Chapter Forty-Seven


    Lila sat on Asher’s Dad’s chair, looking up at the live CCTV playing on the two TV screens. Just like last time, it seemed that it was only Gabriel in the house. Also just like last time, Gabriel was dancing along to the beat of something he seemed to be singing. Now that Lila knew that he was a nightclub owner, the moves he was pulling seemed rather apt for that scene.


    “Do you reckon that’s why he wanted to own a nightclub?” Lila asked as Asher mashed several buttons on the RGB keyboard connected to his Mum’s computer.


    “Huh?” Asher asked, looking at Lila in confusion. She pointed up to the CCTV, which showed Gabriel breaking it down. Asher chuckled.


    “He’s always been grooving, for as long as I can remember,” he said, turning his attention back to his Mum’s computer set-up. “Honestly, it does make a lot of sense. Him owning a nightclub. Like, it was surprising, but also somehow not.”


    Lila nodded. She could relate to that feeling in regard to Gabriel’s secret life. The house was otherwise still, the CCTV capturing no movement besides Gabriel’s dance moves.


    “Alright,” Asher murmured, clicking rapidly. “Here’s the CCTV holdings.”


    Lila watched as he pulled up the same main folder that he had the first time they were in the study.


    “Last December…” Asher muttered, flicking through several folders. Finally, he stopped. His hand seemed to tremble as he clicked on one of the videos. It took a few seconds to open up, though when it did, it seemed to show a group of people fussing about the kitchen, bringing plates here and there. Lila didn’t recognise many of them, though she saw Asher laughing with Gabriel as a blob of sauce dripped down from the serving dish Gabriel was handing to Asher onto Asher’s pants. They both hurried to put the dish down on the counter, Asher seeming to laugh even harder as Gabriel upended the kitchen to find a paper towel to clean it up. In the bottom right corner, there was a timestamp – 25^th of December, last year, at 12.32pm.


    “Looks like you had fun,” Lila said softly. Asher nodded, smiling to himself before he opened another video. This one seemed to show everyone stepping out of the frame at 12.34pm. There was no further activity.


    “Let me go through these,” Asher said quietly. “Just keep an eye on the surveillance, please.”


    “Roger that,” Lila replied, turning her attention back to the TV screens. Asher continued clicking through videos until eventually he called Lila’s attention back.


    “This is the 27^th,” he whispered. “When Gabriel got sent away.”


    Lila rolled her chair towards his and watched with keen interest. A thin, middle-aged, blonde lady that Lila didn’t recognise was standing off to the side of the kitchen counter, her arms folded. Gabriel stood behind the sink, washing a pan. They seemed to be engaged in a conversation, which rapidly became animated on both sides. Eventually, Gabriel left the pan in the sink and began gesturing wildly. The woman seemed to grow larger in height, her chest swelling in apparent anger. Suddenly, Asher’s Dad appeared in the frame and tenderly wrapped his arms around the woman’s shoulders. His gesturing seemed like he was wanting to diffuse the situation, and he stepped away from the woman, speaking in an apparently calm manner. The woman kept shaking her head. The video stopped and Asher opened the next one. It seemed to be a continuation of the argument, though this time Asher appeared at the other end of the counter, looking bewildered.


    “That was when Mum kept telling Gabriel to go,” Asher said, his eyes flittering around the screen like he was trying to take in every detail that he could. The timestamps showed that the argument had taken place around 3pm on the 27^th. The next video showed Gabriel, looking somewhat despondent, taking off his apron and heading into the butler’s pantry. Asher’s Dad seemed to be speaking with his Mum, and Asher was still looking gobsmacked at what he’d witnessed. Gabriel then re-emerged, passing Asher’s parents. They seemed to call him back, and Gabriel gave Asher’s Mum a hug and a cordial handshake to his Dad. He then waved to Asher, who hesitantly waved back, before toddling off down the hallway, towards the front door. Asher opened a new folder, and they watched the CCTV footage connecting Gabriel’s journey outside the house. He walked off towards the worker’s cottage, seemingly distressed still, his hand tugging one of his ears.


    Footage of the kitchen showed Asher leaving towards the direction of the rumpus room, though his parents still stayed in the kitchen. Their conversation seemed to be passionate, though not argumentative.


