Mob Justice (Sinister Minds Quick Reads Book 3)
Page 4
“Are you sure that Kylie was fine when she got home? I mean, you may have missed something.”
Brian raised his voice a little. “For the love of God woman, I am telling you she was fine.”
He calmed himself down again, and spoke in hushed tones again.
“Something isn’t sitting well with me here, Elaine.”
“The police confirmed she was raped, Brian.” Elaine fought the tears as she spoke. “Her teacher raped her.”
“It doesn’t add up. She was fine when she got home. I know I’m a bloke love, but even I wouldn’t miss a sign like that, surely? You found her in a ball in her bedroom. My little girl couldn’t have gone from fine to withdrawn in a ball in an hour. Would it take that long for it to sink in? She ran up the stairs to see Dan like she was fine.” He paused. “Unless......”
He looked at Elaine, and at once, they had a moment.
“Unless, indeed, Brian.”
...
Elaine walked up the stairs, she opened the door to Kylie’s room first. She was relieved to see that her daughter was sleeping.
Her emotions threatened her again, as she looked at her daughter who looked so peaceful. The same daughter who she had taken to the police only a few days before. The same daughter that had vomited in the police station after she had formally pressed charges against Jason Locke.
Her daughter wasn’t a liar. If she said that her teacher had raped her, then her teacher had raped her. What possible reason would she have to lie? But how? Or when? In the interviews with the police she had said that it was at the end of the day in school. She had been home a little late. But it didn’t explain why she seemed so OK with her Dad. There was definitely something not quite adding up.
She closed Kylie’s bedroom door gently, and walked across the landing and opened Alice’s door.
She grinned, as Alice plunged her iPad under her pillow and pretended to be asleep.
“I know you are awake sweetheart, can I come in?” Elaine asked.
Alice lifted her head and opened her eyes. “Sorry Mam, I’m reading a book about princesses.” She looked sheepish.
Elaine walked into the room, sat down next to Alice on the bed, and switched on the Disney Princess lamp that was sat on Alice’s bedside table.
“You aren’t in trouble my darling. Mam just wants a little chat, ok?”
Alice looked wide-eyed and nodded to her mother, who promptly stroked her forehead.
“I want to ask you about the day Kylie became sad.” Elaine said gently.
Alice nodded, her face instantly portraying the sadness she felt that something was wrong with her big sister.
“Do you remember what happened that day? After you got home from school.”
Alice nodded, she sat up in bed and put her head on her mother’s chest as she thought.
“Take your time, my darling” Elaine soothed.
“Daddy picked me up from school.” Alice began. “We came home, he told me I couldn’t have a packet of crisps as it would spoil my tea.”
Elaine had to smile at her daughter.
“And when did Kylie come home?” Elaine prompted.
“Well Daddy got ready for his running first. I came to my room and was playing Mario Kart and then the door went. I thought Kylie had forgotten her key, but Daddy answered it and it was Dan. Daddy told him that Kylie wasn’t home yet, but he could go to her room to wait. But he didn’t, he came into my room and was playing Mario with me.”
Alice smiled “I beat him three times. I always win when I’m Princess Peach. Dan chose Yoshi, Yoshi is stupid.” She giggled.
“What happened then?” Elaine asked.
“Well then Kylie came home, and she came into my room and she seemed really angry with Dan, and she was swearing. She made him go into her room and I could hear her shouting. So, I turned up the volume on my switch.”
“Dan wasn’t here when I got home. How long was he here?”
Alice shrugged. “Dunno. I thought I heard Kylie scream, so she must have been really really angry. So I closed my door and put my headphones on.”
“Do you know when he left?” Elaine pushed.
Alice was starting to get agitated. “I dunno, Mammy. I played a few more games and then I heard the front door slam. I went to check if Daddy or you had come home, and then I was worried Kylie had left me on my own, so I went to her room and she was lying on the floor crying, like when you came home.”
“Where was Dan?” Elaine asked.
“He wasn’t there.” Alice thought. “He must have slammed the door because Kylie was being mean, but now she’s only sad.”
The sadness returned to the little girl’s eyes.
“Kylie will be OK? Won’t she Mammy?"
18
Troy closed the front door and walked into the living room, shaking his head.
“What happened Troy?” Jen asked, looking concerned.
“Someone has thrown a brick through next doors window. She’s in a hell of state. I couldn’t see anyone, they’d obviously fled, but there’s glass everywhere and she’s really shaken up. Jen, it may be worth you going to sit with her until the police arrive. A woman would probably be better than me.”
“Lord above!” Yolande exclaimed, to Jen’s bemusement, who was still getting used to Troy’s mother who had arrived a few days before. “And I thought you lived in a nice area. It’s like the Bronx.”
“Mom, it is a nice area. I don’t know what is going on.” Troy looked pleadingly at Jen.
“I’m just going to check on Penny.” She said, leaving her boyfriend to soothe his mother.
...
Jen hesitatingly knocked on the front door. Another neighbour who she recognised, but whose name escaped her answered the door.
“Come in, come in” she said.
