How could the older citizens of Dunton abandon their own flesh and blood so callously? Choosing to give your child up for adoption because you believed it would be better for both of you was one thing; Jake could understand that completely. But forcing your own daughter to give up her baby out of fear for your family’s reputation? That was something he couldn’t come at.

He found himself staring at the mothers of several small, screaming children as they chatted near a set of swings, firmly ignoring their offspring. It was only when one pink-clad child was pushed from the top of the slide by a blue-clothed one that a parent broke away from the group, standing the fallen child back on its feet and telling it to get on with things.

Did this revelation about the girls’ home also open up the pool of people who might have a motive for killing Ava O’Brien? Had one of the women of Dunton—forced by her family to give birth at the home and leave her baby behind—sought revenge on the person she saw as stealing her child?

And what of the male children who were born there? If local women or teenagers were going there to give birth, they wouldn’t all have had girls. About half of the babies would’ve been boys. Where were they? Did they go the same route as Lilith’s baby?

Jake finished his sandwich and strolled toward a cork noticeboard protected from the weather by clear plastic sliding doors. The tattered, yellowing posters inside advertised children’s dance classes, cheap vegetable seedlings and a community forum on the future of a building that had stood empty for the past thirty years.

Working his way across the board Jake found evidence of a long, drawn-out battle between warring factions of local knitting, crocheting and sewing groups. Competition for members was rife, apparently.

Returning to the investigation, he wondered if it was possible that Ava’s murder wasn’t ultimately related to the mutilation and rape of children at the home, but instead to Dunton’s unspoken policy of forcing unmarried women to give birth there?

Itching to arrest someone, Jake re-entered the station and continued to prepare for his afternoon interview.

*

Liam O’Brien looked uncomfortable. The sanguine, hungover man Jake had first met at the Campbell manor last week now looked as though life’s rug had been pulled from under him, leaving him with nowhere to stand.

O’Brien startled each time Jake spoke as they settled opposite each other in the interview room.

‘I’ve recently returned from Melbourne,’ Jake began.

‘That’s nice.’

‘I interviewed a young woman—once called Matilda—who lived at the home with Ava.’

‘I see.’

‘Do you remember a Matilda?’

‘Vaguely. There were a lot of girls over the years. I didn’t bother remembering their names.’