“They get so many facts wrong.” He frowned, his brown eyes serious even though it was breakfast time.
She’d learned that Alex didn’t always have time for things, that his routine was what it needed to be. He liked to read and if he was engrossed in a book, he’d stay up late with it and carry on as soon as he woke up.
“Then why carry on reading it?” She sat down opposite, Gretel moving over to her feet.
“Because I want to find out who did it.” He barely looked up, just knocking her foot with his bare one. Alex hated wearing shoes or socks inside and she was starting to have a bit of an obsession with his feet.
“You could just read the end.”
He put the book down and gave her the grin that melted her insides and everywhere else. “I like to see if I’m right when I’ve gone through all the evidence. You’d read the end, wouldn’t you?”
“Absolutely. I hate surprises.”
His eyes went to the notebook. “What’s that?”
“Everything I wrote down about Tilly and the things I found out. Until I kind of stopped looking.” She passed it over to him.
He held it gently and opened the pages, slowing looking through it. His eyes were serious, and she wished she could see him at work like this, completely engrossed and focused.
“You’ve got something here.”
She sat up rod straight. “Alex, there’s nothing in there except notes about people I spoke to. I figured Tilly might be here because Felley Manor would be a good place to hide someone and it was linked to what I found out about Kenny and his gang. When I got here I found a coven of women who knew everything and a singly graffitied telephone box that was the talk of the town.”
He shook his head. “Abby, I’ll read through everything properly later. I wanted to see what you had in for the day when Lois was taken.” Lois was Lena Rowley’s younger sister and lived at Felley Manor as part of the religious group there. Abby had always worried that someone was using Lena and Lois’ connections with the cult to gain information on who was there. She’s been lured to the caves that ran under some of the nearby peaks and trapped in them, Sorrell taking it upon herself to seek her out.
It was the day Sadie Grace disappeared, following Lois, the youngest daughter of one of the church members, when she was dragged away by three men. It had been a few months after Lena had been trapped in the caves that it happened, but it seemed more than a coincidence that it had been two sisters who were the victims.
Lois had been fine physically, shaken, and withdrawn at first, but after time with Sorrell who still practiced as a children’s therapist, she’d started to move forward from what happened.
“You’ve written that you heard a man in the bar talking about needing to get into the Manor.”
She squinted. “I was in full recording mode around that time. I scribbled stuff down between customers and I remember those men.”
“How were they dressed?”
“Normally. They were talking about Severton like they knew it well but hadn’t been there – but it was Midsummer and there were so many people about.” She looked at Alex as she finished her sentence, remembering the day although it was hazy now.
Alex gave a nod. “Later – not today or tomorrow – we’ll talk it through, see what else you can remember.”
“It won’t necessarily help.”
“It might help you.”
She shook her head. “Alex, this – trying to work out where she is; me being here – Zack and Rayah were rowing about me last night. I’m causing so much trouble.”
He pulled her up into his arms and held her. “Not going to lie, life was quieter, kind of, before you were followed out of the bar, but there’s been shit going down here for years. You’re not the reason why I have a boss who’s working for the other side or a man decided to buy a building for a religious organisation so he had somewhere to hide people.”
“I know. I just shift between being hopeful and feeling like running.”
“Maybe you should talk to Sorrell and see if she can recommend a therapist. Then you might start to see what I do.” He moved her to arm’s length. “We have Severfest to go to. Let’s try to not stare at every stranger and work out what they’re here for.”
It wasdifficult not to stare.
Jake’s fields were full of people, more than Abby had seen at any of the other Severton festivals that were celebrated through the year. Stalls littered the fields, selling homemade goods, food and services. There were what you’d expect – tarot readers and fortune tellers, crafts and places where you could buy personalised goods, and of course, the gin stall, where Gran presided, telling stories about how the gin was made with juniper berries, crushed by her very own feet.
“That woman never stops,” Alex said, pulling Abby past quickly. “Especially when she’s got a captive audience.”
Abby laughed, trying to push away the conversation they’d had earlier and how she’d felt. She knew Alex was right; if she had a friend who’d experienced what she had, she’d be suggesting they worked through it with a professional. Whatever they found out about Tilly's whereabouts was almost irrelevant. She had to move forward.
