‘Sorry, I didn’t hear the question,’ Grace said, looking at Elliott’s earnest face. Her mind was back in the clinic, anxious about what Abigail might be seeing on Penny’s brain scans. Her fingers twitched towards her phone. Any second a message or an image might come through. She’d linked her phone and her shell so that she didn’t miss any information from Janus, particularly the Tier Three bulletins. She knew this was a security risk, but what if Remy was caught? She’d need to know immediately.
The four of them, Grace, Dan, and his friends Elliott and Caro, sat around the large table in the dining room. Dan had scowled when Grace had come in halfway through the main course and downed half a glass of AltCon before even removing her coat.
‘I was just asking how your work was going. You know, anything interesting? That’s why you were late, I take it?’ Elliott probed.
Dan was chatting to Caro, one of his oldest friends and colleagues. They had cut their teeth together as young cyber-journalists and when Caro had met Elliott, also a journalist, he quickly became Dan’s friend too. Grace liked Caro. She was good company. It was a shame Grace’s resentment prevented her from enjoying it this evening.
Dan collected a stack of plates and took them into the kitchen.
‘I’m developing a therapy that might be a little more humane than Aversion Therapy,’ Grace said, hearing the tiredness in her own voice.
Elliott’s ears pricked up at that. His eyes, a little piggy, narrowed and searched her face. ‘Interesting!’ He sipped his drink.
Why had she opened her mouth? He wouldn’t let it go now.
What she wouldn’t give to go back to the clinic and see with her own eyes what was going on.
‘Go on,’ said Elliott. ‘Dish the dirt.’
‘Dan!’ called Caro, laughing. ‘Elliott’s grilling Grace!’
‘Don’t even think about it, Elliott!’ Dan said, bringing a tray of colourful fruit and pastry desserts into the room. He placed it on the table and served the women before handing a dish to Elliott. ‘I’m the husband, I get first dibs on any scoops. Don’t be trying to wheedle out the information when I’m out of the room!’
‘Fair play,’ said Elliott, sipping from his glass again, looking disappointed. He turned back to Grace. ‘So go on, off the record.’
‘I think there’s a less brutal way of approaching the therapy.’ She wondered what Abigail would be seeing at that moment; the nano-scanners should have picked up on some brain activity by now, surely. She took her phone from her pocket and had a quick glance. There was a message from a street-shell.
‘Brutal?’ Elliott asked, his interest piqued further. ‘Do tell us about the mysterious world of Tier Three.’
‘Sorry, work,’ she said, standing up and going into the kitchen.
There was no name but she knew it was Remy. Her guts turned to water.
Where? she typed.
How did he expect her to remember after all this time?
Dan came into the kitchen. She slipped her phone into her pocket quickly. He came up behind her and put his hands around her waist. She felt herself tensing up, and she knew he could feel it too. Had he had too much AltCon or was he just spying on her?
‘Anything interesting?’
‘Just work. Waiting to see if there’s any change in an offender’s brain.’
He let go of her and turned her round to face him.
His smell was so familiar and comforting. A feeling of deep loss overwhelmed her.
‘Does it look like things are going to work out?’ He searched her face and for a moment she wondered if he meant their relationship.
‘No news yet. Although something should have changed by now.’ They moved apart and she felt herself close down as she prepared a pot of coffee and he fetched mugs from the cupboard, both of them moving around the kitchen in a dance of avoidance. He carried the tray into the dining room and she checked her phone again.
Nothing else from Remy. Nothing from Abigail. She followed Dan back into the dining room and tried to focus on her guests.
‘So how are things?’ she asked Caro.
‘Oh you know, baby Lu isn’t sleeping. Mum has her tonight, so I might even get a lie-in.’ Grace let her chat on for a minute, nodding at the appropriate times. She was almost relieved when Elliott interrupted.
‘It’s a shame what happened to your predecessor. Did you know her?’
‘I met her a few times,’ Grace said.
