What We Saw (27 page)

Donald looked too weak and helpless to care anymore.

‘Yeah, he killed his precious little girl a few years back. Put a few too many pills down her throat, didn’t we?’ he said, squeezing Donald’s cheeks.

Donald could only cough in response.

‘Jonathan, this isn’t the plac—’

‘Fuck off!’ Emily’s dad shouted at the balding neighbour.

I took another deep breath. ‘We know you framed Donald for killing Beth Swanson in the forest,’ I said.

Emily’s dad squared up to me again. His eyes looked similar to the way they had that day at the launderette. ‘I did, did I? And how do you know so much about her, eh?’ he smirked.

‘You framed Donald. You knew about what happened with his daughter. And you used it to get him to do your dirty work,’ Adam said, shuffling towards Emily’s dad.

I pulled Adam back.

Emily’s dad turned his head between the two of us and round at the crowd. ‘We’ve got our own little pair of detectives here, haven’t we?’ He held his hands in the air and circled us. I shivered as he walked behind me. ‘Round of applause for the little mystery hunters, please.’

Emily’s mum sobbed in the background.

‘What’s up with you, Sue?’ Emily’s dad asked. ‘Get inside. I’ll talk to you about this later.’ He pointed his finger towards the caravan.

Emily’s mum stood, slumping her shoulders and neck. She fumbled with something in her pocket. Emily’s dad watched her hand, and his elevated arm gradually began to drop. Sweat dripped from his forehead now.

‘You did it,’ she whimpered.

I felt my knees go weak. Emily’s mum’s eyes danced from me to Emily’s dad. She chewed her finger.

‘What did you say?’ Emily’s dad asked, his eyes flickering.

‘You killed the girl. Don’t bother lying now, Jonathan,’ she said, more defiant in her tone.

I looked at Adam. Emily’s dad scratched his head before laughing from his stomach. ‘You believe these two? You believe this little orphan dwarf? More fool you then, you cow.’

Adam went bright red. I held his arm. He couldn’t lose his cool, not now.

Emily’s mum turned back towards the caravan. She still fumbled about in her pocket.

‘You can’t just walk away now,’ I shouted. ‘Do something good for once and speak out.’

Emily’s dad turned towards me, and threw his finger in my face. ‘You can shut your little meddling mouth.’

‘No, I know you killed her because you kept her in our caravan,’ Emily’s mum shouted. Emily’s dad’s eyes focused on mine, before closing. He opened them again and smiled at me before turning to Emily’s mum. I saw Emily watching in the window. I wanted to go up to her and tell her things were going to be okay.

Emily’s mum spoke fast as her husband marched towards her. ‘You killed her because you’re a sicko and you kept her in the spare room and I hav—’

Emily’s dad clutched his wife’s throat and dragged her towards the caravan. The neighbours winced. Donald spluttered on the floor, as somebody sat by him and called an ambulance. I saw blue lights flickering in the distance.

‘You have what? What do you have?’ I screamed.

Emily’s mum struggled to get her words out from under the clench of Emily’s dad’s palm. ‘I have pictur—pictures,’ she shouted. Some pieces of paper fell to the ground from her pocket. Horrible, horrible images. I saw her legs and her eyes. Her mouth was gagged. He was with her. I wanted the ground beneath me to open up. People covered their mouths, and their eyes widened.

Emily’s dad looked like he was out of control, his face a deep shade of red. He shrugged a few people off as they tried to intervene. Most of the onlookers stood there, jaws dropping. I saw Emily in the bedroom window as her dad approached the caravan.

‘Okay,’ he shouted, turning round to face the wide-eyed crowd. ‘Okay, everyone, you got your little bit of entertainment. We’ll be out in five minutes.’ He looked towards me, nodded his head, and smiled. ‘You did well, kid. Very well.’

Something didn’t feel right. Emily’s dad pulled his wife inside the caravan and dragged the door shut. Everything seemed to be moving fast. People panicked and cried. I saw Emily at her bedroom window, cowering away as her dad entered her room. She shook her head and curled up into a ball. Her dad had something in his hand. It looked like a flame at the end of a bottle.

Emily broke free of her dad and disappeared from sight. A group of people ran to Emily’s caravan door and started banging on it, screaming for Jonathan to come out. I saw Emily appear in the bathroom, banging at the window. Emily’s dad pulled his head out from another of the windows. The blue lights were getting closer now.

