Chapter Twelve: For Old Times
Nick drove Audrey back home and promised to talk to his uncle. Which is why he quickly parked his car outside his bistro. Stephen was back on the bench and looked lost. Nick walked over to speak to him, he did have an idea actually. He thought he owed him something for all those years ago in Canada. He sat besides his uncle (who still looked miles away). He kept expecting a call or the sound of sirens but nothing yet. Surely somebody had noticed, the door was knocked down and the flat was trashed. The dog surely did something in the night (as the old saying goes). Maybe he got lucky and the police didn't suspect him. Maybe nobody saw him even enter. (it's not as if those teenagers who mugged him would be on speaking terms with the police).
"Stephen. What's wrong?" Nick asked which brought him out from his trance.
"Nothing, Nick. Honestly. Just thinking how my life ended up here, I use to have so much"
"I know and that's why I'm here. Look I know this is a very poor substitute for what you lost but if you want. I got a job going on at the bistro and because you are my uncle and more knowledgeable than my entire staff put together. I got a junior manager position"
"Did you just make that up?"
"Yes but who is going to know? It's just so you're doing something until you get this twenty grand. I owe you for those years ago when I was just some daft eighteen year old and you gave me a job. Besides the bistro needs a new pair of eyes I think after the whole drugs thing"
"What would I do?"
"Everything. You will have the same amount of say as Leanne and I. It's a family business, isn't it? Besides I'm better at business than Sarah"
"That's true. You were the best choice I made due to nepotism"
"Thank you. I'll remember that...Look come in tonight and we'll go through it properly. If David, Sarah or mum say anything, ignore them. I don't care right now about what they think"
"Thanks Nick. I'll come in now if you want?"
"Yeah go on then" Nick agreed after thinking about it for a few moments.
So the uncle and nephew began walking up the other business. Stephen briefly glanced over at the factory. The place his worse troubles began and he was happy to have something else at last. Nick entered with him, Leanne was working behind the bar currently. She gave a polite smile to Stephen, she had no problem with him. Nick looked a bit nervous now as he had to run it past her.
"Leanne. Stephen's having some issues at the minute and I offered him a job. You don't mind, do ya?" Nick asked her quietly as he leaned in closer.
"What job?"
"One I made up. Junior manager...He gave me so much when I was younger. You use to get on with him back then. He needs this and I would feel awful for leaving him in the dirt after everything he's did for me"
"Yeah okay. If you think we can afford it"
"We can...Well I can at least. You're a star, Leanne. Cheers" Nick quietly finished.
Turning back towards Stephen as he invited him to sit down. The two men soon got chatting about the bistro. This chat soon turned to old times as Nick reminisced about the rooky business mistakes he made back as a spotty teenager in Canada. Though he learned very quickly Stephen recalled. The tables have turned now, haven't they? He was happy to talk about old times but then Nick said something that made him almost shut down again.
"Your dad thought I would have brought the business to ruin at one point" Nick joked innocently.
"What?"
"Malcolm. He use to tease me a lot"
"Oh right"
"You can tell me to mind my own business if you want but what is up? I think it's more than money troubles, isn't it? Gran said you went out at a stupid time last night and she's worried sick" Nick admitted.
"What does she think it is?"
"Well she doesn't know, that's the problem. I'm not going to judge but is it drugs or something worse?" Nick questioned very quietly as he leaned in closer.
Stephen scoffed as he tried to act offended. He got up from the chair and began to walk out. Nick having to follow him out into the street as he walked away from the bistro. Stepping onto the cobbles and walking towards the bus stop, just wanting to get away again. People thinking he had some sort of issue with drugs or worse was bad enough for him.
"Come on Stephen...I know it's something. We want to help!" Nick shouted.
"You can't help! Everybody keeps asking me stupid questions and I got nothing to say! Okay?"
"Then how are you making money? Where is this twenty grand coming from? Is it something dodgy? It must be pretty bad if you're not even willing to give us a clue" Nick insisted with his arms crossed.
