The Silent Daughter

by Kirsty Ferguson

  ‘Okay, show me what you’ve got,’ Mr Simmonds said, smiling tentatively at Oliver. When Oliver starting flicking through the photos, the smile disappeared from the teacher’s face.

  ‘Why did you take these?’ David asked, breathing so heavily that Oliver could hear him.

  ‘Because I love her, and you were taking advantage of her.’

  ‘But…’

  ‘I took them, and you’re going to pay to have them erased,’ said Oliver calmly. If he got enough money he could take his mother away from all of this.

  ‘I… I… I’m going to what?’

  ‘Pay me, David, you’re going to pay me.’ Oliver had never been so bold, not even with Mia.

  ‘How much?’

  ‘I guess I have to wonder how much your career is worth. Possibly even your freedom, I mean, she’s underage, right?’

  Mr Simmonds put his head in his hands and for a moment Oliver thought he was going to cry. He felt a pang of regret. ‘I can pay four thousand dollars, but that’s all I have.’

  Oliver was ecstatic. He had no idea he would get that much money. He could definitely get his mother away from his father now.

  ‘Go get it.’

  ‘What, now? What about my classes?’

  ‘Well, you could go get the money or I could put these photos up on the internet. Which do you want me to do?’

  ‘No. It’ll just take me a couple of days to get it together. I’ll have to go into the bank, I don’t have that kind of cash just lying around.’ David picked up his bag and quickly left the room.

  Oliver was shocked. He couldn’t believe this was actually going to work.

  A few days later, Mr Simmonds found Oliver, grabbed him by the arm and thrust him into an empty classroom.

  ‘I want those photos gone now, for good. Erase them now, in front of me.’

  Oliver held out his hand for the money and took the bag Mr Simmonds gave to him. He opened it up and flicked through the most money he’d ever seen.

  Oliver made a big show of standing beside Mr Simmonds as he wiped the card clean. No more incriminating photos were left on the camera. Although Mr Simmonds didn’t know about the thumb drive. Oliver would be keeping that information to himself. He couldn’t believe Mr Simmonds hadn’t asked if there was another copy.

  ‘Thanks, David, your secret has now been erased forever. No one will ever connect you with Mia Brooks.’ Oliver gave the stunned maths teacher a broad grin before taking off and heading around the corner.

  Danni finally decided what to do, something she should have done with Joe. She decided to confront Mr Simmonds and find out exactly what was going on and why. She didn’t want to wait, but she had no idea where he lived. She was angry, at him, at Mia, at herself. Mia ignored her and Danni didn’t even want to talk to her. Danni was afraid. Afraid of what she might do, might hear, might say.

  She was staring out of the window when the sun finally started to stretch across the sky. She looked at her phone again, three hours until she could confront him. The time passed quickly as Danni repeated in her head the speech she had prepared. Succinct, yet accusatory, but in a calm, reasonable manner. She was going to keep her cool. Finally, she left for the high school. Danni pulled up against the railing that edged the parking lot and killed the engine. She knew who else she’d like to kill.

  David Simmonds.

  She had a thumping headache forming behind her eyes that made her see double for a moment or so, but it quickly passed. Danni knew she couldn’t just walk into the school, but she knew that the gym door was always propped open, totally against school policy, which she had found out when she was on the fundraising committee and some of the parents had gone out for a cigarette. Walking with purpose, like she belonged, she strode down the hallways, looking into the small windows and checking the number on the doors.

  Finally she found the room she was looking for and pulled open the heavy door. She tried to calm her mind but as soon as she saw the handsome man she had hired to tutor her daughter, all reasoning and calmness went out the window. He was talking to the class, facing the teenagers, and explaining something that Danni didn’t understand.

  David Simmonds heard the door open and turned to stare at her, a look of recognition and panic crossing his attractive face in quick succession.

  ‘Mrs Brooks, let’s step into the hallway for a chat,’ he said quickly.

  She stood her ground, staring him down, aware of the whispers of the class.

