"No, she didn't."
Cooper saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see Jackie ushering a reluctant Emma off to her room. Moments later, the sliding glass door opened and Jackie rushed to her son's side.
"What's been going on out here?"
A realisation suddenly dawned on Cooper, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. He needed to smooth things over here right now. But how was he going to tell Jackie what Ethan and Oscar had done? That their actions might well have gotten her eldest son killed?
40
"Well?" Jackie asked Charlie. "Why is my son in tears? You said it was probably nothing, probably just some teenage boy thing he didn't want to say in front of his mother. It looks like a lot more than that to me."
"Jackie—" Charlie began, but he was interrupted by Ethan.
"It's not his fault, Mum. I did something wrong. Really wrong."
Jackie sat next to her son. She had a feeling she was about to find out what had been responsible for his terrible moods these last few months. Moods she'd attributed to Lachlan's death, even though at the back of her mind she'd known there was something else bothering him. She took one of his hands in hers. "Tell me."
So he did, and Jackie's mind whirled. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She wanted to scream, she wanted to reach out and slap him. She wanted to cry, and she wanted to run. But she did none of those things. Instead she remained calm as Ethan cried and said he and his friend had hijacked his brother's account and posted nasty messages to a girl.
When he'd finished, Jackie sat perfectly still, holding onto his hand, and looking him in the eye. He was broken, he was sorry, she could tell. He knew he'd done the wrong thing, and he'd been paying for it ever since. But why? She had to know.
"Why would you do something like that? To your brother, as much as to the poor child you were harassing?"
"I don't know, Mum."
"That's not a good enough answer this time, mate. You're going to have to do better than that."
"Oscar said we should do it. He said he wanted to bring Lachy down. I'm sorry, Mum. I know it was wrong."
"You're damn right it was wrong. I don't understand it, Ethan. I thought you and your brother were close. I thought you got along really well. I never thought you'd be capable of doing something like this."
Tears spilled down Jackie's face, and she brushed them away with the back of her free hand. Ethan sat silent, his red face streaked with tears of his own.
Jackie tried a different approach. "Why would Oscar want to hurt Lachlan?" she asked. "I know he's had his fair share of bullying, but Lachlan wouldn't have done that to him. What would make Oscar want to hurt Lachlan like this?"
"I don't know, Mum. He just said Lachlan was so good all the time, he was good at school, good at sports, all the teachers liked him, and all the kids liked him as well. I guess he was jealous. I don't know. Maybe he wanted to see what it felt like to be on the other side of it, for a change. Maybe it wasn't about Lachlan, maybe it was about bullying someone else. Lachy was just an easy target for us to hack his account."
"So you both wanted to be bullies for a day, but you didn't want to do it in your own names." I've raised a coward, Jackie couldn't help thinking. She let go of Ethan's hand.
"I'm sorry, Mum."
Jackie looked up at Charlie. His face was impassive. "What does this mean for Lachlan's case?" she asked.
Charlie's eyes widened. He glanced at Ethan, who was still crying and holding his head in his hands, then back at Jackie. He doesn't want to talk in front of Ethan.
"Ethan, I need to talk to the detectives alone. Can you go and clean yourself up, then see if Emma's okay?"
Ethan looked up, scanned their three faces. She could see the realisation dawn on him. It was too late.
"It's my fault, isn't it?"
"We don't know—" Charlie began.
"Bullshit. You said Michelle and Jamie were bullies, I know that's true. You've been looking for something that links all three murders, but you couldn't find it because Lachy wasn't a bully. But he was, at least that's what Oscar and I made it look like. We made him look like a bully, and whoever did this killed him because of it. It's my fault, Mum. Oh shit, I got my brother killed."
Ethan threw himself into Jackie's arms and wailed like he hadn't done since he fell off a climbing frame when he was six and broke his leg. It was so loud and so terrifying that it brought Emma out of her room in tears as well.
