Chapter 86 Chapter 085

"He's out of jail and home! God, what else do you want?" "It happened, right? I blurted out because I sympathized with him, and I'm afraid it will be difficult to change my mind in the future." "You've done enough for this pervert. Your guilt is unnecessary, Claire. If he wasn't a dirty and despicable pervert, he wouldn't have been caught in the first place." "Matt, that's not fair." "Fair? Even if Rebecca's death had nothing to do with him, he's still a bloody pervert. He's touched little boys before, God knows how many other children we don't know about. Don't you feel indifferent to this?"

"Matt, you don't know him." "Do you understand? God, you've only seen him twice, in the visiting room at Canterbury Prison. Then again, why on earth did you call him?" "See what he needs." Matt stared at her in disbelief. "He's not a demon, Matt. He has feelings, just like you and me. He doesn't attack strangers in dark alleys. He has feelings for those kids." "He only has feelings for their balls." Claire walks away dejectedly, looking out the window at the English Channel. "Matt, just for once, try thinking instead of reacting. I'm not saying he's doing it right. It's just that he's doing it out of emotion, not...not lust. Whoever killed Rebecca , neither he nor Thomas Bristol was of the same sort."

"We know that now. But it doesn't change the things he did." "Like I said, he's not that type of guy. He never hurt kids on purpose. It's just that the love he shows goes beyond the boundaries." "That's what he said." "He's not a liar, Matt." "Just a fucking good actor. You're completely blinded by him." "He's not an actor, he blinks all the time." "What is he doing?" She returned to her seat, determined to argue her case. "He blinks, Matt. Actors blink when they tell him to. Don't you notice? Thomas can't get away with acting."

"Oh, you call him Thomas now, don't you? Claire, what he did was not only illegal, it was terribly wrong. Disgusting, perverted, nasty. Love it or not. He admits to it." Pedophile, he's a pervert. For God's sake, he's targeting little boys." Claire stared into his eyes, wondering why he was so angry. "I thought I knew you well." "Me too. I never thought I'd hear you defending his type." "I'm not defending him, Matt, I'm just trying to understand." "There's nothing to understand. This guy caught the wrong one. It just so happens that he will be compensated accordingly. But what about the boys he molested? Their lives were ruined just because of this guy... Just now What are you talking about, affectionately? God, Claire, these kids are going to live with this trauma for the rest of their lives. I don't think they'll ever have normal sex for the rest of their lives. Did you stop and think for them ever?"

Claire stared at him, not understanding at all. "How did you become an expert?" "It's common sense. Young children who are abused are traumatized and never fully recover. They can become psycho themselves. It's always been the case." "always?" "Always. Could anything worse happen to a guy? It's disgusting, it's fucking disgusting. And now you want to drive this bastard? He's set free. Free." Forget about him, Claire, he's not worth a damn." "My God, Matt, how can you have such..., such big prejudices." He didn't want to argue any further.

Especially because of this, especially in this moment. Maybe they spent too much time in each other's homes. He said calmly: "I'm as open-minded about sex as anyone, Claire. You know that, and that's their business between grown-ups. But I'll take that with A child draws a clear line. Any normal person would. It's nothing to do with prejudice." "Have you heard of the Pedophile Clearinghouse?" "PIE? I've heard it. It was the seventies, when a bunch of perverts wanted to legalize child molestation. Most of them got locked up, and the keys should be thrown away."

"You know about this organization? You never mention it." Matt shrugged. "So what?" "Thomas is one of the members." "Not surprising at all." "At first, I also thought this thing was disgusting, but when he explained it to me, I thought it made sense." "Claire, what evil have you fallen into? How can it be justified to molest a child?" "That's not what I'm talking about, Matt. But if there's one thing I've learned from meeting Thomas, it's that they're not all lunatics talking bullshit. They're literate, thinking people trying to accept who they really are. themselves, accepting what nature has given them."

"Ah, now it's nature again, is that it? Natural nature is to be attracted to children instead of being attracted to adults like normal people?" "I'm not saying that's right, Matt. Of course that's unacceptable. The kid has to be protected. But knee-jerk reactions like yours don't help either. Just because they didn't associate people like Thomas with them in the first place." It took one innocent man to be arrested and two other children killed." Claire was in tears.Matt hands her a box of tissues. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..., I'm going to make coffee."

Matt's voice came from the kitchen, "If you must do this, then I will go with you." Claire forced a smile. "Matt, I've seen him before." "But not alone." "Thomas is never going to do anything bad." "Go tell the kids he molested." "Matt, I'm not a kid. I know what to do with Thomas Bristol."