Chapter 24
Lewis’ POV
Sunday passed impossibly slowly, I spent the day searching the woods and fields around Colin’s house but of course I found nothing. It was half five on Monday morning and I was lying in Summer’s bed unable to sleep, all I could think was that I could be seeing her soon.
Just after six I got up, had a shower and got dressed. I wore the t-shirt that Summer loved and packed extra things in the bag that she loves. I couldn’t help being hopeful but a part of me was scared that this wouldn’t go how I wanted it to and we’d end up back here tonight without her.
I knocked on Henry’s door to wake him up and went downstairs for breakfast. I didn’t have to rush around and get out of the house to search so I had a lot of time on my hands. Mum cooked breakfast as usual and Dawn sat down looking through photos of Summer so the police could release a new one, luckily she didn’t ask my opinion.
Ten minutes later Henry came down and shortly after that Mum put plates down in front of us piled with fried food. We hung around for a little while and watched Dawn hand over the picture she’d chosen, Summer looks beautiful in it as always.
We parked down the road a little, behind an old barn so we were hidden from the road. “How long do you think he’ll be?” Henry asked so quietly I barely heard him.
“We’re in the car Henry, he can’t hear us! And I don’t know,” I replied, staring down the road. It was almost eight o’clock and we heard a car engine start. My heart started hammering in my chest and I felt a little sick. We watched as he drove down the road, I made sure to look at what he was wearing to make sure he was going to work, he had on a suit jacket so that must be where he was going.
I sighed heavily and we got out of the car. Please be in there Summer. We quickly made our way to the back of the house, the window was closed this time and the door was locked. There was however a smaller window at the side of the house that was slightly open. After five minutes pulling at it, it finally opened and Henry climbed through as he was smaller.
He closed the window behind him and unlocked the back door; we needed to remember to lock it again when we left. “You take the downstairs, I’ll go up,” I said to him as I headed to the stairs. Last time I was here I only got to look downstairs so I definitely wanted to check out the top floor. Henry nodded and headed off into one of the rooms.
Upstairs was just as creepy, everything was spotlessly clean, he had bottles of sanitizer in every room. There was an overpowering smell of lemon coming from the bathroom; he must have cleaned it this morning. There were just two rooms left that I hadn’t searched, one must be his room.
I pushed the door open, just like all the other rooms it was overly clean. The bed was freshly made and nothing looked out of place, there wasn’t really much in here. There was a picture on the dressing table of a little boy, probably about five, a lady and man, which I guessed was Colin as a child and his parents. I took my time and searched through the draws and cupboards like I did in the other rooms and apart from cleaning products everywhere there was nothing else unusual, maybe just the lack of stuff.
My heart sunk as I opened the last door. Henry hasn’t found anything or I would have heard him and if I don’t find anything else in here then we could be going home without her or without a lead. If I found nothing then I know Henry would try to get me to drop it and move on to looking elsewhere and I didn’t want to do that yet, there was definitely something wrong here.
I took a deep breath and opened my eyes, peering into the room. This room was different to the rest of the house, it was tidy and clean like everywhere else but the decor was old fashioned. The bed covers looked a little worn and had light pink and cream flowers on it. There was a bookshelf filled with old tatty books. Did his Mum or Nan live here? Were the books and knitting stuff for her? If there was someone else here then surely there would be more things around the house like women’s shoes by the door and coats hanging up along with Colin’s. I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed my temples. Am I thinking too much into this? Is he completely innocent?
I checked out all the draws and there was women’s clothing, it all looked from the nineties, nothing was recent and this stuff had definitely been here a while. “Lewis.” My heart stopped, I jumped and spun around.
“Shit Henry, you scared the crap out of me!” He didn’t laugh like I expected he would after making me jump. My heart dropped into my stomach. “What?” He held up a bunch of newspapers. I frowned and took them from him. Bile rose in my throat and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I quickly glanced over them; they all had Summer on the front page, from the day she went missing to yesterday. Why would he keep them?
I swallowed hard and threw them back at Henry. “Summer,” I screamed, running down the stairs. I heard Henry swear and run after me. “Summer,” I continued screaming as I walked in and out of all of the rooms downstairs.
“Jesus Lewis! What are you doing?” Henry shouted, pulling me to a stop.
I pushed his chest making him stumble backwards, “What does it look like!” I turned around and walked into the strange room with all the supplies of wool, DVD’s and books. “Summer!” I ran into every room downstairs shouting here name before I went upstairs doing the same. Henry followed behind me trying to get me to calm down; I don’t think he knew what to do.
“Damn it Lewis, she’s not here! Will you stop!” Henry shouted as I pulled myself up the loft hatch. “You’ve lost it!” I heard him say as I switched the light on and started looking around. He didn’t follow me up, not that I was surprised.