"I'll get her," said Quinn, when it was clear that Jackie couldn't detach herself from Ethan. She nodded thanks, and held her son tight. A million things raced through her head, not the least of which was the fact that Ethan was spot on. His actions may well have resulted in Lachlan's death. She held him, but she couldn't look at him. Instead she watched as Detective Quinn calmed her daughter, put her on a stool at the breakfast bar, and set about making her laugh as he tried to find things in the kitchen. She focused on him, and on Emma. She couldn't think of the horror of what she'd just found out, what she'd just realised. She held Ethan close, because he was her son, because he was hurting and he needed her. But she didn't want to be here. She didn't want to be a mother anymore. She wanted to disappear, change her name, change her life. Anything but this.
"Jackie." She realised Charlie was trying to talk to her. "We don't know that's what's happened," he was saying. Yes we do. She knew it in her heart. Ethan and Oscar's actions had caused Lachlan's death. There was no other explanation. Why, oh why had she pushed Charlie to look into this? Why hadn't she left things alone? Lachlan committing suicide was hard to accept, but it was better than this. How was she supposed to go on after this?
"Now that we know where the posts came from, we can investigate further," Charlie continued. "I won't lie, there's a chance this had something to do with Lachlan's death. But we have a number of lines of enquiry going on at the moment. Nothing is certain." Charlie turned to Ethan, who'd calmed a little. "I know how hard it was, but you've done the right thing, mate. Why don't you go inside and get cleaned up. I think my partner might need a little help with your sister."
They all turned to the kitchen, where Quinn was trying to make a milkshake but was succeeding in making nothing more than a mess. Ethan wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt and peeled himself away from Jackie. She watched him go, then turned to Charlie.
"What other lines of enquiry?"
"Jackie, you're going to have to trust me. I'm going to find out who did this. Look, you've just found out something horrible about your son. But he made a mistake. He's a fifteen-year-old boy, they make mistakes all the time."
"Mistakes that get their brother killed?"
"Like I said, we don't know for sure that that's what happened. But whatever happened, Ethan didn't kill Lachlan. He did something irresponsible and unkind, yes. But he never meant for anyone to die. Neither of them did."
Oscar, Jackie thought. He's the one who put Ethan up to this. She'd thought he was just a troubled kid, a kid with a problem no-one should have to face. She'd wanted to help him. But could she now, knowing what he'd done? What he'd made Ethan do to his own brother?
"You need to steer clear of Oscar White, Jackie," said Charlie, as if he'd read her mind. "Both of you. I know you want to help him, but really, after this, who's more important? Your own kid, or someone else's?"
"You're right," she said, as Detective Quinn slid open the glass door and came back to the table. Jackie looked into the kitchen at Ethan cleaning up the mess Quinn had made. She looked at Ethan and didn't feel a mother's love. She felt cold, lifeless. Could she ever forgive him?
Another question came to the front of her mind. "Who was it?" she asked.
"Who was what?"
"The girl they bullied using Lachlan's account. Who was it?" somehow she knew the answer before Charlie said anything.
"Sia Longhurst."
41
"Something you're not telling me about Oscar White?" asked Quinn as they drove back
to headquarters.
Cooper stared out the side window, glad he wasn't driving. He was too distracted. Simon Longhurst or Oscar White? Who was the bigger suspect? He'd thought it was best to keep Oscar's secret to himself, but that was out the window now. He had little regard for the kid after what he'd just found out.
"He's a young pedophile in the making, Joe."
Quinn almost ran up the back of the car in front. "He's what?"
"He had a heart-to-heart with Jackie the other day. Told her he's attracted to young kids. Hasn't acted on it, apparently, but…"
"Jesus." They drove in silence for a while, Cooper wondering if he'd done the right thing by telling Quinn. Of course he had — Quinn was his partner.
"What do we make of that, then, boss?"
Cooper sighed. "I don't know, Joe. I've been trying to wrap my head around it since she told me. Talked it through with Liz, she thinks the kid did the right thing telling someone and we should try and help him. Get him into a therapist, something like that."
