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“You wanted to give Caroline Lynch a chance at filling your pockets with her money. Yes, I know. Tell me about Caroline’s kid.”
Richard swallows like a convulsion is running through him. He’s bouncing his legs, and there’s a thin droplet of sweat slowly rolling down the pallid length of his face. He’s getting nervous. Maybe he’s smarter than he lets on, maybe he knows what I’m slowly getting at. He gives a one-shoulder shrug.
“I don’t remember her much.”
“Eight years, Dick.” My tone remains calm, patronisingly remonstrative. “You watched that child grow up. Come on.”
“What is it you want me to tell you? I didn’t touch her, alright? I’m not a fucking pedo, I hate kids.”
“You hated her, too?”
“No—no, Willow was… look, she was a weird kid. Quiet, scrawny, like a little fucking—fucking mouse. Those big eyes. She’d stare at me, it made my blood run cold. I didn’t like her, alright. I never liked kids, ask anyone.”
“Is that why you hurt her?”
Richard licks his lips, looks nervously around. I know he’s asking himself questions right now. Are the security cameras on? Is there anyone watching behind the window?
Right now, he’s hoping there is.Prayinghe’s not alone with me.
But he is.
“Is that why you hurt her? Because of the way she looked at you?”
“I never touched her like that, I swear to god. Iswear to god.”
“How did you touch her, then?”
“I was—I was a bit rough with her, alright? I have—I have a drinking problem. I was drinking a lot at the time, we both were, Caro and I, and sometimes, yeah, sometimes I smacked her around a little, alright. I didn’t do anything wrong—I neverabusedher.”
“How did you touch her?”
He’s pale all over now, eyes flying across the room, side to side, up and down, looking anywhere but at me.
“You must have realised by now that you’ve reached an impasse. You’re trapped, and you have no way of escaping. Your life from here on out is going to get very difficult, Dick, and very painful. As painful, frankly, as I can make it become. And if you know who I am, then you know the power I have at my disposal. So why don’t you make things easier for yourself, right now, while you still can?”
He’s shaking from head to toe now. He shakes his head, but he still spits it out.
“I hit her.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know—everywhere, alright. Wherever I could reach. I was going through a difficult time, I was drinking a lot, I—”
“How old was she when you first hurt her?”
“How should I remember, I—ten, eleven? I don’t know, I don’t know.”
“How old was she when you stopped?”
“What? I—I don’t know. She left, she ran off, she was always getting herself in trouble. I never saw her again, I swear.”
“Did it feel good?”
His eyes finally rise to mine once more. “Wha—what?”
“Did it feel good, hurting Willow Lynch?”
“No—no, of course not. I didn’t do it because it felt good, I did it because she was… because I was angry. Like stomping on a rat. Nothing more.”
