Chapter Thirty-Eight
Lila was glad that her family didn’t have any particular traditions for ANZAC Day. Though they observed the day with respect, and ensured they remembered members of the army, past and present, none of Lila’s family were directly connected to ANZAC Day. At least, not enough to require attending a Dawn Service, or the like.
Lila roused her Dad at 7am on Tuesday morning, and he rolled out of bed with a groan and stumbled into casual home clothes before taking her to Asher’s place. Her Dad noted that Lila didn’t need to input Asher’s address into the Nav once she buckled herself into the car. That fact gave Lila pause, and she remained lost in her thoughts until reaching his place. Had she been going over to his place excessively? Particularly with her Dad?
‘Nah,’ Lila’s internal voice said. ‘No such thing in these circumstances.’
Lila arrived at Asher’s at 7.25am and texted him once she was standing on his porch. It didn’t take him long to open the door for her, yawning. He was still in his pyjamas, his bed hair particularly untamed.
“Hey,” he said, stretching. He widened the door and let Lila through. She couldn’t hear Gabriel as she took her shoes off, and she didn’t see him as they made their way to Asher’s rumpus room.
“Where’s Gabriel?” she asked, sitting on Asher’s couch.
“He’s sleeping in,” Asher said with another yawn. “We usually let him sleep in on public holidays. It’s the least we can do, given he’s here every weekday and occasionally on weekends.”
“I see,” Lila replied, switching on Asher’s TV. He patted the armrest of the couch before announcing that he needed to get ready for today’s expedition. Lila nodded and he disappeared into his bedroom. She heard him turn the shower on, and it sparked a sudden urge to shut his bedroom door. She remained seated, however. If she got up now, there was no telling what she could be walking into by accident…
Eventually, Asher appeared before her, dressed as Asher the Impeccable again. This time, he was wearing a navy Tommy Hilfiger polo and matching chinos. His hair was again gelled to perfection, and he smiled gently at Lila as he sat next to her on the couch, watching the video she had put on.
“You look classy,” Lila noted with a nod. Asher grinned widely.
“Funny you should notice,” he said proudly. “I went on a shopping spree with Holly on Sunday. I got this and a few other things. I also got her a few things at Tommy Hilfiger and some other shops. She needed some new clothes, apparently.”
“Oh,” Lila said, a small twinge of pain pinching at her heart. She fluttered her eyes closed and took a deep breath. She was being stupid if she allowed herself to feel any type of way about this. He was allowed to go shopping with Holly and buy her things, of course.
Lila suddenly remembered the book Asher had asked her to bring for Isaac and began digging around her bag.
“Here,” she said, passing it to Asher without looking directly at him. “I dunno when I’ll see Isaac next, so you can give it to him.”
“Awesome,” Asher replied, immediately getting up and heading to his room. “Just putting this on my desk.”
She could hear him fuss about in his room briefly, before he opened the blinds in there as well.
“Marlene’s already at the end of the driveway,” he said urgently. “Time to roll out.”
Lila agreed and picked up her bag that contained her laptop and a new book series she was hoping to read. Asher strolled out of his room, his own bag slung across his shoulder.
They hurried down the stairs, reaching the front door within a matter of seconds. Asher rapidly punched the code into the security system. They exited without hesitation this morning and began pounding the pavement after Marlene. She quickly came into view again, taking the same path she had done the last couple of times that they had followed her. She, again, never looked back at them.
They made it to ‘Beans & Biscuits’ without incident. There were a few people milling about in formal military uniforms and a couple stores had Australian flags outside. There was otherwise no indication at the shops that today was a public holiday. Lila checked inside the café to see if Marlene was at the barista station and confirmed that she was not.
“Perfect time to get seated,” she said to Asher as he opened the door for her.
“Yeah,” he acknowledged quietly.
Their usual waitress seemed surprised to see them as she greeted them.
“You two lovebirds have been coming here a lot,” she said with a bright smile, handing them the menus. “Inside or outside today?”
