The silent house arc, p.18
The Silent House (ARC), page 18
might have been hiding, it was important to remember
she’d been the one to find Lexi’s body.
How does Alan feel about that?
Elisha threw another glance over at him. He’s not happy,
but he says we can stay there a bit longer. I don’t want
Kasey sleeping in that room again. What if she has night-
mares about it?
I nodded sympathetically. Do you think Kasey and
Jaxon might have seen what happened? I know the police
interviewed Jaxon.
The look she flashed me took me by surprise, it was
so filled with hate. Don’t talk to me about that boy. I
don’t want him in my house again.
Why? Did he tell you something about that night? Did
he see who killed Lexi?
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She let out a snort. That’s all you’re interested in, isn’t it? You pretend to be friendly, but you just want something to tell the police. Well I’m not talking to you. You know nothing about my family, nothing.
Please, Elisha, that’s not why I asked. I went to touch her arm, but thought better of making physical contact
this time. I wanted to make sure you were okay.
Piss off, she signed, standing up and turning her back on me.
Several tense minutes later, we were both taken through
to an interview room. Singh gave me a sheepish smile,
and I wondered if Forest had given him a talking to about
taking me back to the crime scene.
Forest sat down and had begun the questions before
Singh had finished taking a seat.
‘What can you tell us about Rick Lombard?’
Why? Elisha asked, but her eyes gave away that she
was keeping something secret.
‘He was at your house last Friday night, the same night
Lexi died.’
She wrinkled her nose. I don’t know what you’re talking
about. I didn’t see Rick that night.
‘Really? So he didn’t come round at any point that
night?’
She shook her head and I thought she was starting to
look a little frightened, but I didn’t know why.
‘We know Rick was there when Alan came home. They
had a fight. But we have another witness who told us he
was there for several hours that evening, when you were
alone in the house with the children. Rick himself told us
he was there. So think about your answer again.’
Her eyes danced around the room before she replied.
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Alan doesn’t know, about me and Rick. He didn’t know, before that night, I mean. I used to go out with Rick,
before I met Alan. Just before. We . . . kept in touch.
‘You broke up with Rick to go out with Alan?’
She shook her head. It wasn’t serious, not like that.
But Rick got scary when I was pregnant with Kasey, kept
saying he was going to tell Alan about us, get a DNA
test.
Forest tensed her jaw. ‘Why didn’t you tell us this
before?’
It has nothing to do with Lexi. Rick didn’t hurt her.
‘Rick thought Kasey was his daughter. Maybe he went
upstairs to try to see her?’
Elisha pulled a face. No, he didn’t go upstairs. He
knows Kasey isn’t his daughter, she looks like Alan. And
she looks like Lexi, and they wouldn’t look alike unless
they were sisters.
For a moment, Forest stared at her with her arms folded.
Elisha shuffled in her seat and then looked at me as if for
reassurance. I waited for the detectives to continue with
their questions.
‘You know we found the phone you’ve been using to
contact him. We know your relationship is more than just
“keeping in touch”.’ Forest still had her arms crossed,
and she watched Elisha to see her reaction.
Elisha hung her head. I don’t know why. I don’t want
to ruin what I’ve got with Alan. Rick always talks me
into things.
‘Rick Lombard has a history of violence, and you used
to be in a relationship with him. You’ve just admitted that
he’s coercive, and you were scared of him when you were
pregnant. Why are you so convinced he didn’t kill Lexi?’
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I know him. He’s not always a good person, but he wouldn’t hurt a child.
Forest raised an eyebrow and looked at Singh. Clearly,
Elisha didn’t know the full extent of Lombard’s history.
Anyway, he didn’t go upstairs. Then Alan came in,
drunk and ranting. He and Rick got into it, but then Rick left. I watched him leave. He definitely didn’t come inside again.
My head was reeling with the different accounts from
different witnesses, or suspects, in this case. I was glad I
wasn’t in Forest’s position, trying to make sense of what
actually happened that night.
‘Tell us about the fight Alan had with your brother the
week before.’
This caught my attention. I wondered how much infor-
mation had been filtering into the police without my
knowledge.
Elisha’s face turned red and she licked her lips several
times, the question making her instantly nervous.
What fight?
‘We’ve been told that it wasn’t the first time Alan’s had
a fight outside your house. The weekend before there was
another incident. We know you went to sort it out, and
we have it on good authority that the man was your brother.’
