LIE FOR YOU

6

N: ok, hi, welcome to the second season of the die for you podcast. first things first, we thought it would be important to talk to ej's father, who has been deeply affected by ej's death as a result of a close family relative, and fortunately, he decided that he would speak to us. so cash caswell, welcome to the show!

C: thanks for having me, i guess!

R: alright so we'll start with something light hearted first, how was life in the caswell household before everything turned sour?

C: it was good. elton was well, always a character since the day he was born, which isn't surprising since he was born into a rich family

N: you mentioned his name is elton? was that inspired by anything?

C: oh yeah, his full name was elton john caswell and the reason we called him that was due to the fact that my wife, lydia, was a huge elton john fan. we actually played it and heard him kick and that's when we knew our baby boy was going to be called elton

N: ok, this is where things started to become heavy, november 9th 2004? what exactly happened that day?

C: um, elton was playing outside with ashlyn. me and lydia found out the wonderful news that we were going to have a second child and elton was over the moon at the thought of having a new baby brother or sister but... sorry

N: it's ok, have a minute

C: um, we heard screaming from inside the house and we just saw blood and that's when we knew, we lost the baby

N: and lydia?

C: lydia died that night, she was distraught, devastated and i couldn't bring myself to tell ej the truth so throughout his entire time on earth, i lied to him, tried to bring him down to my level all the time but it never worked, he had his own voice

N: i believe that there was some friction between you two? was this always present or was it a gradual thing?

C: gradual

N: ok, and how did it start and when roughly did you feel he wasn't listening

C: as soon as he entered high school. i told him to get a career and i told him that wasting his life on stupid things on water polo and theatre wasn't going to help him in the long run but he was happy, i know that now. he really cared about his friends, especially his girlfriend gina

N: and when he found out that gina was cheating on him, i guarantee he was crushed and was distant towards you

C: i first noticed something was wrong when he would come home late, smelling of alcohol or something. ej never drank so that was the first warning sign and then, he always snuck out of the house to do god knows what

R: what was your relationship like with ashlyn? i know she was his cousin but did you ever suspect her to be his killer?

C: absolutely not! for a long time, i actually thought that you killed lily, considering it was all over the news and papers but when i found out the truth, i was furious and i couldn't believe it. ashlyn slowly became my second child, considering she was younger than him and i never assumed that it could be her

N: this is a serious question and i want you to answer as truthfully as you can, why haven't you spoken to anyone until now, for example, the press and the media?

C: i don't want to be scrutinised 

N: but you will probably be scrutinised when this podcast comes out, so give me a truthful answer this time, why did you not want to speak to the press and why did you decide to stay at home on december 5th, which was the funeral

 of lily keegan and ej?

C: i don't- i was busy, alright?

N: doing what?

C: doing something, can you quit recording me now?

N: not until you give the listeners what they want to here, where were you december 5th?

C: busy...

R: that isn't a answer

N: look, cash, you are making it very hard to like you right now so just tell us

C: i was busy doing important work related stuff, there, now get out of my house before i call the cops on you..

N: you won't do that, i am close friends with the police, so what exactly where you doing that was soo fascinating to miss your son's funeral?

C: we just, he probably wouldn't have wanted me there

R: and that's the thing isn't it. you don't know how important it is to at least show up. you are lucky that you had the opportunity to be a parent because my mom fled to chicago when i was young and my dad wasted his years on drink but also, he chose to trap teenage girls down a basement and kept them captive. surely, if you had an opportunity to do better, you would do it all over again, wouldn't you?

C; i-

R: the thing that you don't get, with all due respect, is that ej is no longer here and you can't get a second chance of proving that you are not a bad guy but all you care about is your reputation and status, because you just want money, not happiness, and you seem to hide behind the fact that you are rich and don't acknowledge that there are people out there, right now, listening to this, wondering what the heck is wrong with their home lives and you just had to blow everything because you cared more about yourself than your son

N: ricky is completely right, all you had to do was show up to ej's funeral but why was that so hard for you?

C: because it's hard to accept that he's no longer here

N: well.. i get that, and i'm sorry for your loss but i guess now, you lost all your chances of proving that you could be better and now, your reputation will be tainted, purely because you will never get the opportunity to see him again and he will always remember you the way you were when he was still here. um, thank you cash, we'll have to leave it there for now but we'll keep it touch, ok?

C: uh yeah, sure...

N: we might need you to do another interview at some point but for now, we'll leave you alone. bye everyone, thank you for tuning in to this episode!