30

LEWIS

Tuesday, February 29th (Present)

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Henry muttered, tapping his knee and shaking his head. He’d said that about four fucking thousand times already.

“We need to do something. You know there’s something off about Colin.”

My car was parked in the field near his house, hidden by the tall bush. We could just about see the opening of his driveway. I didn’t know what time he left for work, so we had been parked here since seven in the morning—one hour and twenty minutes ago. “How long do you think he’ll be?” Henry whispered.

“You know we’re in the car, right? He can’t hear us, and I don’t know how long,” I replied, staring down at his house. He lived alone in the middle of nowhere. He could have easily done something to her.

“It’s him, isn’t it?”

My heart dropped. “Yeah. Why’re you so sure now?”

He gulped. “I’ve run out of alternatives. I just want to find my sister, even if she’s not…”

“She’s alive,” I snapped. Henry blinked, shocked.

“Sorry,” I muttered, running my hand over my face. “I just can’t take people assuming she could be dead.”

“It’s all right.”

“She not dead, Henry,” I said more forcefully.

He nodded. “I know. Wait, did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” We fell silent and heard the quiet roar of a car engine. “Come on, you bastard,” I whispered, watching his house. A minute later, a silver BMW backed onto the road. Colin was alone in the car. He stopped to change gears and drove off. “Let’s go,” I said as soon as his car was out of sight.

We got out and walked toward the house. “How are we going to get in?” he asked.

“There’ll be a way.”

“How do you know?”

I stopped in the middle of the road, facing his drive. “For fuck’s sake, Henry, we’ll get in somehow.” What the hell was wrong with him? “Go back to the car if you don’t wanna do this.”

“She’s my sister. I’m doing it.”

“Stop whining then.” His house was large and well kept. The grass was cut and the garden was tidy. “Let’s try the back first.” We walked along the side of the house. The backyard was just as neat, with large bushes and trees lining the boundary, like a giant, natural barbed-wire fence. This was his way of keeping his life private without it being suspicious. The guy was a creep, but an intelligent one.

“This is eerie. Too normal,” Henry whispered. It was. Without knowing Colin, you would think a family lived here. He had made it too normal. So why had no one else ever realized? “There. Look!” He pointed to the kitchen window; above it was a smaller rectangle window—which was open.

“You’re smaller than me,” I said and grinned, nodding to the window.

He sighed. “Bloody knew you were going to say that.”

“Shouldn’t have wasted that gym membership. Go on, I’ll help you up.” He placed his hands on the glass and one foot in my hands. I gritted my teeth as he pushed up. Henry was skinny so I thought he would be quite light. I was wrong. “Christ. How much do you weigh?”

He ignored my question and shoved the window fully open. “Push me up,” he said. The muscles in my arms flexed and strained as I shoved Henry’s foot into the air. He gripped the window frame and shuffled through the tight gap. I couldn’t help grinning as he hung upside down on the other side of the window. He fell onto the floor with a thud.

“All right?”

“Yeah, was only a hard tile floor,” he replied sarcastically, rubbing his elbow where it had smacked the ground. He smiled and turned the key in the back door. “Very helpful, Colin.” I pushed the door open and walked inside. The kitchen was immaculately tidy, nothing sat on the countertops. It looked like a show home. “Where first?”

“You take down here and I’ll go upstairs,” I said and headed out of the room. “Check everything, okay?”

“Got it.”

I took the stairs two at a time, desperately eager for answers. I pushed the first door open and stepped inside the room. The smell of lemon washed over me. It smelled worse than a hospital and started giving me a headache almost immediately.

The bathroom gleamed. I could practically see my own face in the sink. He certainly didn’t live like a single man. I don’t think I’ve ever picked up a bottle of bleach. Two bottles of hand sanitizer sat at the side of the sink. Germ freak. I stepped back out and closed the door. The smell was too overpowering; it burned my nose. How the hell could he live in it all the time?

I opened the door to the next room and heard Henry rummaging through cupboards. Was he searching for Summer or robbing him? “Henry,” I called.

“Yeah?”

“If you move anything, make sure it goes back in exactly the same place. He’ll know.”

“Right,” he replied. “Will do.”

I walked into the overly tidy room and my eyes widened. The room was painted in a peach color. It was just as clean but very old-fashioned. The bedding had a disgusting floral pattern with matching bedside lamps. Whose room was this? Definitely not his. This was a female’s room, and an old one. Did he really live with someone? His mum or gran? I froze. Shit, was someone in the house? Surely we would have heard them already if there were. I didn’t want to tell Henry in case he freaked. We couldn’t turn back now.

I was about to leave when something on the chest of drawers caught my eye. A line of white, wooden picture frames covered the surface. I took a step closer and my stomach turned. They were all pictures of Colin and a woman that looked like him—his mum? Kissing! The final picture was one of them kissing. What the fuck?

I turned around and left the room, swallowing my discomfort. If he did that with his mum, what was he doing to Summer?

“Have you found anything?” I called. I couldn’t have cared less if anyone else was in the house; I needed to find Summer right now.

“Not yet,” Henry replied. He sounded as frustrated as I was.

I ripped another door open and continued searching the house. I was in a rush, desperate to get her out of here. What if she’s not here? No, she is. She has to be.

