His Silence - Chapter 56

It’s dead on nine when Oliver gets the bill. Where does he get his money from? He must have some sort of income. The carbonara was quite nice when it came; it’s always been one of those real comfort foods. Emma used to make it for me whenever I’d had a tough day at school. Oliver insisted on getting another bottle of red wine. Perhaps he wanted to try and rid himself of the thoughts that must’ve been going on in his head, after my reaction to his question earlier. But what the hell did he expect, for me to jumps straight into his arms?

We walk back to where we were dropped off in silence; the only sound I hear are our shoes making contact with the pavement and the distant crash of waves striking the rocks. There are a group of teenagers with bikes ahead of us, cans of lager in their hands. I flick my gaze away, not wanting them to notice me.

‘I hope you enjoyed tonight, Grace,’ Oliver asks. He’s managing to keep the tone of his voice light.

‘Yes, the restaurant was lovely,’ I say. A fox races across the street in front of us.

‘You must try their rib eye steak next time.’

‘Yeah, sure, um, Oliver, I . . . I know you spoke about us being together, it’s something I would like to pursue, but.’ I’m going to have to try and keep myself on his good side if I’m going to get anything out of him.

Oliver stops walking. ‘But what, Grace?’

‘When I first came here, you spoke to me about Ian poisoning my parent’s minds against you. I don’t understand how they even met in the first place. Who was he?’

A siren splits the silence around us making me jump.

‘Grace, all I can tell you is Ian was a resident here many years ago now. He lost his way and your parents . . . I should’ve paid closer attention to what was happening at the time. Can you imagine how it must’ve been for Harvey? All he ever knew was Marsh View and our community, his parents and Ian took that away from him, it’s no wonder he, I’m sorry . . .’ Oliver shakes his head. ‘But this isn’t what we should be talking about, Grace. The past is the past; it’s the future, our future we need to concentrate on.’

Ian was a member of the community. Oliver’s still convinced Harvey murdered Mum and Dad. I don’t look at Oliver, Jeremiah's ahead of us waiting with the car on the side of the road underneath a street lamp.

It’s another forty minutes or so before we’re back at the house. There are still a few people in the dining room. Oliver goes straight back to the annexe, keeping his head down. No one speaks to him. Perhaps they can all sense the tension. God, everyone’s going to suspect I’ve done something to upset him. Callum and Eve are sitting on the sofa in the living room; he waves at me, relief floods through me.

‘How was dinner?’ Callum asks, shifting upright in his seat to make room for me.

‘Yeah, yeah it was fine,’ I say, rubbing the back of my neck. I don’t want to tell him about what Oliver spoke to me about, not in front of Eve.

‘Looks like you’ve had a bit to drink,’ he says, grinning.

I hold my hand over my mouth. ‘Oh yeah, Oliver insisted on getting a couple of bottles of red.’

‘Lucky you,’ he says.

Eve gets up from her seat. ‘I’m going to head up,’ she declares, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘Callum do you want to . . .’ she breaks off and glances over her shoulder towards the living room door.

‘I’ll be up in a sec,’ he says, smiling at her.

Eve hurries out of the room and into the hallway.

‘So are you two, like, official now?’ I ask.

Callum rolls his eyes. ‘I think she thinks we are, but I’m just . . .’ He bites his lip. ‘I get the feeling if I don’t conform to what everyone wants us to do, I might end up.’

‘I know what you mean,’ I say. Thank God no one’s looking in our direction. I’m sure if we were to head outside to talk, it wouldn’t take long for Mary to appear. I drop my voice. ‘Things got a bit weird at dinner, between Oliver and me.’

Callum stares at me. ‘How do you mean?’

‘Oliver he . . . he sort of went on about there being some sort of special connection between us.’

‘What the hell, is he implying you should get together?’ I nod. ‘Jesus Christ, he’s like double your age,’ Callum says, shaking his head.

I let out a sigh. ‘I know I don’t know what the hell he’s thinking; I think he could sense how uncomfortable I felt about the idea.’

‘Well, what did he expect, springing it on you like this?’ he hisses. ‘What did you say to him?’

‘I told him I would have to think about it,’ I say. ‘I’m not just gonna jump into something like this.’

I hold my hand to my forehead; I can feel the red wine swimming through me. Red’s never my go to choice whenever I’m out, it always gets me drunk far quicker than any other alcoholic drink.

‘I take it you didn’t manage to find any more information out from him?’ Callum asks.

‘Not much, all I know is Ian, the third man who Harvey supposedly killed, used to be a resident here.’

‘Ian actually lived here,’ Callum says. ‘Do you reckon Noah might know –’

‘I don’t know,’ I say, cutting across him. ‘We’ve gotta be really careful here. I think I trod the line a little bit with Oliver tonight. I don’t think he’s going to appreciate me asking questions about my parents again.’ His words about Harvey replay in my mind. It makes sense, if Harvey was upset about leaving here, it could’ve driven him to kill Mum and Dad. Is he lying to me?

‘Yeah, yeah, I know,’ Callum says. ‘I reckon if there’s anyone who knows why your parents and Ian left, it’s Noah and it’s not going to be easy getting the answers out of him.’

Noah isn’t in the room. ‘We’re not gonna get anywhere more with this tonight, though,’ I say. ‘I’m going to head back to the annexe.’

Callum nods. ‘Sure, I’ll see you tomorrow.’

The moment my head hits the pillow, I’m asleep. I’m pretty sure I would’ve slept right through till morning, had it not been for the scream piercing through the silence of the night.