‘The murder rate is really going up around here.’ Elliott raised his eyebrows. ‘First Myriam Kyriacou, and then the Payback couple…’
‘No, that was suicide,’ Grace clarified. ‘They didn’t want to go to Tier Four, they left a note…’
Elliott looked to Dan, who closed his eyes a fraction of a second too long.
‘You haven’t told her yet, Dan?’ He slurped his coffee. ‘The post-mortem suggests it wasn’t suicide after all. Police say the man was holding the gun in his right hand, but he’s left-handed. Foul play. People are getting picked off all around.’ He licked his lips.
‘Elliott!’ Caro admonished.
‘You should have told me, Dan,’ Grace said coldly.
‘You were late, I didn’t get a chance… Plus it’s not exactly the sort of news you want to receive at a dinner party, is it?’ He glared at Elliott.
‘All sounds a bit dangerous at the clinic,’ Elliott banged on. ‘I’m surprised Danny boy here lets you do such a dangerous job.’ He laughed. No one else did.
‘Yes, well, it’s not about “letting” me, Elliott. I don’t need permission to go to work,’ Grace said.
‘Now, come on,’ Caro said in her pleasant but firm way, putting her hand on Elliott’s arm. ‘We were having a nice time…’
‘It’s not a dangerous job. We do a lot of good at Janus, taking care of people’s needs and rehabilitation.’ Grace felt herself getting hot.
‘Bloody rehabilitation! What happened to good old punishment? Retribution?’ Elliott, the smiling provocateur. It was always the same when they were together. ‘You do the crime, you should do the time. I don’t know why all these protestors get so agitated by it. Human rights, my arse! If you break the law then you must expect to suffer the consequences. It’s as simple as that. I don’t think it goes far enough, to be honest.’
‘Elliott, she doesn’t want to talk about work on her night off.’ Caro grimaced and looked apologetically at Grace.
Dan, on the other hand, sat back in his chair, picked up his glass and nodded. ‘So, go on then, Elliott. How far would you go?’
Dan had given him the green light. Elliott leaned in. ‘Lex talionis.’ He nodded and winked at the same time. ‘If you injure someone you should be penalised to the same degree as the injured party. You should take from others what was taken from you.’
‘Lex talionis means that you receive the estimated value of the injury in compensation, not the exact same injury,’ Grace said. ‘So who decides the value of what was taken?’
‘Surely that should be the authorities?’ Caro suggested, interested now, but keeping a wary eye on Elliott.
‘Would they be able to really understand what was lost?’ asked Dan. ‘The Department of Justice would merely introduce blanket compensation for categories of crime, when in reality two people who have suffered the same crime might feel very differently about what was done to them.’
‘So you’re saying it should be the person who’s been injured who decides the punishment?’ Grace asked.
‘But would they be thinking straight?’ asked Caro. ‘Balance and perspective would go out of the window. If someone hurt my Lu, it wouldn’t just be an eye for an eye. I don’t think I’d be able to stop.’
‘I think the vigilantes have the right idea,’ Elliott said. ‘Certainly with the Embers Rapist.’
‘Well, that’s not an eye for an eye, is it?’ Dan said, turning to face him. ‘Should they have killed him, if he only raped them?’
‘Only raped?’ said Elliott. ‘Sounds harsh, Danny.’
‘Some women might think death was preferable, depending on their suffering,’ suggested Caro.
‘You know what I mean, though,’ said Dan. ‘The Payback vigilantes were just trying to compensate the victims. If your idea of eye for an eye is relevant here, then surely they should have done something comparable…’
‘Such as what? It’s not exactly the same for a man.’ Caro sounded irritated.
‘I didn’t say it was. I’m just suggesting something comparable.’
‘And castration isn’t comparable?’ asked Elliott.
‘But it wasn’t just castration, was it? He died,’ Dan said. ‘You can’t leave these things to vigilantes. Maybe Caro is right and the Department of Justice should be sorting out compensation—’
‘But that’s the problem,’ said Grace. ‘Justice is a blunt instrument.’
It riled her how he could sit there and make theoretical judgements. What about the woman who helped the gang steal the foetuses? As wrong as her actions might have been, Grace still felt some empathy for her.
