What Julie Walter didn’t know was that her daughter had stabbed one of the perpetrators to death. She had no idea that her daughter’s boyfriend had dragged both of the dead degenerates to the car and set them alight to try and cover the evidence.
“I’m sorry, are we done here now?” Julie asked, her voice cold. Her face was bare, void of her usual makeup, the only stains on her face, the sad tear marks that streaked her cheeks. “We’ve been here all day. My daughter has been through a lot. She’d told you all she knows.”
DC Jones glanced up at Julie, opened his mouth, and then paused as if he were debating whether or not to say something. But Julie, when her children were concerned, was a hard woman. She was furious that her teenage daughter was being subject to what bordered on an interrogation after suffering such violence.
“Spit it out, will you?” she snapped.
Minnie flinched to hear her mother talk so brusquely to a police officer but remained quiet.
“Mrs. Walter. We recently found the missing car.”
Shit. Minnie felt every fibre of her being tense up until she couldn’t breathe. Of course, she knew they’d find it. It would be impossible not to find, but she was hoping it was a matter that could be discussed when she was safely tucked up in her bed, removed from the discussion.
“And?” demanded Julie expectantly. “Surely that’s a good thing? Have you caught the culprits?”
“Mrs. Walter, one of the culprits, is dead.”
At that, a loud, involuntary gasp escaped from Minnie’s lips, which caused both her mother and the officer to stare at her questioningly. Quickly, the young girl jammed her lips tightly together and stared down into her lap, then fidgeted awkwardly as it occurred to her how guilty she must look.
“Minerva?” the detective cocked his head and arched an eyebrow.
“I… well… what? How?” she stumbled over her words, her mouth trembling as her brain scrabbled frantically over itself. Blood flooded to the surface of her skin, its heat scorching her.
One of the culprits was dead.
Which meant that one of them was alive.
Detective Jones leaned back in his seat and contemplated the red-faced teenager sitting across from him. “One suspect… the deceased… was in the passenger seat. The car appeared to have been set alight, so he had been burned to death and also appeared to have suffered inhalation injuries.”
“What has this got to do with my daughter?” Julie demanded. “The idiots blew the car up. Good riddance.”
“Minerva?” the detective asked again, staring intently at her. “Anything you want to share at this point?”
Julie stood up and grabbed tightly onto Minnie’s harm, dragging her upwards. It hurt. “That’s it,” she said, “I won’t have this. She’s not saying anything else without a lawyer.”
“Mrs. Walter…”
“And don’t you dare think I won’t be reporting you for misconduct,” snarled Julie furiously, “this is a disgrace. I’ll be going to the papers as well. Interrogating an innocent victim! An innocent victim who is a MINOR no less, who was SEXUALLY ASSAULTED!”
With that, Julie Walter stormed out of the room, dragging her daughter behind her. Neither said a word until they were out of the station and back in the car, where they both sat, motionless, for a few tense moments in the car park. It was another gloriously sunny day, a pleasantly breezy afternoon that would have been perfect for a picnic or a day at the beach.
Suddenly, Julie turned and grabbed on to Minnie’s hand tightly. She stared intently into her child’s eyes with a strange sense of urgency that made Minnie so uncomfortable that she had to look away.
“Minnie,” Julie whispered, even though they could see nobody else in the car park. “There’s… there’s nothing you’re not telling me, is there?”
The teenager breathed out and debated coming clean. After all, perhaps if her mother knew the truth, she’d be able to help. She’d always been able to solve every problem up until that point in Minnie’s life. What would be so different about this? As soon as her mouth opened, it was like a set of gates were opened, and out poured Minnie’s conscience in one big, hot slippery rush. With every sentence, tears slipped from the corners of her eyes and slid down her cheeks, and she gripped tighter and tighter onto her mother’s fingers, like a helpless infant desperate for comfort.
Chapter Sixteen
2019
Sienna felt useless as the hours passed, like a defenceless pawn, irrelevant and forgotten about at the edge of the chessboard, as the other players went about their business.
Pale blue light began to stream in through the shutters as Minnie, the mother of the family, gently used a cloth to clean Jared up, who was still only semi-conscious. Behind her, the four children, Zach, Samantha (whose real name was Stella), Lloyd, and Flo, sat around the dining table, chomping tortilla chips that they’d helped themselves to out of the cupboard. The father, Ronnie, had disappeared into the driver’s section of the RV, occasionally shouting out comments regarding the functions of the vehicle.
It was all so grossly twisted how the six of them appeared to play house; the mother cleaning; father assessing the navigation; the children chattering merrily as they stuffed their faces with snacks. If she wasn’t so terrified, Sienna might have laughed at how sickeningly bizarre it all was.
Minnie finally breathed a sigh of satisfaction and dropped the dirty rag into the brown plastic bowl of soapy water at her feet.
Sienna chanced a sideways look at her husband. There were still faint brown stains on his face, and his hair was matted and filthy, sticking up in grotesque spikes. His coat had been removed, his clothing underneath remarkably clean over his awkwardly lopsided body. His eyes were opened, just about, and his lips quivered as if he wanted
