My Brother's Keeper

Chapter 21



WEDNESDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2012

One hour later I was charging my way along the air bridge, juggling overnight bag, sunglasses and mobile. There were no new messages from Sunny. I carefully pressed her number but her phone clicked straight to voicemail again. Salena might give me shit for turning up unannounced, but Sunny had asked for my help and I’d flown back to Auckland to give it to her. I had no idea what that help might involve but I owed it to Karen to go find out. I still couldn’t figure out how Justin could have killed Karen, but presumably the cops had a tight enough case for them to have made the crucial move of arresting him. It’s not something they ever do prematurely.

Sunny sat cross-legged on the sofa. Pale and dishevelled, she was eyeing the woman opposite her with a look of repugnance. As soon as she caught sight of me, she unravelled her long legs and ran to me, throwing her skinny arms around my neck like a distraught two-year-old. Salena put a comforting hand on her back but Sunny shrugged it off and kept her face turned into my collarbone. The woman moved towards me, her hands twitching with the desire to pull Sunny away from me. I gave her a look not dissimilar to the one I’d seen on Sunny’s face.

‘And you are?’ she asked, her irritation with my sudden appearance barely suppressed.

Ignoring her, I pushed the hair from Sunny’s face. ‘Okay?’ I asked. Sunny sniffed loudly and nodded her hair back into the tears and snot.

‘She’s a friend of Sunny’s mother,’ Salena explained, not unkindly.

‘My name’s Maggie. I’m the assigned social worker,’ she said, and held out her hand for me to take.

Sunny pulled herself out of my embrace but stayed close. ‘I don’t need a social worker. I don’t even know why you’re here,’ she said over her shoulder.

‘As I explained to you,’ the woman said in the slow irritating way some professionals adopt. ‘I’ve been appointed by the courts to check on your wellbeing.’

She looked directly at me, willing me to leave. I wasn’t going anywhere. I put my hand lightly on Sunny’s back. Her whole bony little frame was trembling.

‘In cases like this we need to be confident the children are safe.’ Maggie was addressing me. She was enjoying her role up there at the front of class, telling the poor students how it was going down from now on. ‘Sometimes removing the perpetrator isn’t enough.’

Salena advanced towards her. ‘Are you crazy? What are you saying? That I was involved?’ Salena’s face was flushed. ‘I knew nothing about it! How could you think I would allow such a disgusting thing!’

I had no idea what they were talking about. Sunny dropped herself to the sofa. Hands over her ears, she rocked back and forwards. I lowered myself down beside her and placed a gentle hand on her. I felt the fragile shoulder bones beneath my fingers, the warm vibration of her movement. Maggie continued in her irritatingly calm voice.

‘It’s my job to assess the home environment and to ensure the children are safe here. I’m just doing my job, Mrs Bachelor.’

‘Don’t call me that. I don’t want that name any more.’ Salena wrapped her arms around her stomach as if in pain. ‘I don’t want anything to do with him ever again.’

Something was most definitely wrong here. A husband murdering his ex-wife is not usually met with such a harsh response from the incumbent. The room had lapsed into silence except for the regular squeak of the leather couch as Sunny continued to rock back and forwards, feet on the sofa, forehead tucked into her knees. Salena and the social worker had stopped yelling at each other and were watching her, but neither seemed able to decide on their next moves. I was pretty sure Sunny was ready to spring if anyone else came near her.

I risked a question. ‘What was Justin charged with?’

The women glanced at each other but neither offered a response. It was Salena who finally answered. ‘He’s been charged with obtaining objectionable material.’ Sunny wrapped her arms around her legs but kept her face hidden against her raised knees. ‘But that was just to get him away from …’ she glanced at Sunny but couldn’t say her name. ‘They said there are more serious charges pending.’

The pained face Sunny turned towards her was devastating. I was struggling to keep up. Porn charges? Justin had been charged with obtaining porn, not for killing Karen?

