‘He pushed me. And then I pushed him back.’
‘And then what?’
‘That was it. He started coming towards me again, but Daniel stopped him.’
Gemma lowered her head and took another deep breath.
‘Please tell me I’m missing something here. He pushed you? How? How did he push you? Was he trying to throw you down the stairs or out of the window? Or was it a push like this?’ She thrust a hand into his chest, and Scott got the feeling she was doing it for more than demonstration purposes – that she really did want to vent some of her frustration on him.
‘Yes, more like that.’
‘And then you shoved back at him.’
‘Yes.’
‘Like two fucking kids in a playground? Is that what you’re telling me? Two immature boys getting a bit rough with each other and then suddenly it turns into World War Three? What the hell, Scott? What the fucking hell?’
‘You don’t understand. He was threatening us. He had a gun.’
She blinked. ‘A gun? Un-fucking-believable. And at what point were you planning to let me in on this crucial piece of information? He pulled a gun on you?’
‘Not exactly. It was in his bag. He dropped his bag and we saw it. That’s how the argument started. He wanted us to promise not to say anything, but Daniel being Daniel . . .’
Gemma thought for a moment, then turned and walked away. She picked up her mobile phone from the table next to the sofa.
‘What are you doing?’ Scott asked her.
‘I’m calling 999. They need to sort this mess out.’
He moved towards her. ‘No.’
‘Scott, we have a dead body on our hands. You can’t hide something like this.’
‘I . . . I’m not trying to hide anything. I just want us to think about our options.’
‘What options? We don’t have any options. What’s happened has happened.’
She began to raise the phone again, but Scott grabbed her wrist. ‘No!’
She stared at him.
‘No,’ he said again. ‘Think about Daniel.’
‘I am thinking about Daniel. This was just a tragic accident. The police will understand that when you explain it to them.’
‘Will they?’
‘Of course they will,’ she said, but Scott could already hear the doubt. ‘This guy was up to no good. He had a gun, for Christ’s sake. And Daniel is . . . well, they’ll understand. Daniel doesn’t have an evil bone in his body. He was just trying to protect his dad.’
Scott shook his head. ‘They’ll crucify him, and you know it.’
‘No. Why do you say that?’
‘Do I have to spell it out? Two blokes name-calling and pushing each other. You said it yourself: like kids in a playground. And then along comes this much bigger kid and snaps the neck of one of them. Does that sound like a reasonable response to you?’
‘Not reasonable, no. But reason doesn’t apply in Daniel’s case. He’s not like most people. They’ll treat him as a special case.’
A wave of immense sadness suddenly overwhelmed Scott. In a shaky voice he said, ‘I’ll tell you what will happen. The police will come here, and when we tell them what happened they’ll arrest Daniel because they’ll have no other choice. And it won’t matter how much we try to reassure Daniel, he won’t understand. He will hate being touched, because it breaks The Rule, and there’s a good chance he’ll lash out, and maybe an officer or two will get hurt, and then they’ll get rough with him. Maybe they’ll taser him or something – I don’t know.’
‘Scott, no. It won’t be as bad as—’
‘They’ll put him in a cell, and they’ll question him endlessly, and they’ll bring us in for questioning too. Daniel will be afraid – more afraid than he’s ever been in his life – but the one thing we can be certain of is that he will tell the truth. Even if we ask Daniel to say that the man put a gun to my head, Daniel won’t play that game. He doesn’t know how to. He will tell the police exactly what he saw and did.’
‘But surely that won’t matter? His difficulties are all on record. They’ll realise that he didn’t—’
‘What they’ll realise, Gem, is that he’s a danger to those around him. Doesn’t matter what was going through his head, if he poses a risk to the public they’ll lock him up.’
‘They wouldn’t put him in prison. Not someone with his problems.’
‘Happened before. “Diminished responsibility” they call it in court. They’ve still ended up in jail. I looked it up last time.’
‘Last time? What do you mean, last time?’
‘Well, that’s the other thing, isn’t it? Daniel’s got form.’
‘He hasn’t got form. Stop talking about him as though he’s some kind of hardened criminal.’
‘He killed Perry, didn’t he?’
