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My skin prickles all over.
But then Tristan pushes past me and I grab at his arm, but he knocks the TV off its table and it crashes face-first onto the floor.
Lydia laughs, high and hysterical.
‘Why are you laughing?’ asks Tristan.
She turns the TV so we can all see the cracked screen and she points the remote at it, pressing and pressing the power button to no avail. ‘Well, I guess we all know what happens next. And lucky for the police, now you can’t get your hands on the tape.’
We look at the TV, the tape stuck inside, and Tristan sighs, then he picks it up and smashes it on the floor again, and again, and again, the shock of it running through the floorboards.
‘Dad, what are you doing?’ Ava goes to hold her mother’s hand in the doorway while Ash just stands, watching his father. I’m hypnotised. I have never seen my brother lose control like this.
Mina pulls Ava by the hand and snags Ash on the way past, heading for the corridor.
‘Where do you think you’re going?’ Tristan shouts as he hurls the TV one more time. The bottom splits off and the tape jumps out, and he seizes it. He talks quietly again. ‘No one leaves until we’re clear about a few things.’
I edge past him, following Mina, but when I reach the corridor she’s coming back, pulling her children behind her, shaking her head. She looks at me and mouths locked, and my heart lurches.
‘You did it, didn’t you, Tristan?’ says Lydia.
83
BEFORE
‘Are you sure about this?’ I stood with my back to the kitchen sink while Jenna and Rose sank their teeth into sandwiches at the table. We were at Oakridge. My dad was in the living room, watching Amadeus, again.
The police would be looking at Lydia’s and mine. Rose wouldn’t let Jenna go anywhere alone. So here we were.
‘Thanks for letting us stay,’ said Rose.
I wanted to say, Tell me where the tape is, or I’ll sear off the soles of your feet.
And yes, I was aware I was a teacher who had helped a sixteen-year-old student run away. But the knowledge that the tape existed was more important than anything else.
So instead, I said, ‘You’re sure? This is quite…’ Contrived, manipulative, but then who was I to talk? ‘I think you’re underestimating how worried your mum will be.’
I looked at Jenna’s bandages. Lydia had cleaned the wounds and used butterfly strips.
I wanted to punish Tristan and Frances, but to me that meant handing in the tape. Jenna disappearing for a few more hours wouldn’t make a difference to what I really wanted.
‘Miss Smith, trust me. If you’d watched that tape, you’d think they all the Beaufort-Bradleys deserved to die.’ Rose’s words, not mine.
‘Why all of them?’
Rose opened her mouth but then looked at Jenna, worried.
‘Will you please just tell me where the tape is?’ I snapped.
Rose glared.
‘Okay,’ I sighed. ‘But you can’t be here at eight in the morning because of the carers. You know the way to the bus stop?’
They nodded.
I looked at my watch: almost eight thirty. ‘I have to get home. Keep your phones off. I don’t know – maybe take out the batteries – the SIMs maybe? If I need to, I’ll call the landline.’
I went to say bye to my dad. The way his eyes glittered as he laughed at the film made me sure there was more in there than it seemed.
