Submersion Read Online Free Page A

aunt, Esther and Billy, her sister and nephew, and Ronan. Ronan wasn’t a blood relative, but the last partner her mother had before she died. Like many of the men in Agnes’ loosely connected family, he was a father figure but a father to no one in particular, all the same.
    All five were present that evening.
    Once moored, I unlocked the front door with my key and waded through the waters of our ground floor. Ascending the stairs, I was met by Ronan at the top. His solemn expression gave the silence inside an extra chill.
    ‘It’s Elinor,’ he told me, but somehow I knew already.
    ‘And Agnes?’ I asked, accelerating my steps to a gallop up the stairs, my velocity hampered by bulky protective outdoor gear.
    ‘In here,’ she called out to me and I turned left at the top, into the front room that served as our kitchen and living room. There was a square table in the centre of the room, at which Agnes was seated. Her sister, Esther, was next to her, holding her hands. Esther had a purposeful look about her face, I’m performing a duty, it said, whilst Agnes’ expression was cold and calm. Whatever had happened had left her in shock.
    I entered the room, but kept my distance. Agnes and I were not open about our relationship. At 31 Cedar Street, I had my own room and paid rent. The family may have thought otherwise but for all intents and purposes, I was a bona fide lodger. It kept things simpler.
    My eyes searched the room: her Uncle Jimmy was at the stove, cooking something up and her Aunt Penny was by the sink, washing up, looking out through the front window onto the street. The nephew, Billy, was not in the room, but I heard footsteps from the room directly above us: Elinor’s room. He’d be playing up there.
    That evening, I didn’t give Billy much thought, but he was a good boy. Naïve, and a little too easily bossed around by his older cousin, but – being only-children - they had developed the bond of siblings. He must have been missing her, rattling around in the echo of her empty room, wondering, like the rest of us, what the hell had happened to her. Unlike the adults, however, he wouldn’t have suffered the knowledge of the past and the crimes enacted against children of his age. He wouldn’t have been able to indulge his imagination that vividly. But we all were.
    ‘Will someone tell me?’ I asked, feeling sudden sickness in my gut. Something bad had happened to Elinor; something bad had happened after I left her to board the speedboat. You should have stayed with her, I told myself, as a hand touched my right elbow. It was Ronan’s.
    ‘Come on, let’s leave these four,’ he told me, signaling that we should exit the room. ‘Up to yours?’ he suggested and I complied with a nod.
    I occupied one of three rooms on the top floor. The others were Elinor and Agnes’, although most nights Agnes sneaked into my room, into my bed, or vice versa. But that wouldn’t happen on this night; Agnes wouldn’t want to be with me in that way. I knew that even before Ronan confirmed what had happened.
    Ronan gestured for me to sit down on my bed and he took the chair that accompanied the desk in the corner of the room. Dragged it to closer to my bed, leant in to make our exchange intimate.
    ‘Elinor has been missing all day. Didn’t make it to school. Hasn’t made it home, either.’ Ronan paused, letting the facts simply sink in. ‘I know you took her to the drop off point. The police have been by. They may want to talk to you. Been trying to get hold of you all day. Were you with Jessie?’
    I nodded; I hoped the police wouldn’t want to know exactly where I was when they eventually caught up with me. I wouldn’t be able to tell them.
    ‘We suspected that’s where you might be – they called round and we’ve been trying him on his telephone all day. Couldn’t get through.’
    ‘The line has water damage,’ I commented, feeling I needed to contribute something to the drama. Then, the obvious