What We Saw (13 page)

‘So do you think it was a cover up or not?’ Adam asked.

‘The ring? A cover up for what?’

Adam turned over, leaning on his pillow towards me. He licked his lips as if he were on to something. It was a similar face to the time he thought he’d caught something when Granddad took us both fishing. Unfortunately for him, it was just a pram wheel. ‘Well, think about it. He’s taken us out to the woods and acted all weird and made out as if he knew someone a long time ago, who he used to come to the caravan site with. Do you not think maybe this ring belonged to the girl and he’s using this to put us off our trail?’

I had thought about it, and the theory wasn’t too far off my own initial thoughts. Maybe he’d planted this all along as a ploy to get us into the woods and to attach significance to something that perhaps didn’t really matter.

‘So what you’re saying is the ring isn’t really a big deal?’ I said.

Adam reshuffled his pillow, cradling his head in his hands. ‘Well I’m not saying that for sure, but it does seem weird. I mean, he took us all the way out there to show us something without even telling us what it was. Does that not seem a bit weird to you?’

I was impressed, again, by Adam’s ability to think outside the box. Not many people my age could keep up with him in this department, let alone people his own age. ‘Yeah, it’s almost as if he was trying to distract us,’ I said. ‘Like he knew we would be debating things, what with us being into solving mysteries and everything, so just gave us something else to think about. Which means—’

‘—which means, he’s trying to stop us thinking about the body. He’s trying to distract us.’

It was a far-fetched theory, and definitely one of the more bizarre things we’d come up with. Then again, seeing a man bury a dead girl was hardly an everyday event to witness.

‘What about Emily’s dad?’ I asked.

Adam looked at his notes and scratched his cheek. ‘Well, we don’t know who he was talking to.’

‘It just seemed a little weird that he was on about secrets coming out and all that and he headed into the woods where Donald was. Don’t you reckon?’

Adam chewed at his lip, pausing to think. ‘I guess. We’ll keep an eye on Emily’s dad. Ask Emily if he’s been acting weird lately.’

‘There can only be one answer there,’ I said.

Adam chuckled.

‘So what’s this plan of yours?’ I asked.

Adam tutted. ‘Always me coming up with the genius ideas round here isn’t it?’ He winked at me.

‘Hey, it’s not always you,’ I said. I realised I’d raised my voice.

Adam smirked back at me. ‘I know, I know—only messing, cuz. Cool it.’

I felt the lump in my throat subside as Adam turned back on his pillow and closed his eyes. I could see the grin on his mouth. I couldn’t tell whether he was still laughing at me or whether he was on to something. He was the one with the information, and, if he wanted to keep it to himself, he could for as long as he wanted.

‘We stick to the plan. We’ve done step one and hung around with him. He’s acted weird. Now we go to step two.’

‘And step two is?’

‘We ask Kenny about Donald.’

I frowned and let out a laugh. Slow-walking Kenny wasn’t a man of gossip. He was the last person who would part with information. His wife was always the one who used to chit-chat about Whatshername getting pregnant, or Mr Whats-his-face getting killed on the telly. Kenny was always a quiet man. He made his garden features, he watched the snooker, and he sunbathed with a newspaper every morning, no matter what the weather was like. We never went to see him anymore, so it would be strange for us to suddenly roll up on his doorstep and start quizzing him on Donald.

‘And how exactly do we get info from Kenny?’ I asked, bemused.

Adam carried on smiling, his eyes still shut. I prayed he hadn’t gone to sleep, because I wanted to hear what he had to say. He was toying with me.

‘I’ve seen to that,’ he said.

I jumped over to his bed and hit his leg.

He winced. ‘Ow, alright, alright. Well, you know when I took the rubbish up to the bins before? Well, let’s just say the bag split all over his garden. I even popped a Lurpak carton on the nose of his garden dolphin.’

I tried to respond, but no words left my mouth, which dangled open.

Adam continued, grinning away. ‘When he wakes up, he’ll need a hand or two clearing his garden. And that’s when we happen to be wandering past. That way, he won’t be able to resist answering our questions.’

‘You’ve… you did that?’

Adam smirked. ‘Told you I’m a genius.’ He turned into his pillow, still smiling.

An idiot, more like. A bloody clever idiot. He reached up to his light without opening his eyes and flicked the switch.

