The Dark Series

by Catherine Lee

  "Do you know that kid's name?"

  "Won't be difficult to find out. From his tweets it was clear he went to Haberfield High. I'll let you know."

  "Good. Meg and Flynn, you need to interview that kid. And Zach, see if there are any others from Michelle or Jamie's hit list that you can identify as locals. Give the list to these two."

  "Will do." Zach started typing away on his keyboard.

  Cooper flipped the whiteboard back around and wrote the word bully underneath both Michelle and Jamie's pictures. "Now we're starting to get somewhere. What about Lachlan Rose?"

  "We don't have anything on him yet, boss," said Quinn. "We need to get his laptop and phone."

  "Right. I'll get them from the mother. Joe, I want you to have a look into the Sia Longhurst case. She committed suicide, didn't she?"

  "That's right, she did," said Meg. "I forgot about that. You think maybe she was one of our victims?"

  "Who knows," said Cooper. "But we need to check." He turned back to Quinn. "While you're at it, check all teenage suicides going back five years. See if any of them could be related."

  Quinn nodded, and made a note.

  "What do you want us to do?" asked Flynn.

  "Same as you did yesterday, but go to Lachlan Rose's school."

  "Sia Longhurst went there, too, Coop. So did Jensen Morris."

  Cooper responded by drawing two lines down from Lachlan Rose's picture on the whiteboard. At the end of one line he wrote Jensen Morris, and the other, Sia Longhurst. "Find out as much as you can," he said.

  Cooper sat and leaned back in his chair, the end of a pen in his mouth, and stared at the side of the whiteboard with their half-hearted attempt at brainstorming a reason for the toy butterflies. He went back over finding the last one in Jackie Rose's garage, and remembered the way the kid visiting her son had eyed the evidence bag. What was his name? Oscar White, that was it. Cooper's gut told him Oscar White was worth looking up in the system.

  18

  "You've got a black eye," said Emma, as Jackie helped her get her backpack on. It seemed so large on her little shoulders, such a weight for her to bear.

  "I know, sweetheart. I fell over last night, remember?"

  "Yeah. And I brought you a glass of water, like that man asked me to."

  "That's right. You were very helpful. Now do you think you could help me out again, and walk with Ethan to school?"

  Emma kicked at a soccer ball that had been left in the hallway. "I guess, if I have to."

  Jackie straightened her daughter's jacket. "It's just for today. Mummy's got a headache, from the bump." Jackie rubbed at the lump on her cheek as if to strengthen the lie. Not that it was a total lie, she did have a headache, but that wasn't why she couldn't face going to work today.

  Ethan pushed past them, then turned and stood in the doorway. His eyes were questioning, but he didn't say anything. They'd already argued enough this morning. She'd talk to him tonight about what Charlie had said. She just couldn't face it right now.

  "Come on, squirt," said Ethan, grabbing his sister by the backpack and pulling her out the door.

  "Bye, Mum!" called Emma, stumbling backwards but managing to stay on her feet.

  "Ethan! Be careful! Bye, both of you. Have a good day." Jackie watched them disappear around the corner before she closed the door. She leaned back against it with a sigh, and wondered how she was going to make it through the next six hours until they came home. Exhausting as it was being a single parent, they were her world, her distraction. And God knows after last night she needed a distraction.

  She picked up the phone, intending to call in sick to work, but put it down again. She couldn't even muster the strength to make excuses right now. She eyed the fridge — was it too early for a glass of wine? Yes, way too early. Jackie wandered the house, picking up a few stray toys and clothes and returning them to the kids' bedrooms. It wasn't long before she found herself in Lachlan's room.

  Giving up his place at the table had been one thing, but there was no way Jackie was even close to giving up his bedroom. It remained as he'd left it. As she sat on his bed and hugged her arms around herself, she knew that one day she'd have to convert the room to something else. She'd seen television programs where the parents of missing or murdered children kept their rooms exactly the same for years, frozen in time as a reminder of the child who was never coming home. She didn't want to be like that. They always looked so sad, those parents. Like their life stopped as well.

