Chapter One Hundred and One


    “Lila Moloney?”


    Lila blinked, looking up at the two distinctly imposing adults standing outside. One was a blond male, who clearly worked out quite a lot, given how his muscles stretched his business-like suit, and the other was a brunette female, dressed smartly in a black blazer over the top of a blue button-up shirt and matching suit pants.


    It was the man who had spoken. He squinted at her for a second before nodding in apparent satisfaction. “And I assume you’re Asher Wagner?”


    “Y-Yes, sir,” Asher replied, his voice quivering with anxiety. He stepped forward, extending his hand to grasp the male’s hand. They shook hands, and the female offered her own. Lila also shook hands with the officers. Once the pleasantries were over, the male spoke again.


    “I’m Detective Sergeant Nick Collins, and this is Detective Sergeant Belinda Lee-Shaw.”


    Both Detective Sergeants displayed their official-looking police badges before stowing them away in their blazers.


    “O-Okay,” Lila uttered.


    “Do you know why we’re here?” Belinda’s voice was soothing, unlike the gruff, grating voice of her coworker. Lila shook her head.


    “We’d like to speak with you both separately about an incident that’s occurred recently,” Nick interjected vaguely.


    “Specifically,” Belinda added, shooting Nick a sharp look, “regarding Piper Baker. Is that name familiar to you at all?”


    “Ye-” Lila’s reply was interrupted by the severe voice of her Dad from behind her.


    “Excuse me, who are you?”


    The Detective Sergeants reintroduced themselves, complete with another display of their badges.


    “May I speak with you two alone, please?” Lila’s Dad’s tone indicated that this was not a request but rather a demand.


    “Of course. Mr Moloney, I presume?” replied Belinda. The sound of their continued conversation was cut off as Lila’s Dad closed the front door, sequestering himself outside with the Detective Sergeants.


    Lila turned to Asher, her face a ghostly pale.


    “What just happened?” she whispered, horror reverberating in her question.


    “I don’t know,” Asher replied, rubbing his face – seemingly as a self-soothing gesture.


    “Lila,” her Mum’s voice made her jump, and Lila stiffly turned to face her. Her Mum looked distinctly unimpressed, and simultaneously terrified.


    “Mum,” Lila said plainly, casting an uncertain look at Asher.


    “Lila, come with me. Asher, please stay by the door. Let us know if they want her back,” Lila’s Mum instructed, her tone steely.


    Lila obeyed her mother without question. There was something about her Mum’s current demeanour that made Lila nervous over and above the fact the police wanted to talk to her about Piper.


    Lila’s Mum lead them into the kitchen, where both Clare and Daniel were sitting. They jerkily readjusted their postures into prim, upright ones – which, to Lila, meant that they were absolutely eavesdropping.


    “Shoo,” Lila’s Mum said, waving them both away. “Upstairs with you two, before I ask the police to arrest you both.”


    They didn’t need to be told twice, instantly rushing to make themselves scarce. Lila’s Mum pursed her lips, not saying a word until the sound of two doors slamming filtered downstairs.


    ‘Alright… scratch what I said before about being in trouble with the police being a whole ‘nother level. I’d rather that than what’s about to happen with Mum right now,’ Lila thought as her Mum pulled out a chair at the small kitchen table and threw herself into it.


    “Lila, what is happening?” her Mum’s voice was low – with a dangerous undertone. One that required Lila to choose her words extremely carefully.


    “The… police want to talk to me. And Asher.”


    “Why? What did you do?”


    “Nothing, Mum.”


    “What did he do?”


    “Nothing!”


    Lila’s Mum sighed in exasperation. “Just when I was starting to be okay with you and this boy. Lila, the police knocking on my front door is not a good look. I thought you were a good girl.”


    “I-I am,” Lila replied unconvincingly, looking towards her feet.


    “I need an answer. Now. Why are the police here? Why are they looking for both of you?”


    “They want to talk to us about Piper.”


    Her Mum’s eyes flashed as soon as Lila’s statement registered in her mind. “Piper? That girl who was murdered? I thought you said she wasn’t a friend of yours.”


    “She’s not. Well, she wasn’t, I guess. She went to school with me, though. Before she got expelled.”


    Her Mum continued to look at Lila expectantly. Lila sighed.


