Silver Lining

Chapter 12

October passed quickly and we were soon into November. Ilish’s disappearance was old news and everyone but my closest friends and I had accepted that Ilish had probably murdered Luke Jeffreys.

We took turns in visiting Coreey now that the hospital was letting us in. she was expected to wake up before the new year. In the mean time Jasmine, Mel and Lacy went into town to study in the library. I’d gone with them at first, but the whispering and the looks had gotten to me. In the end I settled for tutoring Elliot and Xavier. Elliot didn’t seem to mind learning at home but Xavier complained bitterly. He was drugged up to his eyeballs in painkillers and spent most of the time giggling quietly to himself in the corner.

I wasn’t bothered about the upcoming exams. I’d sat the exam season at least 200 times and the topics were old news. Even so, I knew my grade boundaries would be slightly lower due to Ilish’s vanishing stunt. I’d have to thank her when I finally got my hand on her. After I’d killed her of course. I still had no idea where she was, but she was definitely out of the country, probably out of Europe itself. Her bank had indeed been emptied. It was cleaned out the day after she vanished from a bank in London. The others had long since given up on asking me about her and had settled – in the case of the boys – on moaning about their school work.

“But why?” I rolled my eyes as Xavier threw another tantrum over the algebra work I’d set him. “When am I ever going to need to work out what the square root of x is when y=349?”

“You just do. Now shut up before I jab this fork in your eye and see if those painkillers are actually working or not.”

Xavier glared at me but picked up his calculator again. Across the room Elliot was scribbling something in French. He paused, read it silently and grinned at me. “Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir?” Having studied French for the past 59 years I knew exactly what he was asking.

I launched a cushion at him. “Okay, Mr Slick, answer me this: Où est l'hôpital? 'Cause you're going to need it!”

“Never thought I'd say this,” We turned to see the girls traipsing into the room, murderous looks on their faces. “but I miss school!” Lacy threw herself onto the sofa, Jasmine seating herself in her usual spot in the armchair. Mel caught my gaze and rolled her eyes.

“The library isn't cutting it.” Jasmine agreed, starting to plait her hair in a bored manner. “There's just not enough information!”

“Not to mention I miss the humour of the class clowns. I hear the cops are no closer to finding out who did it, either.” Mel added bitterly. “They're more concerned about who killed a deranged boy who spent most of his time planning how to kill other people than looking for someone who tried to kill at least 200 sane people.”

We fell into silence as Xavier and Elliot packed away their things. “We should go to London.” Lacy stated suddenly. “You know, do some Christmas shopping. I mean, I don't know if you're doing Christmas now, but it'll be a day out and all that.” Lacy mumbled glancing at me.

“I'm still doing Christmas. It's Ilish who's missing out.” I reassured her. Knowing Ilish, she'd probably turn up on Christmas Day, demanding her presents.

“How many Christmases can you have, after all?” Xavier stated nonchalantly from the other side of the room. My gaze snapped to look at him but he had his nose in a book.

“I could do with a holiday.” Mel agreed. “Even if it is only going to London. When will we go?”

“Last week of November. We could stay the night in a travel lodge or something.” Elliot decided. “Shall I book it now?”

*

We decided to head up to London by train for Xavier's sake. He wouldn't be out of the wheelchair until January and we couldn't exactly leave him behind. We'd all packed relatively light, except for Lacy. She was the shopoholic of the group and had crammed her things into Jasmine's suitcase so that hers was empty for her shopping. As a result, Jasmine's suitcase took two people to move it. Thankfully we'd be staying in a staying in a travel lodge across the road from the station so we wouldn't have to move it far.