His Silence - Chapter 76

There’s no further update from Max when I wake the next morning. I sigh. He might not find anything. It could take more than a couple of days for him to get a response. I swing my legs over the side of the bed, placing my feet on the soft carpet. Eve isn’t in her bed. I didn’t hear her when she got out of bed yesterday morning, she must creep out to avoid disturbing me. I leave the room, dive into the bathroom, then sling on a fresh pair of clothes. Most of my stuff is still out in the annexe, I’d only grabbed a couple of things when I was told to stay in Eve’s room. I’m going to have to clear my stuff out of Eve’s room tonight; I bet she’s pleased she no longer has to share with me.

Downstairs Callum’s already sitting at the table. Eve and Mary are both sitting beside him. Mary turns around.

‘Oh, morning, Grace,’ Mary says, taking a bite of her toast.

Callum looks over at me. He’ll be remembering what I said to him at dinner yesterday. I don’t want things to awkward between us. Perhaps he’s already said something to Mary about our argument. No, there’s no way he would’ve done that.

‘Morning,’ I say, sitting beside Eve, doing my best to smile.

Eve doesn’t say anything to me.

‘Right, that’s me finished,’ Mary says, taking a final bite of her toast. The tangy scent of marmalade hits me. ‘I’ll see you in an hour, Callum.’

I wait for her to leave the room before speaking. I’m just going to have to put up with Eve sitting next to me; it doesn’t look like she’s going to move any time soon.

‘I’m sorry about yesterday, Callum,’ I say.

He smiles at me. ‘Don’t worry about it, Grace.’

I want to say I’m worried about him, there’s no way he should be having anymore sessions with Mary, but I don’t want to say anything in front of Eve. I can’t understand her at the moment. One moment she’s sobbing into my shoulder telling me how frightened she is, and the next she’s telling me everything’s fine and there’s nothing to worry about.

‘Are you helping out with the shopping today?’ I ask, helping myself to some toast and scrambled egg.

‘I think so,’ he says. ‘Eve and I will be; you’re more than welcome to help out if you want, Grace.’

‘I’d like that,’ I say. Eve finishes her bowl of cereal and gets up from her seat. She slinks off into the kitchen without a word, not even to Callum. Is she annoyed because I’ve said I would join them later? I move into her seat and lean in close to him. ‘Callum, how often are you having these sessions with Mary now?’

‘Erm, once a day,’ he says, picking up his coffee. ‘It’s normally in the morning before lunch, why do you ask?’

‘I think you’ve got to be really careful, yesterday, I . . . I overheard Mary and Oliver talking.’

He stares at me. ‘Where was this?’

‘Out in the annexe, I went there yesterday to get Mum’s diary and heard them talking. Whatever it is they’re trying to do, it’s like they’re trying to turn us against each other.’

Callum clutches my hand. ‘I won’t let that happen, Danielle,’ he says. I breathe a sigh of relief; at least he’s calling me by my name. What made him call me Grace though? It must’ve been something Mary said to him during their session.

It strikes me I still haven’t told him about Max. He doesn’t even know I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago before we came here.

‘Look, I’m speaking to someone who might be able to help us,’ I say.

He fixes his eyes on mine, frowning. ‘Who?’

‘He’s . . . he’s a podcaster, years ago he did a podcast about my family’s case, but I spoke to him before we came here and . . .’

‘You spoke to him?’ Callum says, pulling away from me.

‘It’s alright, he won’t publicise anything about this,’ I say. ‘But I’ve asked him to look into Oliver for me, I gave him the information Sarah gave me when she came back yesterday, but it might take him a couple of days to get anywhere with it.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ he asks.

‘Because I wasn’t sure how you would react,’ I say. ‘You’ve always warned me about speaking to journalists, and true crime enthusiasts, but Max isn’t like them. He wants to help. He’s not after anything in return.’

‘Except the amount of publicity working with you will get him.’

‘He’s not after publicity, Callum, he was . . . when he first produced a podcast about my family he was threatened and was asked to take all the episodes down, I only had them because I downloaded them at the time,’ I say.

‘Who was he threatened by?’

I want to say Oliver, but I keep the thought to myself; I still have no proof of that.

‘He’s not sure.’

‘Well, he must know who threatened him.’

‘He doesn’t know, Callum. He was terrified about posting anything about what happened to my family again. It made him think that perhaps he'd stumbled across something by mistake that might've blown the case wide open.’

‘Why did you speak to him in the first place?’ Callum says, keeping his voice calm.

I keep my eye on the living room door, but it remains shut.

‘Because I wanted to know if he had any more information about Ian, the third man who Harvey’s supposed to have killed, the guy who Oliver says spread poison about him to my parents. Max was all set to produce another podcast about him, but that was when these people started threatening him.’

Callum shakes his head. ‘You should’ve told me this before we came here.’

‘I’m sorry,’ I say.

‘So, did he find out anything about Ian?’

‘He wasn’t able to find much, the only other thing he managed to find out about the case, was from a former police officer. This police officer told him that the DNA of an unidentified third person was found at the scene, if this third person was there the night of the murders, then it could help prove Harvey’s innocence.’

Callum puffs out his cheeks. ‘That’s a big if, Danielle.’

‘I know,’ I say. At least Callum’s not telling me to move on from the past like he was yesterday. ‘But it’s something, something that might chime with what Harvey was telling me. The police will still have that DNA on file; if it’s from someone here then the police will be able to prove that.’

Callum rubs his chin. ‘I think I better get going otherwise Mary’s gonna come looking for me.’

I nod. ‘I guess I’ll see you on the bus into town later then?’

He picks up his plate. ‘Keep me updated on whatever this guy finds out.’

He takes his plate through into the kitchen, leaving me on my own at the table.