‘Oh my God. How is she? Is she okay? Did she do the same thing to her?’

Jake needed her to stay calm and keep talking. ‘The home closed about a year after you left, Lilith. Only Amelia and Charlotte remained and they were both adopted by local families.’

‘Oh.’

‘I need to ask about your time at the home. What can you remember of it?’

Lilith glanced at the canvasses on the walls. ‘Please talk about it in biological, non-emotional terms. I worked out with my counsellor that I can handle talking about it as long as it’s in a matter-of-fact way.’

‘When did you discover you were, ah, different physically?’

‘Oh.’ Murphy finally cottoned on.

‘I knew something was gone, of course, but I didn’t understand I’d been mutilated until I’d spent a fair bit of time with a counsellor.’

‘I see,’ Jake said cautiously.

‘My parents helped me access as much treatment as possible to reduce the scarring, though reconstructive surgery would’ve been too expensive and traumatising.’

Jake couldn’t help but compare Lilith and Amelia’s current situations. Lilith appeared to have been drugged, stuffed in a car boot, smuggled across Bass Strait, then dumped on a beach. But somehow she had ended up in a much better situation both mentally and physically than the younger girl.

‘You’re okay to discuss what you suffered through at the house?’ Murphy said.

‘Please don’t use the word suffered. It’s loaded …’ She narrowed her eyes at the constable. ‘And I can’t stand pity.’

Murphy huffed.

‘We’ll do our best,’ Jake said. ‘Can you tell me what happened?’

Lilith described a scenario almost identical to that which Amelia had outlined. She, too, assumed Ava was the perpetrator.

‘Did Ms O’Brien ever talk to you about it?’

‘She refused to. I brought it up but she always shut me down.’

‘Was that the only time something like that happened?’

‘Something similar, but different, happened again about a year later.’ There was a catch in her voice as she played with a gold locket around her neck.

‘Were your fingernails taken?’ Murphy said.

Lilith pinned him with a glare. ‘I thought it was just something that happened at the beginning of the year as you got older, because I remembered the older girls staying in their rooms and all being sad in summer. After it happened to me, I figured this was why.’

‘Was there a long period of time between the second … Are you okay if I use the term attack?’

She nodded.

‘… The second attack and when you woke up on St Kilda beach?’

‘About another year. When I realised I was somewhere brand new and alone, I thought my prayers had been answered to be honest.’

‘You seem so matter-of-fact about all this,’ Jake couldn’t help commenting.