Born Evil (33 page)

As the realisation at what had happened to her beautiful daughter hit her, Karen pinched herself to check she wasn’t dreaming. When she realised she wasn’t, she opened her mouth. Her screams could be heard the length and breadth of Centerparcs.

‘FOR FUCK’S SAKE
, Karen, stop screaming.’

Slapping his wife’s face seemed to bring her to her senses. They were in bed, he wasn’t even sure what was going on.

‘Lois has been attacked,’ she mumbled, between sobs.

‘Attacked? What do you mean? Has she been in a fight or something?’ Mickey asked.

Karen shook her head.

He stood up decisively. ‘Look, get dressed, babe, and we’ll be home in a couple of hours. Come on, that’s my girl.’

He was annoyed but calm. Karen was probably overreacting, but if anyone had hurt Lois, his pride and joy, Mickey would fucking well kill ’em. But surely it was nothing like that. She’d probably had an altercation with a gang of girls around Romford or something, maybe ended up with a cut lip or a black eye for her trouble.

‘What exactly did she say, love?’ he asked as he slung his jeans on.

Karen was still on the bed, rocking backwards and forwards. ‘I should never have left her,’ she said over and over again. The shock seemed to have thrown her into a trance.

Mickey knelt down beside his wife and squeezed her hands. When angry, patience wasn’t one of his virtues. He was getting wilder by the minute at Karen’s total lack of communication. ‘I need to know what she said.’

‘She said it was Charlie,’ Karen whispered, knowing the words she’d just uttered would rip their wonderful family apart forever.

The fury and hatred that Mickey felt at that moment would live with him forever. The thought of his evil, perverted scumbag of a nephew laying one finger on his beautiful, kind daughter made him want to commit first-degree murder. Eyes blazing, he snatched the phone off Karen and frantically dialled their home number. His blood ran cold when Dean explained what had happened to her.

Steve, June and Peter had all been woken up by the shouting and screaming and, along with the kids, were now wide awake. Knocked for six by all the wine she had consumed that evening, Debbie was still out for the count and hadn’t heard a thing.

Throwing on a hooded sweatshirt and shorts, Steve ushered the wide-eyed kids back into their bedroom and tapped on Mickey and Karen’s door. ‘Are you two all right in there?’

Mickey yanked the door open with such force it nearly flew off its hinges. ‘No, we’re not. That evil fucking stepson of yours has just attacked our baby … our Lois. I swear to you, Steve, nephew or no nephew, when I get my hands on that little cunt, I’m gonna kill him!’

Steve was still half asleep and had no idea as yet of the enormity of the situation. ‘Calm down, Mick. Don’t do anything rash. You don’t know exactly what’s happened yet.’

‘Don’t do anything rash? You cunt! Are you fucking serious? That perverted little piece of scum has just tried to rape my fucking daughter and I will deal with it exactly how I like. Now move out of my fucking way so I can go and get the motor.’

June, standing behind Steve, burst into tears and went into the bedroom to comfort Karen. She’d always known that one day Charlie would show his true colours, but this was just too awful for words.

Not knowing what to do with himself, Peter put the kettle on. Sometimes he wondered what type of family he’d got himself involved with. Thank God he’d stood down from the Council. He could just see the headlines now: ‘Councillor’s Grandson Rapes and Attacks Cousin’. That would have done his political career the world of good.

Shutting the door of the villa, a shocked Steve followed Mickey outside. ‘I just want you to know, mate, that I’m on your side. Whatever you decide to do with Charlie, I’m with you all the way. I’ve always known deep down that the little shit was an accident waiting to happen, and I’ve only ever suffered him because I love Debbie so much.’

Looking into the eyes of his best pal, Mickey knew he was telling the truth. ‘The kid’s a goner, Steve. There’s no other way. I ain’t letting this one go.’

‘I understand. I’d do the same if it were Rosie or Gracie.’

Throwing his big arm around his pal, Steve led him back into the villa.

Debbie was still dead to the world. It took five minutes of Steve shaking her to rouse her from the drunken coma into which she’d fallen. Sitting up, she rubbed her tired eyes. ‘What’s happening? What’s the time?’

Steve was a big softie at heart. His eyes filled up as he struggled to break the dreadful news to his beloved wife.

‘I don’t know the exact story, Debs, but apparently he attacked Lois and … I dunno … tried to rape her by all accounts.’

