The Silent Deceivers

Chapter 30

Murder Explained

I sat there trying to process the information and trying to decide whether I was going to accept this and believe this when suddenly I looked up at Connor who looked just as guilty as Ade did.

"So where do you come into all of this?" I hissed at him. "Do you have a voice?"

"I found out about their relationship in mid-June but I didn't tell them I knew." He spoke.

"I confided in him when I realised that David was going to tell everyone about us. Really" Aden insisted.

"Aww how sweet." I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.  "How did you kill him?"

Aden responded, "We realised that two things, that day. We knew that David was going to get you back onside, become friends again after that fight so he could tell you everything and I didn't want that. I wanted you to like me and not think I was weak."

"You failed there."

"We also found out that David was going to tell the football team, the truth and we couldn't have that. Aden didn't want to be made fun off." Connor continued.

"So it was okay for David to be bullied, was it?" Roxy said her voice full of attitude.

"No of course it wasn't but we had to make sure he wasn't going to tell."

"You certainly did that!"

"How did you do it?" Roxy pressed.

"That night after we returned to the camp, Aden got a text from David saying that he was going to talk to you, and that it was time they stopped lying."

"But you knew I was out so he wouldn't have been able to tell me anything, yet you still murdered him?" I said.

"Aden didn't want you to find out. We had to act fast, Aden went to see if he could stop David but he didn't want to be recognised and he didn't have a hoodie so I lent him mine. He left and then we went to the shop to get more beers. After Aden had failed to stop David from speaking to Lisa and Andy, we had to get him somewhere where we could talk in private. We knew that David would never meet Aden so while you were in the shop I borrowed your phone and sent a text to David asking him to meet us, well you, in your bedroom."

"You did WHAT???" I shouted.

"We deleted it straight after so you couldn't be traced to it and then Aden went to meet him." Connor finished.

I turned to Aden, and lifted my eyebrows, as if to say come on then, give it your best shot at explaining it.

He sighed before launching into the climax of the tale, "I was pretty certain that I wasn't going to be able to just walk through the back door and up the stairs at that time of night without any hassle from Lisa or Andy so I decided that I had better climb through the window, I picked up a rock in case I needed to smash the window but I didn't as you had left it open and David managed to sneak into your room without being noticed. As you can imagine he was surprised to see me there instead of you. We started off with a nice conversation but then it quickly turned into an argument. He wasn't listening to me, he was being selfish and I rapidly lost my temper. I began to shout as loudly as I could without waking anybody up but he still wouldn't listen. He was adamant that he was going to tell, he turned around to leave but I couldn't let him. I was so angry, nobody could find out. So I took the rock out of my pocket and hit him over the head with it. He was dead I knew it, he wasn't moving and I didn't know what to do, I panicked. I had to get rid out the evidence. I was in shock." He paused, desperation in his voice.

I wasn't buying the emotion, the sobs or the dramatic pauses but I could tell by the soft look in her eyes that Roxy was. After all he was her step-brother and they were related. As far as I was concerned to murder someone you needed a heart of stone no matter what the circumstances. If you murdered someone you should be punished and his punishment was coming for them.

"I was desperate, I knew I could go to jail for what I'd done." Aden continued.

"You will!"

"I decided to make it look like a suicide. I knew he had been acting strangely, I knew people thought he was drifting away from them and I made sense at the time, so I pushed him out of the open window, then climbed down and disposed of the rock."

"My window doesn't lead to the courtyard though? How did you get him there?" I puzzled.

"I dragged his body around to the courtyard, then opened up the outside fire exit and staircase, to make it seem like that was the way he had got up there. Then I went and disappeared into the bushes and waited for someone to find him."

"Okay so you murdered him, what else did you do?" Roxy inquired, looking at Connor.

"When we were walking up the drive, I saw Aden hiding in the bushes, which is when I dropped the bottles. Then as you two went to see what was going on, Aden told me what he had done so I told him to go and wait at my house. We went home and he explained it further, he was in such a state and I knew he would go to jail for it, so I agreed to..."

"Help him cover it up and make it look like David had committed suicide." I finished for him.

"Yes," He confessed. "It was my idea to do the suicide note and as you know I wrote it. I switched it as well, I broke into the office and switched the notes. I hid it in the weapon shed and then I tried to forget about it. We tried to act normal in an attempt to cover it up."

"Why?" I turned to Aden, "Why would you cover this up for him? He's a murderer! HE KILLED SOMEONE!"

"I love him." He choked. "I've always loved him."

That stopped me dead in my tracks. I heard Roxy gasp beside me. I stood as still as a sculpture. I couldn't speak, I had thousands of words sprinting around in my head but my voice disobeyed me. I sunk down onto the log, unable to function, I was back in the tea cup. I heard Roxy screaming at them both but she sounded distant like she was millions of miles away. His words echoed in my head. My mind continued to spin but then it faltered and 'You swore you loved me!" tumbled out of my mouth without even a second of thought. I sound weak and pathetic but I repeated them, this time louder with more strength. My temper had flared.

 He looked at me, I looked at him. His eyes clouded with fear, mine blazing fire. I stood up, hands clenched to fists. I repeated the words again, waiting for a response but all he produced was a measly, pathetic, cowardly "I'm sorry."

"I made him do it." Aden's voice came from beside me. "I made him, make himself available to you because I wanted to hurt Aden and find out information and when you caught on to the whole idea, I needed him to give me all of the information that you two were finding out. It's a horrible thing to do, I know and I'm sorry but you have to believe me, I never meant to kill him."

I looked Roxy, shaking with rage. I felt her hand slip into mind as a comfort but I dropped it.  Neither one of us believed the confession we had been told, it was the perfect concealment of a murder; it was the perfect rationalization to something so devious, so cruel, and so unbelievable.

"You expect me to believe that?" Roxy spat.

"I would be a fool to believe that! You might've loved him once but what you did was a crime. It was cold blooded murder."