The Silent Deceivers

Chapter 31

Brought to Justice

"It certainly was."

I pivoted round to discover DI Andrews and DS Scott. The colour drained out of Connor and Aden's faces. Roxy and I stayed rooted to the spot, shell shocked. We hadn't called the police. Even though we knew pretty much what they were going to say we still wouldn't have edged our bets.  As they moved across the clearing, Lisa appeared at the entrance, panic etched onto her face. Roxy rose from the log as Lisa rushed over to us and pulled her into a hug. I on the other hand sat deflated on the log. I couldn't comprehend what had happened, I went into default mode, and then I completely shut down. Lifeless, my eyes stuck to the swaying if the branched in the crisp autumn breeze. I felt Connor looked at me with an expression that told me he knew what he'd done, knew he had to face the consequences and that he was sorry for hurting me but my face remained cold. I may have known him once but that was a long time ago; I certainly didn't know the person sitting across from me. As DI Andrews approached him with another two officers. He stood up willingly as the police officer tightened the handcuffs around his wrist, charged him with an accessory to murder and perverting the course of justice and read him off his list of rights.  I watched with tear filled eyes as he was escorted away. Aden on the other hand wasn't doing himself any favours. When the police arrived he had tried to make a run for it but it was no good. The police were clever and funnily they were one step ahead of him, they had surrounded the clearing. He didn't get very far at all. He shouted and struggled as he was placed in handcuffs. Protesting imminently that he was innocent until he surrendered and was forced out of the clearing.

My eyes followed him as he left and soft silent tears tricked down my face. I felt Lisa arm around my shoulder and Roxy gripped my hand. I didn't bother shaking them off, I was numb. I looked at Lisa with the sudden realisation that I still didn't know how she knew where we were. "How did you know?"

"I'll explain back at the house." She smiled and headed off towards the main path. Roxy hauled me up off of the log and placed her guiding arm around my waist, we trailed behind Lisa like puppies. We were still astounded as to how we were located. Passing quizzical glances back and forth with Roxy for the brisk walk back only increased my curiosity. We didn't call them, Aden and Connor couldn't have called them and no one else had been there. It was a mystery and my curiosity was eating away at me. 

Lisa took us straight to the office where Andy, DS Scott and DI Andrews were waiting. Andy wore a look of pride and DS Scott and DI Andrews rose from their seats and looked incredibly pleased as we entered.

"Girls." DI Andrews smiled as we sat down opposite them. I never knew we could sit so many chairs and so many bodies in the tiny already full office. 

"Thank you for your help with solving the case." DS Scott chirped. "We finally bought them to justice. You are truly incredible, thank you!"

Roxy smiled with pleasure at the compliment. I did nothing, I sat there unresponsive. I could sense Lisa and DI Andrews looking at me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw DI Andrews lean closer to Lisa and they began to converse in a whisper and not matter how much I strained my ears to try and pick even a snippet of information, it was no use. 

"There will be a trial, of course and you will both be called to the witness stand." DS Scott continued. "Obviously you will need to make a written statement and we can do that..."

"DS Scott," DI Andrews interrupted sharply, "Would you mind taking Roxy off to do hers now with Andy, if she is up to it, please."

Roxy agreed politely and then consequentially left the office with Andy and DS Scott behind her. A few seconds lingered between the door closing and the conversation restarting.

DI Andrews leaned forward towards me, resting her elbows on her knees. "This is going to be a hard and long process, I'm not going to sugar coat it or lie to you. There will be a trial yes, and you are required to produce a written statement, but I think with Roxy's statement, all of the evidence we have seized from the clearing and from your bedroom, and the tape of the confession, we have a solid case. We will also be communicating with Josh Miller and the rest of David's friends and with their statements we will have enough evidence to submit the case and take it to court without the need of you to testify in the court room. So you won't have to face them in court if you don't want to." 

"Thank you." I muttered. "Can I do my statement now?"

"Yes if you feel ready, but we can always come back another and do it when you're feeling better."

After politely but firmly asking to do it now, I re-accounted everything I could physically remember while she furiously scribbled down onto paper. Thirty minutes later we were finished, DI Andrews and DS Scott were gone and I was curled up in my office chair in tears. When Lisa returned from showing out the police she returned with a new visitor, it was Luke Rays. He smiled at me and took the seat opposite me. I was way too exhausted to even ask what the tell he was doing here, I just had one more question that I most desperately needed the answer to, the most recent the most frequent one. How had Lisa known we were there? Deciding I'd had enough of the suspense, of waiting for her to tell me and enough of the secrets I looked at Lisa and said, 'How did you know we were there?"

Lisa smiled at me, "You actually."

I started at her thoroughly confused. Thinking I'd misheard her I asked her to repeat but she just repeated the exact same thing.

"What? How?" I said.

"Your phone. We heard everything that happened." I looked at her with even more confusion so she looked at Luke who elaborated.

"You know that we were speaking earlier on the phone, well when you said you had to go, you never actually hung up the call, you just shoved it in your pocket."

Immediately I pulled out my phone and sure enough on the screen was the open call to Luke Rays. I looked up at Luke and then to Lisa. The call had been running for two hours and a half, they had heard everything. It was too overwhelming and I dissolved into tears. After recomposing myself with some help from Roxy, I asked Luke to continue. He went on to explain that once he heard what was being said he decided to record it and took it straight to the police who tracked my phone through a GPS tracker. Lisa then came in to explain that she had received a call from DI Andrews regarding the situations.  It sounded like some sort of crime TV program, almost too good to be true and I knew that it was going to take a while to be able to full process the events and the information I had witnessed or been told that day.