Page 60 of Into These Eyes
“Just … it took you an hour to drive out to me. Now an hour to get here. There’s no way you’re taking me home. I’ll get an Uber back once we’re done.”
I almost protest about that costing a fortune, but think better of it. He won’t appreciate being reminded of how little money he has, especially since I’m the one who had this bright idea. Instead, I say, “I love driving.”
He lets out an amused snort. “If you can call it that.”
I grin as I take the turn into the Sharman Grove Estate.
When I glance his way, he’s tense again.I’m such an idiot.He’s worried about how I’ll react, but he’s so strong and resilient, it hasn’t even occurred to me how being back at the crime scene might affecthim. As he stares blankly through the windscreen, I remind myself that he’s just as much a victim in all of this as I am. Instead of blindly focusing on facts alone, I need to keep that in mind.
“I shouldn’t have rushed you into this,” I tell him. “I didn’t think. We can turn around.”
He hesitates only a moment. “As long as you’re okay with it, so am I.”
After he directs me through the rabbit-warren of streets, I pull up to the kerb. When I look at him, he’s staring straight ahead. I follow his gaze, taking in the way the road doglegs in a sharpbend a little further ahead, causing a row of homes to face us. Anyone looking through those windows have a clear view of the street where I’ve parked.
We climb from the car into the scorching heat. When I meet Gavin on the footpath, he’s tense and uncomfortable, but he forces half a smile my way. This isn’t going to be easy for either of us.
“Can you show me where … you found her?” I hate myself for asking, but I know I’ll never come back here again and, even though it’s notwhywe’re here, I can’t leave without seeing where my mother took her last breath.
Clearly struggling, he turns his back to the house he’s been staring at and glances down the street before meeting my eyes. “You sure?”
I nod, but when he takes a few steps past me, I freeze. Glancing over his shoulder, he offers his hand. I stare at it, the concept foreign. Apart from when I was a kid and when Anika was little, I haven’t held anyone’s hand in a very long time.
Swallowing over the lump that wants to creep its way into my throat, I step forward and take it. Studying me, he gives a gentle squeeze, and I tighten my grip. As we walk along the footpath, the comfort of his kindness almost undoes me.
Then he stops, gently places his hands on my shoulders, and turns me toward the nature-strip.
“Just here,” he says softly, squeezing my shoulders. “If you want me to, I’ll tell you every detail I remember. Just ask.”
When I nod, his hands slip away and I feel him step back to give me space. I wish he hadn’t.
As I stare at the nature strip where my mother died, for some reason I expect it to hold the indentation of her body, as if the continuous growth of grass throughout the years should remember what happened here. It’s a stupid thought, but it rattles around in my brain anyway.
Blinking fast to ward off the threatening waterworks, I raise my face to the cloudless sky. Now that I’m standing in this spot, I know it’s meaningless. If she’s anywhere at all, she’s not here.
I take another moment to get myself under control before I turn toward Gavin.
“So,” I say, “since we’re here, are you okay to walk me through how you found her?”
He nods and I follow him further along the footpath toward the end of the street.
“I’d been out running, but by the time I came around this corner, I was walking. That’s when a guy wearing a baseball cap and dark clothes came rushing out of the shadows, knocked me down, then disappeared around the corner.”
“He ran into you?” I ask, astonished.
“Yeah. Of course, no one believed me.”
Anger ripples through me from the injustice of it all. What the hell were the police doing that night?
I follow him halfway to the spot where my mother died.
“About here, I heard someone yelling. When I looked up at Liam’s window,” he points to the first house on the bend that faces us, “he was waving his hands around like crazy.”
I wait while he takes a breath, clearly lost in the memory.
“He opened his window and frantically yelled my name. The moment I realised something was very wrong, I saw her.”
Not ready to hear those details particular yet, I turn back to the corner where my father fled and ask, “Where does that go?”
