Chapter 61
SIXTY-ONE
JUSTINE
Craig knocked on the door. The nurse placed Justine’s medical notes back in the holder at the end of her bed and left. ‘How did you know I was here?’ She and their son had nearly died and Craig had run away.
He shrugged. ‘Danny borrowed a phone and called me.’
Justine saw that the scratch on his neck had almost faded but his face still looked a little pink from where she’d hit him with her torch. ‘Your number was disconnected.’
‘I know, I had to get a burner.’ He stepped a little closer.
‘You still didn’t tell me where you got that scratch?’
‘Danny was in a state. He lashed out at me, then I calmed him down. That was all. You always were really paranoid, Justine. I had nothing to do with any murders and everyone knows that now. Are you okay?’
She shrugged. Paranoid was her middle name because her husband was a cheat with an impulsive nature. ‘The police were just here. They’ll want to speak to you.’
‘I saw. I hid by the vending machine until they left.’ He paused.
‘I’m sorry about Pia and about running off like that.
It was foolish but you know I had to protect Danny and myself.
Then, when I saw those photos up in the apartment, I knew the police would blame me for Kain’s murder.
I knew about the video too. Danny would have been as much of a suspect as I was.
There is something else, I went over to Maura’s and ended up arguing with Kain over what happened between him and Danny.
Some of the neighbours saw me pinning him up against the wall.
I thought one of them would tell the police and that they’d add two and two together and come up with five. ’
Justine hated that her husband had pinned Kain against a wall and her son had kicked him.
The violence had to stop. She needed to step up and stop Danny going down the path he was on and she would as soon as they were home.
‘Why were you hurting Kain? You didn’t even know him. ’ She just wanted to go home.
‘There you go, thinking the worst of me and your son. You really are a piece of work.’
‘Oh, shut up, Craig. I’ve had enough of your bullshit. You attacked him and Danny attacked him. Just tell me what happened.’
‘There was an argument where Danny stuck up for Maura. You sent Danny over to Maura’s to help her with some jobs.’
‘Yes, she needed some help cleaning her shed out and Danny needed some money.’
‘Well while he was there, he heard shouting and when he went into the hallway, he saw your paralytic friend pushing Maura around and swearing at her. He knocked her off her feet. Danny told me she was crying and begging Kain to leave and come back once he was sober but he kept shouting at her. Maura told Danny to get him out the house because she was scared. He did as she asked then Kain started trying to hit him, but missed. Danny threw him to the floor and kicked him a couple of times. Our son has an anger problem, I know that. But he did what he did for the right reasons and that bastard had to film him and try to blackmail him.’
Justine stared, mouth slightly ajar. How could Kain have done that to his mother and her son, after all the help she gave him?
‘Anyway, I was angry after Danny told me what happened. I went over to tell Kain to delete that video and that he deserved what he got for treating Maura so badly but he refused and started to swing drunken punches outside the door, that’s when I pinned him there.
I just wanted him to stop. The man was an animal.
I thought that was it but he followed me outside, shouting his mouth off and the neighbours were curtain twitching. ’
‘I guess we’re all to blame. I brought Kain into Danny’s life.’
‘You can’t fix everyone you know. Some people are beyond help.’
‘I know that,’ she scoffed, looking at her pathetic husband. ‘You have to know when to give up and I know I want to give up on you, Craig. You were ready to ditch our family for Pia. That flat was for you both to live in, wasn’t it? But she didn’t want you. Am I right?’
He looked away.
‘Where did our son stay on Friday night? He said he was at a friend’s but I know he wasn’t.’
Craig shrugged. ‘He told me he stayed at that derelict house.’
She huffed. ‘That’s where I found his bag last night.
Simeon could have killed our son. He’d been keeping tabs on us all and he found Danny there.
’ She fought back her sobs. ‘You did nothing to protect our son. How could you let him stay there? You’re all about yourself, aren’t you, Craig?
You always were and you always will be. My mum was right about you. ’
He reached out.
‘Don’t you dare touch me. And that night when you dragged me from the scarecrow garden, I ran away from you because I was scared.
You were there because that’s where Danny had been hiding out.
Did you tell Danny to follow me, because I smelt his vape?
I know it wasn’t Simeon and it can’t have been you.
You turned my son against me and I will never forgive you for that. ’
He shook his head. ‘I told him not to go but he was so angry at you introducing him to Maura and Kain. He was trying to turn his life around after the car theft but that set him back.’
‘Whatever. I want a divorce, Craig. We’ – she pointed at herself and then him – ‘are over.’
Her husband had failed her. They’d failed their son. She wasn’t going to fail herself any more.