Maddie sat a long time at the kitchen table. Wayne was in his usual place, in front of the television set which was turned up louder than usual. Protecting himself from thinking, most likely. She finally got up and saw she’d been sitting there only about ten minutes. It felt like hours.
Once she’d cleaned up the kitchen and made a fresh pot of tea for herself – she certainly wasn’t about to offer Wayne another cup – her phone rang.
Jade.
“You got to Kim’s all right?” Maddie asked, fearful she’d been diverted from her usual slight worrying, and something had gone wrong.
“Yeah. Kim’s mum picked us up. We’ve had some study time already and a swim in their pool. Pizza for dinner. Everything is fine, Mum. Are you okay? You sound a bit funny.”
“Fine, Jade. I’m in the kitchen and your father’s watching television. As usual.” She was pleased her voice came out naturally, finally.
“Right. Well, I just thought you’d like to know Kim texted Freya. It’s early afternoon over there. And Freya rang back.”
Maddie’s heart thudded. “And?” she asked.
“And Kim told her that her father had come onto me. I wasn’t there, Mum. I was in the kitchen helping with the dishes and talking to Mrs. Hogan. Kim had excused herself after dinner. When she came back after, oh, maybe twenty minutes, she told us what had happened. It wasn’t me doing anything, honest.”
Maddie realised Jade thought her mother would assume she’d orchestrated it. But she knew Jade well enough. Things were so delicate with the police, Dymock and the two of them being so involved with his arrest, Jade would understand she’d have to stay well away from stirring up the pot.
“I know you wouldn’t, Jade,” Maddie said. “But tell me what happened before I travel down this phone line and shake it out of you!”
Jade laughed her relieved laugh and Maddie relaxed.
“Kim had thought about us not knowing other girls had been targeted by Donald. Nobody at school wanted to tell us. Mostly, nobody wanted to tell Freya about her father. So, Kim decided Freya needed to know everything and right now before someone else told her. Like the police. Or, worse, her mother. Otherwise, she’d be super furious at us.”
“There’s some wisdom in that, I suppose,” Maddie said. “But difficult to do.”
“I sure wouldn’t want to do it. But Kim’s shy but brave, you know?”
Maddie wouldn’t call Kim shy. More self-possessed and quiet. Mature for seventeen.
“She told Freya that not only did her father come onto me, but several other girls, too. And for some, way worse. Like, they’re all now discussing maybe it was him who’d done it to Geneva then got to like it.”
Maddie shivered. Teenaged girls, figuring things out for themselves. But not talking to any adults about it because the subject was taboo.
And whose fault was that?
“Poor Freya,” Maddie said. “It must have been very difficult for her.”
“When Kim told me, I texted Freya saying if she wanted to talk, to just ring.”
“Has she?”
“No. But she’ll have to sort things out inside her head, I bet. Before she rings.” Her voice dropped. “Or decides not to ring.”
“And we have to respect that, “Maddie said in an equally soft voice. “You okay?”
“Yes. Fine. But all we can talk about is bloody Donald.”
“Does Mrs Hogan know?”
“Yeah. We told her. She’s horrified, of course. But not going crazy about it. She’s okay.”
“Try to get some studying in, Jade. That’s why you’re there.”
“Will do.”
After saying she’d see Jade when she got home tomorrow after school, Maddie went upstairs. She had no desire to bring Wayne up to date on the latest.
The next morning, she dithered about informing Ethan. But he rang before she could decide.
“I’ve just had a telephone call I know you’ll be interested in,” Ethan said.
“Go on,” she said. Interesting enough to ring? She was listening with all ears. “Who from?”
“The principal of Horscliffe. Suddenly, he’s all informative.”
“Like he wasn’t before?”
“Like he definitely wasn’t before.” He drew a long breath. “Seems our Mr Gym Teacher was the subject of a parental complaint a wee while ago. Inappropriate suggestions to a schoolgirl.”
“And the principal hadn’t said anything about it when you questioned him after Linsey’s murder?” Maddie was aghast.
“He says he put it down to a schoolgirl’s fantasy. But I have a feeling this wasn’t the first.”
“Come on, Ethan. Why?”
“Because he put Dymock on notice – extra supervision, that sort of thing. More importantly, gave him some friendly advice to start looking for a new position, meaning ‘resign or I fire you’ in anybody’s language. It doesn’t fit. If this was the first complaint and the principal dismissed it as an adolescent crush, why threaten the guy’s job? So not the first complaint. Covering his arse. But the most interesting part of all is the date. Tell me, Maddie. When did this happen?”
“No,” she breathed. “Really? Damn him to hell. Actually, both of them.”
“Yes,” he said, no teasing in his voice at all now. “Indulge me, Maddie. When?”
“The day Linsey Benton was killed. Of course.” Dymock’s lifestyle threatened. More than threatened. Finished. At least in this country. “He would have been spiralling out of control. Bottled up fury. Ready to explode.”
“And took it out on a young schoolgirl,” he said. “I knew you’d put it together. We’re a good team, Madeleine Brooks. Don’t you dare quit your job.”
“Yes, well…”
He barked a laugh. “There’s more. I must thank your daughter, too.”
“About which part of this increasingly involved story?” Maddie raised her eyebrows even though Ethan couldn’t see her.
“The part about nicking Dymock’s phone.”
“You found the call he made to her?”
“Yes, that. But something a bit more important. And an explanation about why his response to her nicking his phone was so over the top.”
“Come on, Ethan. Spill.”
“He’d taken photos through some sort of peephole into the girls’ changing rooms at the gym. Some were still on his phone.”
“The sleazebag!” OTT? Certainly was, and then some. Threatening to kill her by throwing her over the bannister? More than a sleazebag. Beneath contempt. A monster.
“And he likes the little girls. The eleven and twelve-year-olds. Most of the photos were of pre-pubescent kids.” He sighed. “Also, I think your daughter has been busy again,” he said.
“The international phone call?”
“Calls,” he said.
“Not Jade this time. One of her friends, though.” She paused. “Did you say ‘calls’, plural?”
“I did. Donald Dymock received a call from Freya. His daughter in New York.”
“Did he now….”
“Apparently someone called his daughter. Gave her the dirt about her father and her friends. She called him. And I can tell you, he came off that call in a bad state. He then rang his lawyer who dutifully came in. Dymock wanted to make a new statement.”
“You’re drawing this out, Ethan,” Maddie said.
He chuckled. “Guilty. And so is that pervert. We’ve got the bastard, Maddie. He admitted it all. Every last bit including selling those kiddie pics on the dark web. And he confessed to the rape of Geneva Hopworth all those years ago.”
“Really?”
“Really. He was distraught by the daughter’s phone call. And his lawyer’s advice was that it was all coming out, so getting it all done and dusted early would act in his favour.”
“He’ll get life?”
“Possibly. Probably. The only question will be how long the non-parole period will be.”
Maddie came off the phone and felt a relieved grin spread across her face. A confession. Jade wouldn’t have to testify. Henry would get his conviction quashed. Geneva wouldn’t have to relive it all in front of the world.
Sometimes, good things happen.