They Just Don't Know You

Chapter 30

Jade's POV

Monday, October 7

I'm sitting on Nana's front steps, phone in hand. Perrie left a few minutes ago, and Officer Elliott is long gone. Or maybe I should start calling him Jed. I don't know the protocol for addressing probable half brothers who, until recently, were on your short list of cold-case murder suspects. 

Anyway, I'm alone. Something's obviously going on with Jed, but I have no idea what. All I know is that I'm sick to death of watching lies pile up on top of one another like the world's worst game of Jenga. I pull up the photo I snapped of Mr Elliott's army picture, studying the familiar lines of his face. When Karl noticed the March 2005 date on my timeline, I was afraid that maybe, maybe, we were dealing with a potential Jordan Stephens paternity situation. I never imagined this. 

I can't call Norma. I don't know whose phone she's been using. Instead, I send the photo to her Gmail with the subject We need to talk. Maybe she'll read her email when she borrows the aide's phone again. 

I check the time; it's barely 6:30. Nana won't be up for another half hour. I'm antsy and don't feel like going back inside, so I head for the woods behind the house instead. Now that pieces are falling into place about Leigh-Anne's involvement in Ellie's disappearance, I'm not scared about walking through the woods on my own. I follow the familiar path to Fright Farm, trying to empty my brain of thoughts and just enjoy the crisp autumn air. 

I emerge from the woods across the street from Fright Farm, and pause. I'd never noticed how different the gaping mouth of the entrance looks when the park is closed: less kitschy and more forbidding. I suck in a breath and let it out, then cross the deserted street, my eyes on the still, silent ferris wheel cutting into the pale blue sky.

When I reach the entrance, I put my hand on the marked paint of the wooden mouth, trying to imagine what Caitlin was feeling when she snuck into the park after hours five years ago. Was she excited? Upset? Scared? And who was she with, or who was she meeting? Without Sairah or Jed on my list of suspects, it's back to who it's always been...Jonnie Edwards. Unless I'm missing someone.

"Do you have a reason for being here?"

The voice sends my heart into my throat. I whirl around to see an older man in a police uniform, one hand on the radio at his hip. It takes me a few seconds to recognise him, Officer Oxlade-Chamberlain, the one who's been interrogating Perrie all week. Samantha and Alex's father. He and Alex look alike, both tall and broad with curly, short hair, and square jaws. "I...was, um, taking a walk." An unexpected rush of nerves makes my voice wobble.

I don't know why I'm spooked suddenly. Maybe it's those flat, brown eyes that remind me too much of his dickhead son's. There's something cold and almost methodical about how thoroughly Alex hates Perrie. It was a stroke of good luck that we didn't run into him at Homecoming the other night. 

Officer Oxlade-Chamberlain eyes me carefully. "We don't recommend kids walking alone in town just now." He rubs his chin and squints. "Does your grandmother know you're here?"

"Yeah," I lie, wiping my damp palms on my pants. His radio crackles with static, and I think of how Jed rushed out of his house this morning. I flop a hand towards the radio. "Is, um, something going on? With Ellie, or..."

I trail off as Officer Oxlade-Chamberlain's face hardens. "Excuse me?" he asks tersely.

"Sorry." Five weeks of Jed's superhuman patience made me forget that most cops don't like getting pestered with questions from teenagers. "I'm just worried."

"Worry at home," he says, in the most conversation-closed voice I've ever heard. 

I take the hint and mumble a goodbye, hightailing it across the street and back into the woods. I've never appreciated Jed more, or at all I guess, and I feel sorry for Perrie having to answer Officer Oxlade-Chamberlain's questions day after day.

The damp of the early morning dew is seeping through my trainers as the leaves on the ground get thicker. The discomfort increases my annoyance with Officer Oxlade-Chamberlain. No wonder his kids are sour enough to hold a five-years-long grudge about a bad breakup. I realise I don't know the whole story, and maybe Jonnie was a dick to Samantha. But she should leave Perrie out of it, and Alex should just mind his own business entirely. He's obviously not the kind of lad who knows how to let things go. He'd probably even hate Caitlin if she were still around, for being the girl Jonnie chose over his sister. And Ellie for breaking up with him, and...

I slow down as it hits me, and blood rushes to my head so quickly that I grab a nearby branch for support. It never occurred to me, until right now, that the only person in Echo Ridge with a grudge against every single person involved in Caitlin's death, and Ellie's disappearance, is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

But that doesn't make sense. Alex was only 12 when Caitlin died. And he has an alibi for the night Ellie disappeared: he was out of town with Samantha. 

The sister Jonnie dumped for Caitlin. 

My heart squeezes in my chest as I start connecting dots. I've always thought that Caitlin died because of someone's jealous passion. I just never considered that person might be Samantha Oxlade-Chamberlain. Jonnie broke up with Samantha, and Caitlin died. Five years later, Ellie breaks up with Alex, who's friends with Leigh-Anne, and...God. What if they teamed up to take care of a mutual problem?

I barely register that I'm in Nana's backyard as I yank my phone out of my pocket with shaking hands. Jed gave me his phone number yesterday, after the photo fiasco in his house. I need to call him right now. Then movement catches my eye, and I see Nana racing towards me in her plaid bathrobe and slippers, her grey hair wild. "Hi, Nana-" I start, but she doesn't let me finish.

"What in God's name are you doing out here?" she shouts, her face stricken. "Your bed wasn't slept in last night! Your brother had no idea where you were! I thought you had disappeared." Her voice cracks on the last word, sending a stab of guilt through me. I hadn't even considered that she might wake up and find me gone, and what that would be like for her. 

She's still barreling my way, and then suddenly she's hugging me for the first time ever. Very tightly, and somewhat painfully.

"I'm sorry," I manage. It's a little hard to breathe. 

"What were you thinking? How could you? I was about to call the police!" 

"Nana, I can't...you're kind of crushing me."

She drops her arms, and I almost stumble. "Don't you ever do that again. I was worried sick. Especially..." She swallows visibly. "Especially now."

The back of my neck prickles. "Why now?"

"Come inside and I'll tell you." She turns and waits for me to follow, but I'm rooted to the spot. For the first time since I've been outside all morning, I realise my hands are numb with cold. I pull the sleeves of my jumper over them and wrap my arms around my body.

"Just tell me now. Please."

Nana's eyes are red around the rims. "There's a rumour going around that the police found a body in the woods near the Canadian border. And that it's Ellie's."