Chapter 2

At three in the morning, the lights at the police station were still on.

Loretta sat in the mediation room, hair a mess, both hands over her face, sobbing in little hitching breaths.

Jean dropped to her knees the moment she came through the door and clamped both hands on the duty officer's arm.

"Officer, you have to help us!"

"This woman has a heart like a snake. To pocket a matchmaking bonus, she put my daughter into an old man's bed!"

The officer frowned and pried her hands loose.

"Say what you have to say, but no grabbing."

I stood off to the side and handed over the phone recording and the photos I'd just taken, all at once.

"Officer, I want to file a report and request an investigation."

"They pounded on my door at two in the morning and used forged chat records to demand eight hundred thousand from me."

The officer looked at me, then separated everyone first.

"Statements taken separately."

I was brought into the small room next door. The body camera was already running, and the officer opened his notebook.

"Name, age, occupation."

"They're accusing you of inciting someone to commit rape. Do you have anything to say?"

I rested my hands on my knees, but my fingertips were pinching hard enough to go numb.

"All I did was introduce them."

"The night of the dinner, I left early. I have no idea what happened afterward."

The officer looked up.

"Then why did you admit to it at home?"

I tugged at the corner of my mouth. My voice stayed level.

"If I didn't admit it, they'd have kept pounding on the door."

"My parents are old. They can't take that kind of shock."

"And only if I went along with them would they pull out all their so-called evidence."

Once the statement was done, I came out of the room.

Narelle Swanson, a friend of both of us, had rushed to the station. The second she walked in, she took Loretta's hand.

"Etta, how did you let yourself get into this state?"

She turned to look at me, sighing first, like she was scolding two children who didn't know any better.

"Eleanor, we're all friends here. You really went too far this time."

"Etta's pregnant. Just swallow your pride and pay her a little, and be done with it."

"If this really goes to court, you're a teacher. Do you want a reputation left or not?"

I stared at her.

"She's pregnant. What does that have to do with me?"

Narelle got worked up at once.

"How can you be so cold-blooded?"

Timing it carefully, Loretta pulled a slip of paper from her bag and slapped it down on the table.

"Eleanor, still won't admit it?"

"This is the proof!"

It was an ultrasound report from the city women's and children's hospital, Loretta's name printed on it, eight weeks along.

I walked over, picked it up, and scanned it.

"Eight weeks?"

"You're sure you got pregnant at that dinner on the fifteenth of last month?"

Loretta's eyes darted away for a second, then she clenched her teeth again.

"Yes!"

"That's the night it happened!"

She turned to the officer, her voice suddenly climbing.

"Officer, you can write that into the statement!"

"It was Jeremy Dickerson who did it!"

The officer put the report away, his face grave.

"A rape accusation needs a complete chain of evidence."

"Right now all we have is the woman's one-sided testimony and this report. We can't open a case on that alone."

"But you two showing up before dawn to demand eight hundred thousand looks like extortion, and we've made a note of it."

Jean wasn't having it.

"What extortion!"

"That's compensation for emotional damages!"

The officer tapped the desk with one finger.

"Whether it's extortion or not, the police will keep looking into it."

"That's enough for tonight."

Outside the station, cold wind cut straight at us, and Loretta hunched her neck down into her collar.

Jean turned back and spat at me.

"Eleanor, don't get smug."

"You don't pay up, I'll ruin your name!"

Narelle, holding Loretta up, shook her head at me.

"Eleanor, you really won't cry until you see the coffin."

I didn't answer them. I walked straight to my car.

The moment my hand touched the door, something flashed in front of my eyes.

A line of floating comments drifted through the air.

【The forged chat records still have their source files on the computer at Dana's mechanic shop.】

【Don't tip them off. That's the key to a conviction.】

Dana.

Loretta's idle, good-for-nothing ex-boyfriend.

I took out my phone, opened the notes app, and carefully wrote down five words: Dana's mechanic shop, source files.

My finger paused, and then I added a question mark after it.

This thread had to be pulled slowly.