‘Never in a million years,’ Debbie cried, leaping from her bed. ‘I know my Charlie’s no angel, but he wouldn’t do that. He’s just a kid, for Christ’s sake.’

Steve looked at her in despair. She just didn’t have a fucking clue when it came to her beloved baby boy.

‘I shouldn’t think Lois made it up. He’s obviously done something, Debs, ain’t he?’

Grabbing her phone, Debbie frantically dialled her landline and then Charlie’s mobile. With no reply from either she grabbed her suitcase and started packing. Her son needed her. She had to get home to him, fast.

By the time Debbie had finished packing, Mickey and Karen were long gone. Alfie was still fast asleep and June had kindly offered to take care of him while they tended to Lois. ‘Don’t worry, son,’ she told Mickey. ‘He can stay with me and Peter. I’ve got loads of clean clothes for him at home, he’ll be fine with us.’

Mickey had nodded, led his distraught wife outside and left immediately.

The stony silence in Steve’s people carrier on the journey home was broken only occasionally by the sound of June’s muffled sobbing. Peter clasped his beloved wife’s hand tightly and, for the first time ever, had no words of comfort for her.

Rosie and Gracie sat huddled together in the back. They’d heard the adults talking and knew that something awful had happened, involving their brother. Rosie was innocent and far too naive to understand the actual gist of the conversation. Gracie was more streetwise. She understood completely.

Noticing her big sister start to sob and shiver, Rosie did her best to comfort her. ‘Please don’t cry, Gracie. It’s not us in trouble – we’ve been good girls. It’s Charlie who’s been naughty. He’s been a bad boy to Lois and now he’s upset her.’

The mention of her brother’s name made Gracie feel nauseous. Unable to reach the window in time, she vomited into her lap.

It was Steve who stopped the car, cleaned his daughter up and tried to soothe her.

Debbie spent the whole journey with a blank expression on her face, staring lifelessly out of the window. She wanted to hear her son’s side of the story before she had him hung, drawn and quartered like everybody else planned to do.

Karen was shaking like a leaf when Mickey screeched to a halt on their driveway. Dean opened the door and briefly summarised all he knew before ushering them into the lounge.

‘Oh Lois, my baby! It’s okay, Mummy’s here now.’

Karen sobbed as she pulled her fragile daughter into her arms.

Lois was trembling so much she could barely speak. The sight of her adoring parents made her feel dirty, embarrassed, and incredibly stupid for having got herself into such a terrible situation in the first place.

‘Did you ring the police?’ Mickey asked Dean.

‘No. I wanted to, but Lois wouldn’t let me. She was adamant she didn’t want them involved, and I didn’t want to upset her any more. I thought I’d best leave that to you.’

The mention of the word ‘police’ made Lois howl like a wounded animal.

‘Please don’t call the police! I won’t talk to them. I swear, if they turn up, I won’t tell them anything. I feel so embarrassed and I can’t talk to strangers. Please don’t call them … please. Tell them, Mummy, I
can’t
tell the police, I just can’t!’

Karen looked at her husband in despair. They couldn’t let an evil little bastard like Charlie get away with this, surely. Walking over to his daughter, Mickey crouched down and took her quivering hands in his. ‘Shhh, stop crying now. Everything’s gonna be okay. We won’t call the police. They’re useless bastards anyway. Daddy will deal with this for you. You have my guarantee, as God’s my judge, that Charlie will get his comeuppance.’

‘Thank you, Daddy,’ Lois said, filled with relief.

She had been absolutely dreading her parents and the police finding out about the drunken text message she’d mistakenly sent to Charlie instead of Dean. ‘Bring some johnnies’would make her look just awful, and she couldn’t face seeing the disappointment of her parents or the ‘she asked for it’ looks from the police. She had managed to erase the message sent from her own phone, but was as sure as hell that Charlie would have kept his and would use it as evidence against her, if needed.

Noticing he’d picked up his car keys, Karen asked Mickey what he was doing.

‘I’m going to find that evil little bastard, that’s what I’m fucking well doing.’

‘Not tonight, please, Mick. We need you here with us,’ Karen pleaded.

With a face like thunder, he slung the keys back on the table, sat down and put his head in his hands. ‘I won’t rest until I find him, Karen. He’s finished, when I get my hands on him. I’m telling ya, that boy’s fucking dead meat.’

‘I know, love,’ Karen said soothingly. ‘But, please, look for him tomorrow. Lois needs you here tonight, and so do I.’