“Actually, we’re n-” Lila began to say before Asher interrupted her.
“Outside, please. We liked the spot by the window, didn’t we?” he said, smiling at Lila. There was something behind his tight smile that seemed to Lila that he was desperately asking her to go along with it.
“Y-Yeah,” she said, looking down at the menu. “We did…”
The waitress led them to a similar table that gave them the same line of sight as they’d had the last time they were seated outside. She advised them that, as today was ANZAC Day, there was an extra 15% surcharge, which Asher confirmed was fine. Once the waitress filled their cups with water and left, Lila leaned in towards Asher.
“Why’d you stop me from explaining?” Lila asked, miffed.
“I’d been thinking about it over the past couple of days,” he said simply, looking through his copy of the menu. “But it’ll probably help our cover, right? If we act like a couple. Marlene knows we’re not dating and that I’m with Holly, so she wouldn’t expect it.”
Lila couldn’t help but agree with Asher’s reasoning. “Okay,” she said in a half-whisper, looking through her own copy of the menu. Lila pulled out her phone and ordered the same as she had last time via the QR code, Asher doing the same.
They both pulled out their laptops and began doing their own thing whilst waiting for food. Marlene didn’t take long to appear in the barista section, her back still facing Lila. When Lila looked up to ascertain this, her eyes landed on the now-familiar Uni student.
“He’s here again,” Lila murmured to Asher, casting her eyes back down at the table.
“The Uni student?” Asher asked, his own eyes not lifting from his laptop. “I’d almost say you should go on a date with him.”
There seemed to be an edge to his words that Lila couldn’t place, but she rolled her eyes and didn’t say anything in response. The day proceeded as normal, or rather as normal as it could get when tailing a housemaid/barista. Lila and Asher ordered more drinks when appropriate, and finally the time they had remaining had decreased to five minutes. Lila shut her laptop, rubbing her eyes.
“Five minutes left,” she said in a low voice. “I’m gonna start packing up.”
Asher nodded and followed suit. “Anything unusual happen?”
“Not a single thing,” Lila sighed. “I’m starting to think that following her might’ve been a waste of time. She kinda just seems like an ordinary woman in her late twenties going about life.”
“You say that, but she’s weird as hell,” Asher said in a low voice, zipping up his bag. “Like, really weird.”
Lila shrugged. “People are allowed to be weird, I guess,” she said simply. Her eyes flickered to the front door as Marlene exited, raising her hood, obscuring her face.
“Let’s go,” Lila whispered. They both went through the interior of the café without a word. The Uni student seemed to be packing away his things, too, grumbling into the phone like he had last time. It seemed like his daily routine was pretty regular, with or without holidays.
Asher and Lila followed Marlene per usual until something very unusual happened. For the first time, she wildly diverged from her normal path.
“Where is she going?” Lila muttered, ducking behind a parked car, craning her neck to see Marlene.
“Have no clue,” Asher replied, narrowing his eyes as he hid behind the same car. Marlene didn’t look behind her, so they continued to follow her at the same pace they were currently going at.
This walk seemed far longer than the walk back to Asher’s house, and that walk was already just over three kilometres. Eventually, Marlene slowed to a stop outside a bus stop. She checked her watch, tapping her foot as she waited. Lila exchanged a look with Asher as they hid behind the bus stop’s undercover seating. Lila didn’t dare say anything as they watched.
Several other people joined them at the bus stop, which had let Asher and Lila relax a little from their hiding spot, though they didn’t come around to the front of the seating area. After five minutes, Marlene flagged down a specific bus. It was a double length bus headed straight for the city. Marlene entered from the front and Lila could see her silhouette sit in the very front section of the bus, facing the driver.
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“Are we-” Asher began to say before Lila pulled him by the wrist. Since COVID, buses had relaxed into letting patrons enter from the front or back of the bus, which Lila was immensely grateful for in this moment. They quickly hopped on in the second half of the bus. Lila was also appreciative of the fact that she kept her travel card in her phone wallet – she would’ve been in trouble otherwise.
