Chapter 7

I just did what I had to do

Why does everybody act like I’m a cold-blooded ***** that you can’t trust around children? I could feel my blood boil in my veins; I was so angry and disappointed. These are the people that are supposed to know me, to trust me; and they all just walked over me and acted like I’m the stupid loser.

Suddenly I felt something pulling at my hair, it was Ryan; he was curling a strand of my hair around his little finger. Cath and Janice appeared around the corner and through the windows I could see them walk towards the break room. Cath opened the door and let Janice in; Janice walked straight up to me and took Ryan from me.

“Thank you.” she said.

“There is no need to thank me, I just did what I have to do.” I smiled at her, and she smiled back weakly, a small smile between her tears.

“How am I ever going to tell him what happened tonight, how can I ever explain it to him?” Janice broke down again. Cath brought her back to the sofa.

“Janice why are you so sad?” Ryan asked her while he hugged her.

“It’s best if you’re honest with him, maybe he’ll act mad or maybe he won’t understand, but at least he knows the truth. Because when you start lying, it’ll be much harder to stick to the story and then when you finally tell him the truth then he won’t believe a thing that you ever said to him, believe me. Kids react like that, especially to a drama like this.” Cath answered Janice.

A man stepped into the break room, Janice looked up at him.

“Marc, they are dead, someone killed mum, Mikayla and John.” He sank down in front of her on his knees and hugged Janice and Ryan.

I looked at Cath and she nodded at the door. We both stepped out of the break room.

“Cath, you’re right, I owe you, can we change the bite into a breakfast when we’re finished?”

“You got that right, girl, you owe me ‘cos I’m starving. So breakfast it is.” She grinned at me. I was glad that she was there to put my mind on other thoughts. What if I really had to handle this case on my own? Cath was staring through the window on the other site of the corridor and I watched her, secretly. Suddenly she turned her face towards me and I turned my eyes down.