by Jackson Lear
“Fuck ‘em. Let them say whatever the hell they want,” said Josh.
“I wasn’t talking about the town, though that will come,” mumbled Anthony. “I was talking about my wife.”
Josh fell silent as he watched his friend sink lower to the ground.
“This is a problem.”
60
Gemma
There is a level of lunacy apparently reserved for the exclusive use of the Baxter men. All Gemma could do now was wait for him to come home. She had mentally burned through a hundred arguments already, shouted him down a million times, and blasted his skills at reasonable thinking, leaving her to wonder how Anthony had made it this far in life already. After all, Ian had been convinced by a friend to go exploring the most dangerous part of Luxford and they discovered a dead body, and only three weeks later Anthony had been convinced by his friend to explore the same area and had found another dead body. Only this time it was while a murderer was still at large and operating in that exact place.
Gemma took the call the moment she, Tom, and Sarah got home from school. As per their current instructions, Tom and Sarah searched every room in the house, opened every door and checked the windows to make sure that no one had crept inside. Ernie followed close behind. The phone rang before Tom was able to call out, “All clear!”
Gemma remained motionless while her husband fumbled over his wording. Not once did he ask if she was okay. Not once did she ask the same of him. She hung up, called her parents, dropped the kids off, came home, and packed a set of suitcases.
There was another quiet voice speaking to her. This one nuzzled its way to the forefront again. The moment Hannah confessed that she was leaving Josh, Gemma was sure that Amanda would move in with him and they would become an instant couple. It made sense. Gemma saw Amanda’s googly eyes whenever Josh was around. But Josh sweet talked Hannah into returning with the promise to work on their problems. Yet Amanda was still here. So if it wasn’t Josh …
Gemma picked up her phone and put it down again a dozen times before working up the courage to click ‘send’. She sent Claire a message.
‘Is Amanda in love with Anthony?’
She then sent a message to Amanda.
‘Anthony told me about you two.’
Finally, she sent one to Hannah.
‘I’ve sent my kids to stay with my folks and I’ve packed a suitcase. What do you know about Anthony and Amanda?’
She then waited for the replies.
Hannah got back to her first.
‘Oh babe, I’m so sorry to hear. What happened? I know they were flirting but I didn’t think it was that serious. Do you want me to come over?’
Flirting. Strike one. Claire’s came next.
‘I don’t think so. I thought she was into Josh.’
Gemma read through the underlying meaning and was sure Claire was covering for her brother. There was no way Claire would throw Anthony to the wolves and using Josh in there was a clever decoy, but it still wasn’t good enough for an evening’s worth of Baxter paranoia. She didn’t expect to receive a response from Amanda, but rather a panicked phone call from her husband. It was a short wait.
“The police have just arrived,” said Anthony.
“Uh huh.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Not especially,” said Gemma. “Amanda wasn’t the only person I sent a message to.”
Anthony paused for a little too long. Strike two.
“Sorry, the police were asking me something,” said Anthony.
“By all means stay there.”
“Can we not do this over the phone?”
Gemma balled her hand up into a fist and was grateful that the house was empty. “Have I been blind, or has Amanda been making the moves on you for the last two months?”
“Gemma, please.”
Strike three. Gemma hung up, put the suitcases into the back of the car, and went to her folks’.
61
Anthony
Anthony returned to a dark and empty house. Gemma’s car was gone, Ernie wasn’t barking, and the severity of the trouble he was in hadn’t quite sunk in yet. Gemma’s phone sent him straight to an automated voice telling him that the person he was trying to reach was unavailable.
He shook his head clear and tried to find some kind of positive result that came from the day. The police were ... concerned that he and Josh had gone through a crime scene and knew exactly where a specific person was buried, based on nothing more than Josh’s instincts. They were also concerned that no one bothered to call the police beforehand.
A forensics team from London made it to Luxford and were spending the night going through Toads’ camp yet again. The media swung by looking for the new development in Zofia’s discovery. Soon enough they would have a goldmine of a story handed to them on a silver platter.
Anthony was still waiting for the euphoric feeling of blowing a murder case wide open, but as he stood in his empty home the only thing that kept him company was the gnawing feeling in his gut that Gemma and the kids would not be living in Luxford for much longer.
His moment of doom and gloom was interrupted by Amanda calling him. He answered, mostly by accident. “I’m a little busy right now.”
“Gemma just came over,” said Amanda.
Anthony fell back against the doorway leading into the kitchen. After catching his breath he dropped his head down to his chest. “What did she do?”
“She asked if I’ve been having an affair with you.”
Anthony ran a hand over his face as he sank lower against the door frame. “What the hell?”
“I know. I said ‘no, don’t be ridiculous.’ Then she asked if you were in love with me.”
He slipped even lower.
“I said ‘no.’” There was a grit in her voice that didn’t sit well with either of them, like the worst was yet to come. “She was standing on my doorstep, crying, and refusing to come inside. She then asked if I was in love with you.”