    “Alright, give me another minute,” Asher said, looking up at Lila. Lila nodded, looking back up at the TV screens. Asher suddenly snickered next to Lila, and she glanced over. He was still looking at footage from the 27^th. This was footage from the garage and showed Gabriel in a different bedazzled suit to the one they’d seen previously, jiving towards his Mazda 2.


    “To think, he was always so close to me, wearing stuff like that,” Asher said with a resigned, but humorous sigh. “Still feeling like a dummy. The number of times he’s probably walked under my window towards the garage, dressed like that, and I never noticed.”


    “He’s very stylish,” Lila replied with a chuckle. “But he also seems to be pretty sneaky about it, too.” She pointed at the umbrella in Gabriel’s left hand, which was now a makeshift microphone. “He probably popped that open whenever he was near your window so you wouldn’t see him.”


    “Genius,” Asher murmured, closing the video and continuing to search through the rest. Lila’s eyes wandered around the study. It seemed exactly as they had left it, though perhaps it was a smidge more dusty. Asher’s Dad certainly hadn’t been in the study since their last visit. Though, something did seem to be odd.


    “Wasn’t there a textbook here?” Lila asked, pointing at the stack of books on the desk.


    “Probably,” Asher replied with a shrug, his eyes glued to the computer screens. “Why, do you think one’s gone missing?”


    “I dunno,” Lila said absently, lifting the pages of the book in front of her. Then, she remembered – there had been that weird note… she’d put it back in the textbook that was sitting on top of this pile.


    ‘But, I took a picture,’ Lila thought to herself with a smug smile. She opened up her phone, scrolled back through to February and looked. There was a picture of the weird note, and underneath the note was the corner of a book that was definitely not the book sitting here now.


    But everything else around the room looked the same. The wedding and engagement rings were still sitting where they had been, at least. Lila could recall that the books in this stack were related to marketing. Clearly, as Asher’s Mum hadn’t yet been found, she wouldn’t have taken the book. So, who took the book and why? Why only that book? Was there something special about it? Lila opened the photo she’d taken again, frustrated that she couldn’t see the title of the book on it.


    “Okay, it’s the 28^th, now,” Asher said softly, breaking Lila’s concentration.


    She glanced up at the TV screens – still nothing and no one of note appearing on them. Asher took a few more minutes running through the footage captured that day. The shaking of his hand was far more apparent now, with the cursor inaccurately opening videos he’d already seen due to the tremors.


    “Asher,” Lila said quietly, turning to face him. “Are you okay?”


    “Peachey,” he said in a strangled voice. He swallowed harshly but didn’t look at Lila. He continued going through the videos. He drew her attention to one – 1.48pm, 28^th of December.


    “There’s Mum and Dad, coming into the house after dropping off Uncle Prakash and his family,” he said, pointing at the figures of his parents. His Dad seemed sullen, somehow.


    “Do you know why your Dad looks so sad?” Lila asked curiously. Asher shrugged.


    “Uncle Prakash and his family are, like, the life of the party,” he said. “It’s usually a bit sad when they go back home.”


    Asher continued tracking his parents’ movements throughout the house. Eventually, his Dad split off towards the master bedroom and his Mum went off to the study. The camera for the study pointed directly at the door, but there was no camera inside the study itself. There was no more activity on CCTV footage until about 2.16pm, when Asher burst out of the rumpus room, taking the stairs down two at a time. Lila gave Asher a sideways glance, and his jaw hardened but he didn’t say anything. Knowing what Lila knew now, that Holly had either started to cheat on Asher then - or was about to - made watching his excitement to go and see her so much more painful to watch.


    Asher quickly closed the video and opened the next one. It didn’t show any activity. He clicked through more CCTV footage, the next one starting at 6.02pm. Asher’s Dad poked his head out of the master bedroom before climbing downstairs. They watched Asher’s Dad prepare dinner, given that Gabriel and Marlene were both on leave.


    Asher furrowed his brow and continued clicking through the CCTV footage.


    “Uh, Lila,” he said nervously, locking his eyes onto hers. “There’s no footage of Mum leaving the study.”


    “None?” Lila asked, scooting closer to Asher. He moved away to give her some room behind the desk. He clicked through each video for 28^th of December, and sure enough, there was none of his Mum leaving the study.