  ‘Please, Danni, let’s go outside,’ he said quietly.

  She turned on her heel and strode out the door, Mr Simmonds following her quickly, pulling the door closed firmly behind him.

  ‘Danni…’ he begun.

  ‘Don’t even!’ she hissed.

  ‘Danni…’

  ‘How long, David?’ she yelled. ‘How long have you been fucking my daughter?’

  ‘I never, Danni, I never slept with Mia. We were just friends. I was helping her through a tough time. She wasn’t coping at home.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Danni demanded. ‘Are you blaming me for what you did?’

  ‘No, there’s no blame to be had. I’m just saying she was lonely and confused.’

  ‘That’s no excuse to take advantage of a seventeen-year-old girl!’ She was livid, so angry, her blood was boiling. How dare he set the blame at her feet, tell her that he was just helping. Helping!

  Danni saw the window crowded with faces and suddenly smiled slyly. ‘I have proof that you and Danni were together and I’m going to march down to the principal’s office and then the superintendent’s office and show them what I have.’

  He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down nervously. ‘And what do you have, Danni?’ he asked quietly.

  Danni smiled again at him and she folded, then unfolded her arms. This was her nuclear option. It could destroy Mia as well. Did she really want to risk that?

  She pushed past Mr Simmonds and flung open the door.

  ‘Oliver!’ she yelled. The boy looked up with a startled expression on his face at being called. ‘Come here and bring your bag,’ she demanded. He did as he was told, grabbed his bag and walked into the hallway. He looked scared, nervousness written all over his face when he looked at his teacher, who stared down at him.

  ‘I take it you heard what was said out here?’ Mr Simmonds asked.

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Very well, do you have anything to add? Like why Mrs Brooks would pull you out of class to participate in this conversation?’

  Oliver looked down at his feet, scuffing on toe against the floor. ‘No, sir.’

  ‘Bullshit, Oliver! What about what you showed me yesterday?’ she argued, glaring at the boy. He shook his head.

  ‘Fine, I’ll get them myself.’ She spun Oliver around and reached into his backpack, pulling out the camera.

  ‘You can’t just take someone’s private property, Danni. I’m going to have to call another teacher to remove you if you don’t leave right now.’

  ‘You think no one but me knows about the disgusting affair you’ve been having with my underage daughter, but there is someone else. Oliver here.’

  Oliver looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. Startled, eyes wide, mouth popped open.

  Danni turned on the camera and began flipping through copious amounts of shots of Mia, but not the ones she saw of Mia and her tutor just yesterday. ‘Where are they, Oliver?’

  ‘Where are what, Mrs Brooks?’

  ‘The photos you showed me yesterday. The ones of Mia and Mr Simmonds kissing.’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never showed you any photos yesterday. This is the first time I’ve ever spoken to you.’

  Danni looked frantically at Mr Simmonds, then at Oliver. ‘What did you say to him?’ Danni demanded of Mr Simmonds. ‘I saw those photos with my own eyes, now where are they, you little shit?’

  ‘That’s it, I’m calling a teacher to come and remove
you.’ David disappeared back into his classroom, ignoring the stares of his class, and requested two teachers to come and remove Mrs Brooks from the premises.

  Danni was desperately pleading with Oliver, asking him what had happened to the photos, and saying that if he really wanted to help Mia like he said he did, he’d help her now. But Oliver was adamant that there were no other photos and Danni knew she couldn’t prove that she had seen him yesterday without admitting what she had done to him. He would still have his bike as proof that she attacked him. She would have to get rid of that crowbar as soon as she could. There’d be paint flecks that police could connect to the damage to the bike. But why was he lying now?

  Danni turned as she heard heavy footsteps barrelling down the hallway. Two teachers dressed almost identically in black pants and checked shirts were coming towards her.

  ‘It’s time for you to leave now, Danni,’ Mr Simmonds said, after coming back outside.

  ‘This isn’t over.’

  ‘Yes, it is.’ Danni saw David touch Oliver on the shoulder and guide him towards the classroom.