Sunny was shaking her head, hair swinging from side to side. ‘I can’t stand to be in this house one minute longer. I’ll just … I’ll just go totally crazy!’

Maggie moved towards her. ‘That’s the right decision, I think, Sunny. I can take you to stay with some caring people—’

‘No!’ Salena glared at the social worker. ‘I won’t have her staying with strangers.’ She turned to Sunny. ‘We can go up to the bach, Sunny. We don’t have to stay here.’

A ghastly animal moan started from somewhere deep inside Sunny’s birdlike little frame. The sound built and built, louder and louder until she was screaming; a wild high-pitched ululation. She threw back her thin body, arching her spine to an impossible curvature. Feet pounding the floor, she smacked mercilessly at her head. Niki used to do this. I always thought it was something similar to a petit mal, a kind of epileptic seizure. Just as uncontrollable anyway. From experience, I knew it would only make things worse if anyone tried to restrain her. The social worker obviously didn’t know this and strode purposefully towards Sunny, her hands ready. I blocked her. In that frozen moment in which Maggie and I were eyeballing each other, Salena running her hands through her hair, Sunny screaming and pelting herself on the head, Neo entered.

‘Sunny?’

And just like that, Sunny stopped. She ran to her little brother framed in the doorway, the sunlight creating an angel’s halo of his hair. His plump face was pale and frightened. Sunny put her arms around him as if it was he who needed the comfort.

‘Sorry, Neo. I’m so sorry.’

‘Are you okay?’ he asked, his voice breaking.

Sunny hurriedly pushed her hair back behind her ears, used her sleeve to wipe the saliva and tears from her face. ‘I’m totally okay. I lost it for a minute, that’s all. I’m okay. I promise.’ This transformation must have taken a huge effort on her part. It was impressive.

Neo’s chubby little arms folded around her, too, and they stayed like that, a tableau, until the social worker broke the spell.

‘I don’t think the children should be together. Not while Sunny is so reactive.’

Sunny straightened and gave the social worker the cool direct look she had once turned on me. ‘I’m going to stay with Diane,’ she declared. I nodded my agreement, but she didn’t even look my way. Salena hurried to take ownership of Neo. Her hands rested proprietorially on his shoulders.

‘I’m happy for Sunny to stay with Diane until things settle.’ She put one hand gently on Sunny’s arm. ‘But only if it’s what you want. Of course you’re going to get upset. That’s completely understandable. If you want to stay here with us, I won’t let this woman stop us. We’re a family — even without Justin — we’re still a family.’

Sunny was clearly moved, and surprised. So was I.

‘I’ll be okay,’ Sunny said. In that moment anyway, everyone believed her.

Salena offered me her car, saying she’d use Justin’s. I waited in it, heater turned all the way up while Sunny packed a bag. I was struggling to get my head around Justin being arrested for downloading porn, and not for Karen’s murder as I had assumed. Salena said the cops had told her more serious charges were pending. Presumably, that would be the murder charge, but the whole thing seemed odd and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I still hadn’t got it sorted when Sunny slammed the car door shut and threw her bag over her shoulder onto the back seat.

‘Let’s get out of here,’ she said bleakly, staring straight ahead.

I started the engine. ‘Are you okay staying at your grandmother’s?’

‘Why wouldn’t I be? I had nothing against her,’ she said, making no attempt to disguise her bitterness.

We were halfway along Jervois Road before she spoke again. ‘My friend Jasmine was there when the cops arrested him. It’s all over Facebook. All my friends know.’ She stared out the window at the rain-soaked streets. ‘I’m never going back to school. They can’t make me. I’d rather kill myself.’

I was trying to find a way to phrase the question. In the end I just asked it straight out.

‘What exactly did the police find, Sunny?’



She turned her bleak face to me. ‘Me. Disgusting photos of me. Naked and … and everything.’ She turned away again. ‘He took photos of me.’ The lights from the street strobed.

‘Shit,’ I said.

‘Totally,’ she agreed.