‘This is what you’ve brought things to, kid,’ Emily’s dad called. ‘If I can’t carry on, neither can they. I’m so sorry.’ He slammed the window shut and smashed the bottle against the ground.

The next thing I saw was Emily’s dad’s face in flames.

The caravan changed colour. Flames swallowed it up. I could hear screams. Emily banged at the bathroom window, tears rolling down her cheeks. People in the crowd shrieked and cried.

I pulled Adam towards me and leaned into his ear. ‘If I don’t see you again, you’re an amazing cousin.’

He pulled his eyes from the burning scene and looked at me, barely processing what I’d said. I turned away from him and ran past the crowd towards the smoke of the caravan.

People screamed even more as I ran into the garden area. I went close to the window where Emily was as the heat scorched my face. I saw the tears dripping from Emily’s cheeks as she jumped around the bathroom, spluttering.

I held my hand against the window. It was boiling and stung like beestings, but I pointed upwards. Emily touched where my hand was, before dragging it back with the heat. My head started to spin.

‘Up,’ I said.

She looked back at me, and shook her head.

‘Up. Up there.’ Someone came and dragged me away as Emily looked up towards the skylight in the bathroom.

*

The next thing I knew, I was on the side of the road. People covered me in blankets and asked me questions that I didn’t understand. Men gathered around the caravan in fireman suits, spraying water at it. I saw some of them shaking their heads, dragging things from inside.

Donald was still on the ground. Someone put him into another car that looked like an ambulance.

And then I saw Emily.

Her eyes met mine as they wrapped her in a blanket. I tried to pull myself upwards, but someone else pushed me back down. ‘You need to rest.’

But I didn’t want to rest. I wanted Emily. I needed Emily.

They put her into the back of the black car and drove away. I saw her eyes meet mine as she disappeared. She reached her hand against the back window and mimed something, which I couldn’t make out.

I heard Adam’s voice. ‘Don’t worry, cuz. You saved her. She’ll be okay now.’

After that, everything went black.

Chapter Thirty-Three

‘So, you saw Donald Stanton burying the body twelve days ago, is that correct?’

I nodded and looked at the dull, grey walls around me. The police officer in front wasn’t like police officers I’d seen on the telly or in films. He was dressed smart, as if he were going to a wedding, not like a detective. He wrote something in the notepad in front of him.

‘And you didn’t think to report the incident as soon as it happened?’

I shivered, and stared at the closed door in the corner. Adam was in another room somewhere. Maybe this was it. Maybe I’d never see the outside again. It was my fault that Adam had ended up in here. If I’d let Donald get away with Emily, none of this would have happened.

The police officer tapped the bottom of his pen against the table. ‘Liam… it’s really important that you answer these questions. I know it’s hard. You’ve seen some awful things—things no child of your age should ever have to witness. It’s just important that you answer the questions.’

I turned back towards the officer and nodded. My teeth rattled together. ‘We didn’t tell the police because we were scared—I was scared.’

The police officer nodded. ‘Did Mr. Stant—did Donald put you under any pressure to keep what you’d seen a secret?’

I shook my head. ‘No, it wasn’t like that. He didn’t know we knew. Or at least, he didn’t tell us that he knew. Not until last night.’

The officer jotted something else down in his notepad and sighed. ‘You see, some things aren’t adding up. You say you were close to Mr. Sta—Donald, but it seems like you were on to him for a long time. Why did you change your mind and decide to accuse Mr. Beadsley of murdering the girl so suddenly?’

I shivered as he said his name. I couldn’t get the thought of his burning face out of my head. And the pictures on the ground.

‘Is he… is he dead?’ I asked.

The officer tipped his head to one side. ‘Yes, Liam. As is Mrs. Beadsley. There’s no coming back from where they are right now.’

‘And Emily?’

The officer dropped his pen to one side. ‘Emily is somewhere safe. She’s obviously very traumatised and mixed up about what has happened.’ He leaned in towards me. ‘Between you and me, from what I’m told, you saved her life, Liam.’

I felt a lightness hit me and slumped forwards towards the table before the tears began to roll down my face. ‘I just wish it had been different.’

The officer backed into his chair. He glanced at his notepad then left it closed on the table. ‘You can tell me about it, Liam.’

I spluttered and snivelled. ‘I was just trying to be a good cousin. We only wanted a mystery to solve. We were going to tell, I promise we were, but it all got too complicated and I couldn’t do it anymore. And there was everything with Emily, and her dad, and—it’s just too complicated.’

