Trigger

eighteen • injuries

I wish I could say I rush back to the cottage upon hearing Hannah's words, but that isn't quite the case. My heart is thumping against my chest and my hands are shaking with anticipation to hear what Hannah might have found out, but I still find myself having to trudge back slower than I would have liked while I avoid tripping over sticks, rocks and giants roots of trees (I've had a few close calls). Plus, while sprinting in the forest after my confrontation with Finn, I hadn't exactly paid very good attention which way I was going.

Thankfully, though, I finally spot the clearing where the cottages are and finally begin to sprint over. The sun is already beginning to set- thankfully I got out of there before it got too dark-and Hannah is already at the swings in my line of view, talking to someone. My eyes narrow looking at the figure who is obviously a teenage boy- Finn?

No, the guy is too lank and a bit too short to be Finn. My eyebrows furrow as I approach closer, my heart skipping a beat when I see... Richard?

The boy from the orphanage who had told us about Levi's behaviour- Richard. My eyebrows go from furrowed to shooting up, wondering what the hell he's doing here. Hannah and him both snap their heads towards me as I approach, Hannah giving me a sheepish grin while Richard just stares with the same cold and emotionless expression as he had the day we had met him on the stairs of the orphanage.

"What is Richard doing here?" I waste no time asking Hannah once I approach.

"I know about Finn being a lunatic," he says smoothly.

My eyes widen, flickering from Richard and back to Hannah, who is wearing a sheepish expression. "Hannah!"

"I'm sorry!"

"I kind of forced it out of her," Richard admits with a careless shrug. "It doesn't matter; I knew something was going on as soon as you two came stumbling out of those goddamn doors, telling Mrs. Harte some pathetic excuses while trying to be subtle."

"Wow." I blink. "You don't hold back, do you?"

"No, it just takes up unnecessary time."

I sigh heavily, rubbing my temple. "Okay. Um, Hannah, what did you have to tell me?"

Hannah's eyes flicker to Richard before slowly make their way back to look at me. "Okay. So Richard said that back during the investigation, the police were confused slightly about something. They came around a couple of times to the orphanage to talk to Levi but eventually stopped coming around because Levi couldn't give them the information for whatever reason."

My eyebrows furrow, "What couldn't they figure out?"

"I don't know for sure," Richard says slowly, pursing his pale lips- lips much more pale than Levi's were, almost in an unnatural way. "But essentially the conversation that I was able to latch onto revolved a lot about the injuries in the action. I think they weren't exactly sure how Levi acquired the injuries that he did. I'm guessing that the way the tree fell on the car and how they collided into it- which I heard went straight through the middle- didn't match up with the head injury he got."

"So what type of injury should he have gotten?"

Richard shrugs. "I don't know, I didn't see the reports. Do you have any photos of the crash?"

"I found one in an article," I quickly say, thinking back to the articles I had searched through earlier. I hurry to take out my phone, scrolling through my history as I search for the article. Once I find it, I show him the picture. Richard takes my phone in his hands, zooming in on the picture, his eyebrows furrowing.