A SMILE IN A WHISTLE

Chapter 40

The musty smell in the mansion was repulsive to say the least... Sarah had barely stepped foot inside that she retched and returned to the open field immediately. It was spitting with rain outside, but the air she breathed wasn't as humid as the one in that dusty, old house. Sam turned up just a few minutes later in his Audi. Sarah watched as he carefully got out of the car, trying to keep the cut on his back as still as possible. A feeling of guilt emerged in her gut. Even though it was her brother who had injured him, she felt responsible. Someone from her own family had done this to him... How humiliating! she thought, ashamed. She walked over to him and gently wrapped her arms around his back.

"Sarah," started Sam, "I have to leave town."

"I'm not twelve years old anymore, I can stand up to my brother," replied Sarah.

Sam closed his eyes and sighed...

"How did you find out?"

"Lydia, this morning, at the Dash..." said Sarah, tearful just thinking about the video. "There was a security camera in the cloakroom... I saw you and Mark..." she took a moment to catch her breath.

Her voice was trembling; her sadness as well as the cool air made every bit of her body shake.

"Mark stabbed you... and..."

"Shhh..." hushed Sam while holding her against his chest.

"I'm so sorry!" she cried out, bursting into tears.

"You didn't know, Sarah."

Her hands clung to Sam's back. In that moment she favored body language to words.

"There's a video?" Sam double-checked, realising it could mean trouble for her brother, but proof for his side of the story.

"Yes, we don't know if the manager of the club will show the police or not."

"I have to leave town," Sam said again.

"Why?" asked Sarah.

"I don't want to be the one to send your brother to jail. I don't want to put you through that. If I leave, the cops won't have the chance to interrogate me."

"Mark hurt you!" exclaimed Sarah.

"But I don't want to hurt you," Sam insisted. "Do you really want your brother to go to prison?"

Sarah thought about it for a moment...

"No..." she admitted. "But that's because I still have the memory of Mark as he was. Today I feel like I don't know him at all. He broke your ribs! Put you in hospital! He deserves to go to jail! What on earth got into him?"

"Something about your eleventh birthday upset him; I still don't know what. Sarah, he thinks... that I abused you."

"Why would he think that?" she asked, concerned.

"I don't know. I've been trying to figure it out, but nothing makes sense!"

In a split second, the rain came down in buckets... Sarah and Sam ran to take shelter in his car. Once inside, they couldn't even see through the windows. The heavy shower had already turned into a deluge of hail.

"Tell me about the year you left town," said Sarah.

"Well, like I told you, I didn't get an invitation to your birthday. I guess Mark must have gotten rid of it, or something. Then, a couple of days before your party, your brother came to the high school and found me in your dad's office. Patrick wasn't there. He caught me by surprise... He locked the door and threatened me."

"Threatened you?"

"With a knife... Mark said that if I came to your party, that year or in the future, he would kill me. I asked him why, but he never explained himself. He just started to insult me and assured me that I would never come close to you ever again."