Aidan was many things but clever was not one.

Tammy escaped the rope that bound one of her arms with ease, and considering her other arm wasn’t tied, all it took was a little pulling and she was free.

The first thing she tried was the door, which surprise, surprise, he had locked from the outside.

Perhaps he wasn’t as stupid as Tammy thought.

A moment later, however, Tammy found herself giving into the voices in the back of her head.

She was locked in his bedroom. Why shouldn’t she snoop?

The wardrobe led to nothing except a pile of dirty clothes, not even hung up.

She shuddered as she turned around, focusing her attention on something else; his bedside drawer.

Tammy kept all sorts of rubbish in hers back at home. She only wondered what he kept in his.

Wonder no more, she thought to herself as she pulled the drawer open by the wooden handle.

~

Tammy watched as Aidan gathered cleaning products from his kitchen.

She had been downstairs for an hour, but her mind remained upstairs.

When she opened that drawer, she opened a whole load of secrets.

“You’re going to help me today,” he stated, going from cupboard to cupboard. “The family who are renting the bungalow are coming early.”

She stared at him, not saying a word.

Aidan stopped, slamming the bottle of bleach down on the table. “You listening?”

“No,” Tammy replied, shaking her head.

“What do you mean, no?” Aidan spat, his fists already tight with anger.

“I mean, no. I’m not helping you with anything.”

Aidan appeared by her side in an instant, getting in her face and giving her no space to breathe. “It wasn’t a question,” he growled.

“I said, no,” she retorted before pushing him back.

At that moment in time, Tammy didn’t care about the consequences. All she could care about was that drawer.

She didn’t know what to expect when she opened it, but definitely not what she found.

“Are you trying to make me angry?” Aidan asked, deliberately breathing down her neck. “I would have thought you wouldn’t be so stupid.”

Tammy gripped the knife behind her back. She had found it in Aidan’s room, along with the clippings of paper which told about her parents death.

The fatal crash that wrecked not only their car, but their daughter’s life.

Tammy squeezed the knife further, the blade cutting her skin. “You told me about my parents,” she stated, her voice loud and sudden, making Aidan take a step back. “I know it was you.”

The hold on the knife became tighter, and she considered stabbing him in the neck there and then.

“You cut the breaks,” Tammy explained, surprisingly calm. “Didn’t you?”

Aidan smiled, “Don’t you think I’d be locked up by now?” before shaking his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She nodded, somewhat agreeing with him. “Yeah,” she said. “You should have been.”

Tammy held the knife carefully, making sure to not show Aidan whilst she fought with something in her other hand.

The newspaper clipping was crumpled and scrunched up in a ball, old and fragile, but she still threw it at him, not caring if it tore more.

“You should have been locked up,” she repeated, remembering the words on the paper. “But, then again, your brother’s a police officer.”

She stared at the clipping which Aidan was now reading.

He lifted his head, finally taking proper notice of Tammy. “Where did you get this?” he snapped.

“PC Kyle James assisted the onlooker, Aidan…” she paused, clocking her head. “What was your last name, Aidan? I’m sure you said James.”

Aidan threw the paper down, not caring about how damaged it became before throwing himself at Tammy, dragging her to the floor like a doll.

She didn’t care. Because, if her speculations were correct, Tammy figured he’d react this way.

Plus, she still had hold of the knife.