Chapter 13

I didn’t hear any more about the case until Shona phoned me one evening. Of course Mum had to go through the whole ‘It’s your non-girlfriend’ routine.

“Hi,” said Shona. “I’ve got mixed news. Cathy is in the Psych Ward at the local hospital. They gave her a sedative and she’s resting peacefully. They’re going to do an assessment tomorrow morning, after which she’s likely to be released.”

“What happened?”

“Tim obtained photographs of the sons. Even before he could ask Cathy to look at them, she saw the pictures and identified the men as the rapists. Then she went into meltdown.”

“Shit, it was a rotten idea,” I said. “I should have thought of an alternative way to nail the bastards that didn’t involve Cathy.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” said Shona. “It will be worth it in the long run. Whatever action Tim decides to take, it will provide closure to Cathy. Then she’ll be able to get on with her life.”

“Does Elize know?”

“I think she knows about Cathy being admitted to hospital. Don’t tell her what caused the meltdown. Our official story is that it was caused by a flashback, like PTSD. She’s had them before, only not for a while.”

“Okay.”

When I went back to my room, there was a gentle knock on the door. “Come in,” I invited, grateful that Elize was now respecting my privacy.

“You dog!” she said. “Getting phone calls from your non-girlfriend.”

“Well it wasn’t good news. Cathy had a meltdown and she’s in hospital, under sedation.”

“Yes, I already heard,” said Elize. “I thought you wouldn’t be interested. Unless you caused it, of course.”

In a way I had, but I didn’t want to go into all the complexities. “I promise you I haven’t been in touch with Cathy since Shona and I went to pick her brains,” I told her.

Fortunately Cathy was judged fit to be released the next day, and returned to college the day after. She managed to convince the hospital psychiatrist with the PTSD flashback story, but she was given a follow-up appointment as an out-patient.

Just over a fortnight later, Elize’s nerd squad held a study session at our place. I got a nice greetings hug from Justine, but the other girls gave me a wide berth. Then mid-afternoon, my studying was interrupted by a gentle knock on my door.

“Come in,” I called out, expecting Elize. It was Shona.

“I have something to show you,” she said, brandishing a copy of the local weekly newspaper. She opened it at an earmarked page. “Don’t tell anyone, particularly Cathy,” she ordered. “Tim’s working out the best way to break the news.”

I Immediately spotted the article I was supposed to read because it occupied half the page: ‘Tragedy as Brothers Die in House Fire’. And underneath was a photo of a fire-damaged house. There was no picture of the brothers, so the newspaper had encountered the same problem I had.

The body of the article reported that two bodies had been found. Although their identities had yet to be confirmed, neighbours reported that two brothers lived in the property: Joseph and Joshua Hallom. “They were good boys,” said one. “Kept themselves to themselves and never caused any trouble.”

A fire investigator found no suspicious circumstances, deeming it a needless tragedy. The fire started downstairs, due to faulty wiring, while the brothers were upstairs asleep. They’d been overcome by smoke. “People who live in old houses need to get their wiring checked. It could save their lives,” advised the investigator.

“Tim’s a nice guy,” I said.

“Yes he is, isn’t he!” Shona agreed.

The exam season hit us like an express train. The girls were all confident of getting good results, largely due to their study sessions. It didn’t really matter to my brainiac sister because she had an unconditional offer plus a scholarship from a very prestigious university. Justine and Shona both had multiple offers dependent upon their exam results. Cathy herself accepted that, because of her issues, she needed to live at home where she’d have the support of her parents. Consequently she’d only applied to the local New University. It wasn’t prestigious, but at least she’d get a degree out of it. And she already knew some of the lecturers from the sixth form college.

I was confident I had done well, although I downplayed my expectations for the sake of the parents. However I’d get my results later than the girls and, with the school and sixth form college terms starting before university terms, it would leave me with a much shorter time than the girls to sort out my future, which I hoped would involve arranging a place at the sixth form college if my results were good enough. And after my poor mock GCSE exam results, it was completely under everybody’s radar that my transferring to the sixth form college was a serious possibility. I worried about how my parents would take the news.