Don't Get Caught

Chapter 19 - Ariel

As requested, I did fuck off and headed back to the hotel. The heated encounter with Christina and her son had heightened my hangover and, in need of a nap, I burst back into the room I was sharing with Peter and flung myself onto the hard bed. Thankfully, he wasn't there.

I lay my arm over my eyes given the curtains did nothing to prevent the light coming in and cleared my mind so I could get some sleep.

Despite the drama, I must have succeeded as, the next thing I knew, I was being snapped back to consciousness by a male voice.

I forced myself to sit up, rubbing my eyes before Peter came into view. I'd briefly forgotten what was going on, but it hit me like a punch to the stomach. "Oh god, it was a car crash," I told him with a groan. "But I did get something."

He sat on the bed next to me, offering a bottle of sparkling water. I gladly took it, unscrewing the cap and gulping it down. The gas hurt my throat but I needed the hydration.

We'd barely been in Spain twenty-four hours, but Peter seemed to have acquired a nice tan. I forgot for a moment I was mad at him as I ogled his golden skin, his strong jaw framed by dark stubble.

"So are you going to tell me?" he asked once I'd finished the entire bottle.

I nodded, wiping my mouth. "I met Christina and her son, Malcolm. To cut a long story short, Malcolm says he did it, Christina says Danny did it."

"The son admitted that to you?" Peter asked, scrunching up his face and scratching his dark chin. "Wow. I'm not even going to ask how you managed that."

"Investigative journalism skills," I said, without humour. I hadn't fully worked through the implications of what I'd found out, but it didn't look good.

"Indeed. You should come and work on my investigation team. So what now?"

I ignored the condescension; Peter could come and work for me, not vice versa. Instead I voiced my thought process. "I guess they must be protecting Malcolm. He was just a kid after all, and he was obviously trying to save his mum. She wouldn't actually admit to any abuse from Bernard, but clearly something happened that day at the hotel and caused the kid to snap. Anyway, I've got it all recorded on my phone so you can listen. But I believe him. I think Christina is just a desperate mother, and perhaps Danny agreed to help. I guess they didn't expect it to come to this."

He got up and started to pace around the tiny floor space. Lawyer-Peter was clearly thinking. "Are you going to go to the police? With your recorded confession?"

"I haven't decided. Why? What do you think I should do?"

He stopped at the foot of the bed and looked me dead in the eye. "Honestly? Stay out of it. You said you wanted the truth. You got it - you now know your friend is innocent. But I don't see how it changes anything. If the son did it, Danny already knows that and is choosing to take the blame. As you say, it sounds as though both he and Christina are trying to protect the boy. You got that confession by stealing and misusing information you gained through work, and by manipulating that woman and her son. If Danny is your friend, as you claim he is, he won't thank you for this."

"But—"

"No buts, Ariel. I'll advise Danny as his lawyer. I'll tell him I know the truth and that if it is uncovered he could potentially be liable for perverting the course of justice, especially if and when he lies under oath. Danny's the only one who can save himself. If he changes his plea to not guilty, I can defend him. As it stands, all I can do is help him get the best possible sentence given his confession."

"But surely Malcolm will get off? He was a child when he did it and he was trying to protect his mother."

"Where's the evidence? There is none whatsoever that Bernard was abusing Christina. She never reported him, there was no physical evidence of abuse at the time, no witnesses other than those implicated in his death. Malcolm will need his own lawyer, but all they will have to go on is his police report that was dismissed. Then it's just Danny, Christina and Malcolm's word - which let's not forget, is completely unreliable given the false report they gave at the time. Bernard isn't around to defend himself but he was a well-respected police officer. And Malcolm can be tried as an adult now."