Читать книгу The Silent Witness: Part 3 of 3 - Casey Watson, Casey Watson - Страница 6

Bella seemed to retreat after that. No, she hadn’t become withdrawn or uncommunicative or otherwise ‘off’ with us or anything. If anything, she was chirpy; particularly about school, where, hopefully, she’d be off to in a matter of days.

No, it was more that she had seemed to draw a line under the conversation. And all I could do was watch and wait.

The sense that I’d said the wrong things to her that night persisted, even so, and my brain was exhausted with trying to re-run my thinking, wondering how would one of the great philosophers have answered her question. In the end I could only ‘park it’, as Mike had suggested. What would be – where the whole family were concerned – would just be. Enough people were already engaged in the business of deciding what was going to happen, and it was pointless me trying to be one of them. To care and protect, that was my part in the equation. Just that. No sleuthing.

The ELAC tutor, Howard, turned out to be exactly as I’d pictured him. Very posh, very jolly, very bright. Though I didn’t sit in on their session together, I could see when they emerged that they had got along famously. Howard wore a pair of very distinctive spectacles, I noticed. I wondered if he was a Harry Potter fan.

‘Next Monday, then,’ I commented, as Bella and I waved him off. We’ll have to get our skates on with that uniform, then, won’t we? Oh, and I’d better call Katie and rearrange your counselling appointment too. See if she can fit you in after school instead.’ I shut the front door. ‘So. Excited?’

‘I am, actually,’ Bella told me. ‘I’m looking forward to seeing Hannah again. But Casey?’

‘Mmm?’

‘You know, I don’t really think I need to see Katie any more.’

Appearances can be deceptive, however. Just as the swan, which seems to glide over the water so serenely, hides the furious, focused paddling that goes on underneath, so Bella’s self-possession hid a maelstrom inside.

Which we might not have even known about – might not have even surfaced before she left us – had it not been for a trigger from an unexpected source – namely her watching TV with Tyler.

It was the following evening, which was unremarkable, just a regular weekday night. Well, except that, for one night only, Lauren and Kieron were hosting the little ones to give us a break.

And I’d used it well. The uniform had been bought, and Katie’s appointment had been rearranged. (Despite Bella’s assurance that she was no longer in need of counselling, I had decided to overrule her. Counsellors were rare commodities, and I wasn’t about to relinquish this one.)

Mike was out – he’d gone with a mate to a local football league meeting (at the pub, of course) – and while Tyler and Bella sat in front of the telly, one at either end of the sofa, I was doing a bit of light internet shopping.

I was just price-checking a summer dress when a change in the room hit me. They’d been watching an episode of CSI, and up to now they’d been chatting quietly as well.

Tyler did love his crime, and this series particularly, which followed the life and times (and grisly murder investigations) of a group of crime scene investigators in Vegas, so much so that he had Mike record the late-night editions so that he could watch them uninterrupted when there was nothing else on.

But this was their third in a row – I had long since grown restless – and it looked like they might be getting a little too engrossed, and it occurred to me that, since Bella didn’t need any further fuel for nightmares, it should also be their last.

‘That’s it after this one, guys,’ I said, looking across to them. ‘We’ve seen enough of the Vegas team for one night, I think.’

Tyler instinctively put a finger to his lips. I’d obviously spoken across something vital. But then he nodded. He valued his freedoms. ‘There’s only about 15 minutes left of this one, then you can watch what you want, okay?’

‘Very gracious of you, I’m sure …’ I began, but then realised my mistake. There was obviously something way more important going on on-screen. Abandoning the dress for a moment, I also listened.

I had either taken in more of this particular episode than I realised or, more likely, seen it before. Either way, the facts of the murder came straight back to me. The gist of the episode was that the team was at its wits’ end. A man had clearly killed his wife, but there was no physical evidence that placed him at the scene, and without that or a confession there could be no trial. Grissom, the lead CSI, had consequently gathered the whole team in his office.

We could now see a bunch of photographs splayed out on his desk, the visual record of a particularly tragic murder. He pointed at each photo in turn. Then, as he usually did, which was why it had become so famous, he uttered one of his most immortal phrases. ‘We need to go back and revisit the scene,’ he instructed. ‘The truth is there. We just have to find it.’

I rolled my eyes. It was just so formulaic. This, of course, was where they would all troop back and do exactly that, and suddenly ‘see’ something that had completely eluded them before.

And that was, predictably, exactly what happened. And as the case was closed and the culprit put behind bars, I laughed. ‘I bet you two could have solved that way before they did,’ I said.

‘Course I could’ve,’ Tyler said. ‘I’m the don at detecting.’

I wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that – new words popped out of his mouth all the time these days, but while I laughed I became aware that Bella wasn’t. She was still staring at the screen, in fact, watching the credits scrolling, and it occurred to me that, however much she professed to enjoy it, perhaps CSI was a bit close to the bone for her.

‘Turn it over, Ty,’ I said, nodding at the remote. ‘The news is just about to start and I want to catch it.’