The Silent Ones: An absolutely gripping psychological thriller(47)

She’d seen Juliet popping her antidepressants, ever eager to keep herself in the nice, safe medicated bubble she existed in. Not for her the grim side of life; she’d surrounded herself with her loving husband and an interfering best friend, both keeping watch over her like a couple of Rottweilers, looking out for anyone who might upset her.

Juliet had been living in a fantasy world that was about to well and truly crash down around her ears. Around all of their ears.

And there was even worse to come.

Everything Chloe had tried so hard to keep hidden was stirring in her guts now like a coiled eel. They would not be quietened any longer.

Regardless of the terrible timing, she knew she had to tell her sister. She had no choice. It was too late to make amends, and in some ways, she couldn’t wait to bring everything out into the open. She was so tired of wrestling with the shame and deceit.

On a whim, she took a sharp left turn at the Badger Box pub at the bottom of Derby Road and drove up Forest Road so she’d pass Juliet and Tom’s place.

She could see the motley crowd of people spilling out across the pavement and into the road way before she even got close to the house. She couldn’t slow down for fear of drawing attention to herself. The car was familiar around these parts, after all. Ray had owned it for five years or more, and she’d already spotted a couple of villagers her parents knew well.

The reporters and photographers stood apart from the locals, and Chloe was shocked at the sheer volume of people. She’d seen from the online headlines and local press that the story was swiftly drawing attention, but it hadn’t even been a day yet and there were some serious players here. She saw flashes of the colourful logos of Sky News and the Daily Mail.

Had they already found out about Maddy’s admission?

A single policeman stood outside the front door of the house, keeping a watchful eye on the fractious group of villagers milling around next to the press.

In the seconds it took to pass the property, Chloe took in the graffiti daubed on the garage and the ugly mood of the onlookers. Their sneering faces, the movement of their mouths spitting out unfounded opinions like rotten morsels they couldn’t bear to chew on any longer.

As one woman turned and stepped away from the wooden fence, Chloe caught sight of a home-made banner attached there, the words JUSTICE FOR BESSIE WILFORD daubed in thick black letters on a torn piece of grubby white sheeting.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she passed the scene and it shrank in her rear-view mirror. It seemed the villagers were too caught up in their dismal protest to spot her father’s car.

She felt even more relieved that Brianna was nearly free of the whole sorry mess.

She pressed her foot a little more firmly on the accelerator, eager to put some distance between herself and Juliet’s house. But her respite was short-lived. Five minutes later, the car approached her parents’ house, and she took a sharp breath. The sight that confronted her was stark… shocking.

She forced herself to keep driving, past a much smaller group of locals, who seemed to have gathered for a chat outside the front gate. She’d expected more people, after her parents’ description of the ‘mob’ but the crowd outside Juliet and Tom’s place was much bigger. Still, what had happened here was more distressing and unexpected.

Again, the onlookers were too immersed in their conversations to notice her passing. Only when she had rounded the bend at the bottom of the road and was safely out of sight did she pull over and allow herself a minute to process what she’d seen.

The living room window had been completely smashed. She had clearly seen the cream leather sofa with her mother’s red fleece blanket folded over the arm. Without the filter of the glass, the framed photograph of Brianna on the wall was there for all to gawp at.

So many times she had read in news reports about people getting a brick through the window. It didn’t sound that bad when it was happening to someone else, but in reality it felt utterly violent and intrusive.

This was an act designed to expose their family shame to everyone. It encroached on their privacy and violated the safe space that was their home.

Billy from next door had been inspecting the damage with his builder son Kev as Chloe had driven past. He was a practical man, and she felt grateful that he’d be there to help put the mess right, probably even before her parents returned home later.

It seemed the locals had already held an unofficial trial and found the entire Voce and Fletcher families guilty. Maddy’s confession should set them straight, convince them that Brianna and Chloe were free of any blame. But these things didn’t always play out logically.

It had been unnerving to see how rapidly friends could become enemies. But could they turn back again… from enemies to friends?

Chloe wasn’t sure.

Her chest felt crushed with the realisation that things were probably never going to be the same around here for any of them. Chloe, her parents and Brianna were still Maddy’s extended family, and would be labelled accordingly by the other villagers.

People around here rarely forgave, never forgot. Old men were still getting abuse on the streets for breaking the 1984 miners’ strike in order to feed their families.

Something had to be done before it was too late for all of them. Maddy had confessed, and yet Brianna was still being held by the police. Once Chloe got back, she’d put more pressure on Seetal to get working on her release.