River of Lies (9 page)

“Do you believe that I love you Mon?”

I stood up and wrapped my arms around his waist, he buried his face into my neck and I could feel his tears wet my neck. I held him as tight as I could.

“We will work it out, I’ll tell Tilly, just give me a few days” I murmured into his chest.  Dylan pulled me in tighter.

When Dad got home that night, he seemed almost excited to see me up and about; he hugged me every time he walked past me, and would pat my hair. That night we sat on the couch and watched a movie that Dad had picked up from the video shop. But my mind kept going over the right words to tell Tilly, how to say that I was pregnant with her boyfriend’s baby.

Chapter Ten.

When Tilly came home, she barely acknowledged my existence, she was too busy talking about her weekend away and how some guy grinded up against her in the club and that she had tried this new drug called ecstasy. She told me how it made her dance all night.

“Mon can you keep a secret?” she asked.

I nodded, as she leaned in close to me.  We were sitting out on the back lawn; Dad and Dylan were inside watching the football.

“I had sex with another guy and his girlfriend. On the ecstasy it was amazing. We were completely inhibited; it was just bodies on top of bodies”

My mouth dropped open, as fury built up in my mind.

“Tilly how could you do that? How could you treat Dylan like that? After you fought to get him back” I spat at her.

She dismissed me with a wave of her hand.

“I think he’s been fucking Shelly anyway” she said.

I frowned at her and shook my head.

“I don’t think he has been Tilly, he has hardly seen Shelly, and besides, Shelly is never away from Michael” I said.

She just shrugged, and when she stood, she reached out her hand to help me up.

“God girl you hardly eat, but you’re getting podgy, how’s that possible? So are you going to keep my secret or what?” she said, as she dusted off the legs of her pants.

“Yes I’ll keep your secret” I said.

That night I watched as Tilly cooed all over Dylan, as if nothing had even happened.

“Did you ask your sister if she is feeling better?” Dad asked Tilly.

Tilly lifted her head off Dylan’s shoulder to give me a sarcastic irritated smile.

“How are you feeling, precious sister?” she asked pedantically.

“Fine” I answered bluntly.

That night I lay in bed, and rubbed my belly, imagining what our baby would look like.  I hoped it was a boy, I hoped he had Dylan’s dark hair and dark eyes with my nose. I tried to think of names that I liked.  My thoughts slipped to Tilly’s affair. I didn’t know whether it would hurt Dylan to know that Tilly had been unfaithful, I didn’t know whether I should just tell him, and let him have a reason to break up with her. I must have drifted off, because the next thing I remember, my alarm was going off to get ready for school.  It was the last week before the Easter holidays started.

The week was pretty non eventful, Dylan and I did what we had done, he would drop me off at school and then pick me up, we would go find some place to hide, and make love in the back of the car. My stomach was still flat, so it was easy to hide that I had a baby growing inside me.  In our times alone, Dylan and I would talk about baby names, he wanted a little boy too, but he wanted our son to have blonde hair like mine and blue eyes that sparkled. We both liked the name Mitchell, but we weren’t firm on it.

When we got home on the Thursday, before Good Friday, Shelly and Michael were parked in the driveway. Michael was standing on the front step while he talked to Tilly; Shelly was sitting in the car. As I walked past the car, Shelly reached out and took my hand.

“Hey girl, how you feeling since being sick?” she asked.

“Yeah I’m fine now thanks” I said looking up at Tilly, to work out what her and Michael were talking about.

Dylan had gone up to join them, and I could see them deep in discussion together.

“What are you guys doing?” I asked.

Shelly shrugged, as she lit a cigarette, she took a long drag and passed it out the window to offer me a drag; I shook my head, as she blew the smoke out the side of her mouth.  She shrugged and took another long drag.

“Dunno, thinkin’ about goin’ down the river for a paddle” she said. “Was gonna ask Dylan if he wanted to come too”

I got an uneasy feeling, but pushed it aside thinking it was nothing more than jealousy, but the words of Tilly’s death threats kept ringing in my ear.

“Alright, well I’ve got some stuff to do, have a good one Shelly” I said, as I tapped the window sill and walked away.

When I got to the front door, Michael rubbed my head as I pushed past Tilly into the house. They had all stopped talking when I got to the step. I stood in my bedroom door, and strained to hear what they were saying, but they were talking too quietly for me to work it out. I heard Tilly come back in the house, and Michael’s car fire up, and speed up the street. I came out of my room, to find Tilly sitting on the couch chewing on her nails.  I looked around, but couldn’t see Dylan.

“Dylan go with Michael and Shelly did he?” I asked.

Tilly looked up, as she stopped her nail biting and nodded at me. I frowned not sure what was going on.

We were both sitting silently on the couch, watching an Easter movie on television, when Dad came in through the front door. He smiled at us both and flopped down on the chair.

“Where’s Dylan?” he asked.

“Gone out with Michael and Shelly” I said.

Dad frowned as he looked from me to Tilly. Tilly kept her eyes firmly on the television, not meeting his look.

“Ah, will do the boy good to get out away from the two hormonal women in his life” he said with a nervous laugh.

I smiled, while Tilly continued to stare blankly at the television.

“Well I’m only home to get a change of clothes, I’m off to stay with a friend for the night” he said with a wink. I raised my eyebrow, as he stood up and gave a little jig; he went out the room, singing “I got a woman” as he grabbed his clothes.

I shook my head, and looked over at Tilly, who still hadn’t turned her eyes off the television. After Dad left for his friend’s house, I went and had a bath before going to bed.  I fell asleep surprisingly easily, with thoughts about the baby growing inside of me.

