Silver Lining

Chapter 10

I've gone back through this story and cleaned up the other chapters, thought I still can't guarantee perfection!

My Lawyer, Julius Trent, scribbled his signature and handed the sheet to me. I barely glanced at it before I signed it. “Ilish okay?”

“She has the second best lawyer around. Obviously, I'm the first so she can't have me!” I rolled my eyes discreetly. Great. A lawyer with an ego. Just what I needed.

“But what about her? Surely she has an alibi or something?”

“'Course she does, just worry about you. Where were you at three in the morning?”

“Didn't we just cover this?” Trent shot me a look and I rolled my eyes. “Browsing the internet, looking up clothes.”

“And do you have proof of this?”

I looked at him as though he was stupid, which he quite clearly was. “Uh, my internet history.”

“I'm only asking because the police will.”

The police may have asked the same questions, but they didn't make me repeat my answers five times. It took too long and whenever I asked about Ilish I was told 'she's okay' or 'another question would be...' I was never actually told anything about her.

I stumbled out of the police station an hour later, tired and stressed. I didn't want to see the interior of a police station again for the rest of however long I would live. I never wanted to have to talk to another lawyer either if I could help it, although I'd probably be speaking to Ilish's pretty soon. It had been eight hours since the cops had come knocking and seven since Jeffreys had been found dead. Ilish, unfortunately, was still locked up. There was nothing I could do as she'd probably be held for the maximum time.

I headed home but changed my mind at the last minute. It was nearing 3pm and it wouldn't be long before the schools kicked out. The spot where Jeffreys had been found was at the bottom of a valley. There were plenty of hilltops to observe from and I wanted to know the numerous things the cops weren't telling me. I knew that getting caught could be a serious problem but I wasn't planning on being seen. With any luck the police would be too busy keeping people away to be bothered about me.

As I had expected the body was gone and crowds of people were flocking to the site to get a good look. From my vantage point I could see that not many of them were deeply upset by the news. I recognised most people from school. Most of those had had a bad history with Luke; awkwardly long conversations, arguments, some had been followed by him and more than one had ended up on his 'kill list'. Why Ilish was the only suspect both confused and angered me. One girl down there had been number three on his kill list for nearly a year. Her brother was a marine, home for a few weeks. Surely he should be high on the list of suspects? I'd only been number seven on his list (Demoted from my spot in fourth place, which I held for a year) and I'm not the type for extreme violence like that.

From my vantage point I could also see where the body had been and how it had probably gotten there. There were cones mapping out an area a few feet infront of a tree where Jeffreys must have been dumped. There was nothing else on or around the tree so he'd probably been dragged. He was six foot so Ilish, who was only five foot seven, couldn't possibly have moved him. Maybe she could've killed him on the spot, but I was trying hard not to think about that. My phone vibrated in my pocket, making me jump. I glared at it as I moved from the top of the hill back to my car.

Have you heard the news? xx - E

About The Bird? Yeah. xx - G

The related reply didn't come from Elliot but rather from Jasmine. I suspected that they were probably all sat in someone's living room, gossiping like old ladies after being kicked out of the hospital. For someone who's been MIA all day you're sure deep in the social network – J