His Silence - Chapter 60

I haven’t had any dealings with the police since I was six, which I can barely remember. I rub my hands together. They might’ve tried to question me, but there was nothing much I could tell them. I’d hidden in the wardrobe, I hadn’t seen anything. Sarah’s smiling warmly at me, her green eyes fixing on mine.

‘So, Grace, how long have you been staying here?’ she asks, crossing her legs over.

‘Um, not long, actually, just a few days,’ I reply.

‘Just a few days, so you’re a fairly new arrival then?’ she says, raising an eyebrow.

Do they know anything about this place? Heat rises in my cheeks. What about the Facebook posts I found before I came here. They must be aware of them.

I nod. ‘Yes.’

‘How did you come to live here then?’ she asks.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Oliver will be listening at the door, I’m sure of it. ‘I sort of, I sort of found this place by accident,’ I reply. It’s partially the truth.

‘Right,’ Sarah says in a tone that tells me she’s unconvinced by my answer. ‘So Oliver says you were with him when you found Noah’s body last night?’

I swallow. ‘Yes, I . . . I heard a scream and got up to investigate, I thought it was just an animal at first making the noise, and then Oliver came outside with me as well.’

‘What time was this?’ It’s Graham who speaks now.

Did I check the time on my phone when I woke up? ‘I’m . . . I’m not sure, I think it might’ve been around three a.m. I didn’t check.’

‘That’s fine, don’t worry. Sometimes when I wake up disorientated, I don’t check the time either,’ Sarah says her voice a little softer than Graham’s. ‘I know you’ve only been here a few days, but did you speak to Noah at all?’

‘Um.’ Again I think of Oliver standing outside with Mary. ‘I spoke to him a couple of times, but we didn’t have a long conversation.’

‘Did he say anything to concern you?’ Sarah asks, leaning slightly forward.

I shake my head. ‘No, I’m sorry. We only had the briefest of conversations. If I’d known he was struggling with his mental health, then I would’ve . . . I wish I could’ve helped him,’ I say, wiping my eye.

‘What exactly did you talk about though?’ Graham asks.

My stomach tightens. ‘Just about this place in general,’ I reply. ‘I did notice that he didn’t seem to engage as much with everyone else, and he did seem to keep himself to himself, which I thought was a bit unusual.’

‘I see,’ Sarah says, glancing at Graham.

God they’re going to think I’m holding something back from them. They continue to quiz me for another half an hour. My head’s spinning by the time I’ve finished. I can’t believe I’m leading them to believe that Noah’s death was an accident. The voices saying it wasn’t, and that Oliver and Mary are somehow responsible are getting louder in my head, taunting me. You've lied to the police. 

I exit the room. Oliver and Mary are both sitting in the kitchen.

‘Well done, Grace,’ Oliver says.

‘I think they’re going to want to speak to everyone,’ I say.

‘Yes, I gathered that,’ Oliver says. ‘I’ll go back in and talk to them.’

He gets up and saunters out into the hallway, keeping his head upright.

‘I’m just going to find Callum,’ I say, before Mary can start talking to me and race out into the hallway after Oliver.