Missing Martha

91

As the light faded, the band found themselves eating sandwiches with the car radio on in the background.
Martin detracted the front seat fully and lay down while the others sat on the bed and on other seats.
"So.. are you going to tell us a bit about what happened last night or will we just have to continually make assumptions about everything?" Confronted Ollie, looking straight at Martin who had folded his legs with his hands behind his head.
"You really wanna talk about this now?" Sighed Martin,
"You told us our principle died; yes we do." Ollie replied with a stern yet sympathetic gaze.
"Look: I don't know the details on Bronagh's death; I've not been sent a lot regarding it." Explained Martin,
"So- when you were away this morning.. were you at the hospital or something?" Asked Ollie.
Martin nodded, not willingly inputting any extra information on the case.
"How come she was here? Why wasn't she back home? Was her death related to this whole thing?"  Jemma interjected.
Martin opened his mouth slightly but couldn't find any words to sugarcoat the truth.
"I- I don't know but I assume it was." He admitted, "I mean- of course it was."
"Why her?" Asked Cloda,
"I don't know!" He exclaimed, "out of all people I don't know why it had to be her.."
"So you're saying she was murdered?" Said Lucy,
Martin looked down and nodded.
The five of them looked at each other with opened mouths and shocked countenances,
"A-aren't you gonna tell us who he was?" Asked Jemma, her voice cracking.
"I don't know who he was." Martin defended,
"Yes you do, you told me this morning that you knew him." Corrected Ollie.
Martin sighed, "he was.. Emily's father.."
"So- he had something to do with Alex?" Suggested Lucy,
"By the looks of it he sort of blackmailed Alex into doing everything that he did." He told them,
"So- wait- he authorised the murder of his own granddaughter?!" Exclaimed Ollie, horrified.
Martin nodded, "Yep."
"Jesus.." breathed Ryan,
"D-Do you know if he had a motive?" Asked Cloda, sympathetically.
"according to him he fancied my mum." Martin responded in almost a growl of anger. "He's basically just trying to place all of his.. pain into me. But it's over now." He said, sincerely.
"Is it? Because that's what we thought before." Checked Ollie,
"He's dead and so is Alex. I promise you it's done." Assured Martin.
The band gave off a sigh of relief and guilt.
"Jeez a lot of people have died because of us." Muttered Lucy,
"This has nothing to do with you, okay? This is all on me, alright? Don't get stressed about it, it's over." Martin promised,
"Well sometimes its kind of difficult not to get worked up about these sort of things." Justified Ollie,
"I know, believe me I know. I get bloody worked up about everything!"
"Yeah you were almost sobbing at the airport earlier." Chuckled Ryan.
"I was not!" Insisted Martin, a smile slowly growing back on his face, "but the band must play on, you guys can do this."
Martin spotted Ryan place his arm around Lucy's neck as she leaned her head on his shoulder.
"I take it those two are together, then?" Signalled Martin, lying back on his seat again.
"You don't say,  they're nearly as obsessed with each other as you and Miss." Mocked Jemma.
"Piss off." Laughed Martin, lying back and picking up his phone, seeing a text from Zoë, simply saying.
Miss u xx :(
He replied back immediately saying,
I'll have 2 bring u to Florence just me & u another time xx

Honeymoon?? Xx

Martin broke into a laugh,
What kind of engagement ring u want me to buy u?

Fk off haha I'll leave that up to u xoxo :P

U on the plane yet?

Yeah, we're gonna take off in like 2 minutes. I'm sat beside this old Italian chap who's already asleep :/

I'll be watching the sky xx

Fuk ur cute xxxx

Lol I luv ya - hope ur alright x

I will be, luv ya too xx

Martin sighed, and looked out the window at the dark night sky smiling,
"Was that Miss Flynn?" Asked Ryan, Martin nodded in response,
"What did she say?"
"Oh- nothing informative." He told them, seeing a plane take off in the distance, and watching it disappear into sight.
"Any of you want a drink?" He asked, out of blue.
"When you say drink.."
Martin stood up and lifted up the passenger seat, taking out a medium-sized cooling container.
"How long have you had that under the seat?" Asked Jemma, laughing.
Martin placed it in the middle of the van, saying, "come on outside, let's light a campfire."
"Yeah, alright." Lucy responded with a surprised smile on her face as they all slid open the door and climbed outside.
There were designated areas for campfires, and after taking some wood from one of the supplementary sheds and a couple matches, they had lit a fire and Jemma brought out a couple blankets for them to sit on.
Martin took a beer out of the box while the others scavenged around and ended up having a vodka and coke mix.
"Promise you won't tell anyone about this?" Chuckled Martin, taking a sip of his beer.
"Won't even tell Zoë." Ryan assured, raising his slightly undignified plastic cup as the others did the same, "cheers."
Ryan and Ollie caught each other's eyes as they sipped their drinks, and after a quick wink they had tipped their heads backwards and downed the drink.
"Jesus Christ you've done this before!" Laughed Martin.
"Careful you two- you remember what happened last time you got drunk." Reminded Cloda, her cheeks blushing as she smiled.
"Oh go on, tell me the biz, what happened?" Martin asked, grinning as they refilled their glasses with vodka.
"They ended up snogging." Giggled Jemma.
"Excuse me that is completely out of context!" Insisted Ollie, holding his hand up as Martin almost chocked on his drink.
"We ended up playing truth or dare or something- and Ryan either had to say a truth or do a forfeit, which was snogging Ollie." Explained Cloda.
"-and what was the truth he wasn't able to reveal?" Asked Martin, genuinely intrigued.
The band began giggling again until Lucy admitted, "which teacher he fancied."
Martin put his beer down, "oh my god! When was this?" He exclaimed,
"Like a month ago." Ollie laughed, taking another gulp of his drink.
Martin made eye contact with Ryan, whose face was now as red as the sunset had been earlier.
"Oh my god you fancied Zoe didn't you!" He guessed.
Ryan nearly spat out his drink while he covered his eyes,
"Oh my god did you?" Cried Ollie,
"You fancied her too!" Justified Ryan, tears welling up in his eyes.
"Well yeah- so did everyone!"
"Yeah she was really good looking." Agreed Lucy, laughing.
"Was? She's still bloody gorgeous!" Added Jemma.
By this time Martin found himself almost in tears, "blimey, I thought I was the only one who fancied her!"
"Any time she walked past a corridor and I was in another classroom the other teachers would stare out at her. Everyone bloody fancies her." Cloda laughed.
"Then I better put a ring on her before someone takes her!" Martin laughed, resulting in a few cheers from his drunken students.