Penny was on the floor with a dustpan and brush. She could hear Oscar barking in the kitchen, he was obviously shaken too.
“Penny, let me do that, you go and sit with Oscar.” Jen crouched down besides Penny and placed a hand on her back, before easing the dustpan and brush from her, being careful to keep the shards of glass within the dustpan.
“I’ll put the kettle on, and I’ll try Jason again.” Penny said, grabbing the portable living room phone from its holder and taking it out the kitchen with her.
When Penny had closed the door, the neighbour spoke in barely more than a whisper.
“I’ve lived here for twenty years.” She started. “They have been here for longer than I have. They are a nice family. Jason can’t be a kiddie fiddler, can he? It’s all over Facebook.”
Penny shrugged, “Who knows.” She said, “But right now, all I can see is a neighbour in pieces and needing our help.” She held up the dustpan. “See if Penny has a strong bin liner.”
The neighbour nodded and headed to the kitchen. Penny took her phone from her pocket and turned on the flashlight function. The torch beam from her phone helped to illuminate some of the smaller pieces of glass that she had missed. She pondered for a moment about her neighbours. She hated idle gossip, she was sure that she had been on the receiving end back in the days when she was married to Oliver and abused by him. The thought made her shudder.
Whether Jason was a child abuser or not, Penny was certainly an innocent victim in all of this. Jen knew what it was like to be a victim, and she had decided, she was going to support her neighbour.
19
Two years earlier
Penny shouted goodbye, as she shut the front door. She was heading for a night shift at the hospital.
Andrew was out with his friends.
Jason had the house to himself. He began to feel a stirring of anticipation in his underpants. He had found an amazing porn site.
He’d given one last glance to check that Penny’s car had left the cul de sac. He turned the key in the front door, locking it, this was something that he didn’t want Andrew catching him doing if he did come home early, and he sat at the computer.
> He began scanning through the content to see what he wanted to watch. He found a threesome, two men, one woman. He’d usually choose more than one woman, he loved watching a bit of girl-on-girl action, but the screenshot on this one started to turn him on. The screenshot was a woman on all fours on a bed, her mouth around the cock of one man who stood at the front of the bed, the other man was on the bed, on his knees and had entered her from behind.
He felt his own penis get hard, rock hard. He took off his trousers and pants, touching his own penis, before he pressed play. The scene started with the woman lying on the bed alone, with one man coming in as she lay across the bed.
“Boring!” Jason thought, as he fast forwarded to the action he wanted to see. He started the action as the second man had come in. The first man was on the bed with the woman, she was on all fours on the bed, and the man behind her was positioned behind her, licking her, exploring her body as he penetrated her with his tongue and fingers. The second man stepped up to the front of the bed, in front of the woman.
Jason began masturbating.
The woman in the video lifted her hand up off the bed, pulling the second man towards her, as she guided his cock into her mouth, whilst the man behind entered her with his own penis.
Jason began masturbating more furiously now. He watched as the two men thrust into the moaning woman, the action zoomed in on the man behind her at first. The man was not thrusting into her vagina.
“Oh my” Jason thought as he watched the man penetrate the woman’s anus.
Jason tugged at his own cock harder as he watched the man slide in and out. He felt himself coming to a climax and he ejaculated just as the camera moved to the man in the front, she was moving her mouth up and down his penis, her moaning intensifying, the second man’s moaning also increasing. He pulled his penis from the woman’s mouth and ejaculated over her face. The camera did a close up of the woman before it turned to a longer angle as the man behind also ejaculated over her back.
Jason, however, had stopped dead. His own euphoria of his orgasm replaced by a new feeling. Recognition. He knew the woman.
20
Two years later
“What are you fucking staring at?” Jason yelled at a few neighbours who were stood outside their houses, as he ran up the cul de sac.
They were watching the scene unfold. A police car was in the street, the front door was open.
Jason ran in and straight to his wife, bypassing the other people who were currently stood in his home.
He grabbed Penny, and pulled her towards him in a tight embrace. He whispered into her ear.
“It’s all going to be OK.”
Jen stepped towards the open front door, beckoning the other neighbour to come with her.
“If you need anything, I’m next door.” She said to the police officer who was stood just outside.
The police officer nodded to her, and once the neighbour also left. She went inside to join her colleague, closing the front door behind her.
Jen returned to her own house next door.
“The police, the sirens, what is happening here.” Yolande seemed as aggravated as she had when Jen left.
“I’m sure it’s all a big misunderstanding.” Jen said “Our neighbour has been accused of a terrible crime. The story has got out, and that is why someone has done this terrible thing.”
“I thought your life was safe here.” Yolande said, turning to her son.
“Oh Mom, it is.” Troy replied. “Honestly, this is the first crime in our neighbourhood that I’ve heard of. We moved here because it’s so lovely.”
There was a knock at the front door, and Jen went to answer. It was Gemma and Marcus.
“What’s going on?” Gemma asked.
“You’d better come in.” Jen replied.
Jen walked her friends through the living room and into the kitchen.
“Someone has put a brick through next door’s front window.” Jen started once they were all sat at the dining table.
Gemma looked confused.