The officer sighed and moved his head from side to side, gently. ‘It’s okay, Liam. You and your cousin haven’t done anything wrong. You’ve done what any kids would have done.’

I sniffed. ‘Can I see Adam?’

The officer smiled. ‘Soon. We have to ask him some of the same things we’ve asked you.’

‘But what if he says something thinking it’s the ri—’

The officer slammed his hand onto the table. ‘Trust me. I’ve dealt with tougher nuts than Adam before.’ He smirked.

I took a deep breath, and looked at my knees. ‘What about Emily? Can I—will I see her?’

The officer rested on his elbows. ‘You see, that’s more difficult, Liam. She’ll need… she’ll need more time. There are things we need to see to. But I’m sure that in the future your paths will cross.’

A lump grew in the back of my throat. I could tell by the way he looked at me that I was never going to see Emily again.

The officer opened his notebook. ‘I want to run through things with you, one last time,’ he said. ‘Some of this might not be pretty, kid, but you asked for it.’

I nodded and felt my chest begin to slacken.

He cleared his throat. ‘Jonathan Beadsley murdered Beth Swanson after abducting her. Donald Stanton caught Jonathan Beadsley in the act. Jonathan manipulated Donald into burying Miss Swanson by blackmailing Donald. Something about Donald killing his daughter some years ago.’

He looked up at me, to check my response, then turned back down towards his notepad. ‘Donald Stanton then became conflicted in his interests. He grew fond of Emily, and she confided in him. Jonathan grew suspicious of you and your cousin’s involvement with Emily and feared she would open up about… about something she wasn’t supposed to.’ He glanced up at me again. ‘You with me, son?’

The bruises.
I nodded.

‘Alright. Well, after Jonathan threatened to drop Donald right in the murder frame, Donald kidnapped Emily and planned to run away with her,’ he said. ‘You know the rest.’ The officer slammed his notepad shut and folded his arms together. ‘Does that all make sense now?’

My arms twitched, and my stomach felt floaty. ‘Yes. Yes, it does.’

The officer grinned and nodded. ‘Good. Oh, and there’s something else I need to ask you about. One little inconsistency.’ He chewed at the end of his pen. ‘We have reason to believe from witnesses that your granddad, Dean O’Donnell, was in the woods the day Beth Swanson was murdered. Wednesday 24th. I want as much closure on this case as you, mate, but I need to know if he ever showed any tell-tale signs. Anything suspicious. We’re not asking you if he knew about it, just if he mentioned any weird goings on in the woods that day?’

I remembered the way Granddad had hugged Donald down by the wasteground. ‘Selective deafness,’ I muttered.

The officer’s eyebrows twitched. ‘You what, Liam?’

I shook my head, and smiled. ‘Nothing—sorry. I was just thinking aloud. No, Granddad was always just himself. I don’t think he went out that day because—yeah, that was the day Adam arrived at the caravan site. Wednesday 24th.’

The officer looked at me for a moment, then closed the book in front of him. He stood up and brushed his tie. ‘Very well, Liam,’ he said. ‘If you remember anything, just give me a shout.’

I paused in my chair. ‘You’re not arresting me?’

The officer laughed and pulled open the door. ‘You saved a girl’s life and cracked a case, kid. That’s more than most of the dimwits in here can claim they’ve done.’

I rose from the chair, my legs wobbling, and headed towards the door. Gran and Granddad waited outside. I smiled at the officer and walked towards them, looking into Granddad’s eyes. I nodded at him.

Selective deafness, he’d said.

Chapter Thirty-Four

After we’d gotten back to the caravan, there was a strange silence about the place. Granddad didn’t take Carla out for a walk that night and neither did we. I don’t think he wanted us to see the place where last night’s events had happened. Maybe he thought it would remind us or something. Not that we needed reminding. We sat down to an early meal as Gran pottered around the kitchen, getting things ready.

‘Your mum is coming to pick you up tomorrow,’ Gran said, rubbing her cheeks.

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Okay. That’ll be good.’ I turned Adam, who stared into space.

‘Gran,’ he said. ‘What—what happened to Donald?’

Gran turned from me to him, trying not to focus. ‘Donald’s in the hospital, I hear. But I, um, well I’m not sure what will happen with him. After all this. And his daughter, you know… anyway, who wants cheese on their sandwich and who wants ham?’ She smacked her hands together and looked between us.