“It’s fucking raining!” She screams, the cacophony blowing as everyone erupted into arguments. Phin continued to sob into my chest. Merle thrashed against Detective Starling, who shouted up the stairs for back-up from Goldie. He appeared seconds later, crashing his palms into his chest and helping to secure his body to the wall. Mavis cries, Lily follows as Willow continues to scream at her for blindly living up her own ass. My head ping-ponged back and forth, clutching Phin, whose body was growing heavier and heavier against my small frame. Wren whispers to us both, stroking my waist and keeping his arm firmly wrapped around him to keep his weight off me.
I honestly feel like I’m experiencing an outer body experience, watching everyone be engulfed in hellfire. I say nothing, no one paying me a lick of attention, so I tuck myself into Phin as I always do.
“Enough!” Cardinal’s voice bellows, carrying around the entire hotel. The arguments immediately stop, Phin sniffs and manages to at least stand on his own feet as he peels himself from me. He’s shaking, but I run my palms down his cheeks, and he wiped his nose with the back of his hand.
“Gross,” I teased, getting a watery smile.
Merle continued to thrash against Goldie, but the energy is leaving the fight as he hangs his head in defeat. Checking he’s secure in his partner's hold, Starling pushes off the wall. With his arms stretched out, gesturing to us all, he walks in a slow circle.
“Everyone is going to stay calm and go back to their roomsnow. Myself and DS Goldie will go check on the car situation and gates.”
“We want—” Willow starts, but Starling snapped his fingers in her face.
“Hey! Everyone’s going to shut the fuck up right now and do as I say. We’ll check outside and you can all go to your rooms till we say otherwise. You,” he points to me, “Miss Osbourne, will find the rest of the clues. Be quick, my patience is thin, and I want to wrap this up. We’ll make the necessary calls and see what we can do about the flooding, but the bridge is closed and the village isn’t accessible. I’m going to give whoever did it time to fess up—who slashed the tires and locked the gate?”
No one speaks, but all our eyes shoot to one another. This doesn’t make sense; we all want to leave. Whilst I thought Merle would make for the perfect murder suspect, this doesn’t make sense. Two of his secrets have now been revealed, making him seem more like a target than the villain I pegged him for not even an hour ago. My head is starting to swirl, and I sagged a little more into Wren, air not quite getting into my lungs like it should. This is all so overwhelming. I look up into worried green eyes, and the concern there rackets me.
“Fine. When we catch which one of you did this, you’re going to be in a cell. Everyone, go to your rooms.” Starling scolds, flinging his arms down in a weird tantrum.
“You’re coming to my room.” Wren’s voice is gently next to my ear, hands wrapping around my upper body as he helps support my shaky limbs. It’s one thing to be stuck here because of the weather, but now we’re trapped.
His hand snakes out and takes Phins. “You too. Come to my room.” It feels right, the three of us protected away where we can figure everything out and look after one another. Maybe I’ll take a long nap till the rain stops, anything is better than having to face what is turning into a Groundhog Day nightmare.
Chapter twenty-one
Wren
BEINGheld in one place is a funny thing. It’s completely foreign to me. With being on the road so much, living out of tour buses or fleeting hotels in a different city every couple of days, I’d never stayed in one place for long. Even at boarding school, I rushed home to London every weekend so that Mum wasn’t alone. I couldn’t sit still, which is why tour life suited me just fine. Now, practically being held hostage in a hotel without our phones, outside contact, or knowledge of the law, I’d forgotten the usual craving I felt to keep moving. I was pretty sure legally they couldn’t contain us here, but DC–DS, whatever Starling threatened to put everyone in a cell and I thought better not to poke the bear. I needed to court my girl, which couldn’t happen from behind bars.
What a pathetic reason to be locked in a cell.
"Hey, what are you in for?"
"Oh, me? I tried to leave a hotel when I was told not to."
I’d be the laughing stock of the inmates. I wonder if explaining we were all being detained due to a murder investigation would bump up my cell cred? That’s if we ever did leave NightingaleHouse, the slashed tires and locked gates a new hurdle. Who the hell was doing this? Trashing Robin’s room, the message on the mirror, vandalizing the cars, and locking us on the property? If I was surrounded by more strangers, I’d probably be more fearful, but mostly everyone here–bar my lovely lady and Cardinal–are in my circle of people. Hell, even Willow and Lily were surrounded with people I knew more often than not.
All these questions were suffocating as I continued down the hall in the opposite direction of my room. Robin was safe with Phin in there, so now I needed to check in with my bandmate and make sure he hadn’t been arrested. Bran didn’t have a temper, but he was passionate, so I knew Mavis cheating must have devastated him. The two had been childhood sweethearts, but maybe he was just happy with the safety net of having her. She clearly wasn’t.
Fucking hell, Jay had some explaining to do.
I locate the correct bedroom door, knock and wait. Detective Goldie wasn’t around like a little guard dog, so I’m relieved when the door cracks open a fraction, and Bran stares back at me. He is a total wreck. His hoodie is well-worn and he wears sleep shorts, a slight musk radiating off him, signaling to anyone who could smell in a three-mile radius that he hadn’t showered.
“Hey man,” I whisper. “The detectives are downstairs. How are you holding up?”
He sags against the door frame, opening the door a little wider, and I lean on the same side from out here. “Badly. Look man, I’m so, so sorry for shouting and scaring Robin. I was just so mad at Mavis,” he says, shaking his head with wide eyes, like he can’t comprehend his behavior. “I’ve never felt rage like it. It scared me.”
“Robin’s okay. Please don’t worry—we’re cool. She said you reminded her of a grizzly bear.” I try to joke, but it falls flat andI let out a long sigh. “I’m so sorry, mate. You’ve been with Mavis since you were sixteen. This must really hurt.”
“What’s worse is they won’t let me see her. I just want her to explain. I need her to tell me what I did—or didn’t do—for her to do this to me. Why didn’t she just cut me loose? I always thought I was just being a good boyfriend, giving her so much space. I couldn’t exactly ask her for more of her attention when we were so busy on tour.” He looks down at his feet, coughing a couple of times to clear his throat. “Maybe I was being selfish, loving her so much when I was never there for her.”
I reached out to place my palm on his shoulder and he leans into my touch. “Mate, you can’t for a moment think you did anything wrong in order for her to cheat on you. She fucked up—not you. Yes, we’re away a lot on tour, but so many couples make it work. When you were together, you doted on her any chance you got. You were always trying to ring her, video call, you constantly sent her those food parcels from that restaurant she loves.”
He sniffles and nods once, but still looking at the ground. “I did. At least that’s something.”
I sigh, dropping my arm and crossing both over my chest. I didn’t want to cause him more pain, but both detectives could very well come up here and question him about what we just learnt downstairs. Jay might be our guitar tech, but my relationship with him ends there. However, he befriended Bran, and they kept up that friendship for years. For him to go anywhere near Mavis isn’t acceptable. That's why he needs to know, but at the cost of not only losing his girlfriend, but his best friend too. “I really don’t want to do this, but you deserve to know. We found Jay’s secret. Mavis was having an affair with him too.”
I waited for the anger, tears, anguish—anything. But it doesn’t come. Instead, Bran lets out a bitter laugh and shuts his eyes sohard they crinkle. He continued to laugh and laugh, curling over slightly, but finally straightened up.
