Page 31 of The Bodies

Joseph knows what it’s like to lose a wife.

He can’t begin to imagine the horror of losing a child.

At last, the true cost of protecting Max is becoming clear: not simply how much of his own humanity he’s prepared to sacrifice, but how much inhumanity he’s prepared to inflict on others.

Because if he does with Drew’s remains what he did with Angus Roth’s, he’ll heap even greater torment on Enoch – the unendurable pain of not knowing, the imposition of a life spent searching for answers that will never come.

‘Uh-huh,’ Tilly says. ‘No … yeah … I don’t … Just some guy she was meeting. I don’t even know that … No, I’m sorry, it was all pretty secretive … Yeah, exactly. Not at all.’

Finally, Joseph looks across the table at his son. Max has put down his fork and is leaning forward in his chair, watching his stepsister closely. His breathing, although silent, is laboured.

Tilly catches her lower lip between her teeth, releases it. ‘Just … yeah, anything … Of course. I’ll do it now.’ She listens again, then frowns. ‘And what did they say? … How long? … OK … Yes … Guaranteed.’

She ends the call and opens an app, typing with palpable urgency.

‘That didn’t sound great,’ Erin says. ‘Everything OK?’

Tilly shakes her head. ‘That was Enoch. I knew something was up. He says Drew never came home last night.’

‘Has he heard from her?’

‘No.’

‘Have you?’

‘I’ve been messaging her all day with no answer. She hasn’t even viewed what I sent.’

Erin looks at Joseph, then back at her daughter. ‘Has anyone else heard from her?’

‘That’s what Enoch wanted me to find out.’

‘Did you say something about a guy she was meeting?’

‘A new one, yeah,’ Tilly says. ‘Not that I could tell you much about him – because Drew’s been so weirdly tight-lipped about the whole thing.

’ She flicks a look at Joseph, then returns her attention to her phone.

‘She said it was someone a lot older. Someone she thought would freak me out completely, hence all the secrecy. I told her it didn’t matter but she still wouldn’t open up. ’

‘Who was the last person to see her?’

‘Right now, I guess that’s Enoch. Drew was here most of yesterday. Then she went home to get changed before meeting this new guy. Enoch says he saw her before she left.’

Joseph is still reeling from the look Tilly just threw him. Surely she doesn’t suspect a tryst between her stepfather and her best friend – that he’s somehow responsible for Drew’s disappearance?

He recalls his visit to the Grind House, Saturday morning, and how Drew had greeted him when he approached their table: Hey, Mr Carver, I am loving the new parfum.

At the time, catching Max’s expression, he’d had the craziest notion his son was jealous.

But Tilly had looked at him strangely, too.

Had that innocent coffee shop encounter planted a seed of suspicion in his stepdaughter’s head?

How terminally ironic if a throwaway comment from Max’s victim ends up implicating Joseph.

He needs to head this off quickly, before Tilly’s seed can germinate.

Trouble is, the Grind House conversation isn’t the only problematic one.

Yesterday lunchtime, making smoothies in the kitchen, Drew had leaned into him and dropped another grenade: I know what you did for Max, and I think it’s really brave.

Tilly, arriving from the garden and catching the tail end of Drew’s disclosure, had asked her what was really brave. If she hadn’t accepted the explanation, where might her mind have gone?

His problems don’t stop there. Earlier, attempting to justify his madcap dash to intercept the estate agent, he’d told Erin he’d visited the bungalow yesterday.

And now Tilly, albeit unknowingly, has turned that excuse into a reason for further suspicion by claiming Drew’s secret liaison was with a far older man.

Abruptly, he realizes that he hasn’t spoken a word since Tilly’s phone rang a minute ago, and that his silence might incriminate him further. ‘Where’s Enoch now?’ he asks.

‘At home.’

‘Is anyone with him?’

‘I don’t think so. Let’s face it – he’s not the type of guy to have a dependable support network. He was slurring a bit.’

‘I presume he’s called the police?’

‘They told him Drew’s not vulnerable or at risk, so he needs to hang tight a while.’

‘Useless,’ Erin says. ‘One of us should drive over there, make sure he’s OK – and that he’s letting all the right people know.’ She glances at her watch, then at Joseph. ‘Maybe the two of us should do it.’

