Chapter Thirty-One: Outcast
The street were all talking about the recent developments. Stephen wasn't charged or anything with Leo's murder right now but nearly everybody thought he's done it. The odd few were trying to deny it to themselves (mainly Elaine, Gail and Sarah) but most thought he did it and didn't mind expressing that. Martin and Bethany were caught up to speed by this point as David went through everything again. Sarah interjecting sometimes. They had an idea that Gabrielle went to Audrey's and thus they knew what so-called Platt fraction she was taking. Nick was still in slightly despair as he tried call a truce but he knew they were past that now sadly. The Platt children were upstairs by this point as Sam, Lily and Harry were sent away so the adults (and Max) could discuss things they shouldn't hear.
"So basically, we all stay away from Stephen now on. We don't go near him on our own and any noises. We run away if we can and if not, call the cops" David declared like this was some stake-out mission.
"Great" Bethany muttered under her breath with sarcasm.
"This isn't a joke, Bethany. This is serious...You might be too young to remember Richard but I wasn't. You know I had trouble sleeping after that for years and years? So don't you sit there and laugh!" David snapped.
"I wasn't! I'm sorry...I just don't think Stephen's like Richard. He can't be" Bethany responded in shock.
"Well you better start thinking it, Bethany. Leo's dead...Everybody knows Stephen hated him. The moment his body turns up, Stephen runs away before trying to kill himself. He so much as admitted to dad that he did it. This isn't a game, this isn't a point of guessing. You think because he hasn't raised a hand to you that he's not a killer? Richard never raised a hand in our presence but that was because he was a sly-" David paused as he put his head in his hands, clearly troubled by reliving the Richard drama; Martin tried to console him but he got a "Don't touch me!" back in return.
Making Martin remove his hand from his shoulder. The Platts remained silent as they let David calm himself down. Bethany now having to take it serious, she was too young to remember Richard so she can't say she understands that but she's suffered trauma so she knew when to drop something. Sarah gave Bethany a quick hug as she could see how guilty she looked for trying to make light of this for even a second. This was serious and she would know if she lived with it.
"It's a lot to take in, David. Bethany hasn't seen him for years. She still has this image of him from her childhood. So please don't take it out on her" Sarah piped up.
"I know okay but I'm telling her. This is life or death...That may sound dramatic but it's true. Now he's with gran telling her whatever he tells her, I don't know what he's telling her. We need to get her away from him, it's past money disgareements now. I don't care about that right now" David replied as he looked back up.
"Gabrielle's with her. She texted" Gail spoke up with her arms crossed.
"Demand a proper call next time, alright. We can't rely on texts, it could be him. You know what people like him are like" David instructed.
Gail just breathed in, she couldn't deal with him talking about her brother like that. Even if she did have a horrible feeling that Stephen did kill Leo. She went into the backgarden to take a long pause. David was about to get up and follow her but Martin ordered him to sit back down.
"Stephen's hardly going to kidnap her in broad daylight. I think I scared him into not doing anything for a while" Martin insisted.
"Why are we taking risks though? I'm not saying nobody can go outside, I'm just saying we need to stick together. At least two of us...She hasn't even brought her phone out-"
"David. Calm down...This isn't going to be like that, okay? I know this has probably triggered what Richard did to you again but this isn't the same. We don't know any motive or method. You said so yourself, Leo was probably an accident" Martin spoke softly.
"Yeah dad. We can hear everything too, Gail is only out there taking the air in" Max piped up.
The door suddenly knocked. Martin gave his son a small look before going to answer it as he unlocked it. There was a small silence until the unmistakable sound of Kevin Webster greeting his old friend was heard. Sarah giving a small sad laugh, she hated being on edge again.
"Nice to see ya again, Kev. Everybody's a bit on edge in here so excuse the silence" Martin informed him as he invited him, locking up instantly.
"Hi Kevin" Shona said as she finally got a word in edgeways.
"Hi. Hi Platts...I feel like I come in at the wrong time" Kevin began with a nervous smile.
"Don't mind us. We are just having a bonding session...Which I'm going to carry on by myself upstairs" David responded with a scoff as he excused himself.
"He's thinking about Richard. The Stephen stuff has brought it all back, you remember what it was like for him. He's traumatised all over again. Stephen's with Audrey now we think. We just hope he doesn't come back to the street, he's not welcome here" Martin briefed Kevin.
"I know yeah. Sorry you guys have to deal with this but you don't think Stephen's that bad, do ya?" Kevin asked.
"I do. I spoke to him yesterday and he was snappy with me. He admitted he hit Elaine and so much as admitted he killed Leo. Even Jenny thinks he did and that's somebody who use to like him" Martin answered.
...
"You better apologise to her when she comes back in. She's a lot more frail and needs comfort. Why don't you go back to pretending for us? Pretend you're nice like how you use to" Gabrielle paused before adding..."You even pretended to be nice to me once"
"What should I do?"
"Be nice to your mother and in return...I'll give you an alibi for Leo. I was there that day" Gabrielle reminded him.
"Thank you"
"Don't mention it"
Audrey walked in moments later with a plastic bag of his clothes. Barely looking him in the eye after last time as she dropped it on his bed. She sat back down on the seat by his bed and looked awfully upset still. Stephen knew what he had to do but it was no longer possible for her to fall for his nice act. Though he knew he had to try as Gabrielle has given him a second chance almost.