  Before the teachers escorted her from school property she yelled, ‘Why did you set fire to my house?’ She saw the shocked look on his face. She wanted to question him further, but the men crowded in beside her without actually touching her and hustled her out of the building. Danni had started the engine when she heard someone calling out her name.

  She looked to the left and saw Jane running across the cracked asphalt. Jane made it to the car, and went to open the door, missing the handle the first time then catching it the second time. She threw herself in the car.

  ‘Didn’t think I’d catch you,’ she said, breathing heavily. She must have run all the way from maths class to the car park.

  ‘What are you doing here, Jane?’

  ‘I wanted – needed – to talk to you.’

  ‘What is it?’ Danni asked wearily, all the fight gone from her.

  ‘It’s about Mia. There’s something you should know.’

  ‘What is going on? I feel like we’re going around in circles.’

  ‘I’m guessing she didn’t tell you what happened, then?’

  ‘What happened?’ demanded Danni, brushing her fingers through her hair in exasperation. She was running out of patience, fast.

  ‘Well, you know about Oliver.’

  ‘You know I know about that little fuck. What is it you want to tell me?’

  ‘Okay, well he was following her everywhere. Wherever she was, there he’d be, watching, just being creepy in general. She started to get really paranoid.’

  ‘Jane, I know all of this.’

  ‘You don’t know this.’

  ‘Jane!’ Danni yelled, her voice rocking around the beat-up car with the peeling interior. The girl flinched back from Danni, her eyes wide.

  Danni immediately wanted to take her words and her anger back, but it was too late. She had scared the young girl.

  ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to…’ she trailed off. ‘What did you want to tell me?’ she asked quietly and calmly. She hoped Jane would trust her again.

  ‘As I was saying,’ she said, ‘Oliver had been stalking Mia. He knew where she was every second of the day. He followed her everywhere, making her really uncomfortable. We went to a party one night, I had to convince her to come. I said we were staying home watching movies, but we snuck out. She had two beers about an hour apart but she seemed… drunk, out of it. I asked the guy pouring the drinks what she’d had. He said what I’d thought, that Mia had just had two beers. I looked for her, but she was gone. I asked around but not many people seemed to know her so I started asking about Oliver instead. Some guy had seen him helping some wasted girl upstairs. I panicked. I ran up the stairs two at a time. I banged on the first door, but they weren’t in there, I did the same for the three other rooms, then I barged into the last room. You know what I was expecting to see. Oliver and Mia, maybe him on top of her… you know. But he wasn’t there. She was, though,’ Jane said, looking down into her lap.

  ‘What happened then?’ prompted Danni, wanting the girl to keep on speaking.

  ‘I found her in the bathroom, her head half in the toilet, hair hanging over her face, passed out. I yelled her name, shook her shoulder, but she didn’t wake up. I saw a bottle of pills next to her. It was empty. I did the only thing I could think of; I stuck my fingers down her throat until she puked them all up. She was okay but groggy. I dragged her to the bed where I kept her awake for the rest of the night. Come morning, she was back to her old self but didn’t want to talk about it.’ Jane stared at Danni as if trying to read what she understood. Danni was silent, uncomprehending.

  ‘Danni, don’t you see? She tried to kill herself.’

  ‘No! She would never do that! She never would. It was just a mistake, a terrible mistake,’ Danni whispered, but something niggled at the back of her mind.

  ‘This happened because of Oliver. He pushed her to the brink, then over. Mr Simmonds brought her back. He loves her.’

  ‘He loves her? What kind of love is that?’

  ‘I’m not sure, I just know that it’s true. Mia felt it.’ Jane put her hand on the door but was stilled by Danni.

  ‘Thank you, Jane,’ she said. Letting go of Jane’s hand, Danni started thinking. Was it possible that David was trying to protect her daughter after all? She needed to speak with Oliver, but this time, there wouldn’t be much talking.

