The Mute and the Liar Page 6

  How? I manage to move my lips to form the words, but no sound comes out of my mouth.

  “Please, Nick is even more predictable than you. I suppose I didn’t expect him to protect you this much, but I got suspicious when he offered to take you here. He’s so impatient, he can almost feel every second he loses. So of course he’s not going to go out of his way and waste petrol and take you inside just so you can relieve yourself.”

  Hearing footsteps, I look up, and see Nick approaching us, an apologetic look carved on his face. Jayce grins at him.

  “What did you do to Kaylie?” Nick growls.

  “Nothing. Unlike you two, I don’t have to blackmail her into doing anything. She offered to help me. You’re right, you know. She is a lovely girl.” He ignores Nick’s piercing glare, and turns to me. “So we have reached a stalemate, haven’t we? Your father isn’t going to try anything, or else I’ll kill you. And you’re not going to try anything, or else I’ll kill him. The only thing we can do is wait for your father to perform my task.”

  I grip the mobile phone even tighter, but he snatches it out of my hands. I take this notebook and my pen out of my pocket and write in big, scratching letters, exactly what I think about his stupid ‘stalemate.’

  I DON’T CARE IF YOU KILL MY FATHER.

  “I know. But do you really want to carry the burden of killing your other parent too?”

  He knows.

  He knows. He knows. He knows. He knows everything.

  A sharp, suffocating silence follows. It cuts right through me.

  But no, it is not a silence, because I can hear something. One thing. I can hear one thing in this silence that is not a silence.

  I can hear the sound of screaming.

  Is there someone around me screaming? Am I screaming? No. I realise I know exactly what is screaming.

  A memory.

  “What are you talking about?” Nick snaps.

  Jayce looks at me hungrily. The look of a starving hyena that has just found a succulent piece of meat.

  “Alicia’s more insane than both of us put together; didn’t you know?” “Jayce. Stop this. I think you need to calm down and think about what

  you’re doing.” I see Nick put his arm around my shoulders protectively, but I can't feel it, like my whole body has become numb.

  “Aww. Look at you two, all grouping up trying to fight me. You forget that I know you. Nick, you’ve got my blood. And I know you too, Alicia. You’ve got my mind. We all think the same.” He talks slowly, savouring every letter. His piercing eyes flicker over both of us, judging us. “If anything, I’m more innocent than both of you. Unlike you two, my murder hasn’t been committed yet. Don’t you get it? Even if I get caught, I’ll just tell them about you,” he points at Nick. “And then I’ll tell them about you.”

  He puts his hand on my cheek, staring at me for a moment. After a few seconds, he looks back at Nick, and puts his other hand on his shoulder, connecting us all together.

  “And then we’ll be sitting next to each other in a prison cell. You can’t escape me. We’re all on the same side.”

  Chapter Nine

  11:40 PM

  I think we have arrived. Nick has parked in front of a large white house, and I've got to say, it looks beautiful. It's about four floors high, with huge, arched windows, and there are little plant pots lined up in a neat row in front. A white picket fence boxes in the neatly trimmed front lawn, and there is a little cobblestone pathway leading to a bright blue front door. The house is a lonely detached and stands right in the centre of nowhere. We have been driving through this woodland area for over an hour, with no sign of any life.

  Nick stops the car and immediately dashes out and knocks on the door. Jayce opens the car door for me, and I follow him hesitantly, unsure of how to feel or what to think.

  It doesn't seem like a scary place.

  A little bit tacky, perhaps, I think, noticing a parade of grinning garden gnomes. And certainly a bit overdone, what with the pink roses twirling around the fence.

  But this seems almost… welcoming.

  I thought they were going to take me to some sort of a prison. As I wonder what to think, a beautiful woman wearing a silky olive dress opens the front door. Her angelic, heart-shaped face lights up the moment she sees Nick.

  “Nicky!” Her delicate arms hurtle around his neck, and her wispy brown hair brushes his face as she dots both of his cheeks with kisses. “You didn't tell me you were coming!”

  “Kitty! I'm so happy to see you! We wanted to surprise you!” And he genuinely does look happy to see her. They part and her adoring amber eyes meet his green ones.