Asher and Lila found two spare seats next to each other in this section of the bus. It didn’t seem like many people were wanting to head into the city at 1.45pm today, which was probably owing to the fact that it was ANZAC Day. Most people were probably coming back home from the city at this point.
The double length bus wound its way through the Forestglade suburb before moving along to the highway, which was also fairly empty in the direction of the city at this time. Given Lila was shorter, Asher was the one keeping an eye on Marlene as he was able to see over all the seats in both halves of the bus. It took them about 45 minutes to finally reach the North-City Bus Station, at which point Asher tapped Lila on the arm. They exited from the door that they entered from and carefully observed the direction Marlene was walking in. Once Marlene had travelled enough distance, they once again began to follow her.
It was hard to keep track of Marlene, actually, as she dipped and weaved through the immense foot traffic. If it had been Lila alone, she was sure that she would have lost Marlene within the first few minutes of being in the city. As time wore on, it even seemed that Marlene was quickening her pace and intentionally going through side streets. Even so, she still never looked back.
Eventually, Marlene slipped into a flashy looking nightclub with a neon sign that said ‘Coolisimo Nightclub’. Lila and Asher squatted in the nearest alleyway that had line of sight of the nightclub, incredibly perplexed as the front door swung shut.
“Why is Marlene going into a nightclub at 3pm on a Tuesday?” Lila whispered to Asher.
“I have no idea,” Asher replied, also in a whisper. “Is she working here too?”
“She probably could,” Lila said. “Though, that would have to start after 10pm.”
“That’s doable,” Asher replied thoughtfully. “Would be hard, but doable still.”
“What does she need all this money for?” Lila asked, narrowing her eyes as she brought a finger to her chin, thinking hard. “Could she be on drugs?”
Asher gave Lila a sharp look. “Definitely not,” he said flatly, shaking his head. “Dad works at one of the most esteemed hospitals. He’d know straight away if she was on drugs and probably would’ve thrown her out by now.”
Lila fell silent as she tried to think of more reasons, but came up empty. After all, Marlene’s board was taken care of. She didn’t seem to have a personal life, given that she worked for Asher’s family seven days a week, two days being full time and the rest being half-days. Taking into consideration Marlene’s café job, she was running out of time to do anything else besides eat, sleep and shower.
They continued to watch ‘Coolisimo Nightclub’ for some time. No one entered or left, though many rowdy people passed, laughing and carrying on about their plans for that evening.
“Do you think it’s over 18s only?” Lila eventually asked.
“Dunno,” Asher said absently, pulling out his phone. He rapidly tapped on it a few times before beckoning Lila to see his screen. He had opened the nightclub’s official website.
“It says here that they’re open seven days a week from 5pm to 2am. It seems like it is mainly 18-plus, but they sometimes hold nights for those aged 16-19. Those look to be planned well in advance and specify no alcohol to be served…” Asher trailed off as he continued reading the website. Lila pulled out her phone and conducted some Google searches of her own. She landed on the reviews page and flicked through them. Most of them seemed to be complimentary of the food, the owner or the dancers. One of the fan-favourite dancers at the moment went by the name ‘Roxy Wurld’. Was that Marlene’s stage name as a dancer?
One review stuck out to Lila, however. It was eloquently complaining about the fact that the bouncer only came at around 8pm. The reviewer thought that the bouncer should be arriving earlier to check IDs. The nightclub had responded – ‘Sorry for any disappointment that has been caused, and any concerns regarding a lack of security on the premises. We will be reviewing our current security protocols and identifying any need to adjust what we are currently able to offer patrons.’. The response had been written only a day ago.
Lila showed it to Asher, her eyes twinkling.
“We might be able to sneak in,” she said exuberantly. “According to this, the club has two hours before bouncers start checking IDs.”