    “She stalked Asher for years. A-And I got caught up in it. So the police probably found something about that and that’s why they want to talk to us.”


    Lila’s Mum blinked, her expression completely perplexed. “Stalked?”


    “Yeah. Uh, she kept taking photos of him secretly, taking his things, following him around…” Lila trailed off, recalling with a shiver the photo of Piper in her driveway. She… wasn’t going to tell her Mum that tidbit.


    “Lila-” her Mum stopped herself, pivoting around on the chair so she was facing away from Lila. “I can’t believe all this is happening.”


    “It… we just need to sort it out,” Lila said quietly. “I know you’re worried about me, but it’s fine. Asher’s a good guy.”


    “You keep saying that, but it gets harder and harder to believe every day.”


    “Mum-” Lila’s voice was a despairing whine, but Lila’s Mum cut her off by raising her hand.


    “This better be the last,” her Mum said tersely, turning back and giving Lila a fierce look. “He’s showing himself to be more trouble than he’s worth.”


    “Mum, you liked him.”


    Lila’s Mum sighed heavily, folding her arms in front of her. “He is fine. He is lovely. The trouble that’s following him is not.”


    Lila pressed her lips together to prevent herself from adding anything to that. Particularly, that trouble was following her siblings, too. Technically, they were all embroiled in what would be ‘trouble’ in her Mum’s eyes – so was Asher any different?


    Her Mum brought a hand to her forehead, as though nursing a headache. She glanced at Lila, who must’ve looked distraught to some level because her Mum sighed again.


    “You can stop looking at me like that, Lila. Your Mum is just worried about you. I already told you that I’d stop worrying and let you make mistakes. It’s just… stressful when the police come knocking on my door, asking for my daughter and her boyfriend-”


    “He’s not my boyfriend.”


    “He’s not?” Her Mum looked incredibly surprised. “I thought he was.”


    “I want him to be, but he’s not quite there yet.”


    Her Mum pursed her lips, her eyes narrowed. Lila could predict that her Mum disapproved of that fact, too, but instead of speaking, her Mum shook her head.


    “Lord help me and my crazy children,” she muttered before glancing at Lila again. “Alri-”


    “Lila, we have to go,” Lila’s Dad’s voice was urgent – desperate, even. She turned to face him in the doorway of the kitchen and was struck by how wild his eyes looked. She’d never seen him quite so unnerved.


    “Go? Where?”


    “Come get in the car. Asher’s already waiting.”


    Lila looked back towards her Mum, who looked distinctly unhappy.


    “I’ll be back later, Edith,” Lila’s Dad said, his tone gentler than before. “Stay with Daniel and Clare, alright? Don’t leave until I come back, just in case.”


    “In case of what?” Lila’s Mum replied impatiently, her mouth taut with irritation. Lila’s Dad simply turned around, exiting the kitchen with a jangle of his car keys. Lila hurried behind him, anxiety gripping her stomach. Where were they going?


    She couldn’t figure out how to get her mouth to work so she could ask. Her Dad looked very unapproachable right now, what with his stiff posture, and the aura of uneasiness rolling off him in waves.


    Asher was sitting in the backseat of her Dad’s car, his face looking drained of all blood. He didn’t seem to register that Lila and her Dad had climbed into the front of the car until Lila turned around to face him. He gave her a tense, cheerless smile, but didn’t offer any words of explanation as to where they were going.


    Lila’s Dad began to drive out of the garage and Lila craned her neck to see whether the Detective Sergeants were still around. She couldn’t see them, nor any unfamiliar vehicles. Once they were on the road, Lila’s Dad browsed his phone contacts on the car’s touchscreen display. Lila’s breath hitched as Lila’s Dad selected ‘Ivaan Wagner’.


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    The sound of a dial tone filled the awkward silence within the car. After about half a minute, the phone call rang out to the message bank.


    “Ivaan, it’s Rob. Please call me back right away – I’m heading to the police station with Asher and Lila.”


    Police station? Why? Were they… going to be arrested?


    ‘Surely not,’ Lila thought, twisting her hands together in her lap. She caught her Dad looking at her in her peripheral vision before he called Ivaan again. It rang out once more, and her Dad sighed after recording a similar message.