Every room was immaculate and empty. In the final room, there was nothing but a wall of built-in mahogany wardrobes. I gulped. My heart raced as I eyed them, imagining all kinds of fucked-up shit behind the doors. Stepping forward, I held my breath and reached out to open the doors.

Women’s clothes? Why would he have a full wardrobe of women’s clothes? The first wardrobe was filled with dresses and cardigans. They were too modern to be his mum’s, going by her old-fashioned room. Nothing looked like anything Summer would wear. She was a jeans and T-shirt girl and rarely wore dresses or skirts. Why did he have these? A thought flew through my mind. What if he wore them? It seemed unlikely, but still possible.

Could that be his reason for being so private? I slammed the doors and opened the ones next to them. If that was it, then he didn’t have Summer, and I had hit a brick wall again. I pulled a box off the shelf. No, he definitely wasn’t a cross-dresser. The box was filled with packs of tampons and maxipads. This stuff wasn’t his. I quickly pulled each box out and rummaged through it. Makeup, loads hair stuff, moisturizing cream, and tubes of toothpaste.

“Lewis.” My heart leaped, and I jumped around. I’d been caught.

“Jesus, Henry, you scared the shit outta me!” His face was ghostly white. “What?” I whispered.

He held up a bunch of newspapers. Well, a few pages from newspapers. All with Summer’s face on them. I took them and flicked through the papers, every single one was an article about Sum, dating back to the first headline in July.

I looked up and saw Henry looking at the sanitary box still on the floor. “It’s him,” he said, and I nodded. My body went numb and the blood drained from my face. He’d done something to her. This stuff suggested that she was still alive, though. She would need these things. But where was she? Did he have her somewhere else? That would make more sense. “Where is she then?”

A chill ran down my spine. We were so close to finding her—or finding out what happened. Throwing them back at Henry, I ran from the room. “Summer,” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Summer, it’s me, baby. Shout if you can hear me!”

“Damn it, Lewis! What the hell are ya doing?” Henry shouted and pulled me to a stop on the landing.

I shoved his chest to get him off me. She was close. “What does it look like I’m doing?” I hissed. “Summer!” I flew down the stairs and into the first room I saw. “Summer!” Henry followed me, looking around, lost and completely unsure of what to do.

“Christ, Lewis, she’s not here. Will you stop?” he snapped. “You’ve lost it! Just calm down. We have to do this properly.”

I stopped and pulled my phone out of my pocket. “You’re right.”

“What are you doing?” he hissed.

“Calling Michael,” I replied. The police dogs would be able tell if she was here or had been. They’ll find her. They will.

His eyes widened. I grabbed his arm as he tried to snatch the phone out of my hand. “This is crazy. Lewis, hang up!”

“Go, Henry.”

“What?”

“Get out,” I hissed. “Go.” Henry shook his head at me as if I’d lost it. “Just go.” Sighing, he turned and ran as Michael answered my call.

***

I stood by the back door and waited. They couldn’t get here soon enough. Come on. My heart was in my throat, and I couldn’t breathe properly. “It won’t be long now, Summer,” I whispered, praying that she would hear me, although I knew she couldn’t.

Michael appeared at the back door, making me jump. Why didn’t I hear the police car? He shook his head, his mouth pressed into a pissed off line. “What are you doing, Lewis?” he asked calmly.

I held my hands up. The last thing I needed was another lecture. I needed him to listen. “Look, just listen to me, okay? He has all these women’s clothes and…products. He keeps old newspapers. They’re all of Summer. He’s kept them all. Why? Why would he do that?”

Michael sighed. “Lewis, you can’t go around breaking into people’s houses.”

House. “Will you listen to me? Summer is here, or was here.” I groaned and squeezed my eyes closed. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore. But it’s weird. He is weird. Please just search the house for yourself and you’ll see.”

“The clothes could be his wife or girlfriend’s, and plenty of people keep old newspapers or forget to throw them out.”

“Ah, yes but he’s too much of a neat freak for that. Take a look around for yourself.”

Michael rubbed his hand over his face. “I can’t just do that. You need you to come with me right now.”

“Why?”

“Because you can’t just break into someone’s house!” he hissed, exasperated.

I held my hands up again. “You said you wouldn’t give up.”

“I’m not giving up, but you can’t do this. We can’t arrest and search everyone that keeps old papers, that’s not how it works.”

“Maybe the way you do things needs to change!”

“I’m not here to argue that.” He sighed. “I get it, Lewis. If I were in your position, I would be the same. Look, I’ll speak to him again, that’s the best I can do.”

“So this isn’t weird to you?”

He shook his head. “Not really. You need more than this to obtain a search warrant. Now, did you find anything of Summer’s?”

My heart plummeted and shoulders slumped. They weren’t going to do anything. “No, I didn’t.”

“I will question him. You need to come with me,” he repeated.

Michael led me outside and closed the back door. I walked to his car with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. What did this mean now? Would Colin know we were there? He opened the back door, and I got inside. Staring back at the house, I wondered if Summer would ever be found. She wasn’t in there.

Michael got in the front and turned the engine on. “You’re arresting me?” I asked.

“No, but don’t let this happen again. I mean it. Next time I won’t just pick you up. Understand?” I nodded and looked back as we drove off. I’m so sorry, Sum.