CHAPTER 30
He sat unmoving for a few seconds before reaching across to take my right hand with his left.

“Are you sure, Di? Don’t want you thinking I’m putting pressure on you. I’m not, not at all”

My insides were melting with terror, but I had made my decision. Heart, he had said, heart and soul.

“Shut up and get on with it, Blake!”

He reached round with his right hand, cradling my cheek, and…

Ten years of shit didn’t magically wash away, nor did I heal in some miraculous way, but it was warm, and it was affectionate, and three arseholes were now in cells. I let him choose when to end the kiss, but I had my hand on his cheek, so he couldn’t pull back, couldn’t drop the soiled goods. Instead, I kept my eyes on his, not allowing the tears to force their way out again.

“Thanks, mate. You have no idea what that means”

A wry smile. “Then some day, you tell me, OK? Now, are you all right to go home? No assumptions from me here, but, well, thank you too”

Change the subject, girl. “Your brother is really gay?”

“Yeah. And?”

“What the hell is Chris going to be like, big boy!”

That brought the laughter we needed, and he put the car back into gear and pulled away again.

I opened the front door with my key and the aroma was there, and I recognised the tang.

“Hiya, you two! Coats and shoes off; Dad/s in the front room”

“I know that smell! Three mustards?”

“You have it, love”

I explained it to Blake.

“Beef stroganoff, or Mam’s take on it. Crème fraiche with three different types of mustard, strips of decent beef, very nom, innit?”

We entered the front room, where Dad was working through a crossword, telly on. He stood to hug and shake hands, before waving at the settee. Assumptions were clearly in place, but leave that for now.

“I recorded the news, love. Wait till Mam’s in, please. A lot to talk about, I would guess. Beer, son?”

I held up a hand, like a schoolgirl in class.

“What about me, mister? Don’t I get a beer?”

Dad looked at me, a half-smile on his face, head tilted slightly.

“Of course, love, but you need to pop upstairs and wash your face. You’ve been crying; I can always tell”

I did as I was told, knowing he would be ripping into Blake in a gentle way as soon as I was out of the room. A quick splash, shit my eyes are red, leave off the mascara just in case, and back down to an odd atmosphere. Mam came in just then, meals plated and steaming, and without a word the two men settled at the table as Mam and I joined them. Dad had the remote control for the telly in his hand, and clicked it as I took my seat.

“Before we eat, love, we need to talk about this. I recorded the news twenty minutes ago. Hang on…there you are”

The recording started with the Super, in full posh uniform, giving a bare-bones account of the arrests, the same piece I had already seen, and then cut to the exterior of the Smugglers, and inside it, several customers’ faces blurred out. A woman reporter gave the story her full furrowed-brow-serious attention.

“For the last year at least, there has been a climate of fear across LGBT communities in both Cardiff and Swansea. More than a dozen young men---”

A dozen? What took them so long to respond?

“---have been violently assaulted in or around the two cities’ gay villages. The attacks have increased steadily in their seriousness, and recent incidents have involved gang rape. Myron Prosser is the landlord of the Smugglers’ Arms, a popular gay and lesbian venue in Cardiff. Myron, how has this affected the community?”

“Well, Julia, it has been devastating. We are very much a community, and each attack has been on someone known to us, many of them our friends or relatives. It has been dreadful. We wondered how it would end. Would we be looking at a funeral?”

‘Julia’ turned away from him and back to the camera.

“Yesterday, Superintendent Bevan Williams of South Wales Police announced that arrests had been made in respect of the wave of attacks, and today he released the details of five men who have now been charged with offences including grievous bodily harm and rape. He stressed that inquiries are ongoing. With me now, to discuss the case, is Inspector Samir Patel, who coordinated the team that was tasked with ending this nightmare. Inspector Patel?”

Blake laughed out loud. “He never does get a suit that fits, does he? Shit, look---sorry Dot! They were listening to you, Di!”

The caption to Sammy read “Inspector Samir Patel, Serious Crime Investigation Unit”

“I thought that was your line, mate”

Blake laughed even louder, Dad hitting the pause button.

“Di, girl, all I did was add the topping—you served the idiot the main course! Oh, and this is lovely, Dot”

Mam grinned. “One of our girl’s favourites, it is. What did she do?”

“Told someone his fortune in a very direct way. Some idiot who didn’t seem to understand what we were up to, or maybe wouldn’t understand it, deliberately, like”

Mam nodded to Dad, and he started the recording again. Sammy was as smooth and slippery as a diesel spill on an icy road.

“I wasn’t behind the team, Julia. I took over after the arrests, as the original team leader was on loan from our colleagues in Dyfed-Powys. I did, however, inherit an efficient and dedicated team, and all credit should go to them for this result”

“Inspector, there have been suggestions that these assaults have not been taken seriously”

Sammy smiled. “I will simply say that today’s result shows how incorrect those suggestions were”

“Who do you have in custody, Inspector?”

“Well, Julia, I will have to limit what I say for obvious reasons related to the criminal justice process. I do not want to prejudice their rights to a fair trial”

“Thank you, Inspector Patel”

Her voice continued as the screen cut to a montage of five faces I knew all too well.

“The five men now charged have been named as Jamie Evans, Matthew Hansen, Joseph Evans, Robert Evans and Dafydd Pritchard. All have been remanded in custody while investigations continue. Julia Morrison, BBC Wales, Cardiff”

Dad turned the telly off, and as I took another mouthful of Mam’s treat he asked a simple question.

“What have you told your friend here, love?”

“Everything, Dad. All of it”

He looked Blake in the eye, and the bigger man had to drop his gaze to his plate.

“Yes, Mark. She’s told all. We are sorting it, OK?”

“Good. Both of you: bloody well done. That boy you mentioned, is he all right?”

I grimaced. “Took a beating, Dad. It really shook him up”

Blake started to laugh, as the tension eased.

“Not the only one to get a good hiding!”

Mam perked up, an evil smile on her face. “Those two coppers?”

Blake laughed again, happily, and it struck me how much of it he was doing. “She got Pritchard. Dragged him out of the van, sprayed a full can of incapacitant in his face, smacked him over the legs with her stick. Not one to hold back, our girl!”

Dad looked at him again, picking up on the one word, but Mam was in full flow.

“Where did you grab him, love?”

“By the sleeve, Mam”

A chuckle from my right.

“What, mate?”

“Aye, she had his sleeve, but I needed to get the back door open, and he was in the way, so I sort of found a couple of things of his to tug on…”

He only just got it out before he burst into loud guffaws. We all let it run its course, and he calmed quite quickly.

“Elaine, though. Our old boss---I thought she was going to kill someone. Lad came at her, reaching for one of the bats, he was, and she just hit him in the face, bloody good backhand she has! Sorry, people. Over tea, not really the right place. Look: there’s a lot we can’t tell you, but… It’s almost over. I won’t be giving away anything before court, but they are all, they all have so much evidence against them that they don’t have a snowball’s”

Dad’s mouth twisted. “Still one left, isn’t there?”

Blake smiled, and this time without warmth.

“Oh yes. Ashley sodding Evans. I have him in my sights, and so does my brother and his colleagues. End of discussion on that one, OK? Just watch and wait”

Mam was insistent, though.

“And what about you, love? You still got the heart for this? Get that bastard what he deserves? You with Blake on this one?”

I made my decision, and looked across at my big boy, putting my right hand palm up on the table between us, and he took the hint, and my hand.