  Murdered. She tried to say it out loud, but couldn't. She hadn't slept at all last night after Charlie had told her his news. He said she'd been right, that Lachlan and two other kids had been murdered. It was what she'd been trying to prove, the reason she'd been trying to get the police to listen. So why did it feel so bloody miserable?

  Jackie lay on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. She tried to imagine Lachlan in here, doing the same thing. She wondered what went through his mind at those times. Did he lie here thinking about his future? Did he wonder what he'd do with his life? Did he make plans? Or were his thoughts more mundane, focused on the day-to-day realities of being a seventeen-year-old boy?

  Whatever his thoughts had been, someone had taken them away from him. Someone had decided he didn't get to keep living, that he didn't get to grow up and be the man she'd looked forward to seeing him become. Someone had decided her son's fate for him. How dare they.

  Jackie got up and smoothed the covers of the bed. She cast a final eye over the room, and left.

  Before she could pick up the phone, it rang.

  "Hello?"

  "Jackie? It's Tim. Are you okay?" Work.

  "Sorry, I was just about to call. I had a bump to the head last night. It's nothing serious, but I have a headache and I look like I've gone a couple of rounds with Mike Tyson." Ordinarily she'd have tried to come up with a more contemporary reference for Tim, but she was off her game today.

  "Oh, okay. Is there anything we can do?"

  "No, I'll be fine. I should be in tomorrow. Sorry, Tim."

  "It's fine, I was just worried, you know."

  "Thanks." She ended the call and sank down into the lounge. She looked at the clock: five hours until the kids came home. Maybe she should go into work, after all. It would beat sitting around here, alone with her thoughts. But no, she couldn't imagine sitting behind a desk greeting people all day looking and feeling like she did.

  She was just contemplating a walk to clear her mind when the doorbell rang.

  "Who is it?" she called, not in the mood to deal with anyone selling anything or asking her to donate to some random charity.

  "It's me, Charlie," the voice replied. "I forgot something last night."

  "Hi," she said, opening the door.

  "Hi, Jackie. Listen, I'm sorry to bother you again so soon, I really should have thought of this last night."

  "Thought of what?" she asked, ushering him inside and closing the door. The wind had really picked up outside.

  "Lachlan's computer. I'm guessing he had one?"

  "A laptop, yes. He used it for school, mostly. Do you need it?"

  "I'd like to take it in for my technician to have a look through. His mobile phone, as well, if you don't mind. You'll get them back."

  Jackie started down the hall. "Of course, whatever you need. I don't know how much use they'll be, though. He was pretty protective of his passwords. I have no idea how to get into either of them."

  "That's okay. We've got ways. Well, when I say we, that's what the tech guys are for. They're pretty cluey when it comes to these sorts of things."

  "Of course," said Jackie, opening the door she'd closed just a few moments ago. "There you go. The computer's on his desk, and I think the phone is in the top drawer."

  Cooper helped himself to the equipment, including power cords and chargers. He put them into a large brown bag he'd obviously brought with him for the purpose, and Jackie was reminded of news stories she'd seen on television with police collecti
ng evidence. The reality of the situation hit her again, and she had to sit on the end of Lachlan's bed.

  "Are you all right?" asked Charlie, noticing her distress. "I'm sorry, I should have done this last night."

  "No, actually, it's better that you're here now. I wouldn't have wanted the kids to see this."

  "You're probably right," Charlie agreed. He indicated the lump on her cheek, and the black eye. "That looks like it hurts. Have you had it seen to?"

  "It's fine. I stayed home from work today, but I'm an ER nurse. I can take care of it myself."

  "Of course you can." He sealed the brown bag. "Jackie, is there anything I can do for you? I don't know that you should be at home alone today."

  Jackie pushed further back onto the bed and leaned against the wall. "Can you tell me anything more about Lachlan's case?" she asked.

  Charlie pulled Lachlan's desk chair over and positioned it in front of her. "Do you mind if I sit here?"