"Just leave me alone, Nick. And you can stuff you fake job offer. At least what I gave you was real!"
"I'm on your side here. I really am...Though you're acting odd. You must know that"
"Is it hard to believe that this twenty grand is coming from actual work?"
"Considering you haven't got any. Yes it is" Nick admitted with a sigh.
The bus pulled up moments later and with one last glance. Stephen brought a single ticket and ignored Nick's concerned gaze. He watched as his uncle sat down as he avoided his eye contact. The bus pulling out and leaving Nick with more questions than answers.
...
"I would say alcohol isn't the answer but maybe if you get drunk enough. You might spill the beans" Audrey spoke to Stephen.
Making him slam the bottle back down on the kitchen worktop. She could see something was eating him up. She thought it was worse than drugs after Nick's warning that he tried to get through to him and couldn't get past his high wall. Something about messing up again. Audrey has seen this before but he was her son and she didn't want to think the worst. She wasn't scared however as she had enough confidence that she knew him (or at least thought she knew him).
"You won't like it" Stephen promised her after turning back around.
"Maybe not but you need to tell somebody, don't you?"
"I didn't plan it. I never planned it...Not again. Not again!" Stephen snapped.
Audrey stepped back as that's what he kept saying. He did something again and she kept thinking of all sorts. Just not the murder sort. She could see he was sweating with nerves and was just itching to tell her every little detail.
"Tell me and it might make you feel better. We can work it out together afterwards. You're my son so whatever it is, I can get you help" Audrey assumed.
"You won't be able to get my help. You tell anybody and I'm finished. It's that sort of secret, mom"
"You make it sound it like murder" Audrey joked with a chuckle.
The look on his face was of seriousness and panic. That word 'murder' made him suddenly remember the seriousness of this. Audrey was waiting for him to tell her it's stupid to even suggest that. Yet he just nodded as if to say "You got it in one" and that terrified her deep down. Murder. She shook her head in response with her hand clasping her necklace.
"Three or four. I don't know the correct term" Stephen nervously said.
"You don't know the correct term?"
"Leo. Teddy. Geoff" Stephen paused before saying..."Dad".
"I don't find this very funny, Stephen. At all"
"I didn't mean to kill them. Any of them. Dad just died in front of me and I froze. I couldn't get to the phone on time. And Gail was busy dealing with David and Tina. I don't remember...And dad, he was so consumed with hatred for me by the end. I let him go" Stephen began to say.
Audrey looked confused and scared at this. Malcolm Reid died in 2009 from a heart attack. She recalled being told by the news by a very upset Stephen and she flew to Canada for a bit but Tina's abortion and everything made it seem so inconsequential. Sad but an old man dying was just life.
"He died from a heart attack. You said you found him days later" Audrey reminded him.
"He did die from a heart attack. I...I was there. I saw it"
"But that doesn't make you a killer, sweetheart"
"I watched him die and I panicked. I didn't go back for a few days and he was so blue. So cold. He hated me so much in those final few weeks, told me I would ruin myself when he's gone. So I did nothing"
"That doesn't sound like Malcolm"
"He said he was going to take me out of the will. Give it away to charity just to spite me"
"Sarah said he was cranky and senile, darling. It doesn't mean you did anything wrong" Audrey tried to say.
Though Stephen clearly knew better as he turned back around. Malcolm was never senile. He knew exactly what he saw and what he was saying in those final few months. He saw the man his adoptive son was turning into and he hated it, dreaded the day he ever claimed him as his son. Sarah's denial just made him more angry and that's why she suspected nothing amiss at the time. It was in one of these arguments that he had a heart attack and Stephen watched him die. Didn't raise the alarm or try to save his life.
"He saw me do some dodgy deals. He said that's not how we do business. He was like Fezziwig and I was Ebenezer. We use to joke about it until it stopped being a joke. We got on so well until I married Gabrielle, she was ruthless and found it fun. Then she suddenly didn't find the dodgy deals so fun" Stephen further explained.
"Oh God" Audrey muttered to herself as she could see he was deadly serious.