    “Did she leave on the 29^th?” Lila asked. Asher looked through those, too, but there was hardly any activity in the house until 5.12pm, when Asher arrived home. Lila watched as his past self called out around the house for people, but no one emerged. He shrugged and went up to the rumpus room, emerging only when his Dad knocked on the door at 6.30pm. His Dad entered the rumpus room, and there was no activity for about an hour until his Dad left, misty-eyed.


    “That… was when Dad told me she was missing,” Asher whispered. He closed the video and rubbed a hand on his face.


    “Did someone delete the CCTV footage?” Lila asked in a low voice. Asher glanced at her and placed his head in his hands.


    “Must’ve. Damn,” he said, his voice filled with hurt. Lila bit her bottom lip as she contemplated what to do. Asher sighed heavily, before lifting his head and clicking through all the videos again.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    “I might’ve missed it,” he murmured as he swiftly opened and closed every video in each subfolder for December. Lila watched him for a couple seconds, but he seemed to grow exponentially more frustrated and emotional with each dud. She gently reached out and touched his left arm and he almost jumped out of his chair.


    “Asher,” Lila said in a half-whisper. “While we’re here, we should think about other times that we should check out.”


    “Other times?” Asher asked, looking at her with intrigue shining through the despair in his eyes.


    “I mean, we still haven’t figured out how Marlene got home before we did the day we followed her to Gabriel’s nightclub,” Lila replied, looking up at the TV screens again. Still, there was no movement.


    “You’re right,” Asher said, realisation dawning on his face. He cracked his fingers and exited out of the current folder he was in. “What day was that again?”


    “ANZAC Day, I’m pretty sure,” Lila replied, placing a finger on her chin. “Yeah, definitely ANZAC Day. It was a Tuesday this year.”


    “Thanks.”


    Lila continued to watch the TV screens, yawning.


    “Oh, there you are,” Asher suddenly said after opening more CCTV footage. Seeing herself on CCTV footage made Lila’s skin crawl - it was almost violating, though she knew logically that she’d been captured on CCTV footage here and elsewhere. This clip, starting at 7.26am, showed Lila arriving at Asher’s and standing on his porch. The next clip showed Asher sleepily descending the stairs, before opening the door for her, yawning. Asher continued to dive through CCTV clips of that day, before watching Lila, Asher and Marlene leaving the house at about 8.30am.


    “Alright,” he said, nodding. “Now to see how she got back…”


    The next few clips captured Gabriel, bustling around the kitchen and butler’s pantry, eating breakfast alone, and washing dishes. It also captured a good few moments where he danced alone with wooden-spoons-turned-microphones. Then, Asher suddenly gripped Lila’s arm tightly, his face drained of all colour, a shaky hand pointing to the screen. Lila turned her attention to what he was looking at.


    A familiar man that she’d seen at the café was walking up the driveway, his hands in his pockets. It was 1.36pm.


    “T-That’s the Uni student,” Lila whispered, unable to contain the terror she was feeling as goosebumps ripped across her skin.


    “What’s he doing at my house?” Asher hissed. The footage looped again, so he changed to the next one. They watched in stunned silence as the Uni student crept around the side of the property. Asher checked on Gabriel, who had seemed entirely none the wiser that a strange person was mere metres from him outside.


    Asher flicked through all the available CCTV footage which showed the stranger inspecting the windows. It also showed him taking photos of the cameras, and even attempting to climb the side of the house where the garage was. He would regularly stop what he was doing and retreat into some shrubbery, before returning. Occasionally, he could also be seen talking into a phone.


    “He’s clearly not lost,” Lila whispered. “It doesn’t take you this long to realise you’re at the wrong house.”


    Asher skipped ahead several clips. After an hour had passed in the CCTV footage, the man was still outside. Asher skipped ahead again. After another hour, he was still lurking. After another hour, however, he disappeared. Asher flicked through the clips until they could see the man again.


    The camera that captured footage of the man was outside, pointing down towards the side of the house near the library. The Uni student was leaning against the library windows, peering inside at about 3.40pm. The windows were curtained, and the man began running his hands along the window frames. He looked like he was ready to break in as he began tapping the structure. The hairs on the back of Lila’s neck began to stand as she hunched her shoulders in anxiety, her breathing catching in her throat.


    Then, without warning, the window snapped open. The man began to be swallowed by the window, his legs flailing and kicking. Lila almost let out a scream but managed to hold it back by clamping her hands around her mouth.