The loft was full of plastic boxes filled with the usual junk, a lot of it was women’s things and there were some old fashioned toys that I guessed were Colin’s as a child. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialled the Detective’s number.
“What are you doing?” Henry shouted up at me, looking through the loft.
“Getting the police here,” I replied just as he answered the phone. The police dogs will be able to find if she’s here. The next thing I had to face was that she could have been here once but he’s done something to her.
I looked down at Henry as I spoke to Michael and held my hand up to stop him from talking, no one knew he was here and something tells me I’m going to get in trouble for breaking in here. Michael shouted and swore for about ten minutes before he agreed to come over. I breathed a sigh of relief as I hung up the phone, I felt closer to finding her now.
I jumped down from the loft and turned to face a very pissed off Henry. “You need to leave now, they don’t know you’re here,” I said as we both ran down the stairs.
“Seriously what’s wrong with you?” I ignored his comment and unlocked the front door.
“Go Henry, I’ll call you later.”
He shook his head. “Not until you tell me what the hell you’re doing!”
I looked down the road to make sure the police weren’t coming yet. “Their dogs will be able to tell if she’s here, or if she was here. You need to leave before they get here.” Before he could argue I pushed him out of the door. “Stay behind the bushes in case they come past, don’t tell anyone else about this, I’ll call you later,” I said, closing the door and ending the conversation.
Five minutes after he left I heard a car pull up outside, I opened the front door to see Michael and another officer walking towards me. Michael shook his head and pulled handcuffs out of his pocket. My heart sunk, they hadn’t come here to look for her, they came to arrest me.
I held my hands up so he couldn’t cuff me straight away, “Michael, please just listen to me. He has all these newspapers since the first day she was missing, why would he keep them? And his house is creepy, he has women’s stuff some of it looks like his Mum or Nan’s but there’s definitely new stuff and he has loads of knitting stuff!” I said quickly, hoping to get him interested in Colin.
“And you think Summer’s here because he has newspapers and knitting?” he asked sarcastically making me want to punch him. He sighed, “Does Summer knit?”
“No.”
He raised his eyebrows, “Right,” he said in a patronising tone. “And you want me to search his house on the basis that he has newspapers? Lewis, I would never get a search warrant for that even if I wanted to.”
I tried to convince him to do something, even just to question him but he ignored me as the other officer held my hands and he cuffed them before closing the front door. I looked back at Colin’s house as we drove off, I needed a new plan but I didn’t know what was going to happen now.
Michael opened the car door and led me into the same interview room as before. It felt like hours that he interviewed me for, lecturing me like a child. I closed my eyes and put my head in my hands as he formally charged me with breaking and entering.
Summer’s POV
I stood beside Louise’s bed and held my hand out to help her up. She healing now but her chest still hurts, it’s been almost six months and it would have healed by now but when Clover takes her in that room it hurts her all over again. He accepted Louise after about three weeks and shortly after that he ‘fell in love’ with her too.
Five months ago it was Lewis’ birthday and I spent the whole day hoping that he would go out like he wanted to but I don’t think he would have. My birthday was four months ago. I should have had my first driving lesson and spent the day with Lewis and my family but instead I was stuck down here, the worst part was that my birthday fell on a Sunday. I’ve learnt to deal with it now though; it’s happened so many times before that I just turn everything off inside my head. I think about what I would do if I was out, what my life would be like and the things I would do. I would be at college and happy with Lewis.
I helped Louise to the bathroom; she winced and held her chest. Yesterday was her day and like always it hurt her again. We’ve both been doing really well in accepting things, if it wasn’t for her I don’t know what I would be like right now, she’s like a sister to me, we’re so close. “Thanks hun,” she said, smiling gratefully as she pulled the bathroom door shut behind her.
Clover still brings newspapers down here for me to look at, there’s not as much coverage anymore though. I guess they’re giving up. I don’t think my family would have given up, although sometimes I hope they have so they can be happy. The thought of Lewis with someone else hurts so much but I want him to be happy more so I hope that he can find someone as amazing as him.
I went to the kitchen and helped Rose and Poppy lay breakfast out on the table, today was Rose’s birthday and we were having her favourites for breakfast, croissants and waffles, different fruit juices and fruit salad. The cellar door opened and Clover walked down with a card in his hand.
“Happy birthday Rose,” he said happily, handing her a card. She took the card and kissed him on the cheek. He sat down opposite me, “Morning Lily.”
“Hi, Clover.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Little scared to hear your thoughts on Summer's pov! lol!
Sorry to end it there, I was just going to make Lewis' pov longer but thought you hadn't heard anything from Summer in a while so threw this in!
Thank you all for reading and voting, you guys are amazing! Please also like...if you liked it, it all counts towards the Watty Awards :D
The two banners on the side were made by xerocide and they're amazing so thank you!
Please comment, vote, like and tweet if you liked it. I'm now going to watch the storm...happy!!!