Georgia by Lesley Pearse

burned with anger at his arrogance. She had come up against this man before and knew he loathed professional women almost as much as the blacks in his territory. She turned to the young policewoman with him, sure another woman would be sensitive enough to see the truth. ‘You saw him lying there. You saw the way Georgia looked, don’t tell me you agree with the inspector?’
    ‘Why wouldn’t she tell me then?’ the policewoman looked nervously at her superior officer, a sure sign she didn’t dare oppose him. ‘I think it’s more likely someone else was involved, these teenage parties can get out of hand.’
    Celia heard the soft Sussex accent, noted the farmgirl complexion and knew immediately this girl had no personal experience to fall back on and even less intuition.
    ‘You don’t believe my daughter was raped by her father?’ Celia wanted to slap both of them to make them see sense.
    ‘But he isn’t her father is he?’ Inspector Forbes had a look of cunning in his bloodshot eyes. ‘Mixed-race girls are volatile. She’d been drinking.’
    ‘He’d been drinking,’ Celia corrected the man. ‘Not Georgia.’
    ‘Then why won’t she tell us?’
    ‘She’s in shock.’ Celia’s eyes rolled with impatience. ‘Do you really expect her to sit here and tell you the whole traumatic story?’
    ‘But the knife?’ the inspector said, looking down at the weapon in his hand, dried blood sticking to its covering plastic bag. ‘She could have killed him. I can’t see a girl capable of wielding this, being incapable of defending herself against sex.’
    ‘He weighs fourteen stone,’ Celia said through clenched teeth. ‘Georgia about eight. If she’d had the knife handy before he attacked her she might have had a chance.’
    ‘Perhaps we’d better try again in the morning,’ Forbes sighed. ‘This isn’t getting us anywhere. I don’t see a man like Anderson being a rapist. Let’s wait till I’ve interviewed the boyfriend. To be honest Mrs Anderson, I’m surprised at you not taking your husband’s part.’
    ‘I’ve never heard of anyone attempting to cut off a man’s penis unless that same organ was used against them,’ Celia lost control entirely, almost screaming at him.
    ‘I do believe you are getting hysterical,’ he said disdainfully. ‘He has stomach wounds and his loose clothing was consistent with someone who tried to examine himself before losing consciousness.’
    It was after four in the morning when they finally left the house. Georgia sedated by the doctor upstairs. Brian in hospital and there was no one she could turn to for help.
    ‘How can they be so stupid and blind?’ she cried helplessly in the kitchen, her head on the table. ‘I wish I’d let him die now.’
    ‘I know you can’t bear to talk about what happened,’ Celia stroked her daughter’s face. ‘But if you don’t talk soon you’ll be taken from me. You might even be charged with attempted murder. Think about it Georgia, unless Brian is charged with rape he’ll walk out of that hospital a free man!’
    But Georgia just lay in her bed, her eyes blank as if she were deaf and dumb.
    ‘What are we going to do?’ Celia sat in the kitchen with Peter later the same morning, her face lined and drawn. She reached out to touch his hand, the social worker at odds with the distraught mother. ‘She knows exactly what’s going on. She’s fully conscious, she goes out to use the toilet. Yet she’s eaten nothing, only drinking the water I left by her bed.’
    ‘You’re frightened they’ll take her away from you?’ Even after all the questioning Peter had been subjected to, he was still perceptive enough to understand Celia’s fears.
    He looked ill. His face was white, eyes ringed with dark circles. His chin had a rash of stubble, even his shoulders were stooped. Now he was risking more trouble by refusing to go back to school.
    ‘I don’t know how much longer I can stall the children’s department,’ Celia said