"Shouldn't we just lock him up?"
That was exactly what Cooper thought they should do. But as Liz pointed out, you can't lock someone up if they haven't done anything wrong. He changed the subject.
"We need to take a close look at Simon Longhurst. With what we found out today, all three of our victims appeared to send bullying messages to his daughter after Jensen Morris and his cohorts were sentenced. That gives him motive."
"Yes, but what about Morris's murder? Don't we think it's related? Longhurst has a pretty good alibi for that one."
"We could be wrong about them being related. Maybe whoever killed Morris had been waiting for the opportunity, which presented itself at Michelle's funeral. Or it might still be related, just not the same killer."
"You think it's possible Longhurst had someone else hit Morris? To give him an alibi so we don't look at him for the others?"
Cooper shrugged. "Anything's possible. I'd like to at least bring him in, have another chat."
Quinn calmly negotiated his way around a slow vehicle hogging the right lane. Cooper admired the kid's patience — if it was him he'd probably have pulled the guy over.
"What about Oscar?" Quinn asked.
"What about him?"
"Do we like him as a suspect? I mean, what if it's got nothing to do with the bullying of Sia? What if Jamie, Michelle, and Lachlan all found out somehow about Oscar's little secret?"
"And he killed them to stop it getting out?" Cooper considered the idea. The deaths were all made to look like suicides by hanging. There was no sign of struggle at any of the crime scenes. "Was Oscar strong enough or persuasive enough to get all three victims to climb up on a stool and put a noose around their own necks?"
"He pulled a knife on a bully back at his old school," Quinn reminded Cooper. "That didn't work out for him, he ended up having to move to Sydney and start again. Maybe this time he figured out a more final way to put a stop to the harassment?"
"So he threatens them with a knife to get them up there? To get them to step off? I don't know, Joe, it doesn't seem likely."
"Maybe he found a gun somewhere, I don't know. Whoever did it managed to make at least the first two look like suicide. If it wasn't for Jackie Rose's persistence we'd never have even known. Whoever did it was either very persuasive, or very angry. Or both. Oscar White is a big kid for fifteen. As big as some adults. He could have found a way." Quinn pulled the car into the carpark at headquarters. "And I mean, geez, boss, that's a pretty big secret to keep. If it got out he'd be the most hated kid in school. Bullying's one thing, but having the whole school think you're a pedophile…"
"Good point. It's worth looking at," said Cooper, getting out of the car. "But again, we have the problem of Jensen Morris. I can't see Oscar White as a sniper."
"No, fair point. But it's the same answer, isn't it? Someone else did Morris."
Another thought crossed Cooper's mind. "Did Sia Longhurst have a boyfriend?"
"Not that I'm aware of. Her father didn't mention it. But then, not all teenage girls tell their fathers what's going on in their private lives, do they?"
"No, they don't. That might be worth looking into as well. Make a note, would you?"
"Of course." Quinn pulled out his notebook and wrote as they rode the elevator up to the homicide squad room.
"We should check with Zach," Cooper continued. "If she did have a guy in her life, there'd be digital evidence."
"What if she had a guy in her life but she didn't know about it?" asked Quinn.
"Stalker?"
"Maybe not even that far. Guys like girls all the time but don't have enough courage to tell them."
"You're right. Maybe someone thought she was special, then was pissed at everyone who hurt her. That's the common theme here, Joe. All four victims hurt Sia Longhurst in some way."
Cooper was out of the elevator as soon as the doors slid open. He needed to catch Saunders before he left for the day. The Senior Sergeant was packing up his desk as Cooper strode in, Quinn on his tail.
"Any news?" Saunders asked, not looking up from what he was doing.
"We've confirmed that all three staged suicide victims had a history of bullying Sia Longhurst," Cooper began. "Although in the case of Lachlan Rose, it was his younger brother and a friend who wrote the messages, using Lachlan's account."