Elisha’s eyes searched the room again, as if looking for
a way out.
I don’t know.
‘You don’t know if it was your brother? The same way
you didn’t know who Rick Lombard was, even though
you had a relationship with him?’
No, no, I knew it was him. I mean, I went outside to
see, I went after Alan. But I didn’t see them fighting.
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‘Why not? It can’t have been that dark. Your road has plenty of street lights.’ Forest was getting sarcastic, and I wondered if she’d had enough of Elisha’s stories.
No, it wasn’t. I mean, they weren’t fighting when I
went outside. Then he left.
‘That’s strange,’ Forest said, shaking her head. ‘The
witness who told us about this seems to think you were
the one to sort it out, that you stopped the fight.’
That’s not what happened. That’s not what happened.
Elisha repeated herself frantically. That’s not what
happened.
‘What did happen then? Why don’t you want us to
know about the fight Alan had with your brother? We’re
concerned about this pattern that’s developing, of Alan
fighting with people in the street. Maybe one of them
took things further.
‘We’d like to talk to your brother, but we haven’t been
able to track him down yet. Have you told him to lie low
and not get in touch with us?’ Forest continued.
Elisha was taken aback by this, and shook her head,
but she didn’t sign anything.
Singh sat forward in his seat. ‘Elisha, you have to
understand that we are looking for someone who is very
dangerous. This person has murdered a child. They might
well hurt someone else. They might hurt Kasey. This is
serious. You have to tell us the truth, and tell us everything you know. If you’re hiding something, protecting someone,
you could get into trouble.’
As I was interpreting, Elisha sat and shook her head
over and over, her shoulders hunched, hands pressed
between her knees. I could see she was scared and confused,
but Singh’s words kept coming.
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‘This person you’re protecting, they might have killed Lexi. Do you understand that? You might be protecting
someone who murdered a little girl. I don’t know if it’s
Alan, or Rick, or your brother, but you need to tell us
the truth. Tell us whatever you’re keeping secret.’
‘No!’
I was surprised by Elisha’s shout. She turned back to
me and continued in sign. You don’t understand. He
wouldn’t hurt anyone. It has nothing to do with him.
‘Who? Lombard? Or your brother?’ Forest asked, her
face livid.
The effect of Singh’s speech wore off as quickly as it
came, and Elisha sat back in her chair. I’ve told you
everything. I don’t know why you think I’m keeping
secrets. I’ve told you all I know.
The conversation went round in circles for another five
minutes before the detectives looked at each other, defeat
on both their faces. They had no reason to keep Elisha
there, and she didn’t hesitate once they told her she could
go. As the door closed behind her, Forest slammed a file
down on the table in frustration.
That evening I arrived at Gemma’s around six o’clock,
and as soon as she saw the look on my face she led me
through to the kitchen and pointed at a chair.
Sit. You look exhausted.
I nodded. Working hard at the moment.
She shot me a sympathetic look. I know you can’t talk
about it, but if you need to offload at any point, you
know where I am.
I thanked her and leaned back in the chair. The smells
wafting from Gemma’s oven were intoxicating; a few of
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us tried to meet up once every month or so, and we varied what we did, but my favourite nights were the ones when
Gem cooked for us.
Who’s coming tonight?
Jodie and Lucy. Cara has a date. She waggled her
eyebrows at me.
Good for her, I replied, not rising to the bait.
She’s trying a different website, Gem began, but I was saved from her well-meaning interference by Petra barrel-ling through the door, her blonde pigtails flying.
‘Auntie Paige!’ she shrieked, flinging herself into my
arms. ‘My teacher’s having a baby and I want to make
her a card, and Mummy said you’d help me because you’re
good at art.’
I laughed and let her lead me by the hand up to her
bedroom, where bits of coloured paper were strewn all
over her floor.
‘I don’t know what colour to use,’ she said, a serious
frown creasing her six-year-old face. ‘I don’t know if it’s
a baby boy or a baby girl, she said it’s a secret.’
‘Why don’t you use yellow?’ I suggested. We sat on the
floor and sorted through the pile of papers, and she showed
me a box where she’d kept pieces of ribbon and buttons.
As we worked, Petra chattered away about school and
her friends, telling me she was going to a party the
following weekend at the local farm park.
‘Is it for one of your friends from school or from the
Deaf club?’
She pulled a face. ‘I don’t like going to Deaf club.’
‘Why not?’
