Page 127 of Vengeance is Mine

‘Enacting your own justice?’ Harry spat with venom. He turned from the patio doors and faced Dawn. ‘You mean committing murder.’

Dawn stood up. ‘Yes. All right. I’m not scared of saying it. We discussed murdering my own father. Anthony was all for it. He asked me to come up with a plan, so we couldn’t get blamed, and he’d leave a suicide note for the police, confessing to the murder, when he took his own life. Everything would be wrapped up.’

‘The perfect crime,’ Harry said. His reply oozed with sarcasm. ‘You’re proud of what you did, aren’t you?’

‘No. I’m not, actually. The legal system you represented for almost thirty years failed you. There are people like Clare Delaney who are willing to exploit it. It’s wrong. It’s disgusting. Do you think I took any pleasure in killing my own dad? I didn’t. But what I was doing was right, because the law, in this case, wasn’t working.’

‘Where do Andrew Dickens and his friends come into it?’ Terry asked, scratching his frowning forehead.

Dawn sat back down. ‘I knew I couldn’t murder Dominic in cold blood. I’m not that kind of person. However, I knew from my friend Selina that there was a lot of bad blood towards Dominic in the supermarket. I’m not proud of this, but I used my friendship with her to get him a job there, so I could wait until he was settled, and the staff knew him, then make sure his identity was revealed.’

‘How did you do that?’

‘I know Selina. She’s a massive gossip; it was only a matter of time before she’d let it slip who he really was.’

Harry scoffed. ‘And you call Dominic a great manipulator. You’re just as bad. A real chip off the old block.’

‘I was doing what the police couldn’t,’ she said firmly.

‘You set up three men to commit murder.’

‘No. I set up Andrew to beat Dominic. My plan was for us to go in and finish it. I had no idea they’d go as far as they did. It wasn’t easy, but I couldn’t stand by and watch Dominic profit from killing an innocent thirteen-year-old girl. It was wrong and immoral, and he couldn’t be allowed to get away with it.’

‘You profited too,’ Terry said. ‘The new car and TV.’

‘Look out of the window, and you’ll see there’s a for sale sign in the back window. I don’t want it. He bought me that car when mine broke down. I didn’t ask him for it. The TV is now listed on eBay. He bought it for me as a Christmas present. I don’t want it. I want nothing belonging to him.’

‘So, what are you expecting?’ Harry asked. ‘A round of applause, a recommendation for an OBE? If you’re wanting forgiveness, you can forget it.’

‘I don’t need your forgiveness,’ Dawn said.

Silence filled the room. Terry looked stunned, as if he couldn’t believe everything he’d just heard. Barbara looked up at Harry. He looked down at her. Neither of them gave anything away in their facial expressions.

‘Harry?’ Barbara asked quietly.

Harry’s bottom lip was shaking as he turned away and looked to Terry. ‘You have to arrest them, don’t you?’

Terry blinked hard, and a tear escaped his right eye. He quickly swiped it away.

‘You have Anthony’s suicide note,’ Dawn said. ‘Use it for what it was meant for.’

‘The CPS will not believe a man with bone cancer could inflict so much violence on a healthy forty-year-old.’

‘You’ve got Andrew and his mates for beating him.’

‘You’ve got the wig and the coat, Terry,’ Harry said. ‘That’s evidence.’

Dawn looked towards Harry. Was he really condemning his own wife to spending the rest of her life in a prison cell? Behind him, she saw the fire in the back garden.

‘There’s a bonfire outside,’ Dawn said to Terry. ‘Throw them on it. Burn them. You suffered as much as Harry and Barbara did when Stephanie was killed. Look at what happened to your dad. You and Ian are as much victims of Dominic Griffiths as they are,’ she said quickly, the words falling over each other.

‘Terry is an upstanding detective. He will not compromise his professional integrity,’ Harry said.

‘Terry, this can all be over tonight,’ Dawn pleaded. ‘You’ve got Andrew and his friends for the assault. You’ve got Anthony’s confession in his suicide note. Burn the coat and the wig, and we can all move on with the rest of our lives. None of us should allow Dominic to haunt us for ever. He was a cold, sick, violent, evil man. He would have killed again.’

‘You don’t know that,’ Harry snapped.

‘He tried to rape his so-called best friend. He murdered an innocent girl. These journals are full of examples of his violent behaviour.’

---