Chapter 605 - Taking down Madam Mo (8)

9 June, Matthew's Villa, City K

As Matthew reached Joseph, he heard Monica say, "I am going to talk to Abigail and my father," before she left the two of them alone.

Matthew quietly said, "How is she?"

"Shocked.  She always knew that her mother was evil, hence why she was glad when she cut off from her family when we married.  But it still does not deal with how she blackmailed and abused John.  But you knew about it?"

"I only just found out.  The police gave me the statement he made years ago among the papers I requested for Bronwyn's marriage report."

"But that is not all boss, and you know it.  Honestly how can we trust him?  He had the guts to make a statement, but not take it further.  He could have saved lives if he had followed through…"

"Craig Zhuang?"

"Yes.  You have no idea about the mess he was in."

Matthew shook his head, and said "You think, even then I was an ignorant nineteen-year-old, newly minted officer that could not see someone under my command was suffering?"

"Yet you did nothing?"

Directly looking Joseph in his eyes, Matthew said "I knew, and I acted.  You three idiots took a lot of my time, because you were about to receive a dishonourable discharge with all your antics.  I could see that you had the ability to become the soldiers you have been, so I was determined to do everything I could to aid you in reaching that potential.  My belief in you, has never been misplaced, as time and time again you have demonstrated that."

"I always believed Craig had the potential you three idiots have.  His issues were different.  I could see that, and…"

"You separated him from his friends, his supports."

Matthew shaking his head, said calmly "It might appear like that even now, but Craig's father was a small-time business executive, who supported his only child's life choices.  Because of that I had met them both a few times before I joined.  He had changed dramatically from the person I knew when he came under my command.  You know as well as I do, the officer training tells us with soldiers in the state he was in is that they were removed from active duty and they are medically assessed."

Matthew held his hand up slightly before continuing "Remember that I was only nineteen, and newly made an officer.  Because I knew him, I thought that I was the best person for him to initially talk to.  I pulled him aside and told him that he needed had to pull himself together otherwise he would not be the soldier that I knew he could be.  I asked him what was going on, and has he refused to tell me anything I immediately stood him down from active duty and immediately arranged for his to be physically and mentally assessed."

"He was a mess."

"I know that.  But remember a young, newly appointed stupid officer who played by the rules in the circ.u.mstances.  I thought he was not only a danger to himself but to everyone else."

"He was not."

Shaking his head, Matthew said "Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and likely you are right.  But remember, I was only nineteen, and dealing with issues I really had no idea of, with a junior soldier who was two years older than me.  The book was always going to be what I followed."

"We had to deal with him when he returned to the barracks.  He had lost it, and that was your fault."

"Tell me something I do not know.  The psychologist that performed the initial assessment at my request had me sit in on it.  For four hours I had to sit there and listen to him tell me word for word what that predatory b*tch that is your mother-in-law did to him."

"I have never acknowledged her as my mother-in-law, so do not blame me."

"I am not blaming you.  But you only know part of it.  I still shudder even now knowing what happened.  John was lucky, in that she was stopped reasonable quickly.  Her abuse of Craig went on for almost 12 months, when she had entrapped him in the aftermath of his mother's suicide.  But the mess he was in was such that he needed the help I ordered him to get."

"That order…"

"Was the biggest mistake I have ever made as an officer, even though it was the right order to give.  His psychological state made him a danger to himself and others.  I could see that, and that was the recommendation of the psychologist at the time.  That resulted in the recommendation that he had to have proper treatment before a decision could be made on his continued career."

Joseph shook his head "As I said you created a mess that resulted in him loosing it.  When he returned to the barracks, he lost it because he thought his career and life were over.  All we could get out of him was that you were forcing him away, and if he was going to leave the barracks, he never to return he was going to be the one that made sure he went out in a spectacular way.  All of us in the barracks talked him out of self-harm before you had him dragged away."

Matthew directly looking Joseph in the eye said "Just hear what you said and think.  It justified what I did at the time.  He was a danger to himself and others, because of the mess that he was in."

"A mess you made him open up about when he did not want to."

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