A Death Displaced (25 page)

She smiled wearily. ‘I will.’

They took off, Juliet in the lead, and made their way through the darkening woods. When they reached the leafless and crooked tree, they stopped.

Tom was stood alone, biting his nails, his eyes shut. He didn’t acknowledge their arrival. Seemingly uncomfortable from all the running, Juliet adjusted her clothes, and afterwards she looked up and covered her mouth, maybe to stifle a scream.

Tommy was stood over Aldrich, staring down at him.

Aldrich was motionless. The handle of a knife was visible, protruding from his chest. The blade was … sunk into his heart? The knife looked antique, with fanciful carvings, and Nick instantly recognised it from his nightmare.

‘Oh, God, Tommy.’ He searched for words, his heart throbbing. ‘You’ve killed him.’

Chapter 20

Running aside, Juliet forced down the sick determined to come out.
Don’t throw up. I can’t throw up. It’s evidence.

The entire situation had changed. Aldrich was dead, and Juliet was an accomplice to murder. All the previous errors along the way were stark clear now. Why did she even get involved in all this?

She bent over, prepared to vomit in case she couldn’t hold it back, and stared at the leaves and dirt. The ground was a blanket of shadow growing denser. It must have been past four o’clock; soon it would be too dark to be outside. Focusing the sick away, Juliet listened to the others.

‘Tommy, why did you do this?’ asked Nick. Juliet heard frustration prevalent in his voice. ‘Why did you stab him?’

No response. Was Tommy preparing an excuse? Was he confused, the emotions of discovering Aldrich was to blame for his mother’s death clouding his judgement?

‘I … I …’

‘
Tommy!
Answer me.’

There was a long silence.

‘You know why,’ he finally said. ‘It’s
your
fault; yuh didn’t tell us enough!’

‘What do you mean?’ Nick was quiet for a moment.

Juliet’s stomach calmed itself. She stood straight again, but the acid at the back of her throat was uncomfortable. She tried to address the group without having to see Aldrich’s body in her peripheral vision.

‘Tommy.
Why
did you kill him? Did you do it on purpose?’ Nick’s voice became higher and more strained as he continued. ‘As you took the blindfold off, then maybe he made you do it. Maybe he
wanted
you to kill him!’

‘No one can control me,’ his bulky brother said, defensively.

‘So you killed him on purpose? You
murdered
him?’

There was a pause, like Tommy was unsure of how to answer. He looked around uncertainly, treating the situation as if he had an audience. His face went hard and he said, ‘What I don’t understand, Nick, is why
you
didn’t kill him! He stabbed our mum to death. Why
wouldn’t
yuh want to kill him?’

The two of them bracing their bodies and clashing their egos repulsed Juliet. Whereas before she had liked the idea of getting to know Nick better, now the notion frightened her.
His brother’s a murderer; I can’t be involved with any of them
. She stood still, and her mind began to think repeatedly about one thing.

I didn’t do it. I’m not going to jail for this.

‘Because I’m not a murderer, Tommy.’ Nick squinted horribly and shook his head. ‘Where did you even get that knife?’

Juliet glanced around for Samantha’s spirit. It was gone. She’d disappeared as Nick and Juliet had figured their way back to the dark and crooked tree.

‘I got it from inside the manor …’ said Tommy, as if it was obvious.

A welcome interruption came then, Tom stepping forward. ‘I’m fed up of you two arguing. We have a dead body now. We’ve got to deal with it, or else we’re all in the shit. Any suggestions?’

Juliet respected Tom’s practical-mindedness … but no, she was innocent, she couldn’t help dispose of a body. ‘Take me home now, Nicolas,’ she demanded.

 He looked like a struck puppy, deflated and almost guilty for not paying her attention. ‘But, Juliet, we need to get rid of this body.’ He pointed behind himself, but neither of them peered over at the lifeless thing against the tree.

‘No,
we
don’t. Tommy killed him, he can deal with it.’ Dismissively, she waved a hand in Tommy’s direction. She didn’t want to look at him. But then it frightened her, realising she’d just antagonised a murderer.

‘What did you say?’ Tommy yelled.
Juliet noted how he could pronounce ‘you’ properly when he wanted to make a point.

She refused to answer. Eyeing Nick, she said, ‘If you don’t take me home, I’ll call the police and say you dragged me into this, and that you threatened to kill me.’ Thinking about it, it was a ridiculous idea, but she took her mobile out anyway and stepped backwards.