Tilly’s screams pierced my sleep; the only light were the red and blue lights that shone through the window.  I could hear a man’s voice trying to soothe Tilly.  The floor was cold as my feet hit the ground and I shuffled my way out to the kitchen.  There Tilly sat, her face buried into a tea towel, her wracking sobs filled the room. In the door way was a young constable in his crisp light blue shirt, and cap in his hands, tears brimmed at his eyes.  The older policeman stood next to Tilly, with his hand on her shoulder.  As I moved into the room, the older police man looked over at me, his stern face softened as he glanced back at the young constable in the door way.  I stared at Tilly, who didn’t lift her face from the tea towel.

“What is it Tilly? What’s happened?” I asked, as panic began to rise into my chest.

“Dylan’s dead” she screamed into the towel.

My head spun.  “How?” I asked.

The older policeman cleared his throat and Tilly for the first time took her face out of the tea towel to look up at him and I noticed her eyes were completely dry; there were no tears at all.

“He ah, has appeared to drown, we are still investigating” he squeezed Tilly’s shoulder, who let out a guttural cry, pushing the tea towel deep into her face, muffling her screams.

I stood there staring at Tilly, trying to make sense of what was going on. None of it was making sense, Dylan, was a great swimmer, and they were only going to the river, how could he have drowned in the river? And why didn’t Michael and Shelly look after him, why didn’t they save him?  My anger began to grow, I had to get out, I had to see Michael and Shelly, and I had to know, what happened.  As I ran into my room, I threw off my pyjamas and shoved my legs into my jeans and pulled a shirt on over my pyjama top. I ran into the hallway and raced for the front door, but the young policeman caught me.

He took hold of my shoulders, and pressed me against his chest. I felt my knees buckle as sobs shook my whole body. I heard the front door open and when I looked up over the policeman’s shoulder I could see Dad in the doorway.

“Dad, how?” I screamed, and ran into his arms.

He held me close, he told me it was alright, he would find out what happened. I gripped his shirt, and held him tight, and sobbed like I never cried before.

“I want to speak to Shelly” I said.

My dad nodded, and looked over my head at the policeman.

“They are at the station, helping us with inquiries” the policeman said.

“Take me, Dad, please”

He looked past into the kitchen, where Tilly still sat her face buried into the tea towel, he frowned, and then looked back down at me, and smoothed my hair.

“Ok, we’ll go” he said.

The drive into the police station, was a short trip, Dad held my hand the whole way, my head was reeling, tears flowed torrentially down my face, and I couldn’t control them.  When we got to the police station, Dad went up to the front bench and explained who we were and what we needed. The police lady, who I remembered from the day my mum died, Sergeant Renee Miller, eyed Dad suspiciously and told us to take a seat.  We sat there for what felt like forever, when she finally came back she asked us to follow her. She led us into a little room, with a desk, three chairs and a tape recorder. She sat down across the desk from us.

“What was Dylan doing with Michael and Shelly?” she asked.

“Swimming” I said.

“In April?”

I shrugged, that’s what they told me they were doing, why would they lie to me?

“Was Dylan a regular drug user?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, Dylan was a good guy. I rubbed the tears from my eyes that were quickly turning from tears of sadness to tears of anger.

“Dylan never used drugs, not ever” I shouted.

Sergeant Renee sat back in her chair and frowned at me, she waved her hand to tell me to calm down.  Dad reached over and squeezed my hand.

“I’m sorry” I said as I lowered my head and looked at my hands.

“It’s ok, I know that this hard, and I’m sorry that I have to ask you these questions Mon, but we need to find out what happened” she said.

I nodded, I knew that she was doing her job, but I didn’t want her to think that Dylan was some sort of scum like Michael and Shelly, or my mum.

“How did Dylan know Michael and Shelly?”

“He met them through Tilly, my sister, his girlfriend” I said quietly.

Sergeant Renee looked shocked again.

“So he was still her boyfriend?”

A fresh batch of tears fell down my face as I nodded my head, Dad squeezed my hand tight again, and I touched my belly instinctively. I wondered what this anguish was doing to the baby and whether the baby could hear what was going on. I tried to calm my emotions so as not to upset the baby any more than I had. Dad touched my hand that I had rested on my belly, I looked up at him, and he frowned, his eyes bored in to mine. I looked down at the table, and heard him sigh.

“Well just wait here a minute and we will work out what’s going on” Sergeant Renee said.  She stood and walked out the room closing the door quietly behind her.

“Mon are you pregnant?” Dad said.

I didn’t take my eyes off the table, a single tear falling down my cheek.

“Oh baby” he said as he pulled me close. “Dylan’s?”

I nodded; there was no point in hiding it, not with Dylan dead.

“Did Dylan tell Tilly?”

I shook my head, Dad sighed, and pulled me in close to his chest, tears silently flowed down my face and onto his chest. He didn’t say anything else, he just held me until the Sergeant Renee came back in.

“Michael is going to be held here over night, but we are going to take Shelly home. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to speak to her just yet, I think the best thing you can both do is go home and try to rest.” She said.

I had no intention of resting, I wanted to know what was going on, and I wanted to know how Michael and Shelly could let him die.

Chapter Eleven.

The house was dark when we got home Dad came around to my door, and opened it for me as he took my hand. He guided me up the front step and through the door. The house was silent, Tilly’s door was shut tight, I went to open the door, but Dad caught my hand and shook his head. I dropped my head, and went up to my room.