“Did you want to go in there today?” Asher asked slightly half-heartedly. Lila shook her head.
“We’re hardly dressed for a club,” she laughed. “I think we’d get thrown out just ‘cause we don’t match the vibe. This nightclub seems to be relatively decent, at least.”
“If the club doesn’t open until 5, how did Marlene get in?” Asher asked suddenly, realisation apparently hitting him like a bulldozer.
“That’s a good question,” Lila said pensively. “If she’s an employee, maybe they let them in early to get ready for the night?”
Asher fell silent as he apparently contemplated this suggestion.
“Perhaps…” he said, folding his arms and looking down at the ground.
“In any case,” Lila said in a low voice, “maybe we can watch this place and see if Marlene comes out? Given it’s so early before a shift would appear to start, maybe she just left something behind that she needs to grab, or something.”
“Sounds good,” Asher nodded. They stood in the alleyway for quite some time - enough time, in fact, that the sun began to lower, and yet Marlene had not exited at all. Checking her phone, Lila saw that it was nearing 5pm.
“Alright,” she said. “We can see what people do to get in.”
The doors were propped open promptly at 5pm by an attractive young woman that was definitely not Marlene, dressed in a flashy rhinestone bralette, leather short-shorts and 8-inch silver heels. She returned to the inside of the nightclub without a second glance at the outside world. Lila and Asher waited for another few minutes before two men approached the door. They looked up at the vibrant neon sign, smirked at each other, and headed inside without any resistance.
Lila and Asher looked at each other again, before he checked the time.
“It’s 5.18. We should get going,” Asher murmured. “Given it’s a public holiday, the buses run on a weekend timetable. They’ll start going hourly soon, and I don’t have the patience for that right now.”
“I’m good with that,” Lila said, nodding. “Let’s bounce.”
They retraced their steps to the North-City Bus Station without much difficulty, though the streets were certainly getting livelier as time passed. More nightclubs seemed to be opening, and restaurants and bars in the area were beginning to blast music, trying to attract customers. Many people were standing along the footpaths, smoking or vaping, before heading into an open establishment. Lila had never been to the red-light district before but, even though Clare tried to convince her that going out to these kinds of places was fun, she wasn’t quite convinced that she would come running back.
Eventually they made it to the stop that they needed to be able to get back to Asher’s place. The bus arrived at 5.35pm, right on schedule. This time, it was a normal bus, and Lila noticed that most people on the bus were getting off at this stop. After the flood of people left, Lila and Asher were the only ones who hopped on. They didn’t see Marlene on this bus, nor did they expect her to be, given that she hadn’t left the nightclub in that whole time that they had been watching it.
Lila didn’t have the energy to say anything to Asher, who was also very quiet on the ride home. Asher whipped open the public transport app and showed Lila that this bus stopped fairly close to his house, which got Lila’s mind thinking. Why had Marlene taken such a bizarre route to an out-of-the-way bus stop if she could have just walked towards Asher’s house and taken a bus from one of the nearby stops? Surely the bus stop they were supposed to get off at was closer to ‘Beans & Biscuits’ than whatever bus stop Marlene had gone to that afternoon.
Thanking the bus driver as they exited, Lila and Asher slowly made their way to his house on foot. Luckily, they were only a couple of minutes away, though Lila was dead tired after all that walking.
“Are you staying for dinner?” Asher asked as they reached his front doors. Lila checked the time on her phone and shrugged.
“I may as well, since it’s 6.15 already. But if Gabriel hasn’t made enough for me, I’m happy to head home.”
“Alright,” Asher said with a smile. He opened the front doors after deactivating the security system. Lila’s heart stopped.
A pair of slippers were waiting for her in the hallway.
“… Gabriel doesn’t normally put these out,” Lila said hesitantly, taking her shoes off. Asher seemed just as concerned, but didn’t say anything. They shuffled down the hall after Lila put the slippers on.