‘But what about people who commit crime for what seems to them to be a good reason?’ Grace asked. ‘Stealing food to survive, for instance. What would you suggest as punishment for that? Let them starve to death?’
‘Well, that’s not going to happen,’ Elliott said. ‘The government don’t let people starve to death any more. It’s not Victorian Britain.’
‘Don’t they?’ Caro asked, but her words were lost in his bombastic rant.
‘Giving the offenders a drug-induced fantasy and a slap on the wrist isn’t justice if you ask me,’ he went on. ‘It’s not even an eye for an eye. It’s no punishment at all.’
‘I think eye for an eye was meant to actually limit the amount of compensation that the injured party could take,’ Caro clarified. ‘So they didn’t go too far.’ She raised her eyebrows at Elliott. ‘So that the compensation didn’t go beyond the instigating crime. It would be all too easy to lose control…’
‘I treated a woman recently who helped a gang steal foetuses because it was the only way she could give birth to a healthy child,’ Grace said. She saw Dan’s face fall. ‘She wasn’t evil. She didn’t do those things to hurt others or to be cruel, but because she was suffering. She couldn’t have her own child. How would you suggest she be punished?’
Elliott didn’t have an answer.
‘An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind,’ said Caro.
Elliott pondered her words for a moment, then took a deep breath and said brightly, ‘Anyway, judging by what Dan has told me, it all sounds pretty dangerous. Maybe you should give up… get on with having children. It’s the best thing we ever did, isn’t it, love?’
Caro smiled and nodded, but immediately looked at Dan anxiously. Grace felt a heat rising in her cheeks.
Not unexpectedly, the evening quickly drew to a close after that.
‘You told Caro?’ Grace asked as Dan loaded the dishwasher after their guests had left.
‘We’ve been friends for years. It helped to have another woman’s perspective on the situation.’ He pushed the full rack into the machine and closed the door.
‘You didn’t need another woman’s perspective. You’ve got my perspective.’ Grace folded her arms.
He turned to face her. ‘I need support too. You’ve got Shannon to talk to. Don’t you think this is hard on me?’
‘Hard on you, Dan? You have no bloody idea!’
‘Anyway, don’t be coming across like you’re all innocent.’
He took hold of a towel and began wiping his hands.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ She felt her cheeks flush again.
‘Who was texting you?’ asked Dan.
‘What?’
‘You were fast enough to hide your phone when I came into the kitchen. Should I be worried?’ It sounded like a vulnerable question, but there was a hard glint in his bright blue eyes.
She turned away from him, picked up a cloth and began half-heartedly wiping down a surface. ‘I told you it was to do with work. You’re not the only one who has a stressful job. There’s a hell of a lot riding on this therapy I’m working on.’
‘Oh yeah, like what?’ Sarcasm laced his words.
What was she risking? A loving, stable marriage, a good job – things that she’d worked hard for, that she’d needed after her difficult start in life. And for what? A stranger from a troubled childhood, who might even turn out to be dangerous.
What the hell was she doing?
The ground beneath her seemed to shake, a seismic crack as the ice began to dissolve. It wouldn’t be long before her past broke through her protective barrier and then there would be no going back.
‘What’s the real reason you don’t want a baby?’
‘I never said I don’t want a baby.’
‘You don’t have to say it,’ he almost shouted. ‘It’s true, isn’t it? The secret text messages, being out late, saying you’re out with Shannon when you could be anywhere…’ His voice cracked. ‘I know you’re seeing someone else, Grace.’
‘No, no, you’ve got it all wrong.’
But he wasn’t listening.
‘I’m going to bed,’ he said without looking at her. She listened as he went upstairs and closed the bedroom door, something that they rarely did.
She stood for a moment in the silence of the kitchen, aware that her next move might change the course of her life.
She could go upstairs and try to reconnect with Dan, try to reassure him that he was the only one for her, that she loved him and things were going to be fine.
Or she could go back to the clinic, find out how the trial went, and then get on with trying to save Remy.
She went into the hall. She put her hand on the banister and peered into the darkness above.
A few minutes later, she was in her car driving back to Janus Justice.