Saunders stopped shuffling papers and met his eye. "So as far as Sia was concerned, they came from Lachlan. And others definitely came from Jamie Brennan and Michelle Medler."
"That's right. I want to bring Simon Longhurst in and talk to him. He told us Sia killed herself over the bullying. This gives him motive."
"What else have you got?"
Cooper was taken aback. "What else have we got? Isn't that enough?"
"Did Sia have a boyfriend?"
"Not that we know of, but we're going to check again," said Quinn.
"Sarge, we need to talk to Longhurst. This is the biggest lead we've had so far."
Saunders sat in his chair and stared at Cooper. Eventually he shook his head. "It's not strong enough. Longhurst's a very public figure, after all his daughter went through. If we bring him in on this and we're wrong, it's a public relations disaster. You're going to have to wait, get something more concrete. Find out where he was at the times these kids were killed."
"That would be a lot easier to do if we interviewed him."
Saunders nodded. "Go around and see him tomorrow, ask him nicely. But don't bring him in here. I don't want a media circus."
"Can't we go see him tonight? It's on the way home."
"No. We don't turn up on people's doorsteps for a routine enquiry at dinner time. Tomorrow during office hours, Cooper."
Cooper turned and left, Quinn following.
"What do you reckon, boss?"
"Saunders is an arsehole," Cooper replied, not caring whether he was out of earshot or not.
"So we ignore him? Go see Longhurst tonight?"
Cooper would dearly love to, but he needed to be cautious when it came to Saunders. The guy had ruined his previous partner's career for no good reason other than that he got on his wrong side. He wanted to take it to Saunders, but not like this.
"Nah. Longhurst can wait until tomorrow. Come on, let's get a beer on the way home."
42
"It's the right thing to do, mate," Jackie said again as she drove the short distance to Simon's house. Back home, she'd convinced Ethan he needed to apologise to Simon for what he and Oscar had done to Sia. Ethan had agreed, but it was now clear he was having doubts.
"I don't even know the guy, Mum. What if he gets really mad? Can't you apologise for me? You know him."
"No, Ethan. Look, this is how life works. We all make mistakes. It's how you deal with them that matters. When you stuff up, and it hurts someone else, you apologise to that person. If they forgive you, that's great. If not, that's their right. But you've done your best to make amends, and that's what counts. That's what ma
kes you a good person. Do you understand?"
Ethan nodded. "What do you think he'll say?"
"Honestly, I don't know. But I've come to know him a bit over these past couple of weeks, and he seems like a very nice person. Whatever he does, I think he'll appreciate you telling the truth and apologising. And whatever happens, I'm proud of you."
Ethan slumped in his seat and was quiet for the rest of the ride. Jackie knew what she was asking him to do was hard, but he had to learn to face the consequences of his actions. She was still mad at him for sending those messages to Sia; messages Charlie wouldn't let her read. Had they really been that bad? But she was glad Ethan had agreed to come and see Simon tonight.
Was she doing the right thing? Was Simon going to be okay with the apology, or traumatised all over again? She didn't know. All she knew was that she wouldn't be able to face him again if they didn't tell him the truth. And she wanted to be able to face him again. She'd more than gotten to know him recently; she'd gotten to like him. She could relate to his pain, and he to hers. It was friendship, appreciation of each other's company. But she could see the possibility of it becoming more…
"Why do I have to come?" Emma said from the back seat, bringing Jackie out of her speculation.
"I told you, honey, Ethan and I need to speak to Mr Longhurst, and I couldn't leave you at home by yourself."
"Yes you could, I'm big now," Emma said defiantly.
Jackie smiled at her in the rear vision mirror. "I know you're big, and I'm proud of all the things you can do by yourself now. But staying home alone isn't something you can do for a long time yet. It's my job to keep you safe, remember?"
"I remember. But what will I do at Mr Longhurst's house?"
The Dark Series Page 86