“Gabriel?” Asher called. Gabriel came bustling out of the kitchen, holding a soup ladle.
“Yes? Oh! Lila! I thought you would’ve gone home after brunch with Asher,” Gabriel said, beaming. “I’m making minestrone soup for dinner. There’s enough if you’d like some.”
“Oh, yes please,” Lila said happily, clasping her hands together. “Sounds delicious.”
“Just wait until you taste it,” Gabriel winked. “This version has bacon in it.”
“Ooh,” Lila cooed. Gabriel waved them away, and Lila and Asher made their way upstairs.
“I am so tired,” Asher yawned, climbing the stairs. He didn’t get very far until he bumped into Marlene, going down the stairs with a washing basket in her arms.
“Hello, Mr Wagner,” Marlene said pleasantly. “Hello, Lila.”
An icy chill ran straight through Lila’s spine and she shivered at the sight of Marlene. How had she beaten them here if she never left the club? She certainly didn’t look like she’d just been running through the streets of the red-light district to get here.
“H-Hello,” stammered Asher as Marlene backed up the stairs to allow them to pass safely. Asher and Lila made it to the top of the landing, staring gobsmacked at Marlene, who looked back at them curiously.
“You both look as if you’ve seen a ghost,” she said. “I can assure you, I am very real.”
“S-Sorry, I wasn’t expecting you home,” Asher replied, looking down at his feet.
“My shifts always start at 6pm,” Marlene said, cocking her head to the side in confusion. “I have always been prompt.”
“I-I think he’s just tired,” Lila said quickly, pushing Asher towards the rumpus room. “We had a big day. Long walk.”
“Ahh,” Marlene breathed in apparent understanding. “That’s understandable. I will call you when dinner is ready.”
Marlene headed back down the stairs with her washing basket. Asher continued to stare after her until Lila opened the door to the rumpus room and shoved him inside. She slammed the door shut behind her slightly too forcefully, but her mind was racing much too fast for her to manage an apology for it.
“Just when we were about to cross her off the list,” Lila finally managed to utter. “There’s weird and then there’s weird.”
“Agreed,” Asher replied, shuddering. “Let’s… watch something mind-numbing.”
They watched a couple of YouTube videos before the intercom static began to signal that someone was about to talk to them. Marlene’s voice came through.
“Mr Wagner, it is time for dinner,” she called. Asher glanced at Lila before standing up.
“The minestrone won’t eat itself,” he said with a strained smile. “Let’s go.”
Marlene joined them for dinner tonight, delicately eating Gabriel’s minestrone soup. About halfway through the meal, Lila slowly realised that there was something odd about Marlene, but she couldn’t quite place it. Dessert was a decadent salted caramel brownie. Lila showered Gabriel with compliments as usual before Asher led her upstairs again. Lila texted her Dad to pick her up, which he responded with a ‘thumbs down’.
Mum will get u, he replied, sending a laughing-crying emoji and a car emoji. Something came up with work. Lila wasn’t entirely sure that he knew how that was coming across, but reacted with a thumbs up all the same.
Once in the safety of the rumpus room, Lila asked Asher if he’d noticed anything odd about Marlene.
“Yeah,” he said, nodding vehemently. “Her hands.”
“Her hands?” Lila asked, trying to think back.
“They were all bruised and cut up,” he said, pressing his right index finger to his left hand’s knuckles.
“Did she hurt herself at the café?” Lila asked. Asher shrugged.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But it stood out to me.”
With nothing else to add, Lila and Asher continued watching YouTube videos until Lila’s Mum called to let her know she’d arrived. Asher let Lila out as usual, though he seemed a bit nervous to do so.
“See you tomorrow,” he said. “We’ve got English in the morning. We’re making good progress on Romeo and Juliet. We’ll be getting to the famous balcony scene soon. Probably sometime next week. Hope you’re excited for my review of it.”
Lila smiled at Asher. “’Course I am. See you tomorrow.”