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‘Go on,’ Kim urged, sensing she was about to hear the kind of story that had become very familiar to her during her years as a police officer.
‘It was accidental. He was trying to swat me away. It was just a slap.’
It was an escalation as far as Kim was concerned.
‘He was mortified. He bought me flowers and everything. He couldn’t say sorry enough. He was so loving. It was no big deal.’
Until the next time, Kim thought.
Teresa’s acceptance of the abuse saddened her, but that wasn’t her concern right now. Her abuser was dead and was never going to hurt her again.
‘Did you tell anyone about the violence?’ Kim asked.
Teresa recoiled, but Kim refused to change the wording.
‘Well, it wasn’t really violence. I mean it was just—’
‘But did you tell anyone?’ Kim pushed.
‘I m-might have mentioned it to my dad.’
‘Anyone else?’
Teresa shook her head miserably, as though this was something she really hadn’t wanted to share.
Kim rose and stepped into the kitchen for the second time that day, closing the door behind her and leaving Bryant with Teresa.
Rufus got up and moved towards the lounge door, eager to return to his daughter.
‘One second, Mr Fox. May I just confirm whether or not you knew that Eric was abusing Teresa?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘You heard me, Mr Fox,’ Kim said, ignoring his play for time. ‘Did you know?’
Jackie was staring at the back of her husband’s head as though she too was waiting for an answer.
He sat back down. ‘Yes, she told me recently.’
‘Rufus, what the hell?’ Jackie cried.
‘She didn’t want you to know,’ he said, facing his wife. ‘I urged her to leave him, to come back home. I threw every statistic on domestic violence I could find at her. She swore he’d change. I told her he’d only get worse, but she wouldn’t hear it.’ His face was flushed. ‘I’m not even sorry he’s dead. He had no right putting his hands on her.’
Kim didn’t disagree, and she couldn’t even imagine the parental protection gene that would have kicked in on learning the news. She could only liken it to someone hurting Barney, and that alone incited a white-hot rage within her.
‘Did you speak to him about it?’ Kim asked. She had trouble visualising this man being able to keep quiet.
He shook his head. ‘She swore she’d have nothing to do with us if I breathed a word to him. And she’d have done it too. She gets her stubbornness from her mother.’
Jackie nodded her agreement, although she still looked shaken at learning the true nature of her daughter’s relationship.
‘You must have been pretty angry when she confided in you,’ Kim said.
‘That may be the biggest understatement of your career, Inspector. I wanted to tear him apart limb by limb with my bare hands.’
And that probably would be possible with those hands, Kim thought.
‘But not at the risk of losing my daughter,’ he continued. ‘I had to just bite my tongue and hope it was a one-time thing.’