For a moment, she concentrated on cutting out the
flower I’d drawn for her, a tiny wrinkle forming between
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her eyes. Without looking up, she said, ‘Jaxon always wants to play with me.’
I paused and waited for her to continue, but she didn’t
say any more.
‘Don’t you like playing with Jaxon?’
‘He hurts me sometimes. He likes to play games where
he hits me and I don’t like it.’
This new revelation of Jaxon’s violent behaviour
shocked me, despite what I’d already seen. I tried to hide
my sharp intake of breath from Petra, but she noticed.
She glanced up at me, a look of concern on her face. ‘And
he uses bad signs.’
‘Bad signs?’
‘He signed something to me but I didn’t know what he
meant, so I asked Mummy and she told me it was a bad
sign, for a rude word, and I’m not allowed to use it.’ The
words tumbled out of her mouth as she looked at me
anxiously, and I instinctively gave her a squeeze.
‘You weren’t in trouble though, you didn’t know it was
a bad sign.’
She shook her head. ‘Mummy was upset that Jaxon
signed it to me. She told me to play with someone else,
and I tried but Jaxon always wants to play with me and
if I tell him to go away he hits me.’
I sat with Petra while she finished her card, steering the
conversation round to more lighthearted topics, which led
to her adding a picture of the school guinea pigs to her
card. When she was satisfied with it, I left her playing and
went downstairs to sit with Gemma before the others arrived.
Oh god, did she tell you about that? Gem said, shaking her head when I repeated the conversation I’d had with
her daughter. I know people swear all the time, and she
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was bound to learn some unsavoury words and signs soon enough, but I was hoping I could maintain her innocence
for another couple of years.
What word was it? I asked out of curiosity.
Bitch, she told me. I expect he’d seen an adult use it and thought it was funny to copy, but I was a bit taken
aback when Petra came up and signed it to me.
Poor kid, she knows it wasn’t her fault but she still
feels bad.
Gem nodded. That’s why I’ve not taken her for a couple
of weeks. I want her to mix with the Deaf community,
it’s part of her heritage, but not if it’s going to upset her.
A light above the door flashed as the doorbell rang,
and I jumped up to answer it. Jodie and Lucy had arrived
at the same time and we all piled into the kitchen.
Just in time, Gem said, as she lifted the lid off the tagine she’d been making. I’ll get Petra in bed, then we can put the world to rights.
As we ate, the four of us chatted and signed, sharing
gossip and catching up. To outsiders, we might seem like
a disparate bunch of friends, but we’d formed our little
group over the course of about ten years. Jodie worked
with Gem, and had spurred their colleagues on to study
some BSL when Gem was first employed. This kindness
had led to mutual respect and eventually a close friendship,
with Jodie and I working together to support Gem through
the year where she lost her husband and gave birth to
Petra. Cara, the only one missing from our usual gathering,
was my friend from school. I’d taught her to sign so we
could communicate across the classroom, and when she’d
finished uni we struck up our friendship again.
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Lucy was another deaf parent, who had twin boys a couple of years younger than Petra, and she and Gem had
made friends at the Deaf club. I didn’t know Lucy that
well, but she’d fitted seamlessly into our group when she’d
moved to the area six months earlier.
Once we’d eaten, we moved through to the living room
and the conversation turned to Cara and the reason for
her absence.
This is her fourth date in six weeks, so she’s certainly
working her way through them, Jodie signed.
Paige, why don’t you try it? Gem asked, a twinkle in her eye. I shot her a dirty look.
No, thanks. Cara might be having plenty of dates, but
she’s yet to find a decent bloke she wants to see more
than once.
Come on, you might be surprised, Jodie replied, pulling her phone out. There are free apps, you don’t have to pay anything. We could set up a profile for you right now!
‘No!’ I said, sharper than I’d intended, earning myself
a few raised eyebrows. Sorry, I continued in sign, but I’m just not interested.
I had only had one serious relationship in my adult life.
I’d met Mike when I was twenty-two, and was with him
for just over five years. In that time he stripped my self-
esteem away little by little, just as relentlessly as he spent my money, and by the time Anna and my friends helped
me get him out of my life I didn’t even recognise who I’d
become. In the three years since, I’d done a lot to repair
the damage, but I didn’t know when I would feel ready
to trust anyone enough to be in a relationship again.
My friends could feel the change in atmosphere, and
Gem steered the conversation away from my lack of a
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