His Silence - Chapter Twenty One

‘Thank God that’s over,’ Callum says, hands clamped on the steering wheel. I prepare myself for the pothole ahead, grabbing the safety bar, but it still makes me jolt forward. Jesus, I’d be straight onto the council about it if I lived here. ‘I tell you what I fancy a drink up the pub tonight after that weekend. We could see if the gang are free?’

I glance over my shoulder at Oliver still standing outside the house, watching us, his hand raised. He saw us off. He’d hugged me as we’d made our way out through the front door in a way no one else, not even Emma and Michael have ever hugged me before. Part of me wanted to stay there with him. I wanted to hold him tight and never let go. But like a dream fading, we’d parted. He didn’t make me promise to come back like I thought he would do, he didn’t beg me to stay. He let me go. There’s a clang and the gates open in front of us. It’s so weird, there’s a creepiness about him that makes part of me want to run, but there’s also something mysterious, it’s like gravity pulling me towards him.

‘I think you’re going to be mad with me,’ I say, looking into my lap and biting my lip.

‘Why?’ he asks, steering the car through the gates, curiosity etched in his voice 

‘I kind of, I want to come back and stay for longer.’ My feet drum in the footwell.

‘You can’t be serious,’ Callum says.

He’s keeping his focus on the road, but he’s tightening his grip on the steering wheel.

I sigh. ‘Something’s going on there, I’m sure of it, and whatever it is, it must be something to do with what happened to my family. I still don’t have the answers I came here for, I need more time. If Harvey’s innocent, then someone there is responsible.’

Callum shakes his head. ‘This is something we should be leaving for the police to investigate,’ he says. ‘I s’pose you want me to come back with you.’ I don’t say anything. My silence pretty much confirms it for him. ‘What are we going to say to our parents? Not so much your parents, they’re fine with whatever you do, so long as you’re sensible, but Dad won’t stop worrying about me if I’m away from home for some time, y’know what he’s like. Even if I get a small injury at football he goes into a meltdown.’

‘I know, I know and I’ve been thinking about that. We could either tell them we’ve found somewhere where we’d like to live for the next, I don’t know how many months or so, or we can tell them we’re going away to do some travelling.’

‘Travelling, how are we gonna prove that?’ Callum asks, shaking his head. ‘They’re gonna want to see photos and stuff. That’s not gonna be possible, Danielle.’

I purse my lips. ‘We can always photo shop them, to make it look like we’re abroad. We could say we’re planning to go away for three months or so, we don’t have to give them a definite time on when we’re going to be back.’

Callum shifts in his seat. ‘Danielle, it sounds like you’re planning on staying here for months. What about my job? What about your job? It’s not something I just want to give up.’

I stare out at the fields passing us by on Callum’s side of the car, and the sheep grazing. In the distance Hadleigh Castle rises out of the marsh like a beacon of hope for anyone who might get lost here.

‘Can you not work from home?’ I ask.

Callum lets out a sigh. The car continues to trundle along the road. ‘Do you really think Oliver and his lot are gonna let us set up our laptops and work from there?’

‘I can ask him,’ I say. Even in my head my response sounds weak. I’m not convincing Callum and I need to.

‘Danielle, I know we went for a weekend, but it didn’t strike me that they all had jobs to go to during the week. I need to really think about this, OK, it’s not something I can just jump into. You need to think about it as well.’

Silence stretches out between us. I can’t do this without Callum, I need him. He has to see that.

‘Sure, I’ll think about it,’ I say.

In my head, my mind’s already made up. I’m going back, no matter what Callum says. I need to find out if Harvey’s telling me the truth. Something weird is going on at Raven House and for whatever reason, at one time, my family were a part of it.