His Silence - Chapter 64

Sarah follows me out to the front of the house. I want to know where Oliver is. He didn’t stay in the living room when we left. Did he go into the kitchen or back to the annexe? Someone’s bound to be listening to our conversation. He’ll have told someone to keep an eye on us.

‘Have you completed Noah’s post mortem?’ I ask, gravel crunching under my feet as we head down the drive towards the dirt track and the gate.

‘Yes,’ Sarah replies, the tone of her voice dropping. ‘It is a tragic case; his injuries are consistent with a fall. My colleagues back at the station believe the most likely scenario is that he did, sadly, commit suicide.’

‘But you don’t believe that?’ I ask, stopping in my tracks.

Sarah stops walking. She’s staring out over the bushes in the direction of the marshes. What is she thinking?

‘I just have a few questions I need to iron out first, I’m sure once they’re cleared up the case will be closed.’

I nod. ‘But . . . but why did you want to specifically speak to me?’

‘You came here with your friend, Callum, didn’t you, just over a week ago?’ she asks.

I nod. ‘Yes.’

‘There don’t seem to be many other people here around your age, I think there was one young girl, Eve, she said her name was, who is of a similar age to you. I did wonder why you would want to live with a bunch of people who you don’t appear to be related to. Callum seems like a great guy, doesn’t he; I can see why you like him.’

‘Oh we’re not –’ I stop myself, I can feel myself blushing. I want to get this over with. I swallow. ‘What d’you want to ask me?’

‘I wanted to talk to you about Oliver,’ she says. 

‘What . . . what about him?’ I ask my body tensing.

‘You’ve only known him for a couple of weeks, haven’t you?’

‘Yes,’ I reply.

‘Do you know what happened to his wife?’ Sarah asks.

I shudder. I can’t help but picture the scene inside my mind, the body of his wife, hunched over her seat in his car. I’m not even sure if he was in the car with her when it happened. ‘Um, he told me she was killed in a car accident. That’s all I know. I tried to find some information about it online, but there was nothing I could find,’ I reply.

Sarah nods. ‘Of course, it was a long time ago, and the media weren’t particularly interested in what happened at the time, but . . .’ She pauses, her focus fixed on the house behind us. I look back, but no one’s hanging about outside, there’s no one standing around who might be able to hear us. We’re alone. ‘He was a person of interest at the time of that investigation.’

I frown. ‘What, you believe he might’ve been responsible for her death, it wasn’t an accident?’

She sighs. ‘I wasn’t working here at the time, but after what happened here last week, I decided to do a bit of digging. I found some old reports from the time of the investigation, and found that Oliver had been interviewed once under caution. It appears there must’ve been some reason for the police to want to interview him.’

My heart begins to ram against my chest. ‘What happened? Why wasn’t he charged?’

Sarah sighs. ‘I guess, at the time, they couldn’t prove he was responsible. Technology’s moved on a long way since the time this incident took place. If it happened today, then there might’ve been something for us to find, but . . .’

‘When did his wife die?’ I ask.

‘It was in November, 1994,’ Sarah explains.

‘Was it here, I mean in the local area?’

Sarah nods. ‘Not too far from Leigh,’ she says. ‘There’d been low lying mist while they were driving, their car veered off the side of a main road and went into a ditch. Traces of alcohol had been found in her system, but not enough to make you over the limit. Her friends though were bemused by this. They said she would never drink and drive, according to them she wouldn’t even have a sip of alcohol if she was intending to get behind the wheel. But, unfortunately, that’s as far as the investigation got. Nothing concrete was found.’

I process what she’s said; there’s got to be some sort of record of what happened somewhere. ‘D’you think he did something to Noah?’ I ask. But he can’t have done, he was in the annexe all evening.

Sarah purses her lips. ‘It’s only a feeling I’ve got, Grace. I’ve got no evidence that suggest he might be involved in what happened, but, if he’s already been a person of interest in another death, then, it says to me something isn’t right here. I really need you to tell me if there is anything going on here that might help us understand why Noah did what he did.’

My brain is buzzing. The urge to tell Sarah everything, why I’m really here gets stronger and stronger. But if I do, they might decide to arrest Oliver and take him in for questioning. It would spoil my chances of finding out the truth. I need to hang on here, just for a little bit longer.

I shake my head. ‘I’m sorry, I really wish there was more I could say to help, but.’

I’m not convincing Sarah. ‘Please, Grace, I really need you to think about this.’ She’s staring at me with big, imploring eyes. She knows I’m hiding something.

‘I’m really sorry, Sarah, I wish I could help, but I can’t. That’s the truth.’

Sarah nods, disappointment etched in her eyes. ‘OK, well, it’s been nice chatting to you, Grace. Like I said before though, if you can think of anything, please don’t hesitate to give us a call.’

I nod. ‘Sure, I will do.’

I can’t shake away the thought I’m throwing away a lifeline here. I’ve snapped it, plainly in two and thrown myself to the wolves.