Page 63 of The Therapist
‘Come,’ he calls and a policewoman in uniform steps into the room and hands the detective a note.
His brown eyes widen as he reads the words and then looks at me and says, ‘The gun was filled with blanks?’
‘Not originally, not at first. Not when Ben gave it to me.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Neither did I but I do now.’
The detective sighs. ‘Okay,’ he says. ‘Just tell us everything.’
I lean sideways in my chair, try to stretch the muscles in my back. I feel like I have been here forever.
‘I knew something was wrong when I looked at the bullets in the gun. I wanted to make sure there was one in the chamber so I took them out, just to see.’
‘And they weren’t blanks?’
‘No,’ I say, shaking my head. ‘The gun Ben gave me was filled with real bullets. He wanted me to kill Mike.’
The detective folds his arms and I can see him thinking,This is all bullshit.
‘Let me tell you the rest of it,’ I say before he can end our interview.
‘But remember,’ he says, ‘anything you say may be used against you in a court of law.’
‘I understand,’ I tell him, my heart thumping in my chest, and as I start to speak, I know that I am putting my entire existence – my job, my son, my freedom – on the line. I am putting it all on the line so that I can finally be the one in control of whatever has been going on.
THIRTY-TWO
Mike
He struggles to lie still while the doctor stitches his head. ‘That’s a nasty cut you’ve got there and you banged your head pretty hard so we would like to keep you overnight and monitor you and get a scan in the morning,’ says the young woman.
‘Who are my kids with?’ he asks. He is lying on his side, facing a wall while she works on him.
‘They’re with social services for the night.’
‘They’ll be scared – can’t they come and sleep here? Their mother is…’ He stops speaking because he doesn’t want to say ‘missing’. Besides he has a feeling she won’t be missing for much longer.
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea. You may have a concussion and you need to rest. Do you have anyone else who can take them?’
Mike gives this some thought. He could call his mother or Sandy’s mother. His mother would love to help. But if his mother takes them, then they will be in the house with his father and he doesn’t want that. He has made very sure to protect his kids from his father, making sure that they usually see hismother alone. And they can’t go to Sandy’s mother. He wouldn’t want the kids to be somewhere Sandy could get at them. Who knows what else she would do?
‘I don’t,’ he says.
‘What about your wife?’ enquires the doctor as she snips the thread she is working with and drops scissors back into a metal dish. Nobody has told her what’s been happening. The police haven’t briefed her.
‘No, their mother is not…capable.’ Because that’s the truth. She is incapable of being a mother, of being a wife, of being a person. But he didn’t know how incapable until a few hours ago.
And now he’s not entirely sure how this is going to play out. He rolls onto his back, letting his head rest gingerly on the pillow.
‘Oh, your sister called asking about you,’ says the doctor. ‘Maybe she can take the kids?’
‘No,’ says Mike, ‘she can’t.’
‘Okay…’ The doctor sounds like she would like to ask many more questions but then Mike would have to tell her that he doesn’t have a sister, just a wife, a missing wife now found and clearly asking about him. And why is she asking about him?She wants to know if the deed is done.
‘If you have your phone, you can call her and tell her that you’re staying overnight. If she can pick you up and stay with you after that, just for the next day or so, that would be good.’
