Page 25 of A Simple Mistake
Nico nodded, then he held out his phone.“There’s something else.This may be illegal, but I wanted you to know how Manville behaves without parents watching.”
Jack kept his face blank and took the phone.“What am I looking for?”
“The last video.”
Jack found the file and cast it onto his screen.He got an almost bird’s eye view of the sports hall.“Where did you put this?The ceiling?”
Nico grinned a little.“Nearly.The central heating pipes come down beside the climbing poles.The phone just fits behind the pipes, and the camera lens could record through the gap.”
“Good thinking, Batman.”Jack guessed Nico had started the recording using his phone’s remote control.The sound was useless, but the picture made Nico’s point.
Manville was teaching tango with a lot of roaming hands and clutches in inappropriate places.Jack watched to the end, then transferred the video to his computer and erased it from Nico’s phone.“What made you think we didn’t believe what you and Daniel told us?”
Nico flushed.“He did absolutely nothing when you and Dawn’s mum were there to watch.”
“And I told you we were there as a deterrent.Still, this is good evidence.”
“You think we can use it?”
“Not officially.We’ll use it privately to warn other schools that hire him.But Nico, you aren’t a hormonal teenager acting out a drama.If you tell me about anyone making you uncomfortable in that way, I believe you whether you bring me corroborating evidence or not.Are we clear?”
Nico nodded, and the stiff set of his shoulders relaxed a fraction.“That wasn’t all of it.It felt like…” He paused, working it out in his head while Jack waited.“I couldn’t fight Goran.Most of the time, I couldn’t even tell him no for fear he’d punish Daniel.I tried.I did.But we couldn’t do anything.Just… be strong for each other.And then people say if you didn’t fight or refuse, you kinda wanted to be treated like that.”
Jack opened his mouth to reassure Nico, then closed it again.Nico already knew blaming the victim was bullshit.Reminding him would do nothing to shift the trauma.He nodded, encouraging without prompting.
“Feeling helpless is the worst of it.I thought if I helped to stop Manville I wouldn’t… you know… feel this way.”
His hands were still in fists, and Jack leaned over and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.“I get that, Nico,” he whispered.“Believe me, I get that.”
Nico let himself lean against Jack’s shoulder.Jack counted it as a win.
“Do you think… I could help you?”
“Help me?”
“Help you hunt predators.”
That Jack had expected Nico to ask that question didn’t make answering him any easier.“Nico, do you know what I do?I hang out in forums and on chat sites where men like Goran and his customers exchange information.Where they trade people.I do my damnedest to identify them, to collect information we can use in court to put them in prison.Is thatreallywhat you want to do with your time?”
Nico trembled in Jack’s hold.Jack pulled him out of the chair and led him over to the sofa.“Nico?Talk to me.”
“You think I’ll get nightmares again, don’t you?That’s why you don’t want my help.”
“Nico, look at me.I haven’t said a word to put you off.I know you’ll have nightmares, just as I do.What I’m asking is whether fear and nightmares are worth it.Whether this is really what you want to do.”
“And if I do?”
“Then I’d like to know your reasons.Because with this work, Nico, reasons are important.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want you to end up where I did.”Jack said.“I used to go into the clubs and use myself as bait to lure men like Goran and his customers.Not to put them behind bars, but so I could beat the shit out of them.With a bullwhip.”
“You fought with them?”Nico stared at Jack with a mix of awe and horror.“What if they’d been stronger than you?”
“Then they would have shoved me face-first into the nearest wall and done what they wanted.”Jack didn’t spare either of them.“I ran on anger back then.On rage.And that rage needed to go somewhere.Rio taught me how to hunt, and because I didn’t trust the police, I hunted on my own.”
The quality of the silence in the study changed as Nico thought this over.“What made you stop?”
