At the end of the day (Cai and family)
By the time Cai returned to Rachel’s room after running into Zoe, Rachel was asleep and Danny was watching over her, holding her hand. For a while, the boys spent some quiet time on their phone, reblogging things for each other or passing the small screens back and forth. Rachel slept a long time, and Zoe didn’t meet them like she said she might, and the evening grew later and later and eventually, Nonnie arrived, kissed both Danny and the dozy Rachel on the forehead, and took him home for dinner.
It was a tense dinner, and a vegetarian one. “I am not eating chicken!” Faye was yelling at Dom when Cai and Nonnie arrived home. “I am not eating chicken ever ever again!”
Roe was silent and sullen in a tall chair pulled up to the bench, slowly crushing garlic with the flat of a knife.
“I’m with Faye,” Cai said, slumping down on the other chair beside Roe. “At least for a while. Might be a red meat household for a while.”
“No!” Faye demanded. “I’m never eating an animal ever again! You saw their bodies, right?”
“Yeah I saw,” Cai said, flatly agreeing with her. Nonnie circled behind him and Roe and round the bench into the kitchen proper, to look through sauces and pastas with Dom. “Is Mrs Carabaldi alright?”
“Staying with her daughter for a couple of nights,” said Dom, pulling out a jar and showing it round the kitchen for approval.
“The police came,” Faye told Cai, climbing up to sit on the bench by the fruitbowl.
“Good,” Cai said firmly. “There’s a sociopath loose in the neighbourhood, they bloody well better have come.”
“Cai,” cautioned Nonnie, gently. “We don’t know what happened.”
“It’s pretty clear,” Cai snapped. “Someone is out there killing animals for fun. Someone like that deserves to be locked up. Someone like that doesn’t have a soul.”
“Caius,” Dom said, firmly, as firm as Cai was angry. “You are not helping.”
Roe’s hand shot out and she swept the chopping board, piles of crushed garlic and knife across the bench. It slid and clattered to the floor near Dom’s feet, just as Roe flew backwards, jumping down from her seat and storming down the hall to her bedroom, slamming her door with a bang. “See?” Dom snapped, bending to pick up the knife and the board while Nonnie dampened a cloth to help sweep up the garlic. Faye sat very very still.
“The girls have had a very upsetting day,” Nonnie told Cai.
“So have I!”
“Yes,” agreed Nonnie.
“But you are eighteen,” Dom pointed out. “Perhaps old enough to guess that stories about a sociopath on the loose in the neighbourhood might be frightening.”
“I’m not frightened,” Faye piped up.
“Oh,” said Cai. “Yeah okay.”
“I’m angry,” said Faye, quietly.
“Same,” Cai said, but a lot of the anger had left his voice. He smiled faintly at Faye. “I’m sorry you had a crappy day.”
“Not as crappy as the chickens,” Faye muttered.
“I’ll go and speak to Roe,” said Nonnie, handing Cai a wet, garlicy cloth. “Help your grandfather with dinner.”
Cai slid off his seat to rinse the cloth, to start chopping some more garlic. “Sorry,” he said. “Bad day. Wasn’t thinking.”
“Understood,” said Dom. “How’s Rachel?”
“She spent most of the day sleeping,” Cai said. “I dunno. I hope she’ll be okay.”
“I’m sure she will,” Dom said. “She’s got good people on her side.”
Cai smiled gratefully as he topped and tailed the garlic. The kitchen was warm and smelled like heating oil and raw garlic and easy forgiveness. Dom gave him a pat on the back with one warm hand as he passed behind him, and Faye put the telly on, and soon things were sizzling in the pan and Cai felt a little less cut loose than he had all day. A little more like he was home. He took a deep breath in, let it loosen all of the built up tension and horror lodged inside him, and when he breathed it all out again he felt better.