Tommy noticeably tensed his body, apparently ready to chase after her if needed, but Nick gave him a scolding look. He turned away.

‘Juliet,’ Nick said softly, extending an arm towards her. ‘I’ll take you home, okay. Let us just sort this out, and I swear that if we get caught I will plead that you’re innocent … I’ll even say I threatened you with your life, if that’s what you want me to do. Okay?’

He came towards her to touch her arms, maybe embrace her, but she snapped. ‘Don’t touch me! I don’t want to be near any of you right now. It’s cold and it’s getting dark. This body is your problem to deal with, not mine. I’ll wait inside the manor.’

She walked away, but Nick called to her. ‘Juliet, please wait. It’s not a good idea to split off. Let us sort this out first.’

With a great deal of self-restraint, she paused. She didn’t turn around to face them, but simply waited, refusing to reply. The thought of seeing that body was unbearable.

Here she was again, waiting and listening out for the next drama.

‘We could chuck him over the cliff edge,’ Tom suggested.

Nick, sounding weary, replied, ‘It’s a long way to carry him, Tom. And it’s getting too dark.’

‘What else can we do? Wait until morning?’

‘No way,’ Juliet interrupted without turning back.

‘Okay …’ Tom continued. ‘The cliff is the best idea. I’m not going to bury the body, and we shouldn’t leave him here.’

 ‘We’re going to need a torch or something then, or one of us could fall over the edge.’

Juliet wasn’t sure what Tommy was doing during the conversation …
Most likely standing around looking belligerent.

‘Aldrich’s probably got a torch in the manor somewhere. We should look,’ said Tom.

‘And get our fingerprints everywhere?’

‘We’ve already done that. I searched the house for a blanket; my fingerprints must be on something. Juliet leaped onto the floor, so that’s her hand prints too. She got Aldrich a glass of water. We handled the shotgun. A bullet scraped Tommy’s arm, remember? There are probably tiny specks of blood on the floor and the walls. We’ve left forensic evidence all over the place.’ Tom listed it all calmly, seeming to calculate a next step.

Nick sounded less centred. ‘We’re going to have to clean everything we remember touching. That’s the best we can do, and if we find a torch, we will come out here and chuck the shotgun and the … the body, Aldrich, whatever, over the cliff edge. Okay?’

‘I have some gloves in my pocket,’ Tom said. ‘I’ll put them on. Don’t touch anything else. Only let me handle objects and we’ll clean everything down.’

The space around them grew dimmer and turbid. The sky was at the stage where dark boldly crept forward and could envelop them at any moment.

Juliet’s black jumper no longer offered much warmth against the late autumn afternoon. The icy air seeped through the fabric of her jeans, and
her hands stiffened with cold fingers.

‘It took a long time to walk here. We should head back to the manor,’ said Tom. ‘But first, cover up the body, just in case.’

Juliet heard rustling noises, and turned with curiosity to see that Tom had bent down, scooped up a pile of fallen leaves, and was covering the body. Her glance at the corpse twisted her stomach again, so she looked away fast.

Listening to Nick and the twins camouflage Aldrich, she waited.

‘Right, let’s go,’ she heard Nick say.

They walked through the twilight. Juliet could faintly detect the trodden path they’d followed on the way. Time stretched forever, or maybe the distance had doubled itself.
I didn’t do it. I’m not going to jail for this. I didn’t do it. I’m not going to jail for this. I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it.

Grendel Manor was a giant black monster in the dark, growing as they marched nearer. When they arrived, Tom used his gloved hand to let them inside. Juliet ignored all three of them, avoided eye contact and walked towards the entry hall.
She passed the statue of the man with a bull’s head, and again felt like it would jump to life. The hallway seemed longer this time, and blackness had snuck into the manor.

Reaching the dried pool of Aldrich’s blood, Nick asked Tommy to search for a cleaning cupboard and locate a mop. Tommy begrudgingly turned to do as asked, and Nick reminded him not to touch anything directly with his hands.

Before Tommy made any progress, Juliet whispered, ‘Wait, can you hear something?’

A metal clicking sound, then all of them stared at the front door. With no time to hide, it swung open and a man walked through. An ugly, stubbly ginger man.

He twitched then paused in his step, looking at Nick and the twins. His eyes lingered on Tommy’s large frame and then he sighted something on a step of the staircase. The man darted for it.

