Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 128

By the time Vivian had calmed down, all four Devreaux men were squished onto the couch. Samuel, whose knees had complained after kneeling for a while, had moved to sit on the couch, bringing his daughter with him as though she were still a child, settling her in his lap so he could keep her in his arms. To his surprise, Laurent joined them within seconds, leaning his head on Samuel’s shoulder as he draped an arm over his sister.

Next came Sebastian, who sat on the opposite side of their father, and rested a hand atop the girl’s head.

Gabriel forced his way onto what little remained of the couch and said, “Bass, you’ll have to help me out here,” while holding up the arm covered in a brace. In response, the oldest of the brother reached over, and grabbed Gabriel around the shoulder, pulling him in. Protests were voiced by the latter, but no one was listening.

It was the first time in… no, it was the first time they’d ever done anything like this. Samuel hadn’t been in a state to give his sons the love and attention they’d needed — they’d deserved — when they’d been children, so a family bonding moment like this had never happened. At least, not between all of them, not since Annie had disappeared. More tears threatened to fall as Samuel lowered his head, the feel of Vivian’s hair against his cheek bringing him comfort.

She was so much like her mother.

“I think she fell asleep,” Sebastian noted after a few minutes of silence had gone by.

Samuel checked and his daughter had, indeed, fallen asleep in his arms. She’d had an emotionally taxing day, to say the least, so this didn’t come as a surprise. “Best to let her sleep, then,” he nodded, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

“So what now?” Gabriel asked, keeping his voice low, so not to wake his sister.

“Well…” Samuel trailed off, not wanting to think about it, but knowing it had to be done. “She knows who killed your mom, at least to some extent. Hopefully she’ll tell us about it, so I can find the bastard.”

“What about everything else?” Gabriel asked, causing Laurent to lift his head from their father’s shoulder.

“Everything else?”

“Guess no-one told you,” Sebastian sighed, removing his hand from Vivian’s head so he could more easily push Gabriel up into a sitting position. It didn’t take long to tell the story of their visit to the Demoine home, and what they’d learned from it.

“Well, that makes more sense than your dumb story about someone breaking into the warehouse,” Laurent retorted.

“Hey, you didn’t question it, did you?” Gabriel shot back, only to get shushed by both Sebastian and Samuel.

“Just because I didn’t say anything doesn’t mean I bought it,” the youngest brother snapped in response.

“Don’t start,” Samuel warned, tone threatening, as Vivian slept on without reacting to the conversation. The last thing he wanted was for them to wake her with their bickering.

“Yeah, yeah,” Laurent muttered. “So what’s with the second phone? Did you learn anything more about it?”

“Haven’t had a chance to ask her about it,” Samuel sighed this time. “Things keep happening and I… I’m not sure how to approach it without sounding accusatory. As for what we’ve learned… Three calls came in; one Saturday afternoon, one that night, and another Monday night. One call went out, Monday mid-morning, but never connected. All were to, or from, the one contact saved — which was for another burner phone that’s not longer in service.”

“Wait, you mean last Saturday? One week ago?”

Samuel turned his head to frown at Laurent. “Yes, that’s right.”

“I need a second,” Laurent said, as he extricated himself from the couch. He left them to do… something — who knew what had come to the boy’s mind.

“Any idea what that was about?” It was Gabriel who asked after a few seconds had gone by.

“No, I don’t,” Samuel replied. “I’m sure he’ll tell us if it comes to anything.”

A few minutes later, Laurent reappeared, followed by a perplexed looking Theo, and an always serious Gilbert bringing up the rear.

“Tell them what you told me,” the youngest brother said to Theo, who glanced towards the men on the couch before looking back at Laurent.

“Uh… well… When we were at the amusement park last Saturday, Vivian suddenly wanted to go home, and she’s been basically ghosting Miriam and I ever since.”

“And what time did that happen?”

Theo shrugged. “Mid-afternoon, probably just after three.”

Laurent met his father’s gaze and kept it. “When did you say the first call came in?”

“Three-oh-three,” Gabriel replied for their father. “Saturday afternoon.”

*Wait… that’s also the day before she went through my office*, Samuel realized with a start. His eyes fell to the girl sleeping in his arms, mind racing. How had she gotten the phone? There hadn’t been any opportunities for her to slip away to buy it herself, not without someone noticing. Did that mean it was given to her by someone? Or had she accidentally found it? No, that didn’t make sense. If she’d accidentally found it, she’d have never let whoever called affect her like this.

“Uh… can someone tell me what’s going on?” Theo finally asked after a minute.

