His Silence - Chapter 78

I drink in greedy gulps of fresh air as I climb out of the minibus and hold my hand to my forehead. At least we’re back. No one spoke during the journey. The atmosphere in the bus was horrible; Mary kept revving the engine, in my head all I could think of was our speed creeping over the limit. There’s no way Mary’s going to want to report what’s happened to the police, someone’s going to have to clean the spray paint, if they can. She won’t want the police turning up here again.

‘Grace, will you help with the shopping?’ someone calls to me from the back of the minibus.

‘Yeah, sure, won’t be one moment,’ I reply.

I let out a steady breath as my eyes flicker over the spray paint on the side of the minibus. I turn my gaze away and race towards the boot where people are helping to get out shopping. No one’s talking about what happened. I suspect it’ll ripple around the house once everyone’s inside.

‘You alright?’ Callum asks, taking two bags from the boot. His eyes are still a little red from when he was crying earlier.

‘Yeah, fine,’ I reply, picking up a couple of bags. It’s him I’m worried about. Can’t he see that?

‘Just carry all of the bags straight inside, I need to speak to Oliver,’ Mary says, climbing out of the mini bus and flinging her door shut.

Eve steps out of the house as Mary races past her, her eyes big and wide. Eve frowns at us, and then her hand flies to her mouth.

‘What happened?’ she asks, stepping out onto the driveway.

‘We reckon it was a couple of idiots; they seemed to be waiting for us in the car park,’ Callum says as we head towards her. I shiver as I remember the two guys I saw, and the grins on their faces. They planned this. They were waiting for us. ‘God that was embarrassing having to drive back here with those words spray painted on the side.’

‘What about Mary though, she seemed pretty upset?’ Eve asks, glancing back over her shoulder. Mary’s disappeared. She must’ve gone straight to the annexe.

‘Well, yeah, because of what happened to the bus,’ Callum says, looking back over his shoulder.

I frown at Callum, how could he speak to Eve like that, she was only asking a question?

Eve takes a step back. ‘No, I mean, this sort of stuff has happened to us before, so she knows how to deal with it, but there was something else bothering her, I could see it in her face. It wasn’t just the spray paint.’

‘Oh, that might be because of Abraham,’ I reply, glaring at Callum. He’s glancing into the house over Eve’s shoulder. What’s he thinking?

Eve stares at me, her eyes wide. ‘Abraham.’

‘He accosted us in the High Street, begged Mary to allow him to let him come back,’ I say.

‘What . . . what did Mary say?’ Eve asks, her voice coming out in a tremor.

I shrug. Callum’s fixing his gaze on the gravel now, biting his lip. I focus on Eve. ‘None of us know, she took him into a coffee shop to talk to him and didn’t tell us. We didn’t see him when we came out of the supermarket.’ Eve shakes her head, turns and runs back towards the house. What the hell? ‘Eve wait.’

Callum and I race after her, dumping the shopping bags in the hallway. Eve heads up the stairs brushing past someone on her way up, the woman stares at us frowning. I ignore her.

‘Eve, hold on,’ Callum says.

She pelts down the hallway and into her room, flinging her door shut behind her. Callum and I both reach her bedroom, breathing hard. What the hell’s going on?

I knock on the door, looking towards the bathroom to make sure no one’s watching us. ‘Eve,’ I say, doing my best to keep my voice calm.

‘Leave me alone,’ she shouts, her voice coming out choked.

I ignore her and ease the door open, pushing it shut behind me once Callum and I are inside. Someone’s bound to have heard us. They’ll tell Mary something’s going on. Eve’s lying face down on her bed, her face buried in her pillows.

‘Eve what is it?’ I ask, taking a step towards her.

She doesn’t reply. Callum sits on the edge of her bed.

‘Eve, you can trust us, it’s OK,’ he says. At least the animosity in his voice from earlier has gone.

Eve lifts her face off the pillow and sits up, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

‘I thought Abraham was gone, that he wasn’t coming back,’ she says, wiping her eyes.

I frown at Callum. This is about Abraham? ‘He is gone, there’s no way Oliver’s gonna want him back here,’ I say.

She shakes her head. ‘You don’t understand,’ she says, scrunching her duvet cover in her hand.

I rub my shoulder. Was this what she wanted to talk to me about when she told me she was scared?

‘Eve, talk to us, we can help,’ I say. She has to tell me what’s going on.

Eve wipes her eyes. ‘When I first came here two years ago, Abraham, he . . . he sort of became fixated on me, followed me everywhere, insisted on doing tasks with me. At first I thought he was just being friendly.’ I think back to how Abraham was with me when I first came here and shiver. It had been enough to give me the creeps. ‘It was a while before he first spoke to me, but then he became pushy with me, saying we were meant to be soul partners, but I didn’t feel the same way about him. I was scared Mary and Oliver were going to start encouraging me to . . . this went on for months, I . . . I was terrified he would come into my room, and . . .’ she lets out a shaky breath. ‘That’s when I spoke to Mary about it, and that’s when she started locking the doors of a night. I think she had a word with him and he sort of backed off after that, but I could always feel him watching me.’

‘Eve I’m so sorry,’ I say. My heart bangs against my ribs. God, I feel bad now for pressing her to talk to me. This would have been eating away inside her.

‘I thought, after what happened between you and him that he was gone for good, but what if they . . . what if they let him come back?’ Tears fall down her cheeks.

I kneel beside her bed, take hold of her hand and look her straight in the eye. ‘Eve they won’t, you should’ve seen the look on Mary’s face when she saw him, she was disgusted to see him, most likely she took him to the coffee shop and gave him a stern talking to. There’s no way she wants him back here.’ I picture the two of them sitting in the shop together. What did they discuss, what was Abraham’s reaction?

Eve shakes her head. ‘You don’t know for certain, Oliver has a habit of forgiving people. If he hears about the state you saw Abraham in, he might . . .’

I purse my lips. I thought Eve loved this place, I thought this was a sanctuary for her after what happened in her past. Now, it seems she wants to leave. Does she?

‘Eve, do you know what happened to my family?’ I ask. My heart’s banging hard now, so hard I find it impossible Eve and Callum can’t hear it.

She looks at me, tears shining in her eyes and nods. ‘Oliver told me about what your brother did,’ she says. ‘He told me how you all used to live here.’ So Oliver’s still telling everyone it was my brother who murdered my parents.

‘Eve, I came here because I want to find out the truth about what happened to my family. If we find that, then we can leave, we can . . .’

‘But where would I go?’ Eve asks, shaking her head. ‘I’ve got nowhere.’

‘You can come with us,’ I say. ‘Eve, if you help me, I promise we’ll help you.’

Eve wipes her eyes. ‘OK,’ she says. ‘But, I don’t know what I can do . . . I –’

‘Don’t worry, Eve, we’ll get through this we will,’ I say, squeezing her hand.

Eve’s story about Abraham revolves around inside my head. How the hell did he come to find this place?

I swallow. I better be right. There’s no way Mary and Oliver are going to welcome Abraham back. Surely they can't.