so stupid.’
‘Why me? Why am I here?’
‘You just had to interfere, offer to help Kain. Where was the help when my brother was dying in a cell? Where was the help for me too, when I had to live with what happened? I missed him, I still miss him and it hurts knowing he died alone like that. I kept hearing it from Pia, how kind you were, how you were trying to help Kain get his life back and get help. You’re just like all the other do-gooders, trying to help the people who do the most damage and I hate you for it.
I needed help from the justice system and I got nothing.
This diagnosis and Lindy turning up… I knew what I needed to do. ’
‘So, I’m here because I tried to help someone?’
‘You helped the man who let my brother die. Rage bubbled inside me for ages but I kept a lid on it. You know, there’s only so long a person can keep a lid on rage.
It’s like an explosion that goes off.’ He stared wide-eyed.
‘You have to unleash the beast. You have to be the one to get justice because the system stinks at it. You have to collect those debts in full, that’s what I’m always telling Pia when she shirks her credit control duties.
’ He shrugged and continued. ‘Kain was police at the time. Zavier, the other man who paid in full was police at the time. Another pig called Briggs, the custody sergeant, had booked him in. No one checked on Baz. No one cared. All three officers pleaded their innocence at the inquest and no one cared that my brother had died. He was labelled a troublemaker who ended up piling onto a fight outside a pub.’ He swallowed.
‘His best friend died because those other men were beating him up. My brother would have been trying to save his friend because that was what Baz was like. He was a good, kind person, nothing like they made him out to be just because he accidentally hit a cop in the nose.’
Justine struggled to control the trembling coming from deep inside. ‘You killed Kain and you set Craig up because of what Kain did to your brother?’ She didn’t know Zavier or Briggs but from what he’d said, she knew they were the other police officers involved back then.
He let out a laugh. ‘It seemed fitting and a part of me hoped it would work because I wanted Craig to pay, too. I knew about the affair he was having with Pia and I’d listened to Pia rattling on about you all.
She prattled on about Kain, his ex-wife and every little intimate thing you and Lindy shared with her.
I knew about the arguments that Lindy had with Kain over how he treated their mum.
I knew that Kain had made a fool of himself with Fabien.
When I found out about the fight where Fabien had attacked him, I knew he’d make a worthy person to also set up, besides, Craig and Fabien were acquaintances.
You only have to look at Instagram to see that.
Pia told me everything and I found out the rest myself by logging in to Craig’s social media and keeping an eye out. ’
Justine kept glancing at the crowbar as he went on, going into detail about how he’d constructed his elaborate plan, how he’d fit Craig up by using the key that Pia had to Craig’s flat and how he’d easily got into Fabien’s warehouse. ‘Do you know why I’m telling you all this?’
She tried to hold her tears back.
‘Because you are going to die tonight but you know that already. See that tank over there? That’s what you get for helping someone as despicable as Kain and bringing Lindy into our lives.’
No, no, no, no, no. He wasn’t going to put her in there. She tried to sit up but her head was swimming. Slowly, she nudged herself a little closer to the crowbar while Simeon continued unburdening himself.
‘It was so easy to set Craig up. When I dropped that kombucha over that Pia told me to take to yours, I popped to the loo and put a few things to implicate Craig under your bed.’ He laughed.
‘As for the key I mentioned, I used it to enter his flat and I put photos of my kill scenes all over his wall. The teddies, pink and blue. Blue for the injustice against Baz and pink for the rest of you. I left one at yours the other night while you were in the garden but you didn’t get the warning. You just gave it to your dog.’