I Know What You're Thinking

Chapter 15

The second I barrel in the front door of my house, I race up the stairs and slam the door behind me. My brain is running in 100 different directions, all of the different things I could do sit out in front of me.

"MURDER BOARD!" I yell, and then flinch, hoping no-one was around to hear that.

I pull some poster-board out of my cupboard and lay it out. What do I have so far?

1. Dad cheated on Mum. I add a rushed drawing with the label 'Annette' to the board.

2. I found another mind-reader. I put a picture of a brain near the centre, as mind-reading seems to be the catalyst for all of this.

3. Dad took the stuff he wanted from our house and locked mum in a cupboard. I rip a photo from my desk, sticking the part that has Dad on it to the board.

4. I fainted. No clue if thats important or not.

5. That random creepy thing saying "I need help Cordelia, you're the only one that can fix this". I write the quote down on a piece of paper and stick it in the middle.

6. The bus almost crashed, and the police got the note. I draw a rough picture of a bus and stick it up.

7. The house got ransacked. I thought it was Dad but Mum didn't.

8. Someone got a note delivered to school. I shudder at the memory of it, they clearly know lots about me. I write 'school' on a scrap of paper and pin it to the board.

9. I got followed home. I draw a rough sketch of the lady and stick it on the board, along with a piece of paper that says 'Mr. Mysterious Murder (The Boss) Man'.

Fumbling around in my cupboard, I emerge victorious with a ball of red yarn, and start connecting things that seem connected at all.

I take a step back and admire my handiwork, before realising all of the lines that emerge and end at the picture of Dad.

There's no way he would be trying to kill me, but at least its a place to start.

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I carefully place my board in the closet, very aware of the consequences of if my mother saw it. I hear the front door open, then close and start to make my way down the stairs.

"Mum?" I call.

"In the kitchen."

I can hear her thinking about what to make for dinner, and about how well her work went today. Good, she's happy. Now seems like the best time to approach her.

"Mum?" I say again, once I reach the kitchen. She turns around.

"Yes? Is everything alright?"

"Yeah. Well no. I mean." I mix up all of my words. She frowns. I take a deep breath and start again. "Can you tell me about Dad?" A mix of emotions I can't decipher runs across her face and only one specific thought stands out to me.

Why?

"With all thats been going on, I just want to understand. I can't understand who those people are and why they are coming for me, but I could understand why Dad left, if you help me?" I ask. Her expression softens.

"Yeah, ok." She leads me to the couch, frowns at the current state of the living room, but sits anyway. I do the same. "What do you want to know?"

"Well, when you were arguing with Dad you mentioned him getting into..... trouble.. with the police. For drugs. I remember he wouldn't let me in the shed. What happened?"

She looks at a spot on the wall past me, a far off look in her eyes. "I. I had no idea. He used the same excuse to keep me out of the shed as he did for you, I had no interest in going in there so it worked. It was a couple of weeks after your fifteenth birthday. I remember the police coming and knocking on the door. You weren't home. They said the needed to search the house. They had a warrant." She pauses for a breath.

"Where was Dad?"

"Not home. Convenient that. I had no choice, I had to let the police in. There were two of them. One searched while the other questioned me. She kept asking me all of these questions about drugs and drug dealing, I had no clue why but then I realised - the shed. I tried to keep my face blank but the other, older police officer knew better, he noticed, he said that if I knew something, it would be better for everyone if I just told them."

"So you did. You told them." I reach for her arm.

She shakes her head. "I showed them. I couldn't loose you Cordelia. I told them I had no idea what your father had been doing in the shed, I had't been in there for years. I took them out there, said 'I don't know what you'll find in here, but I really hope it isn't what you're looking for.' They opened the door, and guess what. Marijuana plants everywhere. This wasn't a little farm. It was an enterprise. The police turned to me, I was in shock, lucky for me they believed that shock."

"They believed that you didn't do it. You knew nothing about it." I nod, glad that they didn't take her away.

"Your father got home shortly after. Tried to play it off, but the police officers knew that there was no way anyone else was doing it. A fifteen year old girl? The neighbours sneaking in and somehow never getting caught? No way. They took him to the police station."

"And then you helped him prove he was sorry. That he wouldn't do it again." I knew this part.

She nods. "Part of me regrets it. I should have let him rot in that cell like he deserves. I'm sorry Cordi." 

"Don't be. It'll be ok." I reply, but my mind is quietly processing all of that information, adding it to the story. "Did he ever cheat on you, before that other lady?"

"Once." She looks down. "She was a weird little thing. Always wore black, never took her sunglasses off, I don't know if she was in the military or something. Had very sharp features, spoke only when it was needed. Always had her lips painted bright, bright red. I caught them, he was sorry. She wasn't."

The gears in my mind are turning. "What was her name?"

My mum tilts her head, thinking. "I don't remember." She lies. I know it's a lie because her thoughts tell me she does remember. 

Diana Vikander.

She stand up. "I better get started on dinner." She walks away.

I sprint up the stairs and open my laptop, searching the name.

It's her, the woman who followed me.

Diana Vikander. My one and only lead.

Hello!

Yet again, apologies for how long this took. After a lot of thinking, I finally know where i'm taking this story so yay!

I hope you have a good day!

Thank you so so much for reading.

- blue_budgie52