    “Asher, is there any other adult that you know that could come to the police station? Someone you can trust? You’ll need someone to sit in with you and they seemed pretty insistent that both you and Lila need to be interviewed at the exact same time.”


    “G-Gabriel, probably,” Asher replied, his voice shaky. “Uh, I’ll call him now. Which station are we going to?”


    “The Forestglade one.”


    “Okay.”


    Lila tried not to listen to Asher’s whispered phone call with Gabriel. She could almost hear Gabriel panicking through Asher’s phone. It quickly finished up and Asher sat back in his seat with a sigh.


    “Dad, what’s going on?” she asked, now that there was silence in the car again.


    “The police just want to ask you guys a few questions. It was easier to go to the station and have one of Asher’s guardians or relatives meet him there.”


    “We’re not going to be arrested, right?” Lila’s question sounded incredibly undignified as it tumbled out of her mouth in a heap.


    “Did you do something that deserves being arrested for?” her Dad’s question, though said in a playful tone, was a similar trap to the ones that he’d laid many times before when asking who broke what and who slapped who in the Moloney household.


    “Definitely not,” Lila muttered, turning to look out the window so he couldn’t see her face.


    “Then you won’t be arrested,” her Dad replied straightforwardly. She snuck a peek at him out the corner of her eye and saw that his knuckles were white over the steering wheel. What had they told her Dad that spooked him so much?


    No one spoke for the rest of the car ride, the anxiety churning her stomach like a washing machine. Eventually, her Dad pulled into the carpark of the Forestglade Police Station. The station itself was a single-storey, square brick building. A large, metallic sign sat just above a set of automatic doors and read ‘FORESTGLADE POLICE STATION’. An Australian flag flapped in the breeze atop the slanted, white roof. A small variety of pristinely trimmed hedges lined the outside of the station. In its entirety, it looked rather unassuming, if Lila ignored the several police cars parked near the doors.


    “Alright, kiddos,” her Dad said, his voice falsely bright, as if they’d just stopped off at the store for some ice cream. “We’re here.”


    Neither Lila nor Asher moved a muscle.


    “Come, now,” her Dad said, his tone mellowing out into a kind, paternal one. “It’s just a chat. They’ve apparently identified you two as witnesses. Your information will help catch who murdered Piper.”


    That much was appealing, at least. But, if it was ‘just a chat’ as her Dad asserted, why did he look so sickly?


    Lila reluctantly unbuckled herself and left the car, her Dad and Asher following suit. She couldn’t see Gabriel, though he’d probably be a few minutes away still.


    Lila’s Dad turned to Asher, his expression entirely serious. “I’m sure you know this already, Asher, but you’ll need to be honest with the police. They have ways of finding out if you’ve lied to them.”


    “What’s there to lie about?” Asher questioned, his expression betraying the stress bubbling beneath his otherwise cool, calm and collected posture.


    “Hopefully nothing,” Lila’s Dad replied sternly. “You are able to refuse to answer questions, of course, but I’m talking specifically about the questions you choose to answer.”


    “I understand. Thank you, Mr Moloney.”


    Lila’s Dad smiled at Asher, clapping him on the shoulder. “You’ll be right. How far away is Gabriel?”


    Asher checked his phone before pocketing it again swiftly. “Should be a couple minutes.”


    “Alright. We can wait here for him,” Lila’s Dad sounded distracted as he looked at his own phone, which had started buzzing in his hand. “It’s Mum,” he explained to Lila before bringing it to his ear and strolling a couple paces away.


    “W-What do you think they’re going to ask?” Asher whispered, his eyes wide. Lila shrugged.


    “They probably found photos of us all in her stuff…” she trailed off before sighing, running her hands through her hair. “When Isaac sent me the article, he… he kinda implied that we’d have the most amount of motive. ‘Cause of the stalking stuff.”


    Asher closed his eyes, slumping his shoulders forward in defeat. “It looks bad, doesn’t it?”


    “I… well, we didn’t do anything to her, so once that’s all cleared up, it should be fine,” Lila tried to sound reassuring, but wasn’t convinced that she’d met her mark.


    “Lila, false convictions happen all the time.”


    Definitely didn’t meet her mark.


