Page 18 of Twisted Elites

Sebastian told the lawyer about the report he had made to the police.

Mr. Pinkerton scribbled down some notes. “I’ll see what I can do. The police rejected the club as accommodation for Mr. Kashaayah, and it might be difficult to have him released into a boarding school of children as young as eleven.”

“What else can we do to help things along?” I asked.

“Character references might help.” The lawyer raised his brow. “Perhaps from a member of staff without sexual-related motives.”

“Can we visit him?”

“It’s doubtful since he hasn’t yet been convicted, but I can get in touch with the local youth offending team to see if they will allow a supervised visit.”

* * *

When we arrived at the hospital, the duty nurse told us that Ashley had discharged herself against medical advice. We walked back to the parking lot and sat in the jeep. There was no point in starting the engine without working out where she had gone.

Sebastian twisted in his seat. “Do you think she’s returned to your family cottage to check on her stash?”

I rested my elbow on the armrest in the middle of the back seat. “It’s doubtful that she’d stay there. Right now, she’d be in too much pain to take care of herself, and if she wasn’t properly discharged, she might not have the required medication.”

“A boyfriend, then?” asked Leopold.

With a long breath, I shook my head. “Her only regular guy lives in a squat. Not even Ashley would expose her open wounds to that level of squalor.”

“Where then?” asked Leopold.

“My Uncle Trevor.”

He wrinkled his nose. “But his wife—”

“Aunt Hortense always preferred Ashley.” I leaned forward, placing my hands on both backrests.

“Make sense, considering,” muttered Leopold.

Sebastian turned around and started up the engine. “Right then. Will your aunt be at home?”

I nodded. “She doesn’t work.”

The journey took less than ten minutes through Carlisle City Center. As I passed the cemetery, my chest tightened. Not because of what Mom and Dad would say about my estrangement from Ashley—I’d long gotten over that. But because Mom had wanted us to spread her ashes over the mountains of the Lake District.

I ran a hand through my hair. That had been when Mom thought she would die of breast cancer. Would she have changed her mind if she had known that those mountains would be the cause of her death?

Sebastian pulled into the courtyard outside the massive house in Upperby and parked the jeep at the double doors. I stared up at the grand building that had been divided into small apartments in the sixties, wondering why on earth Ashley had left the hospital early when Aunt Hortense had a newborn and was probably still recovering from a cesarean.

As we approached the building, a young couple stepped out of the door and held it open, saving us the need to call the entry phone. Uncle’s apartment was up a flight of stairs and to the left.

The sound of crying children carried through the hallway, making me wonder what the neighbors thought of Uncle Trevor and his family. I strode in front with Leopold and Sebastian taking up the rear.

Moments after knocking, a disheveled-looking Uncle Trevor opened the door. Dark circles ringed his eyes, which widened at the sight of me. “Willow.” His gaze traveled over my shoulder to Leopold and Sebastian. “What brings you here with these… friends?”

“I’m looking for Ashley.”

He stepped out into the hallway and closed the door. “Your sister is in a bad way. Do you know the hospital turfed her out for throwing a bowl of soup over a policewoman?”

I turned around and exchanged puzzled looks with the boys. Did this mean they had seen the footage I shot of Bruce and questioned her again about the identity of her attacker? Turning back to Uncle Trevor, I asked, “What actually happened?”

“She was so distraught yesterday, I couldn’t make sense of what she said.” He swayed on his feet and leaned his back against the door.

“Are you alright?” I whispered to Uncle Trevor. “If you need Ashley to leave—”