  “It's wonderful to see you! Come in, come in!” she chimes, and pulls him inside. She has such a high, soft voice, as though her throat is layered with honey. It's not even talking; it's more like singing. Nick walks inside, already taking off his coat, and the woman turns to Jayce.

  “And Jaycie! How you've grown!” she cups his cheeks, and he beams up at her with wide eyes. Erm... ‘Jaycie?’

  “We've really missed you. How are you?” 'Jayce asks her sweetly, and she pulls him into a hug, kisses both of his cheeks, and rushes through a string of 'Fines.' They slowly part, and she playfully tugs a particularly sticking-up strand of his tangled hair, and jokes about how he needs a haircut.

  It seems now she has only just noticed me, and she narrows her almond-shaped eyes a little and tilts her head. I notice she has really overdone herself with makeup and it looks like she has smeared blue crayons all over her eyes. The thick, gunky blue eyeshadow climbs all the way up to her tightly plucked eyebrows, and her lips almost glisten with garnet lipstick.

  “You're a girl!” she exclaims the obvious, looking stunned.

  Apparently, after overcoming her initial shock, she is pleased with what she sees and breaks into a smile.

  “Well, hey there! I'm Kit. What's your name?” She holds out her hand and looks at me eagerly, but I really don't know what to do.

  Surely this isn't the person we are going to stay with? After everything bad that has happened to me today, surely this seems too good to be true? I don't want to even look away from her in case that she is just some mad hallucination resulting from all this stress and craziness.

  Automatically, my hand reels around my throat, the way it always does when someone talks to me.

  “I told you not to strangle yourself. It's not polite,” Jayce hisses in my ear, but then decides to save me from this situation and raises his voice and addresses Kit. “This is my friend Alicia. She's a little shy.”

  I was wondering what he was going to introduce me as. I didn't really think 'she's my hostage' would cut it. However, introducing me as his friend just seems a little… boring. He could have been a little more creative: she's my personal assistant? My paparazzi? My biggest fan?

  “Aw, there's no need to be shy. We're all friends here!” Oh, are we all friends here? Are we really?

  She looks at me mischievously. “Jaycie, you didn't tell me you had such a pretty friend! And she's a girl! This is wonderful!” Wow. Someone got the wrong end of the cactus. Nevertheless, the softness in her tone almost makes me smile. “I love her already!”

  She hauls me into a hug, and suddenly it feels as though I am wrapped in the sleeves of a knitted jumper. I stand frozen - a worm being hacked in a bird's beak. Her strong, orange-scented perfume hits me, and suddenly I'm plummeting into a field of orange blossoms. As I stand there, moulded against the unfamiliar short, plump figure of this stranger, all I can think about is home. I don't know why she reminds me of home - Kit is a warmth, but my home is a coldness. It has been cold ever since Mum left.

  Just as evil is an absence of good, now I define my home as an absence of my mother. Maybe Kit reminds me of her. She felt warm too. She smelt of orange-scented perfume too. And she hugged me just like this.

  Kit leads us inside and takes my coat and puts it on a white coat rack nearby. Jayce unties his trainers, and place
s them in a cupboard beside the door, and I hastily do the same.

  I turn around and observe my surroundings, and I nearly stumble. Everything is stunning. Beneath me nests a blue and gold patterned carpet, and above hangs a small chandelier. We are standing in a wide, long rectangular corridor, with glass doors all around the perimeter leading into very spacious, intricately decorated rooms Different, fancy wallpaper coats every room - in this corridor exotic blue and pink birds dance, tumble and spiral all over the walls. Plant pots cradling huge, colourful flowers I've never seen before huddle against every corner in the house and a large staircase with a curling, twisting bannister clambers up the left-hand side of the corridor.

  We follow her into a room to the left, which turns out to be a kitchen. White cabinets line one wall, with a silver sink and huge oven, and everywhere I look I see white and red from the tiles. On the other side, there is a flat-screen television. A string of pots every colour of the rainbow stripe the shelf under the arched window, which reveals a huge, beautiful garden, flecked with patches of flowers and bushes in the shape of a peacock tails.