“Do you know why Vivian started ghosting you?” Samuel was the one to speak this time, eyes locked on the boy Vivian had enough trust in to break the silence about of her past.

“Well… about that…” Theo looked nervous now. “I’m pretty sure I know why but, at the same time, I’m not sure. I’m also not the one you should be asking.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Samuel replied with a frown. “Why wouldn’t you be able to tell us? Did Vivian tell you not to say anything?”

“Not exactly,” he hedged again, looking more uncomfortable by the second.

*Good. He should feel uncomfortable if he isn’t willing to answer my questions*, went through Samuel’s mind as he narrowed his eyes at the boy. “Explain.”

“Mr Devreaux, no offence, but I think it would be better coming from Vivian, not me, since I don’t have any of the details. It’s more of a guess than anything else, and I don’t want to say something only for it to be wrong.”

Unable to refute the logic, Samuel gave him a slow nod of understanding. Now the hard part; getting Vivian to open up enough to tell them what was going on.

Sebastian was watching the boy, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Do you think you’d be able to do whatever you did today, to get more information? On that point, how *did* you get her to open up?”

The boy shrugged his shoulders. “I just told her some stuff from my childhood, and it snowballed from there. Is she… alright?”

“She cried herself to sleep,” Gabriel assured the boy. “Not surprising after the day she’s had.”

“Ah… okay. So, uhm, what’s this about a phone? And it might have something to do with her ghosting us?”

The Devreauxs all exchanged looks before Samuel took the lead. “She had a second phone we didn’t know about, with the first call coming in the day you were at the amusement park. The timing of it matches the time she suddenly wanted to go home. To that point, she did say something to Tyrell that made him suspicious that there might be something on her phone. We all thought it would be on the phone we knew about, but now it’s looking like it was about the second, secret phone.”

“So where did she get the other phone from?”

“No idea. It was too old to trace through purchase records, even if we knew where it’d been purchased,” Samuel explained, feeling annoyed at how little they’d been able to undercover.

Theo crossed his arms, frowning. “So we don’t know how she got it?”

“The only thing that makes sense is someone gave, or left it for her find at the amusement park. Tyrell has gone over everything that day, and we’ve even looked over the surveillance footage, but there’s nothing to see,” Sebastian explained, sounding frustrated.

“How did you… you know what, it doesn’t matter,” Theo waved a hand as if to brush away the question he’d almost asked. “You have access to the surveillance footage? Can I see it? More eyes can’t hurt, right? Actually, Miriam might be good to bring in on this, too. She’s pretty good at picking up on stuff you’d normally miss.”

“Why would we bring someone else in to this?” Laurent grumbled. “It’s bad enough you now know about it.”

“Because it has to do with her, too. She got ghosted, just like me, remember? She just… doesn’t know the little bit I think I’ve managed to put together.”

Samuel stared at the boys, one his son, and the other his daughter’s friend, and realized he might have been going about this wrong. “Can you contact Miss Wilson, and see if she’s available to come for a few hours tonight? I understand it’s a holiday weekend…”

“On it,” Theo nodded, not caring about whatever Samuel had been in the process of saying. Instead, he pulled out his phone and placed the call. The sound of the ringing told everyone it was on speaker, causing the Devreauxs to glance at Vivian, who hadn’t so much as twitched. Exhaustion was keeping her in a deep sleep, much to their relief.

“Hey, Theo, what’s up?” Miriam’s voice came through once the call connected. “You did pretty awesome in your events today!”

“You think so?” He laughed a little. “I guess I did okay.”

“Did you hear anything about how Vivian’s doing? Mom and I were there, and she’s been bugging me all day to check in with her, but I can’t exactly tell her… y’know…”

“Yeah, about that,” Theo trailed off, glancing over at Samuel who nodded. “I’m actually at the Devreaux’s house right now, and was wondering if you’d like to come over.”

There was a brief pause before the girl on the phone spoke again. “Uh… I have *so* many questions, but the short answer is *yes*. I’ll let Mom know, since she’ll need to drive me there. Oh, can I get the address?”

“Tell her we’ll send someone to pick her up,” Samuel offered.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yeah… uhm… Hello, Mr Devreaux,” she called through the phone, an awkward laugh following the greeting. “That’d be great, thanks.”

Samuel looked over at Gilbert, who nodded and walked away. “A man by the name of Gilbert Morris will be there in twenty-five minutes.”

“Oh, the guy who was driving Vivian around, until he hurt his leg? Cool. Is he good to drive, though? I don’t want him to push himself.”

“He’s fine to drive,” Samuel assured her with a chuckle.

“Okay, cool. I’ll be ready. See you soon!”