  23

  Oliver spent the rest of the day in a happy haze. He passed the time alternating between looking at the scenery out of the window and the pretty girls inside his class. He wore a dopey grin on his face, his eyes unfocused. He almost looked like he was stoned. All he had to do now was get home and convince his mother to leave with him as soon as possible. He was counting on his father being at the pub so he could get his mother out of the house without his dad even knowing. He was sure that would be the easy part, especially when she saw the money. He could always blackmail David again if the four grand didn’t go as far as he hoped.

  Oliver rode his too-small bike with the wonky wheel home. It was rough going over the dirt road, the clods breaking under his wheel, causing his bike to veer off course. He frowned, at this rate, he was ever going to get home to his mother before his father arrived back. It wouldn’t do Oliver any good to be found with that much money.

  Finally, he arrived home, the breeze drying the sweat that had dotted his chest and his previously neatly combed hairline. He didn’t care. A new school and a new life, just what he and his mother needed. He gently put the old bike around the side of the house under his window with the beat-up bike. No one ever came around this side of the house so no one would see the two bikes and ask questions.

  His mother was in the kitchen as usual, making God knows what, but it smelt amazing. She was a great cook and an even better mother. She deserved everything he could give her.

  ‘Hi Mum,’ he said grinning broadly.

  She smiled back at him. ‘What’s got you so cheerful today?’

  ‘Well, I guess I’ve finally figured out a way to start a new life,’ he said, excitement colouring his voice.

  ‘A new life?’ she asked, stopping what she was doing and tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. ‘What are you talking about, Ollie? You’re not making any sense.’

  Oliver opened the bag so she could see the money inside. ‘It’s four grand, Mum. You and me, we could get the hell out of here and away from that sadistic fuck. Go pack your bag, now. Please,’ he added when she didn’t move immediately. ‘We can run away together now, start a new life.’

  ‘Just leave, Oliver? Your dad… I… love him.’

  ‘So, you love being bashed about every night? You love hiding the bruised eyes do you? ’Cos I don’t. It’s a start, Mum, enough to get us going,’ he begged.

  ‘Get you going where?’ a deep, husky voice asked as his father’s bulk filled the doorway.

  Oliver turned in horror, grabbed the
bag and made a mad dash for the door that led into the hallway. His dad lunged at him and for a second, Oliver thought he was free and clear until he felt the iron grip of his father’s fingers latch onto his wrist.

  ‘Fuck!’ Oliver yelled, his voice filled with frustration.

  ‘Come back here, boy, and explain yourself. Where were you going?’ He pulled Oliver back into the kitchen and threw him into a chair. His mum stared at him, petrified of what her husband might do to her son. At least she hadn’t been packing a bag when her husband came home. She might be able to plead Oliver’s case to him.

  His dad looked at him with bushy lowered brows, his mouth sneering, one side curled up. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked in that low tone of his that sounded reasonable but was anything but.

  Oliver sighed. There was no point lying. ‘I found some interesting photos of a teacher with a student and I gave that teacher a chance to buy their deletion.’

  ‘So you blackmailed someone? To what end?’ he demanded.

  Oliver looked at his mum who had sat down and was now trembling in her seat.

  His dad banged a meaty fist on the table. ‘To what end?’ he asked again.

  ‘I – I was trying to convince Mum to come away with me, start again without you. Didn’t work though, she refused to come,’ he said, hopefully saving his mum a beating later.

  ‘You need a fair amount of cash to run away. You got that?’

  ‘Four grand.’

  ‘Four grand?’ He could see the greedy look in his father’s eyes. The planning, the execution, the blackmail, all gone to waste. His dad would most definitely take it now. He grabbed at the bag and looked inside, whistling to himself. ‘That’s a lot of bets at the ponies with a chaser of beer.’

  ‘Or you could put it on the mortgage,’ Oliver said, trying to offer an actual solution for the money. He didn’t see the punch coming until it hit him in his eye. Tears instantly streamed down his face, his mother screamed and his eye swelled shut.

  ‘Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do with my money. Now, tell me this guy’s name and where the copies of the photos are.’