Anthony slipped all the way down to the floor. If a genie appeared to him in that moment, allowing him to go back to the start of the day and be allowed to do things all over again, Anthony would do it in a heartbeat. Only this time he would call the police as soon as Josh revealed his masterful plan. “What did you say?”
She choked over her words, grieving over any chance she had with him. “I told her I’ve been in love with you since I was twenty years old and not once have you made a move on me.”
Anthony’s insides pulled together and hardened like cement. His family crashed and shattered to the ground, the shards of their future splintering out upon impact. No matter how he tried, he would never be able to piece it all back together again.
“I’m sorry, Anthony,” Amanda said.
“Yeah,” he mumbled, while staring over the wall of framed family pictures. In that fleeting moment it occurred to him that this was probably going to be his only view of his family for a very long time. “I’m sorry too.”
“If you need to talk, I’m here for you,” said Amanda.
“You’re not the person I really need to talk to right now.”
Half an hour later, Anthony was able to sit Gemma down while her parents took the kids out for a walk. Her eyes remained strained and bloodshot, her cheeks were flushed, and the crinkle around the edge of her mouth didn’t fade even when she forced herself to wait and listen.
“Do you have any idea how pissed off at you I am?” Gemma asked.
The lump in his throat expanded, forcing him to squeak. “Probably the most angry you’ve ever been at me.”
Gemma clasped her hands together, broke them apart, then put them together again as she worked up the courage to speak. “It seems like everyone has been hiding this from me for the last god knows how long. Claire told me that she thought Amanda was into Josh, but that’s a lie and I know how close Amanda and Claire are. She wouldn’t have picked up on the wrong signal there. Hannah is sure that Josh started a random fight t
o break them up so that he didn’t have to talk about an affair he’s having on the side, but he’s convinced her otherwise.”
Anthony raised his eyebrows at that one, but he didn’t dare interrupt his wife.
“Claire thought that Ian’s friend was filming her, and if that’s the same friend who was over just before the wedding, the one who was hovering around the bathroom, then perhaps he was filming me as well. They all lied about the dead woman. Then there’s you. Even though Amanda is one of your best friends you avoid talking about her at all costs. The one who’s been in love with you for twenty years. Finally, there’s Josh and the complete mess of today.” She locked eyes with Anthony as she gripped her hands tightly together. “We are surrounded by bad influences. I can’t stay in Luxford for much longer.”
Anthony nodded to buy himself some time. Still, finding two dead girls in a month was enough to make him reconsider Luxford as well. “Where would we go?”
Her eyes swelled up with another round of tears. “Do you still love me?”
“Of course I do,” said Anthony. It came with a solid punch through his chest as he anticipated the next question of whether he loved her or was in love with her.
Gemma leaned back in her parent’s dining room chair and shot Anthony a steely gaze. “I want you to take a minute to think it over, and to think about everything I’m going to be asking you to leave behind.”
“Just so that I’m not paranoid, what are you asking from me?”
“I want to move back to Newcastle. I don’t want Josh or Amanda following us and I don’t want Josh or Ian’s influences affecting Tom and Sarah. Those two have both gone somewhere they knew they shouldn’t be, looking for trouble, and have both found a dead teenage girl. You’re going to tell Amanda that you won’t be contacting her again.”
Anthony only later realised that his jaw had been clamped shut, painfully so, as he fought off a dozen voices weighing in on what he was supposed to do.
“I need you to think about that,” said Gemma.
At first he simply counted off the seconds as though he was actually considering Gemma’s ultimatum. Then he gave it a fleeting thought between trying to build a new life with Gemma or living through a divorce while his kids moved to the other side of the country. At last he gave her a quick nod.
“I’ve thought about it.” His chest shook with every flicker of his lungs expanding and contracting, his jaw almost broke his teeth, and his voice failed him, snuffing out any sense of bravery in revealing what he actually wanted. Every defence mechanism was forcing him to not tell Gemma the truth. And yet the locks weren’t tight enough. “I don’t love you anymore.”
The edges of Gemma’s mouth quivered as she refused to burst into tears.
“But, Tom and Sarah mean everything to me.”
“They’re staying with me,” said Gemma.
“That’s not an automatic decision.”
“Yes it is.”
“Then try this: the kids are staying with me. Do you want to leave?”
“I’m not having Amanda move in to start raising my kids.”
“Amanda is not up for discussion. You are using my kids against me because our marriage is on the rocks. You fired the first shots by taking them without telling me and then letting me call around to find out where they were. It’s going to be a lot easier for me to raise them in Luxford with both my parents and your parents still living here, where the school they go to is walking distance, where the police are out in force tracking down every arsehole who lives here, and with that kind of police attention this town is going to be safer than moving to Newcastle. So this is what we’re doing: I’m taking Tom, Sarah, and Ernie back home and they’ll be sleeping in their own beds tonight. You can come back too if you like, or you can sleep here and decide for yourself what you are going to do with your future. Maybe you’re able to leave our kids behind, maybe you can’t. But how far away you move is up to you.”
