The Moors: Some secrets are better left buried by Jody Medland

asked.
    Margaret, in the midst of peeling potatoes, hesitated – only for the slightest moment, but enough to let Amanda know the question made her feel uneasy.
    ‘I’m sorry dear?’ she said, clearly buying herself a little more thinking time.
    ‘David. The boy from room four. You showed me his bedroom but I haven’t met him yet,’ she queried.
    ‘Oh yes. Of course! Young David,’ said Margaret, trying to disguise her discomfort. ‘He’s being disciplined,’ she eventually revealed.
    ‘Disciplined?’
    ‘Yes. By Christian.’
    ‘Disciplined how?’ asked Amanda, sensing that she wouldn’t like the answer.
    ‘The usual. Time in the isolation room,’ Margaret informed her, smacking her lips together as though her mouth was dry.
    ‘The isolation room?’ Amanda repeated, judgingly. ‘Is that on the top floor?’
    ‘That’s right, dear,’ Margaret confirmed.
    ‘Maggie, I’ve been here since Friday! The boy’s been left alone for all this time?’
    ‘Well… I go and talk to him when I can, but Christian thinks it’s best he be left alone to think about what he did,’ revealed Margaret.
    ‘And what did he do, exactly?’
    ‘He tried to glue the doors shut and burn the house down when we were all sleeping.’
    The answer was definitely more extreme than Amanda had expected. If it was true – and she had no reason to disbelieve Margaret – then the act was both shocking and malicious. Though quite why a young boy would behave in such a way was the main point of interest.
    ‘Don’t be too alarmed,’ said Margaret, responding to Amanda’s silence. ‘He’s a lovely boy. He just needs to be watched closely. He suffers from bouts of paranoia, you see.’
    Amanda had read about paranoia in one of her books. It was often the cause of many extreme acts and many experts agreed that those who suffered from such psychological burdens were a significant danger within society because they were so incredibly unpredictable. One leading doctor from the States concluded that the key to crime prevention was in identifying the increasing frequency and severity of the person’s impulses as it was never a case of if such people committed heinous crimes, but when .
    ‘How often does he act like that?’ asked Amanda.
    ‘Sometimes he says he sees things; horrific things! We keep telling him it’s all in his head, but he won’t have it. He accuses everyone of being against him and gets himself in a right state. Walt thinks he may be schizophrenic,’ Margaret told her.
    ‘Walter isn’t qualified to make such judgements,’ Amanda seethed, becoming increasingly frustrated at the liberties they each appeared to be taking with a boy who was in clear and desperate need of help. ‘You know what? This is bullshit!’
    ‘I’m sorry?’ said Margaret, taken aback and unsure of how to react to Amanda’s sudden assertion.
    ‘Give me the key to the attic,’ Amanda demanded of her.
    Feeling pressured, Margaret hesitated.
    ‘I can’t, my lovely.’
    ‘Give me the key to the isolation room. Please !’ asked Amanda, replacing her aggression with a tone that implied she only wanted to help.
    ‘Sweetie, I can’t. I don’t have it,’ Margaret informed her.
    ‘Then who does?’
    Based on what Margaret had already said, Amanda assumed the person that held the key would be Christian. She was right. Had it have been Karen that was responsible for the boy’s misery then it would have made a lot more sense, but that Christian – a seemingly carefree and charming man – was capable of such sinister, dated behaviour without showing a shred of empathy was somehow more disturbing. To Amanda, it was evidence she could trust nothing she had seen so far within the home. She needed to see the boy and if confronting the homeowner was the only way to achieve that, then so be it.
    *
 
    ‘No. Now’s not a good time,’ Christian said into the telephone.
    ‘Well, you said you wanted me to get my best guy and I got him,’