"Mom. I'm sorry for grabbing you yesterday but I was scared. I already had the cops on my back. That's no excuse though for hurting you and I know that. Please talk to me" Stephen began as he reached for her hand.
"I only wanted to ask Gabrielle questions" Audrey replied with a sniffle.
"I know and I'm sorry. But trust me, I have all the answers. I know you been asking about my temper as a child. I was a spoilt brat, that's all. I was able to control my anger after a while. I don't know why it's come back...Well I do know why, bad times make me a bad person" Stephen explained as he finally showed her some of his real feelings.
"What about that lad you pushed into the river?"
"Warren. His name was Warren...He said some awful things about my mom. My other mom. She was dying and he knew that because I had some time away from school for a last vacation with her. He was a nasty teenager who got jealous of the vacation, not thinking about the dying aspect. He said he hoped my mom died quickly so I would stop getting what he called special treatment. So I pushed him in, I didn't know he couldn't swim. Most boys could so I just presumed...I had nightmares for a while after it"
"Why didn't you tell me this twenty or even thirty years ago?"
"Because it was a bad memory and I don't deal well with bad memories. I didn't want to tell you and scare you away. I already lost one mom, I didn't want to risk losing another"
"I just don't want any more trouble"
"There won't be any. Listen, Gabrielle is giving me an alibi for Leo because she knows it's stupid to get me arrested for a police mistake. So everything will be alright, okay?"
"Okay"
"I was with him that day, Audrey. He wouldn't have had time to do it, nor would he have the stomach" Gabrielle chimed in, still keeping the fact she knows from her old mother-in-law.
Audrey did believe her despite everything, maybe she just wanted to cling onto something.
...
Gabrielle's alibi briefly haulted the investigation. The matter of why Stephen didn't give it to them straight away already made it dubious to them. Nonetheless, it had to be taken for now. The police were searching for Teddy as they asked questions, Billy Mayhew was brought in for questioning again. He had to repeat the whole saga of seeing him in the cafe, hearing how he never got in touch with Leo and how a text from his phone was sent from the Weatherfield area. The last part is what really sparked the police's interest.
"Do you know anyone who would want to hurt Leo or Teddy?" the officer asked the archdeacon.
"No. I didn't know them very well honestly...I never even spoke to Teddy before that day. He never spoke about anybody going after him but why would he? I was a stranger. Stephen was talking to him so he probably knows more"
"Stephen Reid. That name keeps popping up"
"Well he was always there. I did have strange chat actually with Stephen a couple days after. He asked about Hell and that he did something that everybody will know about soon. I just thought he meant having an affair or something but looking back, maybe it was something worse" Billy suggested.
This was written down and he was soon left to his own devices again. Billy gave them more than he could ever know. The walls were closing on in as things kept coming back to people. The roofbox was another mystery which had some more witnesses about it going missing. Stephen claimed he ran into a wall and it fell down but maybe that wasn't entirely true. David had calmed down by this point as he explained his theory on the missing roofbox. Sarah and Gail were slightly besides themselves but it was compelling. The walls were closing in as more people gave the police their thoughts on the matter. The death of Stephen's father Geoff Masters was now looking like another of his victims. Elaine was still finding it difficult to take in but Stephen killing his father sadly made too much sense now. Back at 'Grasmere Drive', the trio were unaware of most of this.
"I'll make us a ravioli if you two want. The police in this country don't half make you feel guilty" Gabrielle began after returning to the house after giving her alibi statement.
Audrey and Stephen were quietly thinking still however. They heard her mutter something about making it anyway. She went into the kitchen and into the pantry, trying to distract herself clearly. Stephen excused himself from the living room as he was keen to know what she said to them exactly.
"What did you say?" Stephen asked her from the pantry entrance.
"That you were with me that day. Discussing our divorce...That's all, okay? Now I don't want to talk about it any further"
"Why did you do this?"
"Because I like Audrey and I feel sorry for her. If you ever get arrested, she will be devastated. Even more so than she is now but I mean it, Stephen. If you do one more nasty trick. I will retract my alibi and say you scared me into it"
"Okay. If that's how you feel but I can drag you down with me"
"I will just say you were abusive and scared me into that as well. You stole money from me and fled. I can use the woman card"
"Do you hate me that much?"
"No I don't. But you betrayed me a long time ago by taking my money. I put up with a lot of stuff. All those women you put your charms on"
"I didn't sleep with any of those women"
"No but that was only because they were old. I heard you attempted it one last time with this Elaine but it's getting more difficult to charm them when you're barely much younger. I could have told Audrey a lot more stuff but I didn't because I'm still fond of you"
"I know and I'm grateful. I'm sorry for what it's worth, losing you was worst than losing the business"
"Sounds sweet but it's not true. Otherwise you wouldn't have treated me the way you did"
"I was just scared you would tell everybody I was skint. I didn't want everybody to know that. I needed them to think I was loaded so I could get my shoes under the local factory. A mess that was"
"Whatever, Stephen. You have a lot more problems now and I don't know how you're getting out of them. I'll try and help you best I can for Audrey's sake"
...
TBC