"It wasn't fun after the fraudster came into the company. He blackmailed us because he knew what was going on. A long-term associate of mine he was. So I gave him Gabrielle's money and left. I had to leave"
"And that's why you split up?"
"Yeah. I had to pay her back, didn't I?"
"It doesn't make you a murderer. I get you feel bad about your dad but watching somebody die isn't murder. You froze up and that's okay, I was like that when Fred Elliott died in this very hall. You freeze up sometimes"
"I didn't freeze up. I watched him die and I left him" Stephen reiterated.
Audrey let tears fall down as he kept stopping every defence. He left his adoptive father to die and he really wanted her to understand that. She just left his company for a moment as she retreated into the living room. Sobbing as it just kicked in what he was confessing. Malcolm was actually a dear friend of hers that she entrusted her son to all those years ago. She still had a photograph of her, him and Stephen on the fireplace mantel shelf from decades ago.
...
This was a long night however as a horrified Audrey was forced to listen to it more. Stephen went on to explain how Leo died and what he did afterwards with the body. How Audrey wishes it was just drugs as he explained about burning the body and everything he wore. How he dragged him into the factory van and drove to an empty scrapyard. How he felt that he had no choice as he was another thing in his way.
"He was a person. Not a thing" Audrey managed to say through her tears.
"He got in my way, mom. He wouldn't stop...He was going to tell everybody about me sleeping in my car and about Gabrielle. He was on my case and I had to stop it before it got too late"
"You burned his body"
"I had to"
This response just made Audrey turn away again. As she wiped away more tears with her tissue. He just kept going on and on in detail about everything he did afterwards. The phone and the lies that kept piling on and on. Audrey kept trying to make it not seem that bad but he erased any defence. Even the smallest defence was gone.
"You didn't mean to kill him either" Audrey spoke with conviction.
"No-"
"No. That's it, Stephen"
"Then Teddy came along. Kept pestering me about where Leo is. I told him time and time again that I didn't know. He threatened to go to the police and I got scared. So I held up the hole punch and just hit him. I didn't even know what I was doing" Stephen insisted.
Putting his head down as if did have much regret. He looked like he might cry himself but no tears came. Audrey was the one who was sobbing and trying to reason out his actions. She shivered when he came closer as he bent down to the chair she was sitting.
"Stephen. You're scaring me too much. Please stop it" Audrey pleaded.
"I would never hurt you, mom. I could have done it but I didn't because I love you. Please don't hate me too" Stephen spoke back with a single tear.
He gripped onto her hands despite her weak attempt at resisting it. She was getting too many flashbacks of Richard Hillman and she didn't like it. Though this was her son, her flesh and blood. Audrey held back onto his hands as she tried to comfort both of them for her own sake and sanity.
"I could never hate you. You're my firstborn and my only son...A mother never forgets that. Though you have done awful things" Audrey managed to say despite every sense telling her to run.
"I just know the minute my back is turned that you're going to ring the police"
"No I'm not. Just go to bed. It's been a long night and if the police do come. It won't be due to me. Please get some rest. I promise this goes no further" Audrey responded.
Stephen could see how nervous she was. Though he could also see that she meant this. Maybe she really did need time to think. He let her hands go before making his way upstairs. He didn't tell her everything but she heard enough, the last thing he heard was her sobbing again as she cried into her hands. Wondering how the Hell she was going to deal with it. She chucked her own phone onto the ground before completely shutting herself down in tears.
...
A few hours had passed since the confession. Audrey removed both the sim cards from her own mobile and her son's. Chucking them and the actual mobiles themselves into the kitchen bin. She opened her son's bedroom door and could see he had fallen asleep after a few tense hours of him listening for sirens. Audrey sat down on the bed and watched him sleep for a bit. Wishing she could unhear everything she heard. She briefly combed her fingers through his hair like he was a small child again. She never would see him in the same light as Richard, maybe because he was blood. She doesn't quite recall when but she drifted away to sleep a few inches away from him on the bed. Not wanting to leave his side for everybody's sake.
...
TBC