    “That’s true… but Gabriel will be with you. He’s dealt with the police before… probably has had to be a witness for something at his nightclub once or twice.”


    “Wish Dad was with me… better yet, Mum.”


    Lila let his statement hang in the air for a second or so. She opened her mouth to say something else when Asher snapped his eyes open, an idea sparkling beneath them.


    “Dad’s not here,” he said excitedly. “Dad’s not here, but I am.”


    “I-uh yeah. You are.”


    “Let’s file a missing person report.”


    “But your Dad said-”


    “I know he told me not to go to the police… but they kinda came to me. It’s been far too long to not do anything, Lila. At least… by filing it… someone’ll have a look for her. Someone with more resources than us combined.”


    She couldn’t say no to his round, pleading, and somehow mesmerising, eyes. Besides… he was right. It’d been far too long.


    “Alright. After the interviews, I guess.”


    “Thank you,” he breathed, seeming much more at peace now. “I need to, I think. For my own sake, at this point. If Dad’s refusing to… then… I’ll just do it.”


    “That makes sense to me,” Lila nodded. She glanced over at the carpark, checking to see whether Gabriel had arrived yet, when the rubbery screech of tires drew her eyes to the source. A humble-looking car skidded into a nearby empty parking space. A second of pure silence followed before Gabriel emerged, looking entirely frazzled, dressed in business-casual attire, a blazer swinging from his right hand.


    As soon as Gabriel’s eyes met theirs, he speedwalked over to them, hurriedly shoving his arms into his blazer sleeves.


    “Asher! Lila!” he called, waving. Much like her Dad, he seemed to be conveying a false sense of cheer.


    “Hi again, Gabriel,” Lila said, trying to hide her quivering lips with a smile.


    “Hello, hello,” Gabriel smiled, his eyes bouncing around to the scenery behind them – lingering particularly long on the ‘FORESTGLADE POLICE STATION’ sign adorning the top of the automatic front doors.


    “Thanks for coming, Gabriel,” Asher said, his tone both sincere and morose.


    “Not a problem at all,” Gabriel replied with a warm smile.


    “Gabriel, I assume?” Lila’s Dad strode towards Gabriel, hand outstretched. “I’m Rob, Lila’s Dad.”


    Gabriel stiffened for a second before accepting Lila’s Dad’s hand and shaking it. For a tense moment, Lila thought that perhaps Gabriel would reveal his connection to Clare – but Gabriel remained tight-lipped.


    “Alright, well, if we’re all here, we can go in,” Lila’s Dad said, clapping his hands together. “I’m starting to freeze out here.”


    Lila took her Dad’s word for it – she, by contrast, was feeling hot underneath her jumper.


    The electronic ding-dong announcing their entry paled in comparison to the cacophony of phones shrilly ringing throughout the police station. Lila couldn’t see where the ringing was coming from, as it seemed most of the police station was hidden behind a long counter that was protected by a large piece of Plexiglass. The counter itself sat three chairs, and only one of these had a uniformed police officer. He was speaking into the phone, though Lila could still distinctly hear ringing coming from somewhere.


    Alongside the wall closest to the doors they had walked through was a long row of chairs, all of which were empty.


    ‘Talk about a lazy Sunday,’ Lila thought, peering around to see the rest of the furnishings. Aside from a collection of flags, including the Australian Aboriginal flag alongside the Torres Strait Islander flag, some blue and white chequered banners, and a wall of brochures advertising legal assistance among other resources, the police station was quite bare in appearance.


    The police officer behind the counter slammed the phone down with an exasperated sigh. He wheeled himself over to a different portion of the counter, writing something down in a notebook. Once he was done, he looked up and gestured for the group to come forward.


    Lila’s Dad took the lead, explaining that they had an appointment with Detective Sergeants Collins and Lee-Shaw. The police officer behind the desk nodded, dialling a number on the phone he’d just put down moments earlier.


    “They won’t be long. Please take a seat,” he said after putting the phone back down. The four of them wordlessly took seats along the back wall. It appeared no one was daring to speak, with each person contentedly looking through social media apps. Well, except for Lila, who strangely had no appetite for her phone. She’d rather have a chat with someone here, but it was quite echoey. Not the best place for a conversation she’d want to have in private.


