Page 49 of Darling Girls

They nodded.

He lifted his radio to his mouth. ‘I’ve got three more foster kids here,’ he said.

Norah blinked. Threemore?

He lowered the handset to speak to them. ‘Have you spoken to the detectives? Patel, Tucker and Hando?’

‘Yes,’ Jessica said. ‘We’ve just come from the police station. But did you say –’

‘I still can’t let you on-site, unfortunately. And we’re requesting no photographs. But you can walk around the perimeter of the tape. Some of the others are doing that.’

‘Who are the others?’ Norah wanted to know.

Replacing his radio in his belt, he gestured to the trio of women. Norah, Jessica and Alicia looked at them then back at him. Their confusion must have been obvious.

‘The other foster kids,’ he said.

Jessica shook her head. ‘But there weren’t any –’

‘The babies,’ Norah said. ‘Those women must be the babies.’

22

JESSICA

BEFORE

In the months that followed the horseriding day, the girls sank into a sad, new reality. Norah had become different since she’d been locked under the stairs. Angrier. More explosive. At school, she got into fights every other day, over the smallest things. Once, she’d even elbowed Jessica in the ribs, seemingly on impulse, when Jessica approached her quietly and took her by surprise. Jessica knew Norah felt awful about it and she insisted she was fine, though Norah had a very sharp elbow.

The unfortunate consequence of Norah’s increasingly violent behaviour was that she spent more and more time under the stairs. And the more time she spent under the stairs, the more violent she became. It became routine, coming home from school to find Miss Fairchild waiting on the porch to drag Norah to her punishment. Once, after giving a boy a bloody nose at school, Norah had come home and opened the door under the stairs herself. But her dignity vanished the moment the door closed behind her and she flew into a rage, her body kicking and screaming as if of its own volition.

Jessica and Alicia pleaded with Norah to stop attacking people, and Norah promised to try. Eventually, after five altercations in five days, she had to concede, ‘I don’t know how.’

It was Alicia’s idea to hide a torch under the stairs. Norah still pretended to kick and punch for a while so Miss Fairchild didn’t get suspicious. Once, Jessica even hid a book there, so Norah could read. These small wins kept Jessica going. Unfortunately, every time she came up with a way to make their lives a little more manageable, Miss Fairchild came up with a new way to hurt them.

‘Jessica?’

Jessica froze halfway down the stairs. She’d thought she was the first one up, as usual, but not today it seemed.

Miss Fairchild was a woman of fixed habits. At this time of day, she was usually finishing her shower. After that she would dress and wipe down the mirror and benchtop before coming downstairs. Jessica knew her foster mother’s morning routine as well as she knew her own. Better.

Jessica glanced to the top of the stairs for Norah or Alicia. Where possible, they tried not to approach Miss Fairchild alone. But although Jessica tried to summon them in a hushed whisper, neither girl materialised.

‘Jessica, is that you?’ Miss Fairchild sounded impatient now.

‘Coming!’

Jessica found Miss Fairchild in the living room. She looked up from the armchair when Jessica entered andsmiled. A proper smile.

‘I had a surprise visitor during the night,’ Miss Fairchild said.

When Jessica saw what the woman was holding, she gasped.

‘Come and see.’ Miss Fairchild beckoned her closer. ‘Isn’t she beautiful?’

Shewas a newborn baby. As to whether she was beautiful, it was difficult to say with her all swaddled up like that. All you could see were her closed eyes, a little bit of her hairline and her mouth, slack with sleep.

‘Her name is Rhiannon,’ Miss Fairchild said, looking down at the baby again. ‘She was removed from her parents last night. Drug addicts, apparently.’