Looking at his two lovely girls sitting opposite him, Mickey could have cried with the unfairness of it all.

Lois was still in no fit state to tell them exactly what she’d been through. But just the thought of that perverted little bastard going anywhere near his beautiful daughter made Mickey feel sick to the stomach; he didn’t want to hear the sordid details. Couldn’t deal with that side of it. That would have to be Karen’s job. Feeling a tear roll down his cheek, Mickey fiercely wiped it away. He never cried and hated men who did. It was a sign of weakness, and weak was the one thing Mickey Dawson wasn’t. Determined to pull himself together, he stood up, picked up his mobile and left the room.

He needed to talk to Steve. His mate would understand how he felt and together they would sort out Charlie’s demise. Pressing the Call button, he listened to the ringing tone and willed his pal to answer.

Steve saw Mickey’s name flash up on his phone and rejected the call. He’d just dropped June and Peter off with little Alfie, and could hardly have a proper chat with his best pal in front of Debbie and the girls.

‘Why didn’t you answer it?’ Debbie asked angrily. She guessed the caller had been her brother.

‘I’ll ring him later,’ Steve replied, annoyed by his wife’s stroppy attitude.

He would rather she had been in floods of tears than sitting there, with a face like a smacked arse, in complete denial. This was all
her
fucking fault. He’d told her that Charlie shouldn’t stay in the house alone. She’d argued and insisted, and now this had happened.

‘Look, Debs, you must start facing facts,’ he told her. ‘I know he’s your boy and you love him and that, but the kid’s a complete wrong ’un. What he’s done to Lois is despicable. Surely, even you can’t condone such behaviour.’

‘I’m not condoning it, but there are two sides to every story. I mean, we don’t even know what did happen yet. For all we know, Lois may have led him on.’

Feeling his temper rising, Steve couldn’t help but shout at her then. ‘So what you trying to fucking say, Debs? That Lois is a lying cunt or something? Is that what you’re trying to say? Well, is it?’

‘Don’t put words in my mouth, Steve. I ain’t said she’s a liar. I’m just saying that, until we know the full story, we shouldn’t judge. I mean, come on, Mickey’s got security gates like Belmarsh fucking Prison. Lois must have let Charlie in else how the fuck would he have got in there? You know what teenagers are like, Steve. I bet she invited him round. They probably got on the drink, and things got out of hand.’

Slamming his foot down on the brakes, Steve mounted the kerb with such force that Rosie and Gracie both screamed. Eyes blazing with anger, he ignore his by now hysterical daughters and turned on his wife.

‘I’ve had enough of this, Debs, and I ain’t putting up with no more of it. That son of yours is the black sheep of the family. He’s evil. Slowly but surely he’s managed to rip this family apart. Well, I’m putting my foot down from this moment on, so best you listen carefully. If what he’s been accused of is true … and I personally would bet a pound to a piece of shit that it is … I am
not
having him in our house around our little girls.’

Debbie couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. Desperate to stand her ground, she yelled at him, ‘So what you trying to say then, Steve? That Charlie’s a nonce case and liable to fiddle with his own sisters. Is that what you’re trying to say?’

Smacking his hand against the steering wheel to stop himself losing it with her completely, Steve shouted back. ‘What I’m trying to get into your thick fucking skull is that them little girls in the back are my babies, my flesh and blood, and I will do whatever it takes to fucking protect ’em.’

Furious, Debbie pummelled him with her fists. ‘You fucking bastard! As if I’d ever let anything happen to our girls.’

‘Please, Mummy … please, Daddy, stop it! Stop fighting,’ Rosie screamed. She was desperately trying to comfort her big sister by putting her hands over her ears to drown out the sound of their parents arguing, but Gracie was hysterical.

The sound of his eldest daughter’s panic-stricken screams jolted Steve back to reality. ‘It’s okay, girls. Mummy and Daddy are fine now,’ he said as he turned the engine back on.

Outwardly, Steve chatted happily to his daughters on the rest of the journey home. Inwardly he was seething. Mickey was right, Charlie had to be got rid of, and if killing the little bastard and disposing of his remains was the only way, then so fucking be it.

MICKEY OPENED HIS
eyes and glanced at his watch. He’d lain awake most of the night but must have dozed off for the last hour or so. Sitting up, he rubbed his tired eyes. Last night seemed like a bad dream. If only it fucking was, he thought to himself as he crept out of bed.