The statement hung in the air between us. I had to fight to suppress the bile burning into my stomach lining. Yeah, he was her dad, alright. The same dad who, meanwhile, was taking pornographic photos of her. He’d heard it, too, I think, and kept his head down as he pushed the toilet bag into a top pocket of the travel bag. I thought he’d finished and was surprised when he started up again.
‘But then, when I talked to Karen, I realised I was wrong. She’d paid her debt for … what she did. She’d changed. She told me she was going to a Christian commune in the States. I told her to take Sunny with her. Travel a bit. Get to know each other.’
I snorted in disbelief. ‘I don’t believe you. Why would you go from not wanting them to meet, to suddenly deciding Sunny should go off overseas and live with her.’
There was something he wasn’t telling me. He looked at me, his mouth working, but then he clamped it tight and hefted his bag to the floor. The moment had passed. I gave it one more shot.
‘Karen hired me to find out if you were molesting Sunny.’
He shrugged himself in a jacket. ‘You’re lying. I don’t believe Karen would ever think that of me.’ He seemed surprisingly calm and confident about that.
‘Okay, it’s true she didn’t actually say you were molesting her,’ I admitted. ‘But she did say she wanted to make sure Sunny was okay — that she was safe.’ His eyes flicked from side to side as if he was reading text. ‘And she was right; Sunny wasn’t safe with you, was she?’ A flicker of confusion crossed his face. ‘Is that what happened, Justin? Karen threatened to go to the cops and tell them what you were doing? Is that why you killed her?’
He was following his own thoughts and answered me by rote. ‘I didn’t kill Karen. Even the cops know I didn’t kill her. Ask them.’
‘Salena said there are other charges pending. It’s just a matter of time.’
‘That’s not about Karen’s death. It’s more of this shit. They’re going to upgrade the charges against me for the photos of Sunny. I’ve never even seen those photos before. The cops tried to make me look at them but I wouldn’t do it. The first one was enough for me. It made me sick. I’d never do anything like that to Sunny. Karen knew that.’ I must have been looking at him sceptically. ‘I didn’t kill Karen and I didn’t take those photos of Sunny, but, you know what? I don’t care what you think.’ He yanked up the bag and carried it to the door.
There was only one other possibility. ‘Did you kill Falcon? Is that what Karen had over you?’
He dropped the bag and advanced on me, his face blotchy with rage and didn’t stop until his face was right up close to mine. I stood my ground but I was intimidated. ‘Every fucking day of my life I miss that little boy. I loved my son more than life itself. Nothing and no one can ever fill the hole Falcon’s death left in me.’
We both turned at the sound. It was Neo. He stood in the doorway, mobile phone still clutched in his hand. Justin looked at him. He knew Neo had heard him. I expected him to cross the room to Neo. To put his arms around his son and reassure him that he was the centre of his life. He didn’t. Hoisting the bag over his shoulder, Justin pushed past Neo and continued down the hall. We listened to him clatter down the stairs, then heard the front door slam shut. Neo was frozen to the spot, staring in the direction his father had gone.
‘Come on.’ I put my hand on Neo’s shoulder. ‘Let’s go see Sunny.’
Neo shrugged my hand off his shoulder. ‘I want to go with Dad.’
As if in response, Justin’s car roared out of the driveway, gravel spitting. In silence we listened to it turn into Jervois Road and then the individual sound of his car accelerating was swallowed up by the noise of the other traffic.
The tears made Neo’s eyes look enormous.
‘Come on, Neo. Let’s go.’
‘Why didn’t he take me?’ he asked plaintively. It was the last thing I expected him to say.
I offered Neo a seat in the front but he said he liked it better in the