Ashley's Asylum (3)

27 | Ashleys Asylum

"Ashley! For goodness sake where on earth do you go child?!" Kate bellowed into Ashley's bedroom.

She left, rummaging around the rest of the house for her adopted daughter.

Ashley glanced down at her bedroom window but made no move to make her position on the roof known to her aunt.
Her gaze returned to the street where she liked to watch people going about their little lives,  she observed how today's sunshine lifted the spirits of the neighbourhood.

She was perched a couple of feet away from her window ledge with her legs stretched out in front of her. Ashley glanced down and poked her leftover chicken chowmein lunch around in its bowl.

She came out here because it elevated her above all the hustle and bustle of life and allowed her to think outside of the box, it even let her consider things that would make her feel guilty if she thought them anywhere else. Up here she aired all the what ifs and buts that cluttered her mind.

With her head in the clouds her imagination ran amock. She considered all the things that had led her to this point in life to assess where she could have done better. Her guilty pleasure was to picture an alternate reality in which she and Michael were never separated, where they grew up together and counteracted the weird in one another. She imagined simple things from family meals to passing conversations and felt a sad satisfaction from it. Alternatively, she envisioned Sam with his sisters in the log cabin watching the Grinch who stole Christmas in blissful solace. She saw Charlie without the smouldering passion in his eyes and Melissa flitting about in her favourite little cowboy shorts winding up all the boys.

When life was as messed up as her own it was nice to invent a world of simple pleasures and mediocracy; no murders, no heartache and no darkness. It only worked for so long before the dread set in again.

After spending time with Charlie at the shooting range Ashley decided it was time to listen to Adrian and Kate. Ashley wanted to know about the investigation for obvious reasons, she blamed herself for the deaths knowing they were for her benefit and she wanted to help end it all but at what cost? The closer she drew to Charlie, the closer Ashley came to burning herself like a moth singeing its wings upon an open flame. His passion and involvement with the case for whatever reason were unhealthy and, upon taking a step back, Ashley realised he had an ulterior motive. His underhand mannerisms reminded her of David and that alone repelled her from the young officer. He had even openly admitted to being off of her case yet he still hung around and showed up with pieces of an ongoing investigation to show her. It pained her to do so but she distanced herself from him.

There had been a temptation to research Charlie to find out what made the case personal to him but Ashley didn't dare. She didn't want to make any searches related to Michael or Sam for fear of sending off a red flag to the authorities. She didn't doubt her devices had been tampered with by the police and if they seized her electronics the data would be there waiting to be explained away.

After another 10 minutes, Ashley climbed down feeling bad for avoiding Kate. She made her way through the house and stopped at the stairs to see her aunt sitting on the sofa watching the news.

She continued down and paused in the doorway.

"Hey, what did you want me for?"

Her aunt shushed her and pointed at the television. Ashley's eyes locked onto the screen to see a stern-faced woman reading the latest headlines.

"-Police made no comment at the time however it has been reported since that Johanna had suffered multiple blows to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. We go to one of our own now, Mark what can you tell us?"