Before his mum and dad could object, he’d spun on his heel, whistled to Bingo, and was off jogging down the path to the gate and out. As he ran, his mind almost buckled under the muddled thoughts pounding at him. He hated this. For years, all through his childhood he’d been the one from the functional, normal family. Mo’s parents hadn’t taken care of him – Greg’s had been even worse. Gus’s family had been the one they’d all gravitated towards and now, at the ripe old age of thirty-five, he’d discovered it was all a lie. His family were as dysfunctional as the next. Each one of them putting lies and deceit before the family unit. The trust was gone, dark secrets always came back to bite you on the arse, but much as he would have liked to have been the one to grill his parents, he couldn’t bear to be anywhere near them right now.
It was as if that safety net of honesty and trust had been ripped from underneath him and as he ran, the breath ragging through his lungs, threatening to spill over into a panic attack, he increased his speed, legs pumping, sweat flying, and heart breaking.
When he burst through the door from the back garden, Alice took one look at him before jumping to her feet and rushing towards him. ‘What’s happened? Are you hurt?’
Breath rasping in his throat, hair sodden, Gus realised he must look a sight. Falling onto a chair by the table, gasping for air as Bingo lapped up water from his water bowl near the back door. Unable to speak, he tried a smile, but judging by the increased furrow across his housemate’s brow, his attempt at reassurance fell far short of the mark. His chest heaved and now that he’d stopped moving, adrenalin settled around his muscles, its insistent throb an indication of the punishment he’d suffer later.
Alice walked to the sink, let the tap run for a few seconds, then handed him a pint glass of cold water, before re-filling Bingo’s empty bowl. Voice tetchy, she glared at Gus. ‘What are you doing running around like a bitch in heat in these temperatures? You should know better. Look at poor old Bingo. He’s knackered.’
Bingo did indeed look knackered. Having drunk his fill, he’d slumped onto his back, legs splayed and belly heaving in time with his panting gasps. Contrite, Gus held out his hand to the dog. ‘You OK, Bingo?’
In response, the dog, gave a satisfied woof and promptly went to sleep. The water landed like a bucket of ice in Gus’s empty stomach and he wished he could just nod off at will, like his four-legged friend. Instead, he knew he’d be plagued by, not just the row with his parents, but also wondering how it all tied in with this murder.
Pushing his half empty glass aside, Gus got up and putting the tap on full blast, ducked his head under it for a second or two before washing the sweat from his face with both hands. From her perch in the seat opposite the one he’d just vacated, Alice tossed him a towel. ‘Don’t drip all over the floor. I mopped it earlier.’
Raising an eyebrow, but not replying, Gus dried his face and ran the towel over his hair to remove the worst of the water, then returned to his seat. ‘You know, Al, things are just sometimes so fucked up.’ And he told her what had happened at his parents’ house.
****
Alice listened without speaking, allowing Gus to spill out his words in whatever way felt comfortable. Everything about him spoke of tension, from the pronounced lines spreading out from his lips, to his brow creased with interweaving tramlines. His fingers burrowed into his damp hair. Alice had little understanding of conventional families because her own was very unusual to say the least.
However, unlike Gus, she wouldn’t consider his family to be strictly conventional. She understood Gus’s need to believe it was. It was both his strength and his weakness that his moral compass didn’t waver – and he refused to make allowances for those he loved. Yes, in the job, he was more than able to empathise with the circumstances and motivations of the people they came in contact with on a daily basis, yet in his personal relationships, he held the bar high … and anything less than complete honesty fell short of that bar.
Aware that she had to navigate these revelations carefully, Alice wished that Gus would, for once, just loosen up – allow his family and friends to be fallible. She knew it was because he expected so much from himself, yet on occasions like this, when he felt betrayed by those he loved, he could stick his head into the sand and be blind to the possibility that people were acting in what they thought might be his best interests … or as Alice suspected, in this case, to preserve some secrets his mum didn’t want to share.
So, while she would eventually have a go at opening up Gus’s viewpoint on this issue, for now, Alice thought it best that she remain in professional police officer mode and leave Gus to lick his wounds. Who knew, he might come round if left to his own thoughts for a while. For one thing, Alice knew that Gus would do whatever he could to protect his parents and that ultimately the thought of their vulnerability would serve to help him meet them halfway.
‘Right.’ Alice’s tone was brisk as she stood up, phone in hand. ‘I’ll get Taffy to come with me and I’ll interview your parents formally and bag the evidence. You can do three things – one, take a bloody shower and eat something, two, contact Prof Carlton, and