    “What the fuck?” Asher exclaimed, zooming into the footage and playing it back. It definitely looked as though the man was being dragged inside, resisting whatever force was taking him all the while.


    “Is there footage in the library?” Lila asked urgently.


    “Yeah, we keep first-edition books in there,” Asher said, diving into another folder. Lila’s heart pounded in her chest as Asher opened the first video clip.


    The doors to the library violently burst open in this clip, also marked 3.40pm, 25^th of April. Marlene, still dressed in her café uniform, rushed into the library like she was racing for a gold medal. The doors swung shut behind her as she quickly unlatched the window. She immediately thrust her hands underneath the curtains. With surprising strength, she yanked the man through the window, across the daybed and onto the floor. The man hardly had time to raise his hands in defence as she launched herself onto his abdomen, locking his legs with her own. The clip cut off here and Asher silently opened the next one.


    This clip was a continuation of the first. Marlene pummelled the man’s face, again and again and again with her bare knuckles. Lila was glad there wasn’t any sound. Each connection with his face sprayed small bits of blood across the floor, and his legs jolted each time a punch was landed. Somehow, it seemed as though each punch was precise, almost calculated. Regardless of any defence he attempted, Marlene swiftly dismantled it as she continued to beat him. Eventually, the man tried to extricate himself from Marlene’s hold, but was immediately met with increasing brutality.


    “I… think I’m going to be sick,” Lila finally said, clutching her stomach. Asher shakily moved on to the next video. The next few videos showed Marlene beating the man within an inch of his life, eventually moving on from using her fists. At one point, she rolled her hips backwards and began kicking underneath his jaw. After about ten minutes, the man’s legs stopped moving in time to Marlene’s attacks. Lila could see Marlene breathing heavily before standing up and removing her shirt, revealing a nude-coloured t-shirt bra underneath. She flipped it inside out, unwound her incredibly haphazard bun, and put the shirt back on back-to-front. As though nothing had happened, she stepped out of the library, closing the doors carefully behind her.


    Asher traced her footsteps across the CCTV footage, and it looked as though she was talking to Gabriel in the kitchen. She was laughing, as though he had said something incredibly funny. The disparity between the absolute violence Marlene had just displayed and her friendly demeanour with Gabriel sent shivers down Lila’s spine. The next clip showed Gabriel passing Marlene a cold milkshake or frappe-like drink in a large glass. She took it thankfully and had a sip before laughing again. Gabriel then walked out of the kitchen, taking off his apron, and towards the garage. Asher followed Gabriel’s movements as he got into his Mazda 2 and drove off, apparently none the wiser that a potentially dead man was laying in the library just metres away.


    Asher then switched back to follow Marlene’s movements. She carried the drink with her to the library and pushed the doors open, seeming collected and not at all like she just attacked someone mercilessly. The man was lying motionless on the floor as she’d left him. She stretched her back and shoulders, looking directly at the man. She placed the drink down and knelt before the man and pulled him up and around her shoulders so that she was holding him in a fireman’s carry. Asher continued to follow Marlene’s movements, whereby she jogged, still holding the man, towards the worker’s cottage. She opened it and disappeared inside, still holding the man.


    “Do you have CCTV footage of the cottage?” Lila asked as Asher deflated in his chair, unmoving. Asher shook his head.


    “No, Marlene and Gabriel monitor their own CCTV footage from the cottage. Well, I don’t know for sure whether they have CCTV, but I assume they do. We just have a little bit of the exterior at the front.”


    “So, there’s a blind spot in the back.”


    “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”


    Asher took a deep breath before pulling himself forward. He began to skip through the CCTV footage outside the cottage until Marlene emerged, about half an hour later. She was dressed in all black, not too dissimilar from her usual maid uniform. She crossed the field towards the main house again. They watched as she entered the library again, armed with cleaning supplies, and began scrubbing the floor, the daybed, the curtains and the window.


    Gabriel returned as she was cleaning out the bucket in the laundry, and she met him in the kitchen. He brandished what looked like Mint Slices at her, and she clapped her hands in delight.


    “How did she get in the first time?” Lila asked quietly. Asher glanced at her before scrolling through the videos. It seemed as though she had emerged from the worker’s cottage and into the back of the house, through the laundry.


    “Does she normally come through the laundry?” Lila asked. Asher nodded.