Joseph nods, even though Enoch’s is the last place he wants to be, because to do otherwise would look strange. To Tilly, he says, ‘What happens when you call Drew’s phone?’

‘It was ringing earlier. Now, it goes straight to voicemail. I’m guessing it ran out of charge.’

Joseph prays that the phone isn’t hidden in Max’s room, and that the boy was telling the truth about Drew leaving it at home last night. ‘Don’t you have one of those tracking apps?’ he asks. ‘Where you can keep tabs on each other’s location?’

‘Not really Drewster’s thing.’

Erin turns to her stepson. ‘You’re pretty quiet. Any thoughts?’

Max pauses with a forkful of chicken fried rice halfway to his mouth. He glances at his father, then back at Erin. ‘Thoughts on what?’

She blinks, fractionally tilts her head. ‘Have you not been listening? On Drew’s whereabouts. And what might have happened.’

A coldness spreads across Joseph’s shoulders as he considers what Erin might be thinking. He’s been sitting here, fearful that she’s been putting together the puzzle pieces and steadily assembling his picture, but maybe she hasn’t been doing that at all.

Saturday morning, she’d pressed him about his three-a.m. conversation with Max.

To throw her off the scent, he’d told her about the boy’s covert relationship with Drew.

Now, that deflection might be about to bite him hard.

Erin had agreed to keep quiet about what she’d learned, but Joseph knows her promise won’t hold in an emergency.

Worse, he hasn’t even given Max a heads-up that his secret has been shared.

‘Why should he know anything?’ Tilly asks, looking up from her phone. Her gaze moves from her mum to the fork still suspended halfway to Max’s mouth. The tension in the room skyrockets, suddenly too obvious to miss. ‘Mum?’

‘Max?’ Erin asks.

Carefully, Max puts down his fork. ‘I have no idea where Drew is.’

Tilly is frowning, now. Again, she looks around the table before her gaze returns to her mother. ‘I don’t even know why you’d ask him.’

Joseph watches his son, utterly impotent.

He wants to communicate a message, but anything he says will likely implicate them both.

In the early hours of Saturday, he’d assured Max that everything they talked about would remain between them, for ever.

He’d vowed that he wouldn’t even tell Erin – especially not Erin.

Across the table, Max looks like he’s trying to work out how much of that promise his father has broken, and the consequences of being caught in a lie.

‘What’s going on?’ Tilly asks. ‘Seriously, you’re all scaring me. I’m sure Drew’s fine. She’s probably just holed up with this new guy somewhere, and they’ve lost all sense of time.’

Erin reaches out, touches her stepson’s wrist. When she speaks, her voice is melodic, mesmerizing.

‘Max, look around you,’ she says. ‘Look around this table. I know I’m not your mum, and I know Tilly’s not your sister, but we are your family.

And in a family, even a blended family like ours, especially like ours, there aren’t any secrets.

This house is your sanctuary, a place where you can be honest – about anything.

Whatever happens out there doesn’t affect what happens here.

Whatever we talk about within these four walls stays between them.

There are no recriminations, only love. I’m sure your dad’s told you that – I know Tilly would, too, if we asked her – but it’s important you hear it from me. ’

When Erin’s in the zone like this, she’s difficult to resist. Even Joseph finds himself being hypnotized, and he’s not the subject of her attention.

Max stares at his stepmother, unable to look away. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he mutters, but there’s no conviction in his words.

Erin squeezes his wrist harder. ‘Your dad told me everything, Max. I’ve known for two days. I haven’t said a word to anyone outside this family, but I need to hear it from you, and then we can discuss the implications.’

Joseph, unable to catch his son’s eye, is reduced to slowly shaking his head and hoping that Max will notice. The boy looks like he’s about to confess everything – the killing not just of Angus Roth but also of Drew; and even Joseph’s part in the cover-up.

‘ Please tell me what you’re talking about,’ Tilly begs.

‘I think we need to hear it from Max.’

Joseph feels like his head has been packed with explosives and his wife has just lit the fuse.

‘OK,’ Max says finally. His gaze moves around the table, from Joseph to Erin and, finally, to Tilly. ‘OK, I’ll tell you.’