The Silent Deceivers

Chapter 29

Events leading to Murder

By the time we had finished replicating our evidence and sorting out the plan of action to worm a confession out them, it was gone midnight and Roxy was struggling to stay awake so we called it a night and retired to bed. I didn't sleep that night which was nothing new but it was different this time.  I couldn't lay still and stare aimlessly at the ceiling like normal, I was wide awake and excited. Although one thing, remained the same, my mind was constantly in motion. I mapped out every move twice, rehearsed what I was going to say for hours like it was an acceptance speech for an award and thought out every escape route from the meeting clearing just in case multiple times. By the time daylight was filtering through my window my excitement had turned to fear and I was close to burning a hole in the carpet from where I had been pacing back and forth for the previous two hours.

 Before anyone else in Oakley had even opened an eyelid I was running through the Autumnal trees in the woods, the leaves crunching underneath the pressure of my shoes. It was soothing but I was rusty, even a few days off had corrupted my stamina, I had started anaerobic respiration by the time I was at the first main path to turn off onto a few miles down the beaten track which was an all-time low. I stood there, hands on my head, breathing deeply, letting my lungs regain oxygen, taking in the scenery. Although it wasn't physically pretty, to me it was beautiful. It was relaxing. A few seconds later I regained by motivation, and carried on. I ran my normal route, round the woods, through the lakes and round the house. By the time I had stretched and walked back through the back door I felt like my lungs were about to implode.

"You should really do a cool down, not just stretching." Lisa told me appearing from the utility room as I walked back through the kitchen. "It'll help."

"Urrmmm okay." I replied, hesitating.

"You found the trail by the clearing didn't you, and the lakes round back?"

Okay. This is weird.

Seeing the confusion she elaborated, "I used to run there when I was stressed and couldn't sleep, it was therapeutic."

I sat down at the breakfast bar, as she came over and leaned on the table.

"I used to be just like you believe it or not, I grew up in care and I went through exactly what you've gone through and I handled it in the same way." She paused. "The wrong way."

Knew it! You have to spoil everything don't you! Every single time.

I switched off, I wasn't listening. I prayed that she would shut the hell up but no, her mouth kept moving and she was nowhere near finished.

"You need to stop letting it define you, and move on. You're stuck in the past and you need to let go. We are all here to support you and I know you are trying your best and I thought we were getting somewhere after that session with Sue, I thought we were working through this and that you were getting better."

"Well you thought wrong!" I hurled at her while she paused to breathe and with that I stormed out of the kitchen to have a shower.