  “You should have called, you know. What if I had been asleep?”

  Nick chuckles at this. “Because it's Monday night. And every Monday night is opera night, right?”

  “You know me too well, Nicky.” She smiles and she busies herself in the kitchen making tea. Nick takes a seat at the cream table in the corner. As the kettle begins to hum, she turns to me. “Yes, I had a bad batch of insomnia a few years ago, and one Monday I thought to myself: 'why should I be lying here, tossing and turning and overdosing on sleeping pills and just plain wasting my time, when I could be doing something productive? So I sat down with my piano and started singing, and I did the same the next Monday, and I suppose it just became a routine.”

  “Kit is an opera singer,” Jayce explains, and takes a seat opposite Nick. I stand awkwardly shuffling my feet. Nick taps the seat next to him reassuringly, and after a few seconds deliberation, I decide to sit, thinking that I might as well make myself comfortable.

  “No, she is the world's best opera singer.” Nick corrects, and Kit giggles girlishly and insists she isn’t, that way show-offs do when you compliment them and they act all humble-Mother-Theresa-y when really they’re loving every minute of it. “How did the audition go?”

  “I got to the final round, but I wasn't chosen. It's okay, though. There's always next year, right?” she smiles, and begins pouring the water inside four rainbow-striped mugs. “I'm going to try as hard as I can, and I like to think that happiness always comes to those who are willing to work hard for it.”

  The boys offer simple condolences, with Nick going as far as to say the judges deserved to die a slow and painful death in the jaws of a dinosaur. She finishes making the tea and hands everyone a mug.

  “Thank you. You haven't had dinner, I presume?” They shake their heads, and Kit immediately clatters back over to the kitchen in her stiletto heels. “What should I make you? I have fish and chicken, or I can make you a stew or a pie?”

  “We don't want to cause you any trouble-” Nick begins, but she continues insisting she will make them food, and asks me if there is anything I want to eat.

  “Alicia only eats pasta.” Jayce tells her.

  Not just pasta, I silently correct him. I eat cereal too. And fruit and veg.

  Kit laughs and says that she loves pasta too, and opens the cupboard to reveal her whole collection of bags of spaghetti and pasta in almost every colour and shape. She rushes around again, and Nick gets up to help her, and pulls out some pans from one of the countless cupboards. He seems to know exactly where everything is.

  “So how is it going with work, Jaycie?”

  “Brilliant. I’m working as a receptionist down at a hotel in Elmview. It’s great fun. I get a good salary and it’s actually okay, you know, talking to all these interesting people. And it’s not too bad watching Spanish girls bending down to sort out their suitcases all day. And the uniform is amazing; I look like an air steward. It’s a great look for me. Persimmon is definitely my colour.”

  I can’t really see Jayce working in a hotel. The whole idea is a bit ridiculous. It’s only when Nick sighs and rolls his eyes in a ‘yeah, right’ sort of way, that I realise none of that is true.

  “Jayce is doing some music stuff at the moment,” Nick inputs. My guess is this is actually true, and Nick is deliberately telling Kit to try and put some reality into the conversation. Jayce seethes on the other end of the table, eyes narrowed into a killing gaze, obviously resenting Nick for saying something true about him. “He played piano in the Elmview High School Fair three weeks ago and they said he could join their band for the Spring Musical. Oh, and he filled in for his friend Jory’s keyboardist when he was ill last month.”

  “That’s great! Keep up with your music, Jayce. Obviously I’m a bit biased in telling you that because I’m the one who taught you piano, but you're so good at it. But of course, the hotel thing sounds fun too. How’s the boxing going, Nick?”

  Nick's eyes flicker up to Jayce, whose lips curl into a taunting sneer. “Oh... Erm...” he stammers, a slight wispiness in his distant voice. “I... I quit a few months ago. It just... Wasn't for me.”

  “Oh, I'm sorry. I’m sure it was for the best. But you were doing so well! Was it second you placed in the-”

  “Eleventh Southeastern Amateur Boxing Regionals. I came second, yeah.” “He lost out to Marty Wilson. Right legend he was. Right, Nick?” Jayce’s mad sneer only stretches even wider. Nick looks down, refusing to meet his gaze. Hmm. What's all that about? There’s something going on here. I’ll have to make a note of this and come back to it.