  "No, go ahead."

  He sat. "Jackie, this is going to be a very sensitive case. As soon as word gets out that we're investigating the serial killings of teenagers—"

  "Yes, I get all that. But I don't care. Last night you told me my child was murdered. Lachlan and two other kids as well. I want to know everything you know."

  Charlie cocked his head to one side and looked her in the eye. "Do you? Really?"

  She crossed her legs on the bed and folded her arms, wrapping into herself. Did she?

  "Look, Jackie, it's early days. We're looking back a number of years to see if there are any other cases that might be related. We've got a couple of lines of inquiry we're following up. I promise you I'm personally going to do everything in my power to find out who did this to your son. But you need to be prepared. This is likely going to be a long and public case."

  Silent tears began to escape her eyes, and she wiped at them with her sleeve. "I never thought…" She took a moment to catch her breath. "I knew he didn't do this, I knew Lachlan didn't kill himself. I fought to get you guys to recognise that, and I know I must have been a pain in the arse."

  "No, you were just a mother trying to do the right thing by her son."

  "Yes, but I never thought beyond that. I didn't consider the alternative — that if he didn't do it, someone else must have. It's hard to think about it like that."

  Cooper reached out and took her hand. "I know. But you have to trust me. Let me work the case, let me find the bastard."

  "Why?" Jackie asked.

  "Why do I want to find him?"

  "No, why did he do it? Why would someone break my heart like this? Why would someone kill my beautiful son? What did he do to deserve it? What did any of them do?"

  The tears came more freely now, and she let them. Charlie began searching the room, but she held out a hand to stop him. He sat down beside her, and pulled her into an awkward hug.

  "I don't think you should be alone right now," he said again. "Is there a friend or relative I can call for you?"

  Jackie pushed away from him. She was grateful for his strength, but this was not the man she should be leaning on. He had a job to do.

  "I have to call Marcus," she said. "You said last night not to talk to anyone about this, but I need to discuss it with Marcus. Is that okay?"

  "Of course it is. Do you want me to come with you? We're going to need to re-interview him at some point anyway."

  "No. I think it'll be better if I talk to him alone first."

  Cooper stood and picked up the evidence bag. "I'd better get this back to my team. Are you sure there's nothing more I can do for you?"

  "I'm sure. Thank you, Charlie. For believing me."

  He smiled. "Take good care of yourself, Jackie. I'll be in touch."

  19

  It was late-morning by the time Cooper returned to the Homicide Squad office, and the place was a hive of activity as usual. He found Zach and Nora hunched over a couple of laptops in their tech lab.

  "Got another one for you," he said to them, placing the evidence bag containing Lachlan Rose's laptop and mobile phone on the bench beside Zach. He handed the technician the evidence receipt form to sign.

  "We'll get onto it as soon as we're finished with these," said Zach as he signed.

  "Anything new since this morning?"

  "Nah, not really."

  "Michelle Medler was quite a bitch," said Nora from her spot at the bench. "I'm putting together a list of her victims for Anderson and Baxter."

  "Anyone we know on it?"

  "No names that I recognise, but quite a few from her school."

  Cooper nodded. "Keep at it."

  Back up in the squad room, Cooper found Quinn at his desk. He hung his coat on the back of his chair and sat at his own desk, taking a moment to breathe deeply before talking to his partner.

  "How's it going?"

  "It's rough, boss. There's been six hundred and forty teenage suicides in the past five years. Of those, eighty-five were by hanging. I've pulled the files for the twenty-three cases that happened in the Sydney Metropolitan area. You want to split them with me?"

  "Sure." Cooper held out his hands and was rewarded with a stack of file folders. "Look through them all, but pay special attention to any that happened in the same local area as our three cases."

  "You got it." Quinn took a sip from a takeaway cup, and Cooper got a whiff of the coffee it contained. It made him hungry.

  "I'm going to go get one of those and something to eat," he announced. The morning with Jackie Rose had been difficult, he needed a pick-me-up. "You want anything? Danish?"

