Her legs felt like lead as she climbed the stairs to her flat. She unlocked the door, locked it again behind her, and went straight to the kitchen. She took off her jacket. She opened a beer and put the rest in the fridge. She plated up her food, grabbed a knife and fork, and turned to the kitchen table.
On the table there was a parcel. It was about the size of a shoebox, wrapped in black embossed paper, and tied with a red velvet ribbon.
Judith put down her beer and her food. She had no gun. It was locked in the armaments room in the station. She took a knife from the kitchen drawer. She searched the flat, room by room, then again, every space, under the bed, the shower, her wardrobes. The apartment was empty. She went back to the kitchen, put down the knife, and picked up the beer. She drank half of it in one go. Then she went to the table and opened the box.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
After the cops took Cam’s dad away on Sunday night, a policewoman stayed behind to wait with him.
‘You can go,’ he told her. ‘I’m fine by myself.’ He didn’t want her in the house. He wanted to be by himself. He wanted to get on Discord and call his friend Noah and tell him what had happened. But at the same time he didn’t want to tell Noah anything. He just wanted his dad back. If he got his dad back,whenhe got his dad back, this would be a mad story he could tell his friends. But until then he didn’t think he could tell anyone.
‘I can’t go,’ the police officer said. ‘I need to stay with you to make sure that you’re safe.’
‘We were safe before you got here.’
He went into his room and shut the door. He thought that she’d follow him but she didn’t. He sat on the floor beside his bed and drew his knees to his body, and cried. After a while, someone knocked. Lola and Doris came in, and their nanny. The new one. He couldn’t remember her name.
‘Cam? Are you okay?’ Lola asked.
He couldn’t really talk, so he just shook his head. Lola came over and sat down beside him and hugged him. He let her do it. She was so nice, Lola, but she couldn’t fix anything.
‘Cameron.’ The nanny knelt beside him. ‘I think you must be very scared. Please don’t worry. You come with me and the girls,d’accord? We will take care of you.’
She helped him pack his schoolbag and told him to take anything he wanted. She was really nice, and Lola was really nice. Doris just wanted to play with his stuff and she complained when they had to go but she was only little. She didn’t understand. In the car they didn’t talk at all. Lola held his hand.
He’d forgotten to pack his school uniform, which was pretty stupid. All he’d brought was books and his Switch. The next day, he went to school in his joggers. Going to school was... really messed up. Elsa said it would be better to go, but it wasn’t. How could it be better to sit in school when everything was normal but completely not normal at the same time. He couldn’t think straight at all and got four questions wrong in maths. After class, Mrs Douglas took him aside and asked him if everything was okay at home, which made him feel really, really scared all of a sudden. He nearly cried, but he didn’t because he couldn’t cry in front of his teacher, at school. No. Just no. When he said everything was fine but his dad just had something come up at work, she nodded, but she looked like she didn’t believe him really, and then she sent him out to play.
‘So, how come you’re not wearing your uniform?’ Reilly asked him, when they were on the climbing frame, right up at the top.
Suddenly Cameron was sure he didn’t want to tell them the truth. ‘It’s dirty. My dad forgot to wash it.’
‘But don’t you have, like, a second uniform?’
Cameron shrugged.
‘Bro, you need to get a second uniform. I’ve got like, three shirts.’
‘Dude, that’s uniform shaming,’ Noah said.
Reilly rolled his eyes.
‘Let’s play handball,’ Cameron said. He swung himself down off the climbing frame. Reilly and Noah followed, and they played handball, and they argued about the rules and who was out the way they always did, and that was the best part of the day.
But after school, Celine picked him up with Lola, and they went back to Lola’s house again, and he talked to Lola’s mum and asked her if everything was sorted out yet and when she said no, not yet, he asked if he could speak to his dad on the phone, and he couldn’t keep it together, he tried so hard, but he couldn’t, tears came no matter how much he tried. Elsa hugged him and told him she was really, really sorry, but not just yet.
All of that was bad, but everything got way worse on Tuesday evening. Cam was upstairs, watching TV with Lola and Celine. Doris was already in bed. Lola’s mum called him downstairs. She sat him down at the kitchen table.
‘Cam, I think it’s going to be in the papers. Probably tomorrow. Your dad’s arrest. So people might be talking about it.’ She put out her hand and took his firmly. She wouldn’t let him pull away. ‘Look at me. Your dad doesn’t even know who the guy is, okay? He’d never even heard the guy’s name before the police mentioned it. This is all a big mistake. And we’re going to fix it, okay? You just have to trust me.’
After that she’d hugged him and offered him all sorts of random things to eat and asked if he needed anything for school and promised that they could go to his house to get his stuff, all his own clothes and everything, just as soon as she could organise to get a key. And then she sent him to bed. He thought he would never sleep, but he did eventually, and in school the next day no one seemed to know anything. But by Thursday, everyone knew. He could tell because people were looking at him and acting weird, and because during recess, Noah came right out and asked him about it.
‘My dad didn’t do it.’
Noah and Reilly exchanged glances.
‘No. I’m serious. I know that’s what people say, but like, my dad’s friend says my dad didn’t even know the guy, and the police have made a mistake. And he’s got a really good lawyer now so it’s all going to be sorted out by the weekend.’
That could happen. That could really happen. He could wake up in his own bed on Saturday morning, and his dad could make him breakfast, and the two of them could go to the park for the whole day, because who could do homework after a crazy week like the one they’d had?
