SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2023 #5
He climbs onto the bed, settling into the pillows, and she pulls up a throw blanket to cover them both.
Lying next to her he can smell the wine and weed on her breath, mixed in with the smell of her shampoo.
Lucy used to use the same kind, and he finds it comforting.
For the first time since Lucy died, he doesn’t wish that it was Polly instead, and he feels actual gratitude for her, like he’s not alone in his fucked family. Like they’re in it together.
“Do you agree with Mom?” he asks. “That if I had stayed at that sleepover then the accident never would have happened? Do you blame me for it?”
Polly’s eyes close briefly like it’s too painful to even consider. “I don’t blame anyone,” she answers before opening them. “I don’t even let my mind go there. It won’t do anyone any good. And a lot of things happened that night. Not just you wanting to come home. Things Mom doesn’t even know.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Polly’s voice is firm, and he knows to back off.
Sometimes he forgets that she was in the accident too.
They’re always so focused on the fact that Lucy died that he doesn’t think he’s ever even heard Polly’s side of things.
But he knows that tonight is not the night for that talk.
“Okay. We’ll distract ourselves with the Gordon murders,” he jokes. Happy to get a small chuckle out of her, he finds the podcast on his phone and hits Play on the next episode. Polly shoots him a wary look, but he ignores her and turns it up.
Cleo: Welcome back to another episode of Killing Their Own.
We’re continuing with our deep dive into the Justine Gordon case, the mother who murdered her husband and two sons over the course of three days, blaming the woods that surrounded their house as the reason for her heinous crime.
On this show we like to speak to people who knew the perpetrator and people who knew the victims, to get a well-rounded picture.
On the last episode we spoke to Justine Gordon’s close friend Michelle, so this week we’re getting a different perspective and talking to John Gordon’s sister, Cindy, whose brother Justine murdered with a fireplace poker.
Cleo: Thank you, Cindy, for joining us today. First off, we’d like to offer our deepest condolences for the tragic loss of your brother and nephews.
Cindy: Thank you.
Cleo: Of course. Now, can you give us a little snapshot of how things were for the Gordons before the murders? How did they appear to you? Did you see this coming in any way at all?
Cindy: [clears throat] Well, my brother and his family had been living overseas in Scotland before moving into the house in Merrymont.
My sister-in-law was a professor, and she’d been invited to the University of Edinburgh to do a research project for three years.
I didn’t see them much while they were there, but my brother called me every few weeks.
That’s how I found out about the affair.
John was sleeping with one of Justine’s colleagues.
Apparently, it only happened a few times, not that the amount matters.
I was shocked that he’d done something like that.
Up till that point, John had always been such a good husband—loyal, loving, responsible.
I think maybe it was because he wasn’t working as much while the family was over there in Scotland and Justine was totally caught up in what she was doing.
You know, maybe he felt less-than or something. Men can get like that.
Cleo: Emasculated?
Cindy: Yeah, that’s the word for it. Anyways, they didn’t want to split up or anything, for the sake of the boys, so they decided to come back home for a fresh start. Justine was the one who found the new house. She bought it without John or the boys ever even seeing it.
Cleo: And when you saw Justine for the first time, back from Scotland, how did she seem to you?
Cindy: She talked openly about John’s affair.
Said she just wanted to move past it and keep the family together.
She thought the new house would be the fresh start that they all needed.
You know, with the beautiful forest and a town where nobody knew about the affair.
She said they all just needed to heal from what happened and move on.
Cleo: And did it work? Were the Gordons happy in their new home and back on track?
Cindy: At first it seemed like they were [takes sip of water].
I visited them a few weeks after they moved in, which would have been about mid-July.
The boys were real excited about the pool, and my brother loved the new kitchen; he was a really good cook.
They all said they were happy to be away from the dreary weather of Scotland.
Justine and John had even gone to a couples-therapy weekend retreat, and they said it really helped.
Cleo: So when did you notice a change?