Page 36 of Oleander

Neither of us had mentioned anything about that night, in fact, we’d deftly avoided making any reference to it whatsoever – the pervert and the conditions I’d imposed on him included – and so I’d almost forgotten all about it altogether when three strange things happened.

The first was this: a Thursday night, a few weeks after the night in my room, Gideon peered into the library to tell Caspien there was a call on the landline for him.

The way Caspien stiffened caught my attention. I knew immediately that it was his pervert. Standing, Caspien avoided my eye and followed Gideon out into the hall. Everything in me wanted to follow him and eavesdrop again, but I turned my attention back to the question in front of me.‘The inspector thinks Crompton is a lively, cheerful place.’ He doesn’t. My pencil shaded the circle denoting the false statement so hard that the tip broke off.

He came back quicker than I expected, striding into the room less than five minutes later and flopping back down where hewas before. I watched him pick up his pencil and scrutinise his drawing like it had insulted him.

If he felt my eyes on him, he pretended he didn’t.

“That was him, wasn’t it?”

“He won’t call again,” he said without looking up. He tilted his head and began to shade.

There was nothing much else I could say to that. I wanted to ask what he told him to be so sure he wouldn’t. Was it that he had to be patient? To wait until a little longer? It was less than two months until his birthday and the thought of what could happen after that made me ill. I wondered who Gideon thought had been on the phone. Who had Caspien told him it was? I guessed that it was lies upon lies, so I kept my mouth shut and went back to my homework.

The second strange thing happened when I turned up on Tuesday evening. Caspien wasn’t in the library, which in itself was weird. He was always there when I arrived, his nose deep in a book or scratching away at his sketchpad, but this time, the room was empty and dark, unused. My first thought was that I’d mixed the days up or forgotten something he’d said about not being here. But then I heard a burst of piano through the wall. I dropped my bag and followed its source down the windowless little corridor to the large music room on the other side.

The room was half dark, and the little picture lights on the walls didn’t stretch far across the massive empty space.

Caspien was at the piano, barefoot and hair wild. His playing was ferocious and angry, banging on the pedal and the keys as though in a fight with them. I glanced around to make sure Gideon wasn’t observing him again, but the room was empty except for us.

I watched from just inside the doorway as he carried the piece through to a devastating, heart-stopping conclusion. When itwas over, he stared down at his hands for a long time, almost as long as it took his breathing to return to normal.

I hadn’t moved, had barely even breathed, but something alerted him to my presence and his head snapped around. For half a moment, it looked as though he didn’t recognise me, like I was a total stranger who’d wandered into his house. Something cold and uneasy slithered down my spine.

Then he blinked.

“What are you doing here?” he asked me.

“It’s Tuesday.”

He blinked again. “Is it?”

His face looked pale in the dim light of the room, and even from here, I could see faint, dark circles beneath his eyes. I hadn’t seen him since Thursday – this wasn’t unusual. If I was helping Luke with the garden maintenance, then sometimes I’d see him on Saturday or Sunday around the estate or in the house – but I’d been at the cinema with Ellie on Saturday, and on Sunday, I’d met up with the boys to play football in Harris Field.

I went towards him and he stood from the piano stool, scrubbing a hand over his face and through his hair which looked unwashed. My unease grew.

“Where’s Gideon?”

“How should I know?” he snapped.

“Is something the matter?” I asked, carefully.

“What exactly would be the matter?” From here, his eyes looked dull and muddied like dirty sea water. “Go home.” He moved past me, but I turned to go after him, reaching out a hand to tug him back by his elbow.

“Caspien, what’s going on?”

“Piss off, Judith.” He yanked hard, and I released him, and then he was charging away from me.

Something was very clearly wrong, but I had no clue what. Had no clue what to do. Where was Gideon? I let Caspien go and set about the house, looking for him. His study was empty. The downstairs reception rooms were dark, cold, and unlit.

It looked like the kitchen hadn’t been used tonight at all. Where was Elspeth? Gideon’s housekeeper was usually here most weeknights, pottering away in the kitchen or dusting the downstairs knickknacks.

Luke had a mobile number for Gideon but did I want to worry everyone when I didn’t even know what was wrong.

Despite how he looked, this behaviour wasn’t entirely abnormal for him. I knew fine well, he could be moody and awful. Perhaps, this was just one of those times. I’d forgotten he could be like this.

After checking the arboretum and the front patios to find no sign of Gideon, I went outside to see what cars were in the back. Gideon drove a Jaguar, a silver XE saloon that wasn’t parked outside, so he must be out. There were none there at all. Which, for some reason, I hadn’t even noticed on the way in.