  “It doesn’t matter. I'm sure it was for the best. I was always so worried about you. I couldn’t stand the thought of you getting hurt.” She puts a comforting hand on his shoulder and he thanks her and gives her a weak smile. “What are you doing now?”

  “Got myself some construction work back in Elmview. It’s not too bad.”

  “Good! That’s what I like to hear: people getting back on their feet and persevering. I wish you the best of luck with that.”

  There is a pause. They share a wordless, tender moment. When Kit finally looks away, she turns to me. “And what are you thinking of doing, Sweetie?”

  Panicking, my hand reels around my throat once more. Luckily, Jayce quickly cuts through the silence.

  “Alicia wants to be a detective.”

  “Oh really? That's amazing! I love watching Poirot. So you're interested in all those crimes and stuff?”

  “She's brilliant at solving difficult crimes, you know, like murders. But she has trouble solving the simple ones. Like kidnappings, for example.” He flashes me an angelic smile.

  “The simpler ones might be the hardest to solve.”

  “I think the difficulty of the mystery depends on the intelligence of the criminal.”

  He can't be any more obvious, can he? He might as well have “evil mastermind” printed in bold capital letters on his forehead. However, Kit doesn't pick up on this and instead nods in agreement.

  “You're probably right there.”

  Eventually, after a comfortable silence only broken by the sound of the oven, a bowl of pasta is placed in front of us. Kit takes the final seat at the table and we begin eating.

  As the bowl of hot pasta glimmers in front of us, I suddenly realise just how hungry I am. I wolf the food down, shovelling as much of it in my mouth as is humanly possible, and momentarily forget the existence of manners. I lean over my bowl, elbows pushed on the table, creating a cage in case one of the others was planning on taking it from me. I finish the bowl in seven forkfuls, and look up with a sense of satisfaction, to see that the others are staring at me, shocked, mouths slightly parted. After an unnerving silence in which they are obviously comparing my table manners and eating habits to that of a rabid puppy, Kit addresses Jayce.

  “So how long are you planning to stay?”
<
br />   “We have a deadline of 3rd March at midnight.” Jayce murmurs, watching me. So that's a message for me then. Father is supposed to have killed Lauren by that time.

  “What was that?” Kit turns to him, but he goes back to being Smiling- Philanthropic-Eco-Friendly-and-Homeless-Animal-Saviour-Jayce and gives her a sickly smile and reassures her in a honey voice: “don’t worry, we’ll be out of your hair in three days, if that’s all right.”

  “Of course it’s all right! Stay as long as you like. This is wonderful! I get so lonely up here in the middle of these woods. It will be great to have some company. I am doing a bit of redecorating in my house at the moment. Just the odd bit of paint here and there, you know. It would mean a lot if you guys could help-”

  “Of course we'll help,” Nick quickly cuts in.

  The soft clatter of cutlery against china continues, and it’s not long before every bowl is empty. Kit collects them and quickly loads the dishwasher, then resumes her seat once more.

  “I still have to finish my aria. I hate leaving a song unfinished. Would it be so terribly irritating if I continued my practice? It will only take another five minutes or so.”

  “Sure. We love hearing you sing. I'll even play the piano for you if you want,” Jayce replies.

  “Oh, would you Jaycie? That would be wonderful! Oh, also, do you all have clothes and other items?”

  “We do, but Alicia doesn't.” Nick jabs a thumb at the Tesco bag, which has been thrown in the corner of the room. It is only then that I realise I am still in my glorious school uniform, navy tartan kilt and all.

  “Don't worry Sweetie; I'll give you some of mine. Come; I'm sure you must be tired. I'll show you your room now. You two already know your way to the guest bedrooms on the third floor, yes?” they nod in agreement. “Jaycie, I'll be in the music room on the top floor in a few minutes.” After a table tennis round of 'goodnights,' Kit leads me up the spiral staircase, and I follow her to the top floor and into a huge room.

  The sea.