Page 38 of Darling Girls

The detectives exchanged a look. Hando, still stroking the dog’s chin, snorted. ‘You have service dogs for IBS?’

‘Of course.’

‘And you require three?’

‘One each,’ Norah said. ‘And I suggest you open a window in the interview rooms.’

Jessica broke into a sudden coughing fit. Alicia patted her back.

Patel glanced at her colleagues, who appeared just as bewildered as she was. ‘And you all have a diagnosis, I take it?’

Norah nodded. ‘You can call our doctors, if you like.’ She reached for her phone, which, Alicia had to admit, was a nice touch.

‘That won’t be necessary,’ Patel said. ‘Would you and your, er, service dogs like to follow us?’

Patel led them to a small room with a wooden desk, a fiddle-leaf fig and a window that overlooked the car park. Couch immediately ran inside and peed on the plant.

‘Jessica,’ Patel said, ‘you’ll be in here with me. Detective Hando will take Norah and –’

‘You’re splitting us up?’ Jessica interrupted. She looked utterly panicked.

Norah, looking equally stressed, bent over to rub Thong’s belly.

‘We need to interview you separately, yes,’ Patel said.

Alicia had expected this, but the prospect of being separated from her sisters – in Port Agatha – triggered anxiety in her too. It was almost as if the clock had wound back twenty-five years. They were all young girls, begging to be believed. Except this time they weren’t children. This time, they were going to demand to be heard.

‘Okay.’ Jessica clapped her hands and smiled brightly at her sisters. ‘We can do this.’

Detective Tucker crossed his legs, exposing the white sports socks he’d already apologised for. Apparently he’d forgotten to pack black ones. He didn’t seem like a detective. He reminded Alicia of a kindly uncle, with his unkempt greying hair and weathered skin.

‘Let’s start at the beginning, Alicia. How did you end up at Wild Meadows?’

Alicia had agreed that the interview could be recorded, and they’d been through all the official stuff – confirming the date, the location and the names of those present.

‘I was a respite case,’ Alicia said. ‘My grandmother had a fall and was taken to hospital, so there was no one to take care of me.’

‘A respite case?’ Tucker said. ‘So you weren’t in the home for long?’

‘I wasn’t supposed to be. But as it turned out, I stayed.’

Tucker glanced nervously at Thong, whose huge head was resting on one his feet. ‘And why was that?’

‘My Grammy,’ Alicia said, with a wobble in her voice, ‘she . . . she didn’t come out of hospital.’

‘My condolences.’

It felt so ridiculous to be receiving condolences. It had happened when she was a little girl and now, she was in her mid-thirties. She should be over it by now. She should be over everything that happened at Wild Meadows.

‘Can you tell me about your relationship with Miss Fairchild?’ Tucker asked, after a respectful silence.

‘We didn’t have a relationship.’

‘Oh?’ Tucker’s bushy eyebrows leaped up towards his hairline. ‘How so?’

‘You can’t have a relationship with a monster.’

Tucker’s expression became concerned. Alicia crossed her arms in front of herself – a makeshift shield.