    “Yeah, she goes that way to get started on the laundry,” he said. They watched as she strolled calmly towards the kitchen, where Gabriel met her. She seemed to be asking Gabriel something, and he appeared excited before walking back into the butler’s pantry. Watching further, it looked like Gabriel then prepared the drink that he later gave Marlene via the industrial-grade blender within the butler’s pantry.


    “I can’t watch anymore,” Asher said, closing down the folders. He looked truly unwell now, and was quivering like a chihuahua.


    “Well, we know now why her hands looked like that at dinner,” Lila said faintly. “Shouldn’t we delete us coming in here this afternoon?”


    “Right,” Asher said, speedily diving back into the CCTV holdings. He deleted the footage of them emerging from the rumpus room, armed with the lockpicks, and of Asher breaking into the study.


    “It’s a shame we can’t delete our exit,” Lila said softly once he was done.


    “Yeah,” Asher said. “But maybe it’ll keep whoever’s watching on their toes.”


    Asher pulled out his phone and blanched even further.


    “It’s 5.45,” he said, immediately standing up and closing down all the programs. “We have to go.”


    Lila jumped up and pushed Asher’s Dad’s chair back to its original position and looked up at the CCTV footage. A car was smoothly rolling in and she tapped Asher on the arm, pointing.


    “That’s Marlene,” he said, panic rising in his voice. “We need to get outta here.”


    Once Asher shut down the computer, he grabbed the lockpicking kit and slipped it into his tracksuit shorts’ pockets. Satisfied that she had everything as well, Lila followed Asher out of the study. She was bracing herself in case Marlene was standing outside again, but didn’t need to. They had a clear shot to the rumpus room, which they took with extreme haste.


    Asher slammed the door shut behind them and leapt onto the couch, balling himself up. Lila cautiously made her way to the couch as well, glancing at him every so often. He didn’t seem to be interested in talking.


    Lila warily reached for a set of joy cons. She wasn’t in the mood to talk, either, but sitting in uncomfortable silence seemed just as terrible. He didn’t react as she put on a video of a YouTuber playing old Harry Potter games. These types of videos, poking fun at absurd design, plot and dialogue choices of old games she’d either played or watched her sister play in childhood, usually made her laugh so hard she felt like she developed abs. Perhaps they’d be distracting enough for Asher, too.


    They reached about halfway through the hour-long video before she heard a chuckle from Asher. She glanced at him and saw that he had relaxed his position somewhat so he was lying on his side, his long legs outstretched. His feet were towards her hips, though there was enough space for another person to sit in between them.


    Eventually, Asher sighed and sat up, facing Lila and tucking his legs under himself.


    “Lila, I don’t know what to do,” he said, rubbing his face with both hands. “I… Marlene is even more terrifying than we originally thought.”


    “I know,” Lila replied, pausing the video. “I think we should take some time to think about what we’ve seen. Will you be okay here? With her, I mean. Especially on the weekend when Gabriel isn’t here.”


    “I should be fine,” Asher said unconvincingly. “I think I have enough on my plate to distract myself with if I feel too anxious around her.”


    Lila wanted to reply with “Seems like it,” but thought that may be insensitive. Instead, she nodded.


    “It’s… been a lot,” she said empathetically. “Asher, are you sure you’re not taking on too much? Especially after the whole… well, you know.”


    “I can handle it,” he said, this time with more conviction. “I have to.”


    “I can help,” Lila said earnestly.


    “You are helping,” Asher laughed. “I’d probably be in a vegetative state or something if you weren’t here with me.”


    Lila joined in his laughter but was struck by a thought as they trailed off.


    “Asher, I think we need to get into the cottage,” she said. He sat up straighter.


    “Why’d you say that?” he asked, his eyes seemingly searching hers for clues.


    “She took that guy there,” Lila said in a low voice. “Maybe we’ll find evidence of something. She’s clearly got enough strength and anger to hurt someone badly. I… she’s still on my suspect list.”


    “Could we maybe do that later, though?” Asher asked quietly, interlocking his fingers in his lap. “After today… I need a break. And… I think we should also start trying to rule out Gabriel and my Dad if we’re going to focus on Marlene as our prime suspect.”


    “Good idea,” Lila said approvingly. “We can take a break for however long you want. I honestly need one too. Not as much as you, of course. I can’t imagine how your head hasn’t exploded by now.”


    “Oh, it’s trying,” Asher said with a small, sarcastic chuckle. “I just won’t let it.”