Chapter Sixteen

The following morning, we got up and ate our breakfast as usual. While I was eating, I looked up and was startled by the sight of Emily at our doorstep. It took me by surprise, even though it probably shouldn’t have done. Maybe that’s how involved I was getting in this mystery. She hadn’t knocked but instead just stood there, waiting for us to emerge.

‘Oh, what’s she doing here?’ Adam looked at his watch and sighed impatiently.

‘Adam, we’ll have plenty of time,’ I said, as he slumped his shoulders. I knew he was probably bothered that Kenny had begun clearing up his garden. If we had nothing to help with by the time we got there, it would be harder to get him to talk. I didn’t like Adam’s tone, so I ignored him and got up to let Emily in.

As I opened the door, I noticed something different about Emily though I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Her hair was tied tightly around her head. Her eyes were dark underneath. Her lips were red like when Mum wore lipstick. She stood, arms behind her back, without her usual smile. Her eyes were grey and distant.

‘You okay, Emily?’ I asked, trying to force a smile from her. I wanted to hug her, but I couldn’t bring myself to reach my arms out. Plus, it would be weird. I had no reason to hug her. She just looked… different. Something was out of place.

She nodded, her eyes not parting from mine.
Was she shaking?
She brought her hands forward before slipping them in her pockets and back out again. She didn’t know what to do with them. ‘Can I come in?’ she asked. Her voice sounded shaky.

I was about to say yes when Adam stood up from the table and marched towards the door. ‘Look, we’re busy today alright?’ he said, pushing past me and leaning against the doorway.

I looked at him. The words made heat flush through my body. I looked back at Emily, who carried on staring right at me.

‘I… Okay, I’ll just—’ Her eyes finally broke from mine as she looked down at the floor. She began to turn away from the caravan.

‘Emily, you can come in. Gran and Granddad are out today. They went out to Lancaster early but we… well, we’ve got things to do, so we stayed back,’ I said.

She looked at me again and broke a half-smile. ‘Oh, well, if you’re busy I can, um, I can come again another time, maybe.’

‘No, I er—no! I didn’t mean that. You can come in if you want.’

What a stupid thing to say.
We’ve got things to do
. I was almost saying out loud what Adam was implying. He looked at his watch again, then up at Emily.

‘It’s okay, Liam. But, we’re still friends, aren’t we?’ she said.

Adam folded his arms together and rolled his eyes.

‘Course we are Emily, it’s just—’

‘It’s just you only want to hang out with us when it suits you. We might have something we need help with but you don’t give a damn.’ He turned to me. ‘Since when did you get so soft anyway?’ Adam interrupted.

Emily stood, mouth open, searching for a response.

My skin began to boil. I couldn’t contain it any longer. I grabbed Adam by the scruff of his shirt and pushed him against the wall. ‘Listen, there’s more to life than this stupid fucking mystery, Adam. We’ve got friends who need us. You can’t forget that. I know you need something to focus on right now, but sometimes you’ve got to let things rest for one bloody minute.’

Adam’s face flushed and his body went limp. He looked at Emily, red-faced, and tried to push my arms away. ‘Some—something to focus on? What’s that supposed to mean?’

I felt the heat boiling down. I tried to talk but my throat turned to jelly. My knees wobbled. I let go of the scruff of Adam’s neck and left the caravan. ‘I need some air,’ I said. ‘Emily, I’ll walk you back if you want.’

Adam looked between us both, twitching his nostrils. He threw his fist into the wall. ‘I fucking dare you to leave, Liam.’

I let out a sarcastic laugh before looking down at Adam. I reached out and grabbed Emily’s hand. Her fingers felt cold but linking them into mine sent warmth all the way through my body.

We walked away as Adam watched us. I could feel his eyes on my back. ‘I’ll deal with Kenny then, dickhead, because I’m the one who always deals with things,’ he shouted. ‘You and your girlfriend have fun doing whatever you’re gonna do. I won’t forget this. I promise I won’t let you get away with this. We’re not even yet.’