    So, she settled for twiddling her thumbs for a couple minutes. Her mind was alive with worry – this seemed far too serious, and yet her Dad was trying to reassure her that it was just a chat. Couldn’t they have chatted back at home?


    ‘… Probably didn’t want Daniel, Clare or Mum to overhear and get the wrong idea…’ Lila thought with a sigh. It was probably the right decision, but still – it was very unfriendly here.


    The phones were still ringing constantly, serving as an anxiety-inducing soundtrack to Lila’s musings. As far as Lila knew, their area wasn’t really filled with crime. So… what would all these phone calls be about? Lila pressed her hands together, turning the question over in her mind.


    ‘Tips about Piper’s murder?’ Lila considered that to be the most likely reason for all the phone calls. It was the most sensational thing that the police requested information on recently. Since the article on Piper’s murder, Lila had checked the Forestglade Press almost daily for anything more on it, or anything else odd happening around the area, and came up empty every time. It seemed that the police were successful in keeping a lid on any press releases from the independent news outlet, though the original article was still up. Perhaps it wasn’t worth pursuing as it had already been released to the public?


    “Good to see you again,” the pleasant voice of Belinda caused Lila to look up. Both Belinda and Nick were standing in front of the group, looking friendlier than when they’d been standing on the doorstep.


    “Come with us, please. Are you Asher’s Dad?” Nick asked, his voice still just as grating.


    “No, a guardian,” Gabriel corrected hurriedly, jumping to his feet. Everyone else seemed to take this as their cue to stand. Belinda led the way to a side door to the left of the counter, tapping some kind of card against a reader. It flashed green and she opened it, gesturing for the rest of the group to file in.


    Lila noted that Nick stuck to the back of the group and was reminded of when Alex did the same whilst Lila and Asher were being marched to Gabriel’s office. Was it for the same reason? To prevent someone from breaking ranks and running off?


    Not that Lila felt much like running. It was all she could muster – forcing her feet to move, one in front of the other.


    They passed a conglomerate of desks in an open-plan office space. The phones were much louder here, almost deafening. Lila scrunched her face, as though it would lessen the noise. Many of the people sitting at desks here were in plain clothes, but there were a few uniformed officers here and there.


    They continued on, passing a kitchenette, before approaching a much quieter section of the station. It almost seemed as though all of the noise from the office space had vanished altogether. A couple chairs were sitting along the back wall, and Lila could see a few closed doors here – securely locked by the card readers, which flashed red.


    “We’ll pop Dad and Lila in this room,” Belinda said kindly, pressing the same card to one of the readers. It flashed green and she opened the door, gesturing for Lila and her Dad to head inside. Lila paused, looking back towards Asher, Gabriel and Nick. Asher met her gaze and gave her a small wave. His face was still pale, but he seemed to be trying to look encouraging.


    “Don’t worry,” Belinda smiled. “They’ll just be in the next room.”


    Lila nodded in acknowledgement and entered, her Dad following close behind.


    To Lila’s surprise, an adult male, also in plain clothes, was already sitting at the lone table in the middle of the room. Upon the table were two notebooks, a collection of papers laying blank side up, two voice recorders and a jug of water with four cups sitting in the centre. Lila glanced at the left-side wall, which appeared, from Lila’s extensive watching of crime dramas, to be a two-way mirror.


    “Hello, Lila and Rob, I’m Detective Constable Grant Hayes,” said the male, standing up to shake their hands. Lila’s palms were sweaty, but Grant didn’t seem to react to that. Belinda closed the door behind her and sat beside Grant.


    “Would you two like some water?” Belinda asked, leaning forward to grab the water jug sitting in the middle of the table.


    “Y-Yes, please,” Lila stuttered, accepting the glass cup Belinda filled for her. Belinda poured one for everyone else in the room before sharing a look with Grant. With a nod, they reached for their voice recorders, turning them on with a small beep.


    Though the beep itself was unintimidating, the sudden change from friendly to professional demeanours between Belinda, Grant and her Dad sent shivers down Lila’s spine. Her heart pounded in her chest as the anticipation of what they would be talking about began to build. Belinda glanced at her watch before drawing in a shallow breath – one that somehow managed to tighten Lila’s throat.


    “We shall now commence the interview,” Belinda announced, looking directly at Lila.