Swell (Complete)

Chapter Forty-Nine (Part One)

"I guess I should've seen the signs,
Can't believe I believed the lies,
Always right in your own mind,
Now I'm in too deep."

....

Marti stared at the dress hanging on her wall. The deep pink stood out, and she was mentally planning her eye shadow when the knock sounded on her door.
"Come in." She called, spinning on her chair and trying to loosen her shoulders.
She'd been in her room since Iain had collected Adora, swapping her focus between the dance and her sketchbook.
"Mum and Dad are posting bail, they've gone to get Tom now." Will stood in the doorway and Marti's lips parted.
"What?" She stood from the chair and the spring lifted the seat without her weight.
Will closed the door behind him and leaned against it. "Tom's still denying it's him."
"But Adora caught him!"
"I know. He said yesterday that he was following her, to follow me. He said you convinced him I was in danger." Will frowned at her and Marti looked to her window.
"We all are." She moved over to her bed and sat down.
"Could he be telling the truth? He was following her for us?" Will sat down beside Marti on her bed.
"I guess, I mean, the stalker attacked Brett, and killed Gus... He could attack me, or kill you next." Marti started to tremble. "Do you think he did it?" She grabbed Will's wrists and locked her eyes onto his.
"I- I want to think not." Will admitted. "But if we add Liss to the equation," his voice started to tremble. "It's someone who knows us, not Adora."
"Mum and Dad believe him?"
"I don't know if they believe him, or just feel duty bound." Will shrugged. "Let go, you're squeezing kind of tight." He gave a gentle tug of his arms and Marti released her fingers.
"Sorry, I'm scared. If he did it, and he comes home, we'll be under the same roof... Adora won't be able to come here anymore, we might not even get to see her." Marti's voice shook and Will wrapped his arms around her.
"I'm sure he won't do anything here, and he isn't allowed to leave home."
Marti rocked in Will's arms. "What can we do?" She whimpered.
"I don't think there's much we can do." Will said gently into her ear.
"I can't stay here." Marti pulled out of his arms and stood up. "I'm too scared. I need to go for a walk." She could feel Will watching her as she paced around her room, packing her art roll and her sketchbook into her satchel.
When she reached the lounge room the front door opened and Tom filled the frame.
Marti froze. Her parents stood behind Tom, neither happy to have him home from the looks on their faces.
"Tom." She breathed.
"It's not me." He shook his head.
"I can't stay here." Marti's voice shook and she pushed past Tom and hurried down the driveway.

***

Will stood in the lounge room entrance and stared. Tom barely moved as Marti left, Will's hand absently went to his whiskers as he saw the darker shade on his brother's jaw line.
Two and a half days without shaving, and Will almost saw himself in the door frame.
"Do you think I did it?" Tom limped into the house and stopped in front of Will, their eyes and heights matching in a way that felt eerie to Will for the first time in their lives.
"I don't know." Will admitted. "Are you going to shave?"
Tom scoffed. "Seriously? What's the matter, can't handle actually being identical to your twin anymore?"
Will gaped and Tom grunted and went to his room, pushing roughly past Will on his way through.
"Marti's terrified of him." Will looked to his parents.
Mrs Taylor sniffed and moved from the doorway into the kitchen. Will looked at his father.
"Do you believe him, Dad?"

Mr Taylor looked towards the kitchen, then the hallway and grimaced down at Will. "I honestly wish I knew. He swears black and blue, but the defensive wounds Adora left say otherwise, his absent memory that night, the connection between Liss, us and here..."
"How's Mum?"
"Not good. I don't think I've ever seen her so silent, Will, in all our years together..."
"What are we going to do?"
His father heaved a sigh and shook his head. "I don't know."
Will watched his Dad moved into the kitchen and felt his heart sink. He felt strange, not the kind of scared that Marti had expressed, but not safe in his home either.
He went back to his bedroom and packed his backpack with his phone and wallet before putting his bike jeans on.
"Mum, Dad, I'm going out for a ride." He popped his head into the kitchen and saw his parents holding each other. His Dad simply nodded over his mother's shoulder.
Will fought the trembling as he straddled his bike and started the engine. He didn't know where he was going, but he needed to think, and maybe figure out whether he believed Tom was capable of two murders and one attempted murder.

It was cold and windy on the road, despite the blue skies over the ocean. Will gladly focused on the road for over an hour before he found himself returning to the car park on the cliff above the cove.
He suddenly wished he'd gone to the Escape and picked Adora up.
He sat on his bike for a few minutes, looking at the two walls that loomed over the cove below and the rough tide between them.
Locking his bike, Will treaded carefully down the sandy stairs to the shore below and found the rock near where Adora had made her first sand angel.
Had his family brought this danger to Wheeler Falls with them?
Had his twin murdered Liss before they left Richieville?
Tom hadn't much to do with her, it had always been Liss, Marti and Will, had that made Tom jealous?
Jealous enough to kill?

No.

It didn't feel right thinking of Tom as a killer, he'd never been a jealous sort, and if he was surely he would never have offered to loan the Jeep to Will for his first date with Adora.
Tom was a few minutes older than Will, though he had always been the less mature twin; he wasn't jealous or bitter about their differences.
There had been other offenses Tom had not been drunk for, the doll on Adora's doorstep, and the cards in her locker.
It just didn't feel right to try and convince himself of Tom's guilt.
Especially when he remembered Tom's face when they'd talked the day before. The genuine worry about Will and Marti being in danger because of their closeness to Adora.
Tom had really believed he'd been protecting them, he hadn't even denied that he had followed Adora, he'd almost joked about deserving the stitches her fear had given him.
No, Will was convinced Tom wasn't a murderer, but if it wasn't Tom then who was it?
Marti?
The thought made him snort laughter.
"Yea, right." He shook his head and looked towards the mouth of the cave in the cliff. Gus had been the only suspect in his head that made sense, and he'd been dead for over a week now.
So who had sent Adora the text message with their kiss?