Page 45 of Vengeance is Mine

I closed the door firmly behind me, as I went into Anthony’s house. Clare Delaney really was a viper.

‘Are you all right?’ I asked Anthony. He was in the kitchen, leaning on the work surface, his face tense and angry.

‘No. I can’t stand that woman. Do you know, when she first made contact with Dominic, he wasn’t interested in this compensation claim from that drugs company? She came here asking me to try to convince him. She wrote, phoned, knocked on the door, day and night.’

‘You should have called the police.’

‘She’s not stupid. She wasn’t hassling. She stayed on the right side of intimidation. She must have worn Dominic down herself, because she soon stopping calling. When I read in the papers about him suing and possibly getting early release, I was fuming. I’d never been so mad.’

‘Did you hear what she just said about Dominic’s release date?’

‘Yes.’

‘I guess he’ll go to one of those halfway houses first to get him used to life in the outside world.’

‘I know. I’ve done plenty of research. He’s never stopped writing to me.’

‘Really?’

‘He wrote to his mother all the time.’ He filled the kettle, flicked it on and set about getting the cups and teapot ready. ‘I told him to stop. She’d visit him in Wakefield Prison and come back in a terrible state: crying, headaches, feeling sick. It wasn’t doing her any good seeing him in there. I put a stop to it. I told her no more visits, no more letters. We should draw a line under it. Move on.’

‘But she couldn’t?’

‘No. That’s why she… she couldn’t cope. It was what he’d done to that poor girl that made her kill herself. She used to visit her grave, lay flowers, leave notes and cards for her parents saying how sorry she was for bringing such a monster into the world.’

‘Did they ever get in touch with her?’

‘No. When Carole died, I wrote to Dominic, the first and only time I’d done so. I told him what she’d done, what he’d made her do. I told him not to contact me ever again. As far as I was concerned, I had no son,’ he said, slamming teaspoons and mugs onto a tray.

‘Did he write back?’

‘Constantly. I recognised his writing on the envelopes. They went straight into the shredder. I didn’t even open them. I’ve never been free of him.’ He looked up at me with tears in his eyes.

‘You don’t want him to be released, do you?’

‘No,’ he answered quickly. ‘I know he’s always maintained his innocence, but at the end of the day, his actions led to the death of an innocent young girl. I’m sorry,’ he said, leaving the kitchen and heading for the bathroom.

I began to put his shopping away. I looked in cupboards and drawers to try and find where things went and saw the shelves were mostly empty. I noticed he was taking a lot of medication. His fridge only contained a tub of butter, a bottle of milk and a packet of cheese, and the freezer was empty except for a box of Cornettos. I felt incredibly sad for him.

By the time Anthony came back into the kitchen, I’d put everything away.

‘Do you want me to go?’

It was a while before he answered. ‘No. It’s nice having you here. She gave you a letter, didn’t she, that viper?’

‘Yes. From Dominic.’

‘Are you going to read it?’

I nodded. ‘Look, I’d better be going.’

‘You don’t have to.’

‘I have frozen food in my car. I don’t want it thawing out.’

‘Oh, of course,’ he said. ‘Here, before you go.’ He headed for the living room and returned with a shoe box. ‘Those diaries of Carole’s I told you about.’

‘Are you sure you don’t mind me reading them?’

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