Juliet had gone unnoticed so far, but Nick and his brothers stood paralysed as the ginger-haired guy grabbed the shotgun and aimed broadly at them.

‘Why are you here?’ he shouted, his voice rough. Spittle flicked through his crooked teeth.

‘Whoa,’ Nick gasped, holding up both arms in a Don’t-Shoot pose. ‘You don’t need to aim that at us. We’re not dangerous.’
The twins mimicked Nick’s stance, though Tommy’s face was confrontational.

‘Why’s there blood on the floor then? Where’s Aldrich?’ he demanded.

‘Ryan, they’re with me,’ said Juliet. The ugly man appeared startled to hear his name aloud, but he finally noticed Juliet.

‘Juliet? What’re you doing here?’ His face transformed, perplexed.

She replied, ‘What are
you
doing here? Does Kim know you’re here?’

‘Errrh … Where’s Aldrich?’ He didn’t answer. ‘Is that his blood?’

‘Aldrich’s dead,’ announced Nick. Tom squeezed his eyes shut, as if waiting for the pull of the trigger.

Ryan slowly lowered the shotgun so it was aimed at the floor. He fell silent, and peered at each person separately.

What is he doing? What is he thinking?

Then he laughed. Juliet watched the faces of Nick and the twins shift and twist. She was equally confused. Ryan’s eyes reddened, he choked on his laughter, and his chest convulsed. ‘He’s dead? You’re sure?’

‘Yes,’ Juliet answered seriously.

He guffawed some more, uncontrollably it seemed. ‘You’re not joking, are you?’ Nick shook his head in response.
‘Finally …’ Ryan sighed, visibly relieved … or at least visibly
acting
relieved.

Juliet watched Nick and the twins exchange confused expressions.

‘You’re glad he’s dead?’ asked Tom.

‘Well, I’ve worked for him for over ten years.  He … he forced me to.’ Ryan raised one hand to his forehead and rubbed the deep wrinkles on it. ‘I’m finally free of him.’

It would have been an awkward silence, but almost every gap in dialogue had felt long and hostile today. It had become the norm; and this was just another
normal
silence.

Tommy stepped forward. ‘
I
killed him,’ he said.  Juliet made a
tut
sound in her mouth, disgusted at Tommy’s cry for acknowledgement.

Keeping the shotgun in one hand, Ryan eagerly moved forward and hugged Tommy. ‘Thank you. Thank you so much!’ he said. Tommy stiffened and didn’t hug back, but he laughed in a manly kind of way, as if to say, ‘Sure, any time, mate.’

When Ryan moved back, he said, ‘So you
avenged
your mother then.’

Tommy’s expression changed. ‘What? What do you know about that?’

Standing in the large entry hall, their voices carried well. Juliet felt almost like they were on a theatre stage.  

‘I don’t know much. Just that she disappeared, and that Aldrich had something to do with it. I recognised you three when I walked in here.’ Ryan’s voice was as coarse as his stubble.

Nick kept suspicious eyes on Ryan, and Tom seemed to be listening intently, though he fixedly looked down to the side.

‘I was about … twenty, I think, when Aldrich made me work for him. He took a fancy to me, showed me what he could do to people. I … I’m guessing you all know what he could do … with his eyes.’ Nick and the twins nodded. ‘Well, I was afraid. And a couple of years later I saw on the news about your mother’s disappearance. And … and I saw your father on tele. Aldrich made me keep an eye on your family. He was scared, and I’d never seen him scared before that. He made me keep tabs on you lot for a good few years.’

‘You didn’t go to the police?’ asked Tom, no judgement in his voice.

‘Of course I didn’t. Aldrich would have killed me, and then tricked the police. For some reason he was afraid of you three boys. I … I didn’t have a choice.’

‘How do you remember all of this?’ Nick looked impatient and worried, tapping his fingers together. ‘Did he not use his ability on you?’

‘No, I don’t think. But then all my memories could be fake, to be honest. He could have made me do anything, but if he did, I don’t have any gaps.’ Ryan squinted. ‘I can’t believe he’s dead.’

Juliet stood dumbfounded and watched them talk, appalled by how casually they discussed murder; they even seemed happy.

Ryan still had the skill to send shivers down her spine.
Creep.
This was the most she’d ever seen him talk. When he’d picked Kim up the other night, he’d been extremely curt.