Waiting patiently for Margaret to say something, Hunter suddenly realised what the saying ‘the silence was deafening’ meant. He was mentally screaming for her to open up and talk about the battering Steve Paynton had exacted upon her.
She seesawed her gaze between Hunter and Grace. A tearful film glazed her eyes.
“Do you know,” she began “I’ve not been able to have a relationship with another man? Since that day I ran for it with both my kids I’ve not been able to trust another man. Do you know what that’s like?” She drew deeply on her cigarette.
Neither Grace nor Hunter responded.
In fact Hunter didn’t know how to respond. He’d always been in a loving relationship.
“I’ve never talked about this. I didn’t tell Social Services at the time, and I haven’t ever discussed this with Jamie or Samantha — they’re my two children. They’re twenty and twenty-three now, and I know they wouldn’t remember what went on all those years ago, but I’m just so afraid of the damage it would cause them if I brought it all up again. Some might accuse me of burying my head in the sand but that’s how I feel I’ve needed to handle it to get me through all those dark days.” A tear fell from the corner of one eye and trickled down the side of her nose. She dabbed at it with her hand.
“I can’t imagine for one minute how painful this is but don’t you feel now that we’re here that it’s time to get rid of your demons,” said Grace quietly.
“What’s really hard about all this, is that some would say I brought it all on myself. You see I knew Steve Paynton from my schooldays. I knew some of the tricks he’d got up to, and yes I also knew about his violence, but he was different around girls. A real charmer in fact. We bumped into each other several years later when I was going through a bad patch with my first marriage and he still had the same rugged good looks and the charm. We used to meet up in the pubs and my mates did try to warn me when we first went out together, but I thought they were just jealous because he was quite a good looking guy. I suppose a real ‘Jack the lad’ springs to mind. I’d already got Jamie and Samantha from my first marriage but it wasn’t working out. Their Dad spent his days at work and his nights at the pub and so I’d already left and moved back in with my parents. Steve was the first bloke after we split up to show me some attention and make me feel wanted, and I just fell head over heels for him. Anyway after we had been seeing each other for the best part of a year he persuaded me to take out my savings and rent a flat with him, and against my Mum and Dad’s wishes I did.” She paused and took another drag of her cigarette. “Sorry I’m going round the houses with this but I suppose I need you to understand why I ended up with the bastard.”
It was the first time Hunter detected real anger in her words.
“After about six months together he started hitting me,” she continued. “I kept getting on at him about getting a job. I was out working all day and he was frittering the money I earned down at the pub, so I kept nagging him. They were just slaps at first. But then he would come back from the pub pissed up and wanting sex, and because I said I was tired, he would thump me until I gave in.”
“He raped you,” interrupted Grace. “You didn’t give in.”
“It was easier to deal with it that way. The hidings weren’t as bad if I gave in to him and I wouldn’t have to cover up the bruises so much.” More tears ran down her cheeks and she stubbed out the half-smoked cigarette so that she could use the backs of both hands to wipe them away. “Look, what I’m going to tell you now I’ve never told anyone. Not anyone.” She gripped the sides of the armchair, digging her nails into the leather upholstery. “He also abused the children really badly. And the reason I’ve never told anyone this before is because, for a long time, I didn’t do anything about it when I should have done.”
“I can see this is hurting you Margaret, but trust us we won’t pass judgment on you. We just want enough to put Steve Paynton behind bars so he can’t hurt anyone else.” Grace said moving forward to hold her gaze with her own probing yet reassuring look.
For the next hour Margaret Brown told them of the terror with which Steve Paynton had held her and her two children over a nine-month time span. “He started by beating Jamie, who was eight at the time, with his belt when he wouldn’t eat some of the food Steve had cooked. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the food,” she explained, “but that Steve had burned it because he’d cooked it when he was in drink. At first, he forced Jamie to eat food coated with curry and chilli sauce, depriving him of his pop. And then when he lost control of his bowels Steve would rub the faeces into his face. Then he had began to deprive Jamie of food and would lock him in a cupboard under the stairs. He would keep him there for several days, hungry and thirsty, forced to lie in his own excrement.” She tried to hold back her own sobs when she revealed that she would lie awake listening to the cries of her little boy caged under the stairs.
“The last straw,” she continued, “was when I came back from shopping one day and found that Steve had totally stripped Samantha of her clothes and was photographing her. She was only five year old for God’s sake. I just lost it and I flew at him, but he was stronger than me and he gave me a right thumping. He took his belt off and strangled me with it. I must have passed out and when I came to he had a knife at my throat threatening to cut me up if I so much as whispered this to anyone. That’s when I came to my senses and realized just how much danger I was in, and was putting my children under. I knew that I had to get away before he killed one of us. So when he went to the pub that night I gathered together everything I could get in two suitcases and with the help of Social Services got into a woman’s refuge. Unfortunately I could only stay for a week because they don’t allow males in them, even though Jamie was only eight. So that’s when I changed my name and came to Retford. Somewhere where no one knew me. For over a year I didn’t even contact my parents, just in case Steve got to them.” She sighed. A long sigh, as though a great weight had been lifted off her. “Can you understand now why I’ve never brought this up with Jamie and Samantha? I feel so guilty. It holds too many bad memories for me, and I blame myself for allowing this to happen to them.”
Throughout Margaret’s narration of events Hunter had seen the pain, grief and anxiety, etched so visibly on her face, as she had unfolded the horrors, which she and her children had endured at the hands of Steve Paynton.
For the next two hours Grace guided Margaret through the anguish of recounting everything again into a written statement, and as she put her signature to the pages, Grace touched her gently on the back of her hand. “I promise you this Margaret,” she said. “Steve Paynton will not be causing you any more pain. After this you can put your nightmares behind you.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
DAY NINETEEN: 24th July.
Early that morning, along with a small team of uniformed officers from the day shift, Hunter and Grace sped to Steven Paynton’s terraced house, using side streets as cover because they knew how quickly the criminal grapevine worked in his location. They needed the element of surprise on their side.
Before the third knock Hunter put all his force behind a flying kick at the front door. The lock and metal hasp parted company with his first attempt and the door crashed inwards. He and Grace stormed into the hall, followed by the uniformed officers garbed in dark blue ‘search’ overalls.
The first thing that faced them was the strong pungent stench of cannabis, which immediately overwhelmed their sense of smell. It was the really offensive barbed type that was referred to as ‘skunk’ on the streets, and caused them to screw up their faces.
The two detectives quickly mounted the stairs whilst the uniform team dashed off to secure the ground floor of the house.