  "You know I don't eat that shit, boss." Quinn smiled. "I'll stick with my coffee, thanks."

  After an hour of searching through depressing files, Cooper came across a familiar name. It was the suicide of Sia Longhurst, the girl who'd been gang-raped at a party then humiliated all over again when her father dragged the case through the courts via the media. He held the file up for Quinn to see.

  "You remember much about this case?"

  Quinn squinted to read the name on the file. "Sia Longhurst. How could I not remember? Poor kid, she must have gone through hell."

  "It says here she hung herself in her bedroom while her father was out. She went to Preston High School. That's the same school as Lachlan Rose, isn't it?"

  Quinn glanced at the whiteboard nearby. "Yeah. We knew that already. You want me to look into it?"

  "Let's put it aside while we go through the rest of these, but yeah, it's one we need to check out."

  They continued going through the files, putting another three cases aside before they got to the end. Cooper was about to suggest a late lunch, but his email pinged and he checked and found it was the transcript he'd requested from Oscar White's previous school. He opened it and read the email first before opening the attachment. It made for interesting reading.

  "Got something, boss?"

  "Could be. You know that kid I told you about? Oscar White?"

  "The friend of Ethan Rose?"

  "Yeah, that's the one. I spoke to his school year adviser, apparently things haven't been going well for him and he's only been at the school for six months."

  "What does 'not going well' mean? Were they more specific?"

  Cooper nodded. "He's one of those kids that doesn't fit in, the guy tells me. Hasn't done from the start. It's not for lack of trying, but it seems maybe he tries too hard."

  "So he's being bullied?"

  "It would seem so."

  "Is he on the list of Michelle Medler's victims? Oh, wait, she went to the other school, didn't she?"

  "Yeah. Michelle Medler and Jamie Brennan went to Haberfield High, while the Rose boys and Oscar White go to Preston. But it can't hurt to check with Nora. She's compiling the list today. The report from his current school's not the most interesting bit, though."

  "What else have you got?"

  "This came through from his old school. Same sort of thing, seems he was bullied pretty relentlessly. But here's
the kicker — there was an incident involving another student, and White pulled a knife."

  "He use it?"

  "No. Teachers intervened before he got the chance. There's a number here for a teacher who's willing to talk to me about it." Cooper picked up his phone and dialled the number. After a long conversation he was no less suspicious of Oscar White.

  "It seems the other student involved was quite shaken," he said to Quinn, who'd been waiting expectantly. "Witnesses said at the time they had no doubt White would have used the knife given the chance. The Melbourne teacher says it was the last straw for the kid, and it's one of the reasons the family moved up here."

  Quinn leaned back in his chair; it creaked in protest. "They thought moving interstate might help?"

  "It couldn't hurt. They couldn't leave him there after an incident like that."

  "Just transfers the problem though, doesn't it? I mean, if it looks like he's being bullied again." Quinn adjusted himself in front of his computer and began typing. He was almost as fast on the keyboard as Zach.

  "Here you go. Oscar White got picked up for shoplifting a few days ago. Was let off with a warning. Oh, and look here… his partner in crime was Ethan Rose."

  Cooper came around to Quinn's desk and looked at the screen. Sure enough, the boys had been busted together. They'd been lucky to get off with a warning. Maybe that explained the altercation the two had had in the kitchen last night?

  "What's shoplifting got to do with being bullied?" Cooper asked.

  "Could be a way to prove himself to Ethan. If his new friend sees him being bullied, maybe he feels he needs to do something to show he's no coward. Shoplifting would fit the bill."

  Cooper nodded. "Makes sense."

  "He worth interviewing, you think?" asked Quinn.

  "Meg and Flynn are over at Preston High today. Let's wait and see what they come back with about him. Also, check with Nora whether he was on Michelle Medler's shit list. I might talk to Jackie Rose about him as well. But yeah, we'll interview him. If we're looking for a bullied kid who's had enough and decided to take matters into his own hands, then Oscar White certainly fits that description."