“Do you seriously think I’m leaving them here with you after what you and your arsehole friend did today?”
Anthony waited until he found the strength to counter. “Do you want a divorce?”
“I’m not leaving the kids,” said Gemma.
“That’s not what I asked.”
“And I’m not having Amanda come in as their new mum.”
Anthony forced himself through another lock. “Do you still love me?”
The house was in their name but Anthony was the one paying the mortgage. He had the flexible schedule and could work only during school hours if he wanted to. He had the money, the time, and the support network to be a single parent. She didn’t.
“I don’t know,” said Gemma. “I think I hate you a little too much right now to know for sure. How long have you been in love with Amanda?”
“I don’t want to talk about her.”
“You’re going to have to if you want a straight answer out of me. How long?”
His heart slammed against his chest as he fought the truth to the surface. “Years.”
The lining around her eyes cracked. “Before I met you or after?”
“Before.”
Gemma gently nodded as a tear streamed down her face. “So you’ve lied to me for ten years?”
“No. I was also in love with you.”
“Oh, good. I was an ‘also.’” Gemma buried her face into her hands and sobbed. She remained that way until her phone rang. It was her father asking if it was safe to come home yet.
62
Josh
Josh kept his hand hovered over the ignition. The sun was streaming through the windscreen, people were walking around in shorts and t-shirts like Luxford had suddenly moved to the Mediterranean, and perhaps by the end of the day the entire town would collectively squeal, ‘what the fuck, really?’ when they learned that Catherine Shievers had finally been found.
Yeah, I heard, he would have to say.
Brooke would no doubt corner him. Where were you yesterday?
I had a few errands to run.
Even he rolled his eyes at that one.
It involved a shovel and ruining my best friend’s marriage.
I don’t think finding a dead body is grounds for ruining a marriage.
I don’t know. When your best friend pulls you aside just before giving an official statement to the police and says, ‘so, Gemma and I are probably getting a divorce,’ that certainly sounds like the end of it. I don’t suppose you want to grab a drink after work?
Josh crept through the entrance of VizCuts, ready to face the Luxford rumour mill. He passed Brooke and forced a smile at her. “How’s it going?”
She half perked up, but long gone was the cheeky wink and secretive smile. She glanced at the time. “I’m good. How was your sleep in?”
“Didn’t have one.”
“Where were you?” Brooke asked. She was wearing the same outfit as when she first did the splits; a light skirt, cream blouse, and tights.
He drew in a long, resigned breath. “In a legal meeting.”
“Because of you and Hannah?” Brooke asked, trying to piece together all of the random titbits she knew about Josh.
“Not as such, though I might still be heading for that.”
Brooke gave Josh an unsure smile as she leaned over her desk. “Tell me.”
“I don’t think I can. I didn’t get much sleep last night, this morning wasn’t the best starts to the day, so … yeah.”
Brooke narrowed her eyes further. “Tell me.”
Maybe it was the lack of sleep, maybe it was the outfit she was wearing. Either way he was met with a resounding, fuck it, it’s not like the day can get any worse. “Alright. If you really must know, come to my office. But it’s a secret you’re going to have to keep for a while.”
Brooke bounced back with a nod. “When you put it like that, now I have to know.”
Josh led the way and closed his office door to shield them from anyone who happened to wander past.
“
Okay, no one can know about this until I tell them,” said Josh.
“I understand,” said Brooke.
“This includes your husband, your friends outside of work, anyone you email in a different country, because this could hurt my career and my life, and it really is a legal issue.”
“Okay,” said Brooke, as the cogs worked ferociously to anticipate what Josh was going to tell her.
“Yesterday the police were out by the creek in the same area as where Zofia Bukowski was found. They unearthed another body.”
Whatever Brooke had been expecting, it certainly had nothing to do with that. “Lukas was just saying something about that. They may have found a dead girl from something like twenty years ago.”
Josh blew out another lengthy breath. Perhaps it was only guess-work at this stage about who it really was, but keeping ‘another body was found’ a secret in a town this size was impossible.
“Yeah,” said Josh. “Catherine Shievers. My friend and I found her. We’re the ones who told the police where she was.”
Brooke’s eyes shot open as wide as they could in unrestrained surprise. “You found her?”
“Yeah, keep your voice down.”
“Sorry.”
“Like I said, this is a legal issue. This morning I was giving an official statement. I’m probably going to have to go to court one day and testify about how I found her, maybe, I’m not sure yet. At the time I thought it was the greatest discovery ever and I’m starting to realise that this is going to be the lasting impression anyone ever has on me. You know how you meet someone and they’ve won two hundred thousand pounds in the lottery and it’s all you really focus on? Whenever people meet me they’re going to think that I’m the guy who found a dead body twenty years after she disappeared.”
“Lukas said she was in a suitcase in a shallow grave.”