I stood tall and tried to take it on the chin, but Adam was right. I knew something would be coming my way. I couldn’t be sure where or when, but it would. It always did. That’s how it worked between us. But deep down, as I walked across the stones with Emily’s soft hand in mine, I didn’t really care. The thing that mattered to me right now was Emily. I felt a smile sneak across my face as we walked down the road. The clouds in the sky looked like something that had come out of a factory. The wind blew and the plants danced in the breeze. Everything looked so much brighter now, like things did in a dream. I wanted the world to see me holding hands with Emily. I wanted everybody in their caravans to see that it was me who got her and not Adam. Okay, the circumstances were hardly perfect. But it felt nice inside. Putting him in his place. I felt like I could take over the world right now. And I hadn’t even had to playfully hit Emily to win her over.

‘You didn’t have to do that, Liam,’ Emily said.

I smiled. ‘Yeah, well, I did.’

Emily took me up my road, and we turned left at the top. The caravan site owner’s derelict old house was just about visible in the distance, atop a hill. I wondered how anyone could survive with so few windows. The house itself was nice and big, made of the sort of stones you’d see fences made out of round this sort of area. But the whole house must have had about three windows at the front and two at the back. It was a tip inside now, too, where older kids hung around and drank beer according to Granddad. It would make the perfect haunted house.

We followed the road round the side of the field. Donald’s caravan would be at the end of this higher route, but we were still quite a way from his place. My stomach turned when I thought about Donald, so I changed my thoughts back to Emily. My hand in her hand.
How long was I supposed to keep it there? Was I doing everything wrong?

‘You’re okay with me holding your hand, aren’t you?’ I asked.

Emily giggled and looked towards the ground. ‘Of course, silly. Are you alright with me holding yours?’

I tried to smile, but my face grew warm. ‘Yeah, oh yeah. It’s cool.’

Emily led me to the launderette. We hadn’t been here for a while. Last time, we’d spied on people as they brought their clothes in to be dried, looking for some sort of conspiracy.

She stared at me with those big, inviting eyes. I wanted to hug her or kiss her, but I wasn’t sure how. It was like there was an invisible wall between us, and I wasn’t sure how to break through it. I couldn’t think of what to say. I could only smile.

We sat against the bumpy wall behind the launderette and stared down into the group of trees in front, like a mini-forest separating us from the rest of the caravan site. We were totally alone, with only the distant sounds of footsteps for company. Our hands were still interlocked. My palm started to sweat a little. Emily was completely still.

We sat like this for a while, totally silent. I wanted to tell Emily everything. About Donald, what we’d seen him doing. About the mystery surrounding Carla’s disappearance. About the ring. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to tell her about other things, too. About my mum and dad, and how I wished they could sort their problems out. About having moved house four times in the last two years. About how fucking hard it was being expected to ‘stay strong’ for Adam’s sake with what he’d been through. I looked at her as she stared down into the trees, her hair still tight against her head. I wondered if she was thinking the same sort of things. But we were both totally silent. It felt like we were ghosts looking down on somewhere we used to know.

I contemplated saying something. I wasn’t sure if I was being good company. I didn’t want to risk Adam turning up, intruding on the moment with whatever comeback he had planned for me.

Instead, Emily broke the silence, right on cue. ‘You really didn’t have to stand up for me like that, Liam. I mean it.’ She turned to look at me and pulled her hand away. I realised how chilly it was without the heat from her hand warming up my body, like a phone taken off the charger.

‘No, I really did,’ I said. I wasn’t sure whether what she said was a bad thing, seeing as she’d said it twice now. My throat felt a little bit rough as I smiled stupidly.

‘I—I do understand, you know. You’ve got things going on. I know I smile a lot, but I really do understand.’ Whenever she looked into my eyes and smiled, it made my head fuzzy. ‘I mean, I didn’t mean to upset Adam by not helping you out with your mystery,’ she said, stressing the last two words. The doubt was clear in her voice—she thought it was just another little thing we’d come up with.

‘I know you didn’t. He knows you didn’t either. He’s just…’

‘Hurt,’ she said, looking at me directly now. Hurt wasn’t the word I was thinking of. Maybe difficult or obsessive. But the way she said it, staring right at me, gave it so much weight. So much meaning. I nodded my head and smiled, acknowledging her words, wanting to look polite.

She shuffled her feet, kicking at the twigs in front of her. A couple of blackbirds landed in the distance, pecking at each other and flapping their wings. What were they saying to each other? I envied the birds sometimes. Just being able to fly off to see everyone back home whenever it became too much. I could see my dad and my mum all the time that way.