“Jason has been accused of sexually assaulting one of his pupils.” Jen continued. “It’s made it onto some Facebook group.”
Marcus looked shocked.
“Jason?” he said. “Surely not, he’s a decent bloke.”
“He was arrested yesterday. They kept him overnight and now this has happened.” Jen said.
Gemma looked aghast. “Bloody hell. We go away for one night and all hell breaks loose!” she said.
“Yolande is in bits.” Jen continued. “She now thinks that our quiet Cardiff cul de sac is more dangerous than the Bronx.”
“Bless her.” Gemma replied. “Don’t worry, I’ll put her mind at rest now.”
“Fancy a glass of wine?” Jen asked.
Gemma and Marcus both nodded.
She took a bottle of red from her wine rack, opened the cupboard and took out three glasses.
“You pour, I’ll see if Troy and Yolande want a glass.” She said to Gemma.
Jen stuck her head around the living room door.
“Want a glass of wine, you two?” she asked.
“You got any bourbon?” Yolande asked. “I need something stronger, to calm my nerves.”
21
Elaine had made a decision. She needed to confront Kylie. The more her and Brian talked about it, and the more she thought about what Alice had said, the more convinced she had become. Daniel was the rapist, and not the teacher.
She still didn’t understand why her daughter would lie? Kylie was a good girl. She had never been in any real trouble. She had skipped school a few times, but what teenager hadn’t?
“Brian, if you take Alice out for a couple of hours, and I’ll talk to Kylie alone.” She said to her husband. “Take her to that trampoline place she’s been wanting to go to.”
Brian nodded. A Saturday morning in a trampoline park wasn’t exactly his idea of fun, but equally he knew that Alice needed to be out of the way.
After they had left, Elaine tentatively walked up the stairs and knocked on her daughter’s bedroom door. She opened it slightly. Kylie was lying in bed, facing away from the door. However, Elaine could tell that she was awake.
“Sweetheart, I need to speak to you.” Elaine said, gently.
Kylie didn’t respond.
“I want to confirm a few details about what happened to you. We need to start getting you ready for the trial.”
Elaine had decided this was her best approach. To try and push Kylie for details on what she had claimed had happened, hoping the true facts would reveal themselves.
Kylie sat up in bed and faced her mother.
“What do you mean?” Kylie said, obviously slightly taken aback.
“Well.” Elaine started. “When you get questioned in the trial, I’m sure they will want more details about where it happened in school and how it happened.”
Elaine was hoping that this was not going to make her daughter decline further.
“It happened after school finished, Mam.” Kylie said.
“Where, darling?” Elaine pressed.
“In the history room.” Kylie replied.
“Surely there must have been other teachers still in other classrooms? Wouldn’t someone have heard you scream?”
Kylie shrugged, “I dunno.”
“So where in the classroom was this? There are big windows in the classroom?”
“At the front of the class.” Kylie replied, but her voice became hesitant now.
“But where in the front, sweetheart. This is what the solicitors will ask you.”
Kylie began to shift uneasily in her bed. She lay back down, and faced the wall again.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” She said in barely more than a whisper.
“I need to understand.” Elaine replied.
Kylie yelled this time. “I said I don’t want to talk about it!” She covered her face in her pillow and Elaine could here her starting to sob.
She debat
ed for a moment whether she should stop. What if her daughter was telling the truth, what if it was the teacher? She decided to press on.
“What I don’t understand is why you were OK with Daddy when you came home from school.”
Kylie didn’t reply, but she was still crying.
“Daddy said that you were fine. Alice said that you were fine too, but were shouting at Dan? Why were you shouting at Dan, Kylie?”
Kylie spoke in barely a whisper.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Did you argue with Dan, Kylie. Did something happen with Dan?”
Kylie sobs intensified, her words barely understandable through, the watery deep breaths as she cried uncontrollably.
“I...can’t... do... this..”
“Can’t do what Kylie?”
“I... can’t...I... just... can’t... oh Alice.” Kylie let out a guttural scream, the anguish and pain, raw and inhibited.
“Alice?” Elaine was confused now. “Why are you crying about Alice?”
Kylie was virtually hyperventilating now. She was shaking uncontrollably. It was clear to Elaine that she was having a panic attack.
She pulled her daughter up into a hug, gently stroking her hair.
“Kylie, you are scaring me. Please tell me the truth.”
Kylie’s breathing started to calm down.
“I’m so sorry, Mam, I’m so so sorry. I had to lie, I had to save Alice.”
22
“I’m going to fucking kill him.”
Elaine had never seen Brian so angry.
“He raped my daughter, and he threatened to rape my baby! I’m going to kill him.”
Elaine was glad that she had asked one of Alice’s friends Mums if Alice could go there for a few hours.
After Kylie had told Elaine the full story, after she admitted that it was Dan who had raped her, how Dan had made her lie and had threatened to hurt Alice if she didn’t, she had messaged Brian. She had asked Brian to take Alice to Claire’s house for a few hours. She knew Claire wouldn’t mind. They often